Syria Sites and Shrines Text

Featured here are images and videos of sites and shrines in Syria.

Syria is a place that many prophets, saints and sufis have tread over the centuries, including St. John the Baptist, St. Paul, the Andalusian Sufi Ibn Arabi, Jalauddin Rumi and his spiritual mentor Shams of Tabriz. Below are photos and videos of the ancient and modern sites associated with these men.

This archaeology site is in Palmyra, a day’s drive from Damascus in the desert. Centuries of history overlap in this oasis town. A Temple of Baal looms over the palms and beside a Roman era market. The fortress on the mountain is Fakhr Eddin Castle, built in the 6th century when the Arabs took over Palmyra. Also nearby is the Valley of the Tombs.

The town of Ma’loula sits on a rock escarpment in the desert about an hour north of Damascus. This town has a festive air to it and the people work hard to preserve their Aramaic, the language Christ spoke. In the church featured below, one can attend a Mass every morning spoken in Aramaic. The video below features the local priest saying the Lord’s Prayer in this ancient language.

Above, homes and motorcycles in Ma’loula, with the Blessed Mother Mary overseeing all. The day I visited happened to be the day in which the town threw a birthday party for The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Loudspeakers blared Sufi rock songs while people sipped tea, ate sweets and roasted nuts while awaiting an chicken and lamb feast.

Two shrines in Damascus are dedicated to St. Paul. The chapel below is inside the remains of a Roman fortress wall. Local legend says that St. Paul was lowered in a basket by his disciples to safety from the stone balcony shown in the photo below. I have a special affinity for St. Paul as I have written about him and his first Christian convert, Lydia dyer of purple cloth. For excerpts of this work, see the web pages for my book Daughters of the Desert: Tales of Remarkable Women From the Jewish, Christian and Muslim Traditions. I am currently at work on a new novel set in Turkey and ancient Philippi, Greece, which features Lydia and St. Paul.

Above is a statue depicting St.Paul’s ecstatic revelation and conversion to Christianity. The base of this sculpture is marble. The street below is said to be the terminus of the road upon which St. Paul fell blinded from his revelation and was assisted by a man named Annanias who had heard a voice tell him to go to the street, where he found Paul. The church below St. Annanias’. Inside murals on the walls tell the story of St. Paul.

These are a few of the friendly men and children I met near a town called Bosre while visiting the largest Roman ampitheater outside of the city of Rome. Sitting curbside at a roundabout before sunset were Jahd, Amed and Odeh. The last video is of a theatrical Iranian tourist who eventually got his entire busload to sing along with him. The acoustics in the the theater were fantastic.

Umayyad Mosque in Damascus is the largest in the city and today, a thriving traditional market surrounds its four great walls. For images of the market, click on the Damascus link off the Syria main page. The Temple of Jupitor and a Chrisitan church once stood on the site of this mosque. Inside I was surprised to find a shrine for St. John the Baptist. It is lit with green lights as shown below. Muslims from as far away as India and Burma were paying their respects to this Jewish Prophet the day I visited.

I spent a special moment among fellow women at a bright, busy and glittering shrine for Say’yeda Roqayya, granddaughter of The Prophet Muhammad, may they rest in peace. In this shrine located in the Old Jewish Quarter of Damascus I was welcomed with hugs, kisses on both cheeks and asked to pose for photographs with other pilgrims. The video below shows the lively atmosphere inside this mosque.

The Sufi Ibn Arabi’s shrine sits below Qyseom Mountain, a large hill on the northern outskirts of Damacus in a neighborhood that has been thriving since the time of Saladdin. Ibn Arabi traveled from Andalusia in about 1201 to Arabia, Turkey and eventually settled in Damascus. One of his more well-known phrases or poems is:

“My soul contains a pasture for gazelles, a temple, church and mosque...”