The Oldest City In The World

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21334, 29 November 1934, Page 5 (Supplement)

The Oldest City In The World

Damascus, the oldest city on earth, lies just east of the river Jordan, in the middle of a desert, valley in the barren and desolate country of Syria; a green oasis in a sand-choked and sun-smitten land. From the hill above it, known as Mohammed's Hill, the white city locks like an island of pearls and opals gleaming out of a sea of emeralds. Cities had been built by forgotten civilisations before Damascus, but they are now deserted ruins, given over to the bats and the owls, but Damascus to-day is the same as it was in the time of Moses. Its history goes back before the days of the patriarch Abraham, and it is supposed to have beet*, founded by Uz, the grandson of Noah. For more than 4000 years its name has been mentioned and its praises sung in the writings of the East. With one exception, that of Egypt, it has seen all the empires of the world rise, nourish in all their grandeur and majesty, and

slowly decay. Damascus has seen them all, outlived them and their mighty cities, and has now forgotten them. The first mention of Damascus is in the Bible, in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis. "And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he led forth his trained men . . . and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus." Even then it was a flourishing city. It is two little rivers—we should call them creeks—that run through Damascus that make it so beautiful in that rockbound, sun-blistered land. For water is scarce in Syria, and every house in Damascus and every garden has its sparkling fountains and rivulets. With its forest of foliage, and its abundance of water, the city must be a veritable paradise to the Bedouins from the desert. Damascus is simply an oasis. For more than 4000 years its waters have not gone dry, or its fertility failed. That explains why the city has existed so long. It could not have died or become deserted. So long as its waters remain to it away out there in the middle of that hungry desert, so long will Damascus live to bless the sight of the tired and thirsty traveller.

(By Norman Berrow)

Yet Damascus itself, as a city, it anything but beautiful. It is so crooked and cramped and dirty that the traveller cannot realise thai he is within the gates of the splendid city he saw from the hill-top. Narrow streets, eight to 10 feet wide, twist and turn between high mud-walls that hide the gardens. The streets are thronged with men and women in strange Oriental costumes, mostly in rags, and through the streets gallop the inevitable donkeys. I know this does not sound quite right, but in Damascus the donkeys do gallop. They are the taxis of the city. When he gels a "fare," the donkeyboy will get behind his donkey and by means of goading and incessant shouting he will keep the donkey galloping for hours at a iime. This Mohammedan city is of great, interest to Christians and is famous in Bible history, for it contains the famous street which is called Straight. It was to a house in this

street that St. Paul was led after he had been converted by his heavenly vision. A famous writer of the last century who visited Damascus has described this street as being straighter than a corkscrew, but not as straight as a rainbow. Like all the streets in Damascus it is narrow and ..crooked. The same writer goes on to say that it is not named the Street which is Straight, but the Street which is called Straight. It must be the Damascenes' idea of a joke. When an inhabitant Roes out, at night, he takes a lantern in his hand, as his forefather used to do in the days before Christ. There are no street lights in the city. There are no trams, no policemen, no footpaths. Damascus is content to drift along with the passing of time as a city of tradition. The people live to-day in the same way as they lived thousands of years ago, they carry on their businesses in the same leisurely fashion, their houses inside and out are just the same, their food is the same. Outside the city walls the desert dwellers drive their camel-trains, and tend their flocks of goats as they did when David was a shepherd boy. Damascus is content with resting on its laurels as the oldest city in the world.