Cultural Travel Guides to Syria

We have hand-selected Approach Guides relevant to travel to Syria, with a particular focus on Damascus.

Ancient Mediterranean Mosaics: Connecting the Dots

The Middle East is a treasure trove of high quality mosaic art, brought initially by the Byzantines and later by the Christan crusaders.  And Syria’s magnificent Umayyad Mosque in Damascus is an absolute highlight on any trip!  Mosaic art began as a long-lasting (not to mention an easy-to-clean) floor covering in Mediterranean cultures. The first evidence we have of the use of mosaics is in the 10th century BCE in Mesopotamia (Turkey), but the art form was quickly passed to the Greeks who created gorgeous, highly realistic mosaics (in an attempt to imitate paintings). Some of the world’s greatest ancient mosaics can be viewed in Egypt (Mount Sinai), Jordan (King’s Highway), Syria (Damascus), Turkey (Istanbul) and Italy. This Approach Guide reviews the stylistic development of mosaics in the Mediterranean over a 1000-year period (400 BCE to 1453 CE) and gives detailed review key mosaics sites throughout the Mediterranean. Read more

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Historical East-West Trade Connections

The Middle East provided a crucial link in the trade between the East and West, as bedouins assured the transmission of trade goods through necessary long desert traverses. Although fundamentally economic in orientation, this worldwide trade network spawned vast cultural, artistic and religious exchanges. Use this Approach Guide to discover these exchanges, which served as the underlying (and often overlooked) inspiration for many of the world’s greatest cultural landmarks. Read more

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Note that free previews reveal only a small, yet representative, portion of the content available in the complete Approach Guides document. All images and photos in these Approach Guides and on www.approachguides.com were taken on location by David and Jennifer Raezer.

Click here to see our Suggested Reading List for the Middle East

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