Damascus in History |
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Damascus owes its existence to its strange geographic situation. In the first instance, it is located between a range of mountains and the Syrian desert on what may be called a natural migration corridor where the passage of rains coming from the sea is made easy by the existence of a threshold which today gives passage to the Beirut road. Through this break between the mountains of Anti-Lebanon (2629 m.) and the Hermon (2814m.) seep the clouds which condition the fertility of a small closed sedimentary basin irrigated by the Barada, the ancient «Chrysorroas», or golden river of the Greeks. This genuine oasis, the Ghouta, is at the origin of the establishment of a human community, at least since the 7th millenary before our era, as we know from excavations undertaken south-east of the city. Damascus, whose first appearance in history is the city conquered in the 15th century B.C. by Pharaon Thutmosis III, is also mentioned in the history of Abraham (Genesis, 14,15), but this passage, which belongs to none of the three main sources of Genesis, is probably only a late reconditioning of an old text. Whatever the case, Abraham is still revered by Moslems. The Old Testament tells us also that Damascus was the capital of an Aramean kingdom in the 11th century B.C. Starting from the 10th century, there were wars against the Hebrews and later the Assyrians when they, in the early 9th century, marched to the Mediterranean. We know the names of most of the kings of Damascus who opposed their enemies that encroached both from north and south. Ben Hadad II, who allied himself to Hama, had the good fortune to defeat Salmanazar III (858-824) at the battle of Qarqar in 853 B.C. His successor, Hazael was less fortunate and could not prevent Salmanazar from reaching the Syro-Phoenician coast in 841. |
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© UR Travel 2006