Syria destruction
This facebook website pictures some of the widespread desctruction that befell several historical sites and old cities in Syria. “Like it” or rather, dislike it..
A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
This facebook website pictures some of the widespread desctruction that befell several historical sites and old cities in Syria. “Like it” or rather, dislike it..
Heartbreaking.
So much destruction.
I have wanted to return to Syria ever since I visited in 1998.
Wonderful people, beautiful country.
My heart aches for both.
Heartbreaking,absolutely unbearable, very little in my adult life has caused me to shed as many tears as helplessly witnessing the destruction of my beloved Syria.
I don’t like to generalise but ….if there are kinder more thoughtful people in this world than the Syrians, I have yet to meet them.
Lisa, I share your sadness deeply. It has been hard to even bring myself to comment on such a seemingly hopeless tragedy. Let us hope that this can be resolved before that splendid region passes over the brink.
I still wear my Kurdish embroidered vest that Basil helped me purchase in the historic souk of Aleppo. I still have my loafers that were repaired by the cobbler at the entrance of the souk. I still have my little cast iron owl that Radouan purchased for me, and I still admire on our book shelf the handmade pearl inlay box that I brought back for my wife. All of these things are treasured memories of the ancient souk that is now mostly rubble.
Most of all, I still have my audio recording of the old blind man that was singing from the Koran in the courtyard of the Umayyid Mosque on one of those days in 1996 when the sky was the most bright cobalt blue and the radiant sun was warming all of us like a great umbrella of friendship, hospitality and respect for humanity.
On my last day of leaving that region, I understood how Homer Davenport must have felt in 1906 after embracing the generous hospitality of his hosts and having ridden with the true Bedouin horse breeders of the region, knowing that he would be returning to the U.S. with a treasure that would become beyond measure, a treasure that flows through the veins of huge number of international champions now as well as beloved Arabian horse companions to all who have been enriched by our ties to this incredible culture.
I too have experienced the extraordinary warmth, friendliness and hospitality of genuinely good people in the country of Syria and no war can eradicate that from my memory.