1926
There we were in the oldest city in the world, famous Damascus. Its geographical location is really remarkable. It is situated in the centre of desertlike mountains at an altitude of 1500 metres and in a depression where water streams down the slopes. Surrounded by a sterile desert, Damascus itself is like a sea of green. Everywhere it is full of gardens and surrounded by fertile fields. After completing long caravan routes lasting for days through the desert, the traveller enters Damascus and finds there a kind of ‘Eldorado’ with water and greenery. The ancient city is strongly built with a large number of mosques and minarets and a multitude of caravansaries. All crops there are irrigated. This is in the fullest sense of the word an oasis in a mountainous desert. Thanks to its elevated situation, the climate is temperate and favourable for the production of fruit trees, grapes and cereals.
Unfortunately, Damascus was also under martial law; it was threatened with an assault by the Druse. The outskirts of the city were defended by barricades and to go far from the city into the surroundings was nor recommended by the authorities. I had to limit myself to studying the grain market in rhe city itself and to visit only a few fields.
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