Syria

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another one

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Here's Al-Bara

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part2

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Another ancient ruins I've visited in Busra.
Here You can see so-called "princess' bed". The story is that a king learned that his dotter's supposed to die, so he put her up there to protect her from any harm, but a scorpion that got into the basket with food killed her... Of course, it's just a story for naive tourists.

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Here is the mosque of Umar in Busra, claimed to be one of the oldest ones and the oldest one outside Arabia.

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another pic

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And here are photos of ancient theatre later turned into a citadel. The crowd You can see there are scouts. In Syria the only scouts are christian ones. I and my friend ran across some very nice christian kids of Homs there. They gave us food and drink and gifts (I got a bracelet from one of the girls, a photo of one of the boys and kind of a thing You attach keys to from another buy; my friend got two pictures of saints and a bracelet). They sang for us and danced, and told us we're beautiful and asked if they can be our sisters and so on.
Very often I meet very hospitable people here. For example, at bus station one guy not only brought me a chair (it was kind of trouble as I have seen it, but didn't want to sit on it as it was dirty; when he brought me it, I had to, though) and offered me his coat if I felt cold.
But also I often meet people that want to con me.

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theatre

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p2

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By the way of people. This is a picture taken in Damascus. I've made it because of nice entrance to the building, but I've cought something else by the way. See the man staring at my (dyed) blond friend and see his hand reach down Nah, I'm pretty sure he's not massaging his crotch while looking at a girl. I think he's adjusting himself in his trousers. You see, young Syrians wear tight trousers, I've heard they do it to show off their asses. Perhaps because of that they often adjust themselves there. But I have to say many people, esp. young, dress very well here.
There are a lot of cloth shops, and what they're selling at least looks good. Somehow however I've bought clothes twice and twice they need repair from the very beginning. Perhaps I have bad luck.

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Also, I've visited with my polish friends three great castles. First of them is Al-Marqab, once Margat, a castle of Hospitaliers.

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another pic

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p3

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And here is Arwad (Arados) island. It used to be one of Phenician cities, but what's more important is that it was the last crusaders' fort in Syria, it survived Acca by 12 years I believe and made its way to XIV century. It belonged to Templars

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And here is the fameous XII century Krak des Chevaliers (Hisn al-Akrad, nowdays Qal'at al-Husn, a funny name because it means sth like "fortress - a citadel, to be exact, but any castle here is called like that - fortress"), the biggest and most fameous of hospitalier castles in Syria. it guarded the way from Homs to the shores. It belonged to hospitaliers 1142-1271, when it was captured by sultan Az-Zahir Baybars.