A colorful journey from Gaziantep to Beirut

Tourists can travel to Aleppo from İstanbul via Turkish Airlines (THY), but that is not the only way to get to the city. There are taxis that can transport people from Gaziantep and Hatay to Aleppo for reasonable prices. We set off to Gaziantep from İstanbul by plane on Friday night. We spend the night at a hotel in Gaziantep and take a taxi to Aleppo early the next morning. After a fairly short border procedure, we arrive in Syria. If we were to ignore the Arabic signs, we’d think we were in Kilis or another Turkish city. This sense of familiarity continues on until we reach Aleppo.

It’s exciting to see this historic 4,000-year-old city, which has many traces of the Ottoman Empire. We immediately hit the streets to explore the surroundings. The central part of the city is busy around the clock. In just a few minutes, the calm and quiet streets can be jammed with cars and people. Since the region is one of the oldest settlement areas in Islamic culture and it is close to places that are important in the Christian faith, there are many tourists in the streets. Our first destination is the Citadel of Aleppo and the covered bazaar, which takes us back to an old black-and-white era. Aside from the narrow streets and busy crowds moving along, we see smoke rising from the grills, dancing in the beams of light as if in a re-enactment of an Oriental story.

Reminiscing about Mardin

Upon exiting the bazaar, we come across narrow and desolate streets, just like in Mardin. Porters pushing barrows, children and women appear and then disappear in the curvy corridors. Time passes slowly in this area. As we walk toward the castle, we greet people smoking hookah and old men sitting on chairs in front of a small grocery store as they wait for the call to prayer. The Citadel of Aleppo, one of the oldest castles in the world, is a bit complex, like the city itself. There are several roads inside that lead up to different corners of the citadel. There is a tea garden where you can sit until 6 p.m. sipping on mint tea while watching the city from above. Once the citadel closes its doors to visitors at the end of the day, people continue to spend their time around it. Around the citadel, women sit under palm trees, old people sit on benches to rest, children ride their bikes and hundreds of young people fill the cafes until late into the night.

One of the first things that come to mind when someone says “Aleppo” is the food. Aside from minor differences, Syrian cuisine is almost identical to Gaziantep, Hatay and Mersin cuisine. You can enjoy a nice meal at Beroea, which is one of the best restaurants in the city. The restaurant is located in an old Ottoman building and offers some of the best samples from the Aleppo kitchen. Aleppo-style kebabs, hummus and baba ghanoush dips and fattoush salad are among the must-haves.

After a busy day in Aleppo, we start our journey toward Damascus. There is bus transportation about every hour between Aleppo and Damascus. The distance between the two cities is about 400 kilometers, which takes about four-and-a-half hours to cover by bus. The fare per person is 200 Syrian pounds, which is quite cheap compared to Turkey. The trip from Aleppo to Damascus cost us TL 7 per person. We pass by two cities, named Hamah and Hims, on our way and in every city we pass we see homes covered in white stones. We reach Damascus after an approximately five-hour journey.

The city is more modern than Aleppo. We immediately go to our hotel, which is located in al-Hijaz Square, and from there, we go to al-Hamidiyah Souq, which was built at the request of Sultan Abdulhamit. It is narrower than the Grand Bazaar in Turkey, but it is very long. In fact it is actually a street that is covered on top. We buy ice cream dipped in pistachios from one of the ice cream sellers in the bazaar to cool down and then continue walking toward the Umayyad Mosque. There are remains of the Temple of Jupiter near the exit of the bazaar that is closest to the mosque. Then we come across the mosque’s magnificent gate. We lean toward the door of the mosque, which until recently was the biggest mosque in the world. In Syria, people are not allowed to enter the mosque’s courtyard with their shoes on. So we step into the courtyard barefoot. In this region, mosques are not only houses of worship but also living spaces. We are blinded by the light in the wide marble courtyard. We spend hours looking at this work of art. Inside the mosque, which was built as a church but then converted into a mosque by the caliph during the Umayyad period, there is the shrine of the prophet Yayha (John the Baptist). The white minaret, which many Muslims believe Jesus will descend to, is a part of this mosque. Another interesting aspect of the mosque is the arrangement of four mihrabs next to each other, representing the four schools of Islamic law. We learn that Imam Ghazali penned the “Ihya Ulum ad-Din” (The Revival of Religious Sciences) at this mosque. After we leave the mosque, we visit the tomb of Saladin and the cemetery of the first fallen Turkish Air Force pilots.

The streets of old Damascus

There are signs in English in the streets of old Damascus to guide tourists. We take a break at a coffeehouse. The old men smoking hookah ask us where we’re from. Whenever we say İstanbul, people’s eyes immediately light up. There are children playing in the streets, the sun is getting ready to set and time is passing by slowly. We get lost in the jasmine-scented streets. As the sun starts to set, we head toward Mount Qasioun, which is a great place to observe the city in the night time. We sit in one of the tea gardens to enjoy the view of Damascus. The green lights attached to the minarets illuminate the dark streets of the city, which hosts close to 2,000 mosques.

Our journey to Beirut, the last city in our travel plans, is both quite cheap and short. There are taxis from Damascus to Beirut on almost an hourly basis. We pay around $60 for four people. After a comfortable two-hour trip, we arrive in Beirut. The first thing we realize is that the city has quickly recovered from the devastation of the 2006 war. While in Aleppo and Damascus we experienced the East and a mystical atmosphere, in Beirut we feel like we are in Europe. With dazzling streets, cafes open 24 hours a day and high-end brands decorating the store windows, Beirut is no different from many European cities.

The people in Beirut generally take long walks along the coastline. When they get tired they sit at a bench, order tea from one of the mobile hookah vendors and enjoy the sunset. Beirut is not only a tourist attraction but also a business center. There is a French square in the city that was built to look just like one in Paris. Those who enjoy strolling and traveling can watch the beautiful sunset at the Rawcheh cliffs. When we get hungry, we taste some of the foods we had in Aleppo and Damascus at the Istanboli restaurant. The hummus, moutabel, fattoush and falafel taste almost the same. What makes restaurants and cafes in Beirut different from those in Syria is the quality of the service and the prices. For those with limited time and money, they can taste several different dishes at BarBar, a fast food restaurant.