Damascus

We left Aleppo, where everyone has satellite dish TV, and drove south to Damascus

Sometimes we found the road signs confusing

The relative fertility of the North

One of the wooden water wheels of Hama, built in Roman times.

Built by the romans to lift water into aqueducts and transport it miles away, these are still working, creaking away.

The wind gets strong as you go south

The sky bigger, the soil dryer and sandier

If there are hills, they are rugged and inhospitable

Damascus, of course, needs drains, like any city!

The Romans were here too.

And the Christians. this minaret has been built above an old Christian Bell tower, and the original church included within the mosque

This is the part of the old city wall that St Paul was lowered down to escape capture. It is called something like St Pauls gate.