A new family member

I introduce you “Lady” my new puppy
She’s A Siberian Husky

Isn’t she Lovable

Gates of Damascus

Damascus is considered the oldest inhabited city in the world . And it was orderly constructed from its early historical beginning .

The wall of Damascus was built in the Roman period with huge rounded rocks and stones and was provided with seven gates and a paved network of roads that comes out of this gates in different ways


The only intact part of the wall stretches from Bab Assalam to Bab Toma ( 500 meters). But most of the gates are still intact with slight changes in their original marks. Other gates were installed in the Islamic era such as Bab Assalam and Bab Al-Faraj. Some of the towers of the wall are still intact such as Nour Eddin tower, South of Bab Al-jabieh, and Salhieh tower, east of Bab Toma.


And the seven gates of Damascus are:
Three settled in the northern side

Thomas Gate (bab toma): the name of the gate is related to one of Roma’s known great figures and his name was Thomas, and it’s mentioned that Amr Ebn Alas entered Damascus from this gate the day Damascus was conquest



Peace gate (Bab Asslam) : its next to Thomas gate to the west and it was takedown and rebuild in the time of Nour al Din Mahmod where he build a minaret over it. And it was called that way because the warriors entered it hardly.







Paradise Gate (Bab Al Faradis) : it was named that way because in the Roman era it was surrounded by many groves and water and it was innovated in the time of King Al Saleh Ismail



From the south side there’s two gates:

Bab Kissan : and it is located to the South near Al Baytara Square, and in the Byzantine era a church was build there and it became the entrance to the Church. And the name is related to Kissan the guardian of the Caliph Mo’awia that revealed to him during the Islamic conquest.



The small Gate ( bab al sagher): it is located in northern eastern the city near to Shahgor now. And it was named that way because it is the smallest of all gates and Yazid ben abi sufian entered Damascus through this gate while the conquest of the city, and also Tamurlane in 14oo A.D.



And in the east there’s one Gate:

The eastern Gate (Bab Sharki) : and it was named according to the location of the gate in the east of the city. This gate is formed of three vents in the form of arches the biggest vent is the one in the middle and behind it there’s a straight street while the other 2 vents behind them there is small hallways located on the two sides of the street and carried by columns. the Islamic warrior Khaled ebn al waleed entered the city through this gate and also the Abbasid commander abed allah ben ali in the year 749 A.D.



And in the west side there is a gate

Bab Al jabieh: and it faces the eastern gate and also has the same structure. And the name of the gate is related to Al Jabieh village because they used to pass out of it when going to that village. Obayda Ben Al Jarah entered Damascus through this Gate. And this gate has a great memorial when Mosa Ben Nassir entered Damascus with a great pageant in the year 714 A.D.

The eastern gate and Al Jabieh gate enclose between them a straight street that includes arches of triumph



In addition to the seven main gates of Damascus there’s other gates less important and they are:

Bab al Faraj: situated to the south of Damascus between Asroniah and Manakhiah and it had two function the 1st is misleading the enemies and the 2nd was economic.

Bab Al Naser ( victory Gate) : situated in the entrance of AL Hamediah Market and it was demolished in the Abbasid era.

The quarters of Damascus was well bulwarked behind those Gates and some of those Quarters had its own gates like Bab Srejah, bab Mosalah , bab Maser


Those are the Main and the subordinate gates of Damascus and every stone of it tells us the Story of an eternal City through ages

Beyond the Sea

Phoenicians built their ancient harbor
A little flower on the Mediterranean

Redolent of soft breezes that stroke,

Where sailing and steam ships found anchor

And fun-loving spectators roamed.

My eyes greet its cerulean waters
And beyond its waters , beyond the sea,

My heart is gone, far, far from me;

And ever on its track will flee

My thoughts, my dreams, beyond the sea.

I love Lattakia at this time of the Year

No title

So I went out of new thoughts even thou my blog is newly launched
If I may say launched….Okay not that I went out of thoughts completely
Is just that I write my posts on Word Documents before publishing and I go through them like hundreds of times to make sure they are okay to be published…call me weird but I do that…there’s like 3 new threads ready to be posted but hell knows why I haven’t yet.


Anyway what I really want to write about today is LUCK
Sometimes I believe that luck is borne with the person, so if you aren’t born with luck you’ll never be lucky for the rest of your life, not that I consider my self lucky but also unlucky.
Okay I know that sounds controversial

Tell you how

I’m lucky because I breathe, see, smell, feel, hear, walk, Simply lucky because I’m alive
I’m lucky because I have the greatest parents
I’m lucky because I was raised in a fine open way
I’m lucky because I had good education
I’m lucky because nothing was missing from my life
I’m lucky that I have good friends surrounding me
I’m lucky that people around me tend to love me and like me immediately ( قريبة على القلب )

On the other hand

I’m unlucky because I live in a terrible routine
I’m unlucky because I leave chances pass through me without taking any actions
I’m unlucky because I hesitate a lot
I’m unlucky because I thought I found my other half and then lost it.
I’m unlucky because I haven’t won the lottery hehe
I’m unlucky because I simply feel unlucky…errrrr

Someone said "It's better to be lucky than smart."

Well I consider that a stupid a steatment because a smart person is lucky because he simply knows how to take the opportunities, Lucky people make effective decisions by listening to their intuition and gut feelings which also make them smart. …but what if that smart person had an accident and died?

Is he considered unlucky???
No because that was his fate

So what I was saying a while ago that people are borne lucky is false because you make your own luck in life.

At least that is what I think…I don’t know about the rest of you


Oh yea I forgot to mention that I met another blogger yea call me an active lol
Well we were supposed to go to the movies to watch Memories of a Geisha but the period of the film show was over and they replaced it with the Pink Panther which It doesn’t deserve to pay 150 S.P to watch it, Not that we haven’t seen Memories of a Giesha, but one of us saw it on a mini screen on the airplane which it wasn’t very satisfactory. Anyway I’m sure he’ll Find it on DVD soon.

So we decided to have a cup of coffee…had a lovely conversation then we walked a bit
I have to say that I had a good Time…thanks for the lovely time Sam


Shu Kaman???

Tomorrow Thursday on MBC 4 they are showing a U2 Vertigo 2005 concert my all time favorite rock band
So who’s interested don’t forget to watch it, its on 11 PM Syrian time...as for those who can not watch it Sorry you’ll miss because U2 ROCKS.

That’s all …

Now the Big Q is how come did I post this thread directly without going through it a hundred time ??

My 1st Blogger meeting

Today I had my 1st blogger meeting which I guess you all think it was with a fellow blogger from Syria.

Which it wasn't!!


Okay lemme tell you how it happened…one day while I was checking my state counter I noticed that I had many visits coming from this certain blog so I click to see whom blog was it….well it turned out to be the blog of an interesting bright Libyan Lady. And since she was in a visit to Syria she decided to make some introductions to some of the Syrian blogs and my blog was included.

Anyway she was talking about not meeting any of the Syrian bloggers check her blog to see what I’m talking about ( From the Rock )

And then I dropped her a comment asking if she ever had second thoughts about meeting some Syrian bloggers ….and things went so fast that we decided to meet up

Anyway Highlander it was a great pleasure meeting you, I had a great time wallahi
and i hope we'll do it again sometimes.

there you are My 1st international blogger meeting

And I do really recommend checking her Blog