NATIONAL MUSEUM

The most fabulous of Syria's museums deserves more than one visit to appreciate its richness. The ideal would be to go there at the beginning of the stay and at the end, the visit of sites outside Damascus allowing a much more informed approach. The museum was built under the French mandate to shelter the rich collections exhumed in the first half of the th century. As a result, indications are often expressed in French. The National Museum is divided into five departments. Those dedicated to prehistory and contemporary arts, located on the floor, can be ignored.

A detailed description would require a full guide.

The visit begins with the entrance of the museum, a faithful stone revival stone from the façade of the Nineveh el-Pere al-Gharbi desert. Dated 668, this masterpiece of Omeyyade art resumes in its decoration of the sasanians and romano-Byzantine themes. Each panel develops a floral or geometric theme with great elegance. Skid and merlons complete the whole.

Warning: Renovations to the museum began in the summer of 2010 resulting in the closure of some sections of the museum by alternation. The first six months were to relate to the east wing of the building which hosts the classical period (Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine age), the Dura Europos synagogue and the reconstitution of a tomb in Palmyra. The work was then to continue in the west wing housing Islamic art. During our passage, no date was stopped as to the end of the site.

East Wing, left by entering (renovation during our passage, its organisation was not yet defined, but the few elements listed below, the major ones of the classic period, should be found in this part). It consists mainly of parts from the Jebel Druze, a region at the forefront of artistic innovations under the Roman period. However, the most beautiful statues and mosaics are found in the recent Musée museum. The impressive Mosaïque mosaic, from Bosra (th century), deserves attention for a moment. The Earth (Gê) gathers around her Aion, the time (on her left) which turns her wheel, and Prometheus (right), which model the first man. Angelots and winds complete the table.

Two mosaics deserve to be stopped on the road to the Dura Synagogue. One, on the ground, dates back to the century and bears the image of paradise, represented by two peacocks standing on each side of a vase filled with vines and populated with birds. The second, on the left wall by entering, justice, education and philosophy, illustrates these three allegories.

Then you have to cross a small courtyard to enter the Dura Synagogue, which was updated during excavations shortly after 1930. Remember that Dura-Europos was a very cosmopolitan city. There were 16 different religions among them Christianity and Judaism. The sanctuary dates from the reign of Philippe the Arab (244-249).

It is one of the rare cases of synagogue offering frescoes with human representations that are in the parthian way. This is a real departure from traditional rules on figurative art. The walls are covered with human forms and illustrate scenes of the Old Testament. The Torah Wall, facing the entrance, presents the best state of conservation. A niche allowed to shelter the Torah and lay the direction of Jerusalem.

By returning to its footsteps, the room is accessed by the two mosaics on a staircase leading to the reconstitution of an underground tomb in Palmyra (Yarhai de, the name of its founder). A funeral art that complements the visit of the museum in Palmyra. Yarhai wanted it immense and, in fact, continued to bury his descendants for almost two centuries. Inside, a very well done plan gives more details.

West Wing (subject to change). The benches invite you to pause, before you turn to oriental and Islamic antiques. The next room is only the famous Ugarit hall.

It is a very good introduction for those who wish to visit the site later in their stay and, above all, make it possible to realize the innovations made on this Phoenician land. Starting with the window on the left, and then following the sense of a watch, the eye looks on beautiful objects in ivory. The bust of a prince (or a princess…), a large sign of an exceptional bill and a defence of sculpted elephant shaped as a naked woman, skeleton during the fire of the Royal Palace. In the following windows, the bronze statuettes were designed to the effigy of the venerated deities in the city: El, Baal and Bès. Then we arrive to the famous Alphabet alphabet of 30 letters, multiplied by a tiny but breathtaking magnifying glass. Finally, the table tray, a masterpiece decorated with animal scenes.

In the corridor, copies of cylindrical seals, on the left, a stele is used to support a treaty concluded between two kings of Northern Syria in the th century BC.

After the turn on the right, the salle d'Ebla reveals its riches, but it's mostly that of Mari. You can see the most famous parts, the precise indications in the windows allow you to easily locate it. Not missed, examples of the Mari statuary, famous Ur-Nanshé, in the middle of the room, dancer sitting on a cushion, the naked torso. His long hair has long misled the researchers who identified him with a woman. Shibum, the chief of the cadastre, basically dominates the entire hall. A kaunakès (satin made of wool) covers it to the feet. On the right hand side, a circular house model found buried in the ground of a third-millennium Date's house.

The Simoen Hall brings together the most beautiful discoveries on the site, such as this beautiful polychrome ceramic jumper of the th century, as well as maps of the city surrounded by ramparts, to the image of Baghdad.

The rest of the visit offers beautiful rooms of manuscripts and tiles, the windows display parts, jewelry and oars. The penultimate one houses remarkable cenotaph houses, including the one that was built by Sultan Baïbars in the memory of Commander Ibn al-Walid (also in Homs, the Ibn al-Walid Mosque).

Finally, such a reward, and ultimate touch of beauty, the damascene room, is a successful reconstitution of the reception room of a th century palace of the old town. The central ceiling, the marble basin, the two niches on both sides of the fountain and the chimney, are part of the original elements of this room, much smaller in its old dimensions.