The vast Umayyad Mosque, or Grand Mosque, in the centre of Damascus is the location...
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...at its south east corner of the white Minaret of Jesus...
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...it is believed this is the place where Christ will descend to fight the devil...
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...local Christians around Damascus helped fund repairs and donated white stones...
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...In 2001, after an open-air mass for 35,000 people, the Pope made an historic visit to the Umayyad Mosque where he was greeted by the Grand Mufti...
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...he was cheered by tens of thousands of people waving Vatican and Syrian flags as he crossed the threshold...
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...while inside the Pope visited the Sanctuary and Tomb of Saint John The Baptist...
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...which is situated prominently in the main hall of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.
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A statue depicting St Paul thrown off his horse by a Divine light is mounted beside St Paul's Gate in Damascus...
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...where Paul fled from the enraged Damascenes by being lowered from a window in a basket.
Now St Paul's Church.
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The house in Damascus of Saint Ananias who healed Paul's blindness and converted him to Christianity.
Nowadays a chapel.
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The street called Straight runs across the whole of Old Damascus from the Roman gate of the Sun, Bab Sharqi, in the east...
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...through a Roman monumental arch at an ancient cross roads, then on westwards towards the Arab Gate of the Water Trough, Bab al-Jabiya, once the Roman Temple of Jupiter.
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The street called Straight, the Via Recta, is where Paul, or Saul of Tarsus, stayed for three days at the house of Judas...
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...while he was blinded and not eating and the place where Ananias came to find him...
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...which led to the recovery of Paul's sight and his conversion to Christianity.
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The street called Straight, or Straight Street, is the oldest known street in the world...
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...and this historic place where the trade routes and silk roads intersect...
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...is still a centre for hundreds of shops and traders of all kinds in the Suq Madhat Pasha.
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Churches in Syria invariably display a painting of Saint George and the Dragon, there are two here!
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The hilltop Church and Monastery of Simon Stylites overlooks the town of Deir es-Semaan in the 'Afrin Valley...
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...it was constructed in the fifth century to commemorate the life of a local ascetic monk, Simeon...
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...who spent 37 years atop this stone pillar (once rather higher) to escape the number of people who came to him for prayers and advice...
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...he became famous throughout the entire Roman Empire and died, on his pillar, on 2nd September 459.
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The hillside village of Maalula, where Aramaic, the language of Jesus, is still spoken. Both Christian and Muslim pilgrims pray together at Ma'lula's two monasteries.
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The 12th Century Crusader Cathedral of Our Lady of Tortosa in the western coastal town of Tartus.
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The ancient northern city of Aleppo is home to a great number of Christian and Orthodox churches...
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...Syriac, related to the Aramaic tongue of Jesus, is the language of some...
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...while here some Armenian liturgy is being chanted.
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Just some of the churches Aleppo is home to are the Greek Orthodox, Armenian or Jacobite, Maronite, Syrian Catholic, Greek Catholic and Nestorian.
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