KHOLI FOR TOURISM & TRAVEL
Syria, with its incomparable role in history, is the cradle of the great civilizations, and the accomplishments of her ancient people are renowned throughout the world. To get to know Syria is to experience History.
Syria is a land as old as time itself. It was here that agriculture began ten thousand years ago, that settlement commenced and civilization emerged. Houses, not caves, became man’s dwellings, and he embarked on a journey of self-discovery. He observed heaven and sang the earliest hymens. He tried his hand at drawing and sculpture. Plain, decorated and colored pottery was invented. Evidence of these ancient arts is found all over Syria, at Mereibet, Jeyroud, Yabroud, and on the riverbanks.
Syria also presented the world with another discovery. It was here that copper was made pliable and bronze and alloys were invented. The Bronze civilization came into being at Tel Halaf. At Mari (Tel Hariri), by Euphrates and elsewhere, there was an abundance of palaces, temples and murals reflecting advanced cultural and commercial activity.
The kingdom of Ugarit (Ras Shamra) offered mankind the oldest melody and the first alphabet in history. At Ebla (Tel Merdikh), a royal palace was discovered containing one of the largest and most comprehensive documentary archives of the ancient world. These specialized in industrial, diplomatic, commercial and administrative matters, in addition to war and peace relations with other countries.
The Amorites, the Canaanites and the Phoenicians inhabited the coastal regions, the Arameans were the highlanders, and Nabateans inhabited the south. Successive waves of migrations from the Arab Peninsula founded prosperous civilizations which were always the source for attracting “foreign” peoples who came with their own cultures, thus resulting in the most fertile cultural interaction ever known by the world. The Islamic conquest of 636 AD gave the sense of unity to the land.
The immense strategic importance of Syria is due to her unique position as a meeting point of three continents (Asia, Africa and Europe), and as a crossroad between the Caspian Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Black Sea and the Nile River. Through Syria lay the silk rout which led from China to Doura Europos (Salhieh), from Palmyra and Homs to Syrian ports on the Mediterranean, where for thousands of years Syrian seafarers had ridden the waves in their enormous fleets with gleaming white sails.
This geographical position on the most important meeting point between the east and the west, lent distinction to the country; not only as a trade and caravan route, but also as a melting pot of diverse ideas, beliefs, talents and cultures, which intermingled and interacted to summarize history in one country.
It is often said that if you visited Syria you have visited the whole world, as a journey through Syria is a journey through time and an adventure in history. When you enter the old souks you realize that history is something alive and tangible, something you can see and touch. You walk down the “Street called Straight” (Midhat Pasha) which stretches from Bab Sharqi to Bab al-Jabieh, and you feel that you are walking beside Saul of Tarsus when he saw the light of faith, the light on the “Road of Damascus”.
The silk weavers which you sea in Damascus, Hama and Aleppo still work at their wooden hand looms just like their ancestors did in Ebla four thousand years ago. Glass Blowers at their brick furnaces recall their predecessors who invented colored glass three thousand years ago. Folk artists still draw pictures of epic heroes almost identical to those painted on stone by Doura Europos Artists.
Syria, the land of antiquity, is often described as the largest small country in the world because of its wealth of ancient civilizations. Modern man is indebted to this land for much of his thought and learning. Indeed it was aptly said every intellectual has two homelands: his own and Syria. For thousands of years, the Area between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean was a theater for historical changes. We invite you to discover the remains of the civilizations of Mari and Ugarit, the cities of Zenobia as well as those of Greece, Rome, Assyria, Sumeria and Phoenicia, enjoy the jewels of Islamic architecture and magnificent castles of the Middle Ages.
These are some vestiges representing a small part of historical monuments scattered in Syria where the past & the present can be seen together.
Syria the Land of three heavenly religions was the land of Ashtar & Baal cult, from here spread Christianity in the whole world, and from here the first dynasty in Islam conquered the world.
Reaching up to the modern age Syria is still occupying a pioneer status on the Arab, Regional and International levels.