Travel back in time to Damascus

Hello, I don't know why but I became very nostalgic of my travelling days in the middle east today. With the ongoing conflict in Syria... I thought about my short stay in Damascus in 2004.

One site in particular came to mind and it's that of Umayyad mosque. Walking through the narrow streets to reach an outdoor bazaar filled with garments, spices, jewelry, and food all under a canopy leading up to the mosque. Sumptuous smell of sweets and food just makes your senses stimulate to over drive. There was a famous hand knead ice cream parlor that I had the pleasure of trying where kings and queens of the area travelled to taste. They would build structures and drizzle it with crushed pistachio and honey.

This mosque holds special place in my heart, not only because of visiting my family who were living there at the time, but also the significance of the place in history. In the courtyard there were three structures, one of the Treasury as you can see to the left in the picture, another of the dome of the clock which you can see to the right, and followed by the water reservoir behind it.

Just outside the mosque there is a mausoleum of Saladin who famously fought against the crusade, there is also a burial site of Hussain the martyr one of prophet Muhammad's grandson. The true treasure was what's inside the mosque where people prayed. On the left side there is a shrine built purportedly housing the head of John the Baptist and both Christians and Muslims prayed side by side without any dividers between them.

Why am I bringing this story up? Besides one of the oldest structure that housed a time keeping device (dome of the clock)... This structure is now destroyed due to the ongoing war, but at one point this symbolized the progression of humanity during the Islamic golden age where scholars and philosophers pushed the boundaries of mathematics and science, astronomy and medicine. Of course also to perfect time tracking as well. Not to say that they were the first but the one's who grabbed the batton from previous generation and pass it down to the next until the modern age where we are now a click away from finding information and a wrist look away from telling time.