Damascus - the oldest city

The capital and largest city of Syria with a population of 3.5 millions. It is credited with being the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, with traces going back as far as around 7,000 years ago. As such, it has seen much of the world history of the past millennia, Persians, the Greeks and Alexander the Great, Romans, Mongols, Mamluks, Ottomans and the French. Often, new houses were constructed on top of older ones, and the old town actually consists of layers of "versions" of Damasus which can be seen in various parts of the town. The old walled city feels very ancient and is comprised of a maze of narrow alleys, punctuated by enigmatic doors that lead into verdant courtyards and blank-faced houses. Its actually quite easy to imagine that life might not even have been very different centuries ago.

for Travel+Leisure Magazine 2008