Damascus

(from Syriac: place of activity, business) (Gen. 15:2) — capital of ancient Syria, for three centuries the residence of the Syrian kings, and one of the most ancient cities still existing at the present day. Damascus is now sometimes called El-Sham. It is situated on the river Barada (biblical Abana), nearly 200 English miles south of Antioch and 120 miles northeast of Jerusalem. The environs of the city, which has up to 150,000 inhabitants, are abundantly watered and very fertile (see Abana, Pharpar).

The city is about two English miles in length and is surrounded by walls. The streets are narrow but well paved, and one of them, running through the middle of the city and its suburbs, is still called “Straight.” The city is reckoned one of the wealthiest in industry. Damascus blades, razors, silk, leather, and dried fruits form the chief articles of export (Acts 9:11). The environs of the city are so picturesque in setting and so rich in every kind of vegetation (chestnuts, oranges, myrtles, apricots, pears, lemons, apples, olives, and others) that Damascus, both to the ancients and to modern inhabitants of the East, was and is regarded as one of the paradises of the earth.

It is said that one of the Roman emperors, on account of the majesty and picturesqueness of Damascus’s setting, called it “the eye of the East,” and that Muhammad, seeing this city for the first time from a distant height, was so delighted by its picturesqueness that he did not wish to enter it,