Damascus is the bustling capital of Syria.

The main covered market in Damascus.

Shafts of light shine through holes in the roof of the covered market. These circles of light, actually camera obscura images of the sun, fit into an ongiong highly personal fantasy so obscure it seems like a lot of trouble to share it with you, but whenever we are under a holey awning we wonder what it would look like during the partial phases of an eclipse -- they turn into crescents, you know. In this case, we wondered if Venus would be visible as a dot in these projections during the transit a few weeks later. I expect the image of Venus was too small too see.

Stylish mannequins.

Canned meat.

People selling little gadgets which hollow out a zucchini. They made pretty impressive little curls of insides, but I wouldn't be surprised if people just throw them out and then put ground meat on the inside.

Outside the Omayyad Mosque, the room where women would get clothes to cover themselves up.

The courtyard in the northern half of the Omayyad Mosque. This site has been a temple for 3000 years, first to Hadad, then Jupiter, John the Baptist, and since 636 AD, Allah. Its most recent reconstruction was in 1893, after a fire. It has three minarets. Visible here is the Minaret al-Arous, the Minaret of the Bride. (The lead roof was a dowry to Caliph al-Walid ibn Abdel-Malek.)

Mosaics on the treasury tower in the courtyard.

Inside the mosque.

St. John the Baptist is buried here.

Asleep in a mihrab, a highly decorated indentation in a wall which points southward towards Mecca.

A fountain made out of stone that was brimming with fossil inclusions.

Outside the National Museum in Damascus. Inside the museum was a small stone with the complete Ugarit alphabet, the earliest piece found containing a complete alphabet.

Little "Made in China" labels on a pedestrian overpass.

A "private pub" seems a little contradictory -- this sign was in the courtyard of al-Zeitouna, a nice restaurant south of "A Street Called Straight" (the modern English name of the street upon which St. Paul saw the Light). We had Thyme salad, "Birds of Figs" (a kind of sausage), Shanklish, Mouhammara, Bastourma (bresaola) and some local red wine...

On to Jordan