Old Damascus
| Old Damascus | |
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UNESCO world heritage 
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| Interior of a house, historic photo around 1895 |
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| National territory: |
 Syria
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| Type: | Culture |
| Criteria : | (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (vi) |
| Surface: | 86.12 ha |
| Buffer zone: | 42.6013 ha |
| Reference No .: | 20bis |
| UNESCO region : | Arabic states |
| History of enrollment | |
| Enrollment: | 1979 ( session 3 ) |
| Extension: | 2011 |
| Red list : | since 2013 |
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The old city of Damascus is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Syria .
Because of its convenient location at the crossroads of important trade routes, Damascus Old City is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world. The Umayyads made Damascus the capital of their caliphate . In addition to the medieval buildings that testify to this heyday, elements of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine architecture can also be seen in the cityscape. Overall, the historic old town presents itself to the visitor today in the form it has received since the Ottoman conquest at the beginning of the 16th century. Like all Syrian World Heritage Sites, the Old City of Damascus has been on the Red List of World Heritage in Danger since 2013 .
description
The World Heritage Old City of Damascus was defined across the board in 1979 as the area within the old city walls, a buffer zone was not designated. (This corresponded to the procedure for other early World Heritage nominations.) It is undisputed that this area has the greatest density of cultural monuments, but in terms of urban planning there is a close connection with areas outside the city wall, which also have valuable historical buildings but were not placed under protection in 1979.
Core zone within the city walls
In 2008 the world heritage comprised an area of 135 hectares (core zone and buffer zone). The core zone was defined by the course of the ancient Roman city wall: as much as Damascus as an Islamic city is a cultural heritage, the city map shows a strong influence from the Roman and Byzantine epochs. Most of the individual buildings placed under protection are in the west of the old town.
Old structures outside the city walls
Starting in the 13th century, the medieval city grew from the city gates along the arterial roads into the surrounding area. The following districts in the north, west and south date back to this period and are therefore an integral part of the historic old town of Damascus:
- Qanawat,
- Souk al Srija,
- Midan,
- Sarouja,
- al-Uqaiba.
Since 1988, parts of these districts, most recently in al-Uqaiba, had been placed under monument protection, but in 2008 experts sought to expand the area of the world cultural heritage to include these districts because they were in the historical relationship in which these districts had to the inner city, also saw a world heritage worthy of protection. The size of the buffer zone was relatively clearly outlined by the historical cadastral maps from 1920. This included the late Ottoman districts as well as the “Turkish city” of the 19th and early 20th centuries. But the UNESCO / ICOMOS mission also suggested planning traffic axes and urban growth for the new districts that have been built since then so that the landscape of old Damascus is not destroyed.
Living in the old town
The observer mission established that with the development of the Damascus New Town in the 1930s, processes had started that were unfavorable for the old town and threatened its preservation:
- At first, the population in the old town continued to decline, but in recent years this trend has been reversed. The population density was relatively high with 723 inhabitants per hectare (2005). Many of the newcomers are poor and poorly educated and live on rent.
- The quality of living in the old town was relatively poor. A third of the structure showed severe damage, was uninhabited or in danger of collapsing. Vacancy and decay were even more widespread in the former Jewish Quarter in the southeast of the old town than elsewhere. (The former residents had moved away and left their homes behind; the legal status was unclear.) Lack of maintenance and failure to comply with safety standards caused accidents such as fires or collapses.
Trade and craft
In recent years, economic activities had expanded from the historically shaped streets into the residential areas. According to the UNESCO / ICOMOS mission, the traditional handicraft, which was practiced in many places in the old town, represented an important aspect of the world heritage and offered the residents opportunities to earn a living. The traditional souk economy has changed, however, in order to serve the buying interests of the Damascus citizens in the new building areas, the number of which exceeds that of the residents of the old town many times over. These are customers who tend to have little money available. In the meantime, the following distribution has developed in the old town of Damascus:
- The traditional souk in the west of the old town, thus also conveniently located from the new town, is still the economic center and attracts both townspeople and tourists.
- Local craft and retail , on the other hand, have moved closer to the historic city gates. Markets for food, but also specialized craft businesses (metal, wood, leather) that had settled here benefited from the fact that they were easily accessible for delivery traffic.
Renovation plans
The UNESCO / ICOMOS mission noted a positive trend in 2008: in previous years, more and more applications for the renovation of houses in the old town were made. Palaces that were used for public administration or as museums had been extensively restored, but other objects of high architectural value were also repaired. There were opportunities for private investors to use renovated old town houses as restaurants or hotels. On the part of the state, the thorough repair of the major east-west axis Medhat Pasha Street (or Via recta , straight street) had been started, which also included some important cross streets. The further decline of the city wall should be stopped; this included removing many of the houses that had been built on and on the historic wall.
District of Muslims, Christians and Jews
Since the Islamic conquest of Damascus in 636 by Chālid ibn al-Walīd, there have been members of the three great monotheistic religions in the city. At first the churches were forcibly closed, but the previous Greek Orthodox St. John the Baptist Cathedral could be used jointly by Christians and Muslims for 70 years - in separate sections of the building. In 706, Caliph al-Walid I ordered that the cathedral be converted into the Umayyad mosque , for which large parts of the building were demolished and rebuilt as a mosque. For this, al-Walid I decided that the Christians could continue to visit their other churches and the Jews their synagogues, but with payment of the jizya . Now the Mariamite Church on Straight Street served the Greek Orthodox Christians as a cathedral. In the northeastern part of today's old town with the two city gates Bāb Tūmā (Thomastor, in the northeast) and Bab Scharqi (east gate), the Christian district of Damascus with its numerous churches and in the southeastern part the Jewish quarter, while the western half of the old town developed the Muslim part with its mosques is. With regard to Christians and Muslims, this can still be seen today in the cityscape and in attending church services, while the Jews of Damascus left the city from the late 1940s, most recently in a wave of emigration in the 1990s. The attack on the Menarsha synagogue in the district on August 8, 1948, in which twelve people died and after which many Jews fled the city for Israel, meant a deep cut for the Jews of Damascus . The former Jewish quarter, also known as al-Amin, fell into disrepair, and before the civil war there were plans to transform the area into an artists' quarter. The Al-Menarsha Synagogue and the Al-Racqy Synagogue are still standing, but unused. The Al-Faranj Synagogue is the only one in Damascus that still holds services, although very few Jews still live in the city.
The East Gate (Bab Sharqi) and which is in the west, al-Dschābiya gate leading Bāb al-Dschābiya (باب الجابية) are with each other through the straight road (الشارع المستقيم, DMG aš-Šāriʿ al-Mustaqīm , Latin Via Recta ), in the middle of which there is a Roman triumphal arch . This is considered the border between the Muslim part in the west and the Christian and Jewish part in the east, with the latter two being separated by Straight Street. Officially, the western part of the street is called Shari Madhat Bāschā (شارع مدحت باشا) and the eastern part of Shariʿ Bāb Sharqī (شارع باب شرقي).
World Heritage Criteria
Criterion I.
The Great Mosque is an outstanding example of Umayyad architecture. There are also other buildings from different periods to be mentioned ( citadel , Azem palace , madrasas , khans, hammams and palaces).
Criterion II
As the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate, Damascus was a role model for Islamic urban planning. The location of the Great Mosque, an element that was given in Roman city planning (here was a temple of Jupiter), was adopted when other Islamic cities were built.
Criterion III
The continuous settlement of the place since the 3rd millennium BC BC is proven by historical sources and archaeological findings. In addition to the Great Mosque, the city walls, the citadel, some hammams and mausoleums have been preserved from the medieval city; a large part of the building stock placed under protection comes from the early modern period.
Criterion IV
The Great Mosque is both one of the largest and one of the oldest mosques. It therefore has a special spiritual meaning for the world religion Islam . Their cultural, social and artistic value is also great.
Criterion VI
The city was the scene of important events, particularly Islamic history. These in turn had an impact on urban development.
Integrity and authenticity
The situation was as follows in 2009: The world heritage site is defined by the course of the old town walls; it is a dense development with a historic road network, from which 125 individual buildings were highlighted as cultural monuments. The building fabric is exposed to constant erosion due to the use of non-traditional building materials and construction techniques. The historic old town is also adversely affected because the buildings in the surrounding modern metropolis are not coordinated with the old town. Since it was registered as a World Heritage Site in 1979, little had changed in the historic old town until 2009, apart from the aforementioned erosion process of the building fabric.
Protection and management of the world heritage site
The planning of building measures in the old town in 2009 was in the hands of two authorities: the Commission for the Preservation of the Old Town and the General Directorate for Antiquities and Museums (DGAM). Measures to protect the World Heritage site were carried out by the Ministry of Local Administration and the Environment with international partners, whereby the interests of local actors had to be taken into account.
The following laws place the old town under state protection:
- The Antiquities Act 222, amended in 1999, together with Ministerial Order No. 192 of 1976, defines the development within the city walls as the national and cultural heritage of Syria.
- Parliament resolution No. 826 deals with restoration and reconstruction work in the historic old town and specifies criteria for this.
A committee for the protection and development of the world heritage was named in 2009, in which various authorities were to coordinate upcoming planning and construction measures. A buffer zone around the old town had been approved in principle. A plan existed, but had not yet been decided.
Danger
In contrast to other Syrian world heritage sites such as Palmyra or the old town of Aleppo , the old town of Damascus was not directly affected by the destruction of the Syrian civil war . However, indirect consequences were, for example, the vacancy of houses whose residents had fled.
On April 23, 2016 , a fire broke out in a shop in the souq of Al Asruniyeh , between the Citadel and the Grand Mosque, and destroyed this part of old Damascus. Al Asruniyeh was an uncovered souq, built between 1875 and 1915. In addition to the shops, there were a number of older structures here, namely:
- Al-Madrasa al-Adiliya al-Soghra . This religious school was a foundation of Zahra Khatoun, the daughter of the Ayyubid ruler al-Adil Seif Eddin (early 13th century).
- Dar al-Hadith al-Nabawi al-Sharif . A religious school founded by the Seljuk ruler Nur ad-Din Zengi (late 12th century).
- Dar al-Hadith of the Nur ad-Din. This religious school is believed to have originated in the reign of Nur ad-Din (between 1164 and 1174).
In particular, the upper floors of the shops burned out completely. The government has admitted that the condition of electrical systems in the old town is poor and that fires keep coming back. Improved fire protection measures were promised to UNESCO.
Web links
- Old City of Damascus on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
- Joint UNESCO / ICOMOS Monitoring Mission: Ancient City of Damascus , April 2008 ( PDF )
Individual evidence
- ^ Joint UNESCO / ICOMOS Monitoring Mission: Ancient City of Damascus. April 2008, p. 4 , accessed November 4, 2018 .
- ^ Joint UNESCO / ICOMOS Monitoring Mission: Ancient City of Damascus. April 2008, p. 7 , accessed November 4, 2018 .
- ^ Joint UNESCO / ICOMOS Monitoring Mission: Ancient City of Damascus. April 2008, p. 9 , accessed November 4, 2018 .
- ^ A b Joint UNESCO / ICOMOS Monitoring Mission: Ancient City of Damascus. April 2008, p. 10 , accessed November 4, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c Joint UNESCO / ICOMOS Monitoring Mission: Ancient City of Damascus. April 2008, p. 14 , accessed November 4, 2018 .
- ^ Joint UNESCO / ICOMOS Monitoring Mission: Ancient City of Damascus. April 2008, p. 18 , accessed November 4, 2018 .
- ^ Joint UNESCO / ICOMOS Monitoring Mission: Ancient City of Damascus. April 2008, pp. 15-16 , accessed November 4, 2018 .
- ^ Joint UNESCO / ICOMOS Monitoring Mission: Ancient City of Damascus. April 2008, pp. 24-25 , accessed November 4, 2018 .
- ^ Christian C. Sahner: Umayyad Mosque - A Glittering Crossroads ( Memento from July 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Wall Street Journal, July 17, 2010.
- ^ Daniel Demeter: Damascus - al-Mariyamiyeh Church. Syria Photo Guide, July 1, 2014.
- ^ A b Diana Darke: Syria . Bradt Travel Guides, 2006. pp. 91-95.
- ↑ Al-Menarsha Synagogue. Accessed April 30, 2020.
- ↑ Al-Racqy Synagogue. Accessed April 30, 2020.
- ↑ Al-faranj Synagogue. Accessed April 30, 2020.
- ↑ Ataa Alsalloum: The road to recovery: Old Damascus has a long history of rising from the ashes. In: The Independent. March 21, 2017. Retrieved November 4, 2018 .
- ↑ a b State Party Report: Updating Information for the State of Conservation Of the Ancient City of Damascus (dossier n 20). May 2016, accessed November 4, 2018 .
Heritage: Old Damascus (1979, R ) | Ancient city of Bosra (1980, R ) | Palmyra (1980, R ) | Old City of Aleppo (1986, R ) | Krak des Chevaliers and Qalʿat Salah ed-Din (2006, R ) | Ancient villages in Northern Syria (2011, R )
Coordinates: 33 ° 30 ′ 43 ″ N , 36 ° 18 ′ 24 ″ E