Do you know that Damascus is the oldest inhabited capital in the world?

Damascus, (SANA) Founded in the 3rd millennium B.C., Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the Middle East. However, archaeologists were able to show that Damascus was first inhabited between 8000 and 10,000 BC.

Damascus has been an important cultural and commercial center, by virtue of its geographical position at the crossroads of the orient and the occident, between Africa and Asia.

In the Middle Ages, it was the center of a flourishing craft industry, specializing in swords and lace.

The city has some 125 monuments from different periods of its history – one of the most spectacular is the 8^th-century Great Umayyad Mosque.

The Capital of Jasmine, as its inhabitants call it, welcomed 11 different civilizations that left their traces and contributed to formulate that unique structure of this city.

The Ancient City of Damascus was designated a World Heritage Site in 1979. Meanwhile, in 2008, Damascus was named the capital of Arab culture.

Great Arab thinkers and poets have described Damascus as the paradise of the Middle East.

Translated by Ruaa al-Jazaeri