National Museum of Damascus
Syria · Asia
About
The National Museum of Damascus is a museum in the heart of Damascus, Syria. As the country's national museum as well as its largest, this museum covers the entire range of Syrian history spanning over 11 millennia. It displays various important artifacts, relics and major finds most notably from Mari, Ebla and Ugarit, three of Syria's most important ancient archaeological sites. Established in 1919, during King Faisal's short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria, the museum is the oldest cultural heritage institution in Syria. Among the museum's highlights is the Dura-Europos synagogue, a reconstructed synagogue dated to 245 CE, which was moved piece by piece to Damascus in the 1930s. It is noted for its vibrant and well preserved wall paintings and frescoes. The museum houses over 5000 cuneiform tablets, among them the first known alphabet in history, written down on a clay tablet, the Ugaritic alphabet. Also on show are 2nd-century murals, elaborate tombs, and the recently restored Lion of al-Lat, which stood at the National Museum of Palmyra but was moved to Damascus for safeguarding. The museum's entrance is surrounded by the reconstructed gate of Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi which is an Umayyad desert castle built in 727 CE.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.