Ancient City of Damascus
Syria · Asia
About
The old city of Damascus (Arabic: دِمَشْق ٱلْقَدِيمَة, romanized: Dimasq al-Qadīmah) is the historic city centre of Damascus, Syria. The old city, which is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, contains numerous archaeological sites, including some historical churches and mosques. Many cultures have left their mark, especially Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic. In 1979, the historical center of the city, surrounded by walls of Roman era, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. In June 2013, UNESCO included all Syrian sites on the list of World Heritage in Danger to warn of the risks to which they were exposed because of the Syrian civil war. Within it lies the monumental Umayyad mosque, one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.