You are where History’s voice can be heard, where the soil holds the imprints of the oldest civilizations on the globe dating back to the fourth millennium B.C.

Just name some sites within its boundaries and you will evoke the story of mankind at its beginnings:

Man. Ebla, Ugarit. Amrit. Apamea. Doura-Europos. Palmyra. Bosra, Damascus, Aleppo. 1-lama and Latakia...

The beginnings of Agriculture first appeared in Syria thousands of years ago. Man here discovered the method of linking water and wheat, the possibility of growing millions of new plants from one seed. It is at the moment of that discovery, as J. Bronowski sees it. That civilization and the settled life began.

Man abandoned his cave and began building houses, and setting L1 communities. He began embarking on a journey of self-discovery. He observed heaven and sang the earliest hymns. He tried his hand at drawing and sculpture.

In ancient Syria. Man also discovered the secrets of metallurgy:

The possibility of hammering bronze and copper into shapes that would serve his domestic, military, and later, aesthetic needs. And as he continued to discover and create, life prospered: At Man (Tal Hariri), there was an abundance of palaces. Temples and murals reflecting advanced cultural and commercial activity. The kingdom of Ugarit (Ras Shamra) offered mankind the first alphabet in history.

At Ebla (Ta! Merdikh). A royal palace was discovered containing one of the largest and most comprehensive documentary archives of the ancient world which dealt with a wide-range of matters:

Industry, trade, art, agriculture and diplomatic relations with other countries.

Eblas sovereignty spread from the Anatolian mountains in the north to Sinai in the south.

It became famous throughout the contemporary world for two particular light industries: the manufacture of silk cloth with gold re and finely carved wood inlaid with ivory combined with

Mother of pearl. It is worth noting that even today, in modern

Syria these two industries still prosper, for Syrian brocade and wooden mosaics continue to he fashioned according to the eblaite's tradition.

As the land of Syria saw the dawn of civilization, it also saw many conquests that descended from the Anatolian mountains or that arrived at it shores from the sea. The original inhabitants. Who had migrated from the Arabian Peninsula. Settled throughout Syria: in the Fertile Crescent. And down towards the Palestinian Sinai.

Coastline and Sinai Then were referred to as the Acadians. The Amorites. The Canaanites. The Phoenicians. The Arameans, and finally the Ghassanids depending on the time of their migration and the place of their settlement. These original settlers conserved their characteristics despite the innumerable conquests (Greek. Roman. Persian) that they were to see. In the 636 AD... When the Arabs came to Syria. Again from the Peninsula that had given it its first inhabitants. The gave it their language and their new religion, both of which were to endure in Arab Syria.

The imniense 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 Riser. Through Syria la\ the

Silk Road which led from China to Doura Europos (Salhieh). From Palmyra and Horns to

The Syrian ports on the Mediterranean.

This geographical position lent dis- tinction to the country. Not only as a trade and caravan route, but also as a melting- pot of diverse ideas. Beliefs and talents.

During the Greek and Roman eras. Syria was a

Center of cultures and politics. Many of the Roman Emperors were themselves Syrian

The Syrian coastline gave the Ancient World its language of trade

the Phoenician language.

 It was the birthplace of the world’s monotheistic religions.

In Syria, Christianity in particular began to spread and form its canon. Antioch in the north was the cradle of the first Christian community in the first millennium.

The oldest churches in the world are to he found in Syria. When Islam spread to Syria, Damascus became the capital of the new Empire under the Omayyad Caliphate.

It is therefore not surprising to find that every modern man is indebted to Syria culturally, religiously, politically and artistically. It has been rightly said, that every cultured man belongs to two nations: his own, and Syria.

Your journey through Syria is a journey through time:

When you enter an old souk (bazaar), you realize that History is something alive and tangible, something you can see and touch and smell. In Damascus, if you walk down the Street called straight (Midhat Pasha or the long street), you feel that you are walking beside Saul of Tarsus who had been converted to St. Paul after seeing the light of faith-the light on “the Road to Damascus”. If you walk further on. You come to the silk weavers who still work at their wooden hand looms just like their ancestors did in Ebla 4000 years ago.

The Damascene glass blowers at their brick furnaces remind you of their predecessors who invented colored glass 3000 years ago. You may also recall that in the 13th. Century. Two Italian brothers learnt there the skills of glass blowing that they took back to Venice where they started fashioning the now famous Venetian glass.

Folk artists still draw pictures of epic heroes almost identical to those engraved on stone by Doura Europos artists in the year

3000 BC.

Your trip through a Syrian town is also a trip through the past and the present simultaneously. Each step through its winding streets and bazaars takes you back thousands of years and brings you forward to today. You may come to a Roman arch built centuries before Christ under which you find a shop selling the newest electronic appliances. Or you may pass an Ottoman Khan where the bustle of contemporary commercial life goes on beneath the Arabesque designs on the walls.

On the coast. To the north. Your imagination can wander back. Unhindered h the modern ships you see, to the first indigenous sailors of the Mediterranean who set forth from this very shore. .carrying their colored glass. Their alphabet and their carved woods

The different regions of the known world.

The panorama of Syrian cities also illustrates this merging of past with present.

Damascus. The world’s most ancient inhabited city. Contains Greek ruins built on top of Aramean temples. And minarets rising above Crusader relics. The Omayyad mosque, one of the most famous edifices of Islamic civilization, was also the structure that became the prototype of Islamic architecture. This was to spread from

Andalusia. Spain to far regions of Samarqand in Russia. As one gazes at Damascus from a height. One sees a conglomeration of old souqs. New hotels, ancient domes, and television antennas and dishes dotting the horizon.

In Aleppo. You see a grand fortress rise before you. On the hill where, in the year two thousand B.C.. Abraham milked his cow.

The long winding stone bazaar of Aleppo is one of the most beautiful in the East. replete as it is with the colored silk scarves the city is famous for, and the perfumes and soaps that are still made according to ancient recipes handed down from generation to generation.

The villages of Syria. Whether they nestle in the mountains, appear along a coastline, or border a great desert, all are unique in the traditions they continue to uphold and the colorful costumes their inhabitants weave and wear, or the foods they prepare.

 Ma'lula. Where the houses are carved out of stone in the mountain, still speaks Aramaic, the language Christ spoke that is no longer spoken anywhere else on earth.

Although the people of Syria carry a huge cultural heritage, they have not become completely engrossed in their past. They realize that heritage is not an end in itself, but rather a guiding light to a brighter future and an added impetus to transform Syria into a modern nation firmly grounded in the twenty first Century. The whole nation is participating in plans for development:

Students, artists, teachers, as well as engineers, lawyers and farmers are working closely together for shaping a better future and a more prosperous life.