Surprise

So we met the man who owns our hotel today. He’s a radiologist and a good friend of Tarif Backdash, an internist and the person responsible for us being in Syria. Seems every doctor we meet has four or five jobs. After a few minutes, he asked if we would like to accompany him to a Syrian Orthodox shrine in the mountains. But of course.

Ayham Adib bought the hotel two years ago and renovated it himself. It’s only been open a couple months, but has already been written up in the NY Times.

Anyway, he first took us on a walking tour of Bab Touma, which is the north gate of the old city. The gate itself dates back to Roman times and portions of the wall still stand. As we dodged cars on the way to his SUV, he explained that in Damascus, there are ‘spontaneous’ crosswalks, just like driving is ‘spontaneous.’

We wound our way into the mountains northeast of Damascus—these are the mountains that separate Syria from Lebanon. The trip took an hour and we ended up on top of a ridge at a huge building clinging to the side of the mountain. It is the convent of Our Lady of Saydanaya, and as Ayham explained, people—Christian and Moslem—come from all the area to offer prayers. The convent itself was established in 547 AD, but expanded over the centuries. The main attraction is a painting of Mary they say was painted by Luke—as in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. As part of the experience, you go into a tiny room that has an ornate cabinet where the painting is housed and light candles. Quite the mystical experience.