The trip has been cancelled twice but I am finally off to Damascus in Syria for work. It is a city of 5 million and expanding with 1 million Iraqis sheltering from the chaos in their home country.Syria has always been protrayed being the bad guys in Western media because of the totalitarian rule under its former president for 30 years and its alleged link to militant groups, Hezbollah and the killing of Rafik Hariri. But the people here are quite nice and the city is safe.
It is full of history – an understatement when you realised that it is the oldest inhabited city in the world. It was part of the Roman Empire before been captured by the great Khalifah Umar. The city became the capital of the Umayyad Empire - the greatest Islamic empire of all time expanding from Spain to India.
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