Damascus
The oldest continuously inhabited capital on earth. Courtyard houses, the Umayyad Mosque and a souk that never quite closes.
Damascus does not present itself. It lets you in through a door in a blank wall and only then shows the courtyard, the fountain, the jasmine. The Old City is a few square kilometres of layered history: Roman street grid, Byzantine church walls, the Umayyad Mosque built on top of both, Ottoman khans and the houses of merchant families that still hold their names.
Most guests spend their first and last nights here. The city works as a base: the airport is forty minutes away, Maalula and Saydnaya are day trips, and the road north to Homs, Hama and Aleppo starts at the edge of town.
Our hosts know which restaurant in Bab Touma has the quiet roof and which hammam still runs on wood. Ask for them.