General: Syria

Having completed my review on Damascus (the link to which is: http://travel.ciao.co.uk/opinionview.php​/OpinionId/5541181/ProduktId/90945) I have decided to post this part of it separately for a couple of reasons: Firstly, as it is extremely long, though I have tried to shrink a lot of information into very few pages. I know that many people are not particularly interested in reading at length about the history of a city or country, but I, for one, find it quite fascinating. The history of Damascus in particular is remarkable and that is the main reason for which I opted for posting this ... more

Syria is located in the middle east, south from Turkey ; it is not yet a very famous destination for tourists because of its bad image abroad. Nervertheless, Syria is a great country with very friendly people, great archaeoligical sites and wonderful landscapes. A good idea is to take a plane ticket, arriving in Damas and leaving from Alep, the two major cities of the country. Syrian Airline enable to do this for around 450 euros (300 £) from Paris and I think it should be quite the same from London. Two weeks are enough to discover the main sites but three weeks wouldn't be too much. I will ... more

A friend and I spent a week in Syria, looking at historical architectural sites. We started in Damascus and spent a day seeing such things as the Umayyed mosque (a must) and the market. We then picked up a hire car and headed north to Hama. The water wheels (Norias) on the Orontes river are an interesting feature and there is a range of budget accomodation available. From Hama we travelled East to Krak De Chevaliers. If you're a castle nut like me allow a whole day here. This is in my mind the single most impressive "Norman" castle, and was worth the visit to Syria by itself. Next we visited ... more

I have lived in Lebanon which is on the border of Syria and we have crossed over for day trips to Syria. The only reason why we have gone to Syria is that the souk (basically a bazaar or an Arabic version of a shopping mall) is very good and you can get quite cheap arabic hand made carpets, boxes, and other things like that. When we went to Syria I wa disgusted at the fact that most of the city looks as if it is about to fall down and it basically made an impression on me of being a complete and utter dump. I have to admit that Damascus was a dump but I did like Krak de Chevaillies. It is a ... more

(AP) - Police cars and armored vehicles flooded the al-Malaz neighborhood in the Saudi capital Sunday as security forces surrounded a house where suspected militants were believed to have taken refuge after a shootout with police. The massive operation was under way in the same district that was the focus of a huge security sweep against militants sought in the beheading of American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr., whose body has still not been found. (AP) - Police cars and armored vehicles flooded the al-Malaz neighborhood in the Saudi capital Sunday as security forces surrounded a house where ... more