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::. Our Hotel

Al Rabie hotel is a Dimachkie masterpiece which holds faithfulness, peace, honesty, comfort and relaxation all together.

The hotel is located in Sarouja, one of the oldest and the most deep-rooted quarters of Damascus.

The Ottomans called Sarouja 'minor Istanbul' for it is characterized by its buildings and arches that receive guests with great welcome and hospitality.

The site was constructed as a house for one of the wealthiest Mamluks, then Ottomans of Damascus about 700 years ago.

In 1952 Mr. Abdul Ghany Al-Yasin converted the site into a hotel which he is managing until now.

At the entrance of the hotel, the staff members welcome you with a great pleasure and smiling faces.

If you turn left, you will be caught by the beauty of the courtyard which is opened to the sky and surrounded by rooms (Al Haramlek), which is divided into the yard and the Liwan.

Lablab trees and the palm will soon attract you to sit under them and enjoy the singing of the birds and pigeon that live on the green branches.

in front of the yard, there is a wonderful pool (Feskiya), that its fresh water spreads wetness in the summer.

You can imagine how wonderful it is to sit by the pool and have a cup of Arabian coffee with a Water pipe on the comfortable seats made of natural bamboo.

The Liwan (Salamlek) as it was called in the past, was made to host the male guests and it is characterized with its geometrical shape.

The walls of the Liwan which was painted by an artist who lived in that ancient age, and has never been painted by another artist later. but it has just been Renovated under natural circumstances without changing its original shape.

the most important paintings are two wall paintings on the facade of the Liwan.

The most charming is the geometrical shape of the candlesticks on the walls of the Liwan and the yard which is florid with plants.

walking around the place, you are going to pass the pavilion that separates between the two  parts of the hotel. You will soon find that it is not a normal pavilion, because you will feel as if you are in the medieval ages on one of it's castles paths. such a feeling is very special for the modern humans.

In the rooms, you will like the windows which stand one above the other to change and renew the air, as well as the stones which are lined up in the rooms in an amazing  way.

You will also notice the thickness of the walls to keep the acquired temperature, and the comfortable beds with coverlets of relaxing colors keeping in consideration the Oriental look.

The administrators of the hotel care about the visitors rest. So we use modern technologies to offer hospitality without spoiling the inherited artistical impress.

We added what we think is suitable to provide accommodations.

Rooms are equipped with central heating system with warm water 24\24.

The breakfast which contain local foods is served near the pool.

The hotel is also equipped with all means of international communication. Transportation between the hotel and the airport is arranged under request.

Arrangement have been made with the tourism offices for booking and buying international traveling tickets, and arranging local tours.

The courtyard of the hotel is being closed in winter with modern ways. and the place is being warmed so that you would never feel cold under any weather circumstances.

In the summer there is a well covered roof set to host visitors on clean and comfortable beds.

To make it easy, you may request the reservation by email.

The staff members are always ready and glad to answer any request and offer any special or general help with pleasure.

Caring about our visitors health, we have a doctor available in the hotel 24\24.

The management of the hotel would love to receive any notices and suggestions, and for that we set a complaint box.

For those who love relaxing on the beach, we have cabins in a site called Om Attoyur, 30 Km. away from Lattakia near the Turkish boarders.

There is a teacher for Arabic language available always in the hotel to teach foreigns and provide all sorts of help.

 

We are keen for our visitors' peace of mind, and we are thankful for their visit and we hope that our hotel leaves a good and memorable impression.

For any inquiry you may contact us any time

Tel: 00963 11 2318374

Fax: 00963 11 2311875

mob1: 00963 988 262146

mob2: 00963 933 301363

mob3: 00963 955 596596

We hope you will like our set of the photographs of the hotel.

There is an outline to help reaching the hotel
 
::. Explore Syria
::. Land marks of old Damascus
  The Umayyad Mosque
his Great Mosque stands at the heart of the Old city at the end of Souq al-Hamidiyeh. It was built by the Omayyad Caliph al-Walid ibn Abdul Malek in 705 A.D. when Damascus was the capital of the Arab Islamic Empire.

It was constructed on the site of what has always been a place of worship: first, a temple for Hadad, the Aramean god of the ancient Syrians three thousand years ago; then, a pagan temple (the temple of Jupiter the Damascene) during the Roman era. It was later turned into a church called John the Baptist when Christianity spread in the fourth century. Following the Islamic conquest in 635, Muslims and Christians agreed to partition it between them, and they began to perform their rituals side by side.

When al-Walid decided to erect an impressive mosque suited to the grandeur of the Arab state "whose like was never built before, nor will ever be built after" as he is reported to have said he negotiated with the Christian community of Damascus, and undertook to construct a new church for them (St. John's) and allot several pieces of land for other churches, if they relinquished their right to their part of the Mosque. They agreed. It took ten years and eleven million gold dinars, as well as a huge number of masons, artists, builders, carpenters, marble-layers, and painters to complete. It became an architectural model for hundreds of mosques throughout the Islamic world.

A prominent feature of it are the three minarets built in different styles; the upper parts of which were renovated during the Ayoubite, Mamluk, and Ottoman eras. The mosque has a large prayer hall  and an enormous courtyard. The interior walls are covered with mosaic panels, made of coloured and gilded glass, portraying scenes from nature. The dome is greyich-blue, celebrated for its magnificence. The prayer hall contains domed shrine venerated by both Christians and Muslims, the tomb of St. John the Baptist.
  The Azem Palace
This also stands at the heart of the Old City, on the southern side of the Omayyad Mosque, and very close to it. It is an astonishing example of a Damascene house, where the simple, almost primitive, exterior contrasts rather sharply with the beauty and sophistication of the interior. Here one finds a sense of space, a wealth of polychrome stone, splendid marble, cascading fountains, and fragrant flowers. The palace was built in the mid-eighteenth century for the Governor of Damascus. The palace now houses the Museum of Arts and Popular Traditions.

 
  Damascus Citadel
The only fortress in Syria built on the same level as the city, it does not top a hill or a mountain like all other castles and citadels. It was erected by the Seljuks in 1078 A.D. with masonry taken from the city wall, and turned into a heavily-fortified citadel surrounded by walls, towers, a moat and trenches. Inside, they built houses, baths, mosques, and schools; it was a city within a city. At the height of Crusader raids and attacks, it was used as residence for the sultans of Egypt and Syria such as Nureddin, Saladin, and al-Malek al-Adel,

whence they supervised military operations against the Crusaders. But al-Malek al-Adel soon found that it was no longer adequate for defense against contemporary weapons and siege tactics, so he  decided in 1202 to demolish and re-build it. The outcome was an impressive modern citadel, incorporating the latest inventions in the martial arts. It has imposing walls and a dozen colossal turrets surrounding it; there were three-hundred arrow slits and enormous parapets all round. In the mid-thirteenth century, however, it was the principal target for Tatar and Mongol attacks, and was later neglected by the Ottomans. The moats and trenches around it were filled up, and the souqs of Hamidiyeh, Asrounieh, and al-Khuja were built thereon. Recently, the latter was demolished, and the western walls of the fortress came into full view. Extensive repair and restoration work is underway at the moment; when completed the citadel will become a war museum, and a center for various cultural activities.

 
  St. Paul's Church / Bab Keissan /
Is situated behind Bab Keissan, one of the gates in the old wall encircling Damscus.

It commemorates the memory of St. Paul, whose name was Saul of Tarsus, charged by the Romans to persecute the Christians. As he approached the village of Daraya, a burst of blinding light took his sight away, and he heard Jesus Christ ask him "Saul, why do you persecute me? This was a vision of faith. He was taken unconscious to Damascus, attended by Hananiya, Christ's disciple, and became one of the staunchest advocates of Christianity. His Jewish peers decided to kill him, but he hid in a house by the city wall. The church is located at the site of his escape. He traveled to Antioch, Athens, and Rome, after a brief stay in Jerusalem, and continued to teach the gospel until he died.

 

::. Some Featured sites in Syria

  Palmyra - Homs

Syria has always been a center where East an West meet with their varied civilization. It is no wonder that Syria is the cradle of civilization, which flourished throughout history. Monuments, the most important archaeological sites, impregnable castles, citadels and dead cities narrate the glorious history of ancient nations.
The basaltic and the limestone ruins tell about a marvelous architectural art. The Corinthian columns, the khans spread all over the Silk Road, the castles still towering from the Medieval ages, the mosques and palaces are the witnesses of a great rich history.
To know Syria is to have knowledge of a legendary world. Palmyra, for example, is like a pearl in the heart of the desert, Palmyra, rising from the sands, is one of the most graceful and splendid ancient sites in the East, for the glory and the greatness are still evident and fully years after its construction by the Arab Queen Zenobia. It remains one of most famous capitals of the ancient world.

Palmyra is separated by some one hundred kilometers of steppe from the lush valley of the Orontes, to the west. There are more than two hundred kilometers of desert to the cross before you reach the fertile banks of the Euphrates, to the east. To Both north and south there is nothing but sand and stone. But here at Palmyra a last fold of the Anti- Lebanon forms a kind of basin on the edge of which a spring rises out of a long underground channel whose depth has never been measured. This spring is called Afqa (or Ephka) in inscriptions, an Aramaic word meaning " way out'. Its clear blue, slightly sulphurous waters are said to have medicinal properties; they have fed an oasis here with olives and date- palms and cotton and cereals. For generation this oasis was known as Tadmor.

 
  Bosra - Daraa
Situated in the vast Hawran plain, some 145 kilometres south of Damascus. It is an extremely ancient city mentioned in the lists of Tutmose III and Akhenaten in the fourteenth century B.C. The first Nabatean city in the second century B.C., it bore the name Buhora, but during the Hellenistic period, it was known by the name of Bustra. Later the Romans took an active interest in the city, and at the time of the Emperor Trajan it was made the capital of the Province of Arabia (in 106 B.C.) and was called Neatrajana Bustra. The city saw its greatest period of prosperity and expansion then, became a crossroads on the caravan routes and the official seat and residence of the Imperial Legate. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Bosra played a significant role in the history of early Christianity. It was also linked to the rise of Islam, when a Nestorian monk called Bahira, who lived in the city, met the yound Muhammad when his caravan stopped at Bosra, and predicted his prophetic vocation and the faith he was going to initiate.
 The oldest Islamic square minarets (still standing) are found in Bosra, whose prosperous role as an important halt for pilgrims on the way to mecca lasted until the 17th century.
 The most interesting part of the city today is the famous Roman theatre built in the second century A.D., which seats 15 thousand spectators, and is considered one of the most beautiful and well-preserved of Roman amphitheatres in the world. The stage is 45 metres long and 8 metres deep. Every summer, it hosts Arab and international performers who entertain audiences during the Bosra Art Festival against a majestic background of Roman columns and arches.
 The city itself contains a great number of Roman ruins, a part of the Byzantine Bahira Church, as well as the al-Mabrak Mosque, which is said to have been erected on the site where the Prophet's camel stopped to rest. There is also the Omar Mosque (also called the al-Arouss Mosque), which is the only one of its type remaining from the early days of Islam, and it retains its 7th century primitive form.
An important Muslim citadel, dating back to the Ayoubite and Mamluk period still stands, and one of its towers now houses a museum of Antiquities and Traditional Arts.

 
  Citadel Qal'at al-Hosn - Homs
The most famous medieval citadel in the world, Qal'at al-Hosn is 65 km west of Homs and 75 south-east of Tartus. It is 650 m above sea-level. It was built in order to control the so-called "Homs Gap", the gateway to Sryia. It was through this passage that Syria communicated with the Mediterranean.

 In ancient times the importance of this strategic corridor was immense. It was of crucial importance to the Crusaders and other foreign invaders in their conquest of the coast. Conflict over the Crac des Chevaliers continued through the ages. It was a fierce and bloody dispute, but in the end, Sultan Beybars managed to recover it in 1271 through a military trick and one month of fighting.

 Carc des Chevaliers was built on the site of a former castle erected by the emirs of Homs to accommodate Kurdish garrisons; "Carc" is a modification of the Arab word "Qal'a". The citadel covers an area of 3000 square meters and has 13 huge towers, in addition to many stores, tanks, corridors, bridges and stables. It can accommodate 5000 soldiers with their horses, their equipment and provisions for five years.

 
  Syrian Coast - Lattakia - Tartous
The Syrian coast consists of long stretches of beach and green mountains. These mountains are mostly covered with pine and oak trees, and their slopes touch shore. This landscape repeats itself from Ras al-Basit in the north to Tartus in the south. On the mountains are scattered villages and towns with springs of clear mineral water.

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  Qal'at Sam'an (Saint Simon) - Edleb
This citadel is 60 km north-west of Aleppo. It was named after the hermit Saint Simon (Sam'an), a shepherd from northern Syria, who became a monk after a revelation in a dream. Following Saint Simon's death in 459, the Emperor Zenon ordered that a cathedral be built where the saint used to pray. 

The layout was original, centering on the famous column from which Saint Simon used to preach. Four basilicas, arranged in the shape of a cross, opened into an octagon covered by a dome, in the center of which stood the holy column. 

It is a beautiful church built on the ridge of the hill where Saint Simon had taken up "residence". Simplicity and harmony combine to make the ruins of the Basilica of St. Simon (an earthquake destroyed parts of the church less than half a century after it had been built) a masterpiece of pre-Islamic art in Syria. 

In the 10th century, some towers and walls were erected. It was then called "Qal'at Sam'an" (Simon's Citadel). It became the center of conflict between Byzantium and the Hamadani kingdom; in 986, the son of Sayf al-Dawla al-Hamadani finally captured it.

 
  Qasr Al-Hir Al Gharbi - alraqqa
45 km south-west of Tadmor (Palmyra), built by the Caliph Hisham ibn Abdul Malik in the 8th century, this palace is square and surrounded by a huge wall, at each corner of which there is a round tower. At each side of the main gate there are two half-rounded towers. It has a courtyard with columns with Corinthian crowns.

 
  The city of Hama
The city is 200 km to the north of Damascus and 60 km to the east of Banyas. It is a very ancient city, which has flourished continually since ancient times, and has known the successive civilizations of the Fertile Crescent.

 Hama has a long heroic history in defending Syria against foreign invasions. One of the outstanding battles was that of Qarqar, where the Assyrian army was defeated in 853 B.C. Unfortunately, few of its ancient relics have been preserved. However, Hama is well known for its enormous waterwheels ("noriahs") on the Orontes, which are as old as Hama itself.

One of Hama's ancient building is al-Jami' al-Kabir (the Great Mosque), which dates back to the 14th century and includes two tombs of two emirs who ruled Hama in the 13th century. Another mosque is that of Abu al-Fida, named after Hama's Sultan, who was a famous Arab geographer and historian. The city is often linked with his name. A third ancient mosque is the al-Nuri mosque, which was built in the days of Noureddin al-Zanki in 1129; on its wall appear inscriptions in both Arabic and Greek. Hama is particularly famous for its traditional industries, especially textiles and cotton cloth.
  Al Hassakeh
This far north-east corner of Syria is a distant governorate stretching from the Tigris River to the Euphrates River. It is distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water, picturesque nature, many important archaeological sites and more than one hundred historical tals (hills). The most famous are:

Tal Halaf: Where excavations have revealed successive civilization levels and beautiful basalt sculptures.

Tal Brak: Which is situated halfway between al-Hasakeh city and the frontier twon of al-Qamishli.
Excavations in the tal have revealed the Uyun Temple and King Naram Sin palace.

Tal Hittin: Where 15 civilization layers have been identified.

Tal Lilan: where excavations have begun in 1975 and have revealed many findings dating back to the 6th millennium b.C. such as the Bazaar, the Temple, the Palace… etc.
It is well known that the banks of al-Khabour River, which flows through al-Hasakeh for 440 km, witnessed the birth of the earliest civilization of the world.

 
  Kingdom of Mari (Tel Hariri)
  Ar- Rasafeh (Al Raqqa)
It is located south of the Euphrates and north of the Syrian semi-desert, 160 km south-east of Aleppo and 30 km south of the Aleppo-Raqqa road.

Rasafeh palace was the residence of Hisham ibn Abdul malik, the third Omayyad Caliph, whose age was a golden one, due to his great interest in the arts and in architecture. He had several palaces built in various parts of Syria. He was in favour of simplicity and modesty; this is why he chose Rasafeh as his residence. There, he died and was buried.

The palace was originally a church, built to commemorate a Roman officer (St. Sergius), who died in defence of Christianity in the 4th century. In 616, the church was invaded by the Persians, robbed and destroyed. When Hisham ibn Abdul Malik became a caliph in the 8th century, he built two beautiful palaces on its site. Later, the Abbassids invaded and destroyed what the Caliph Hisham had built. Very little of the ruins of the Mar Sarkis church remain. Parts of the church have been used as a mosque; inscriptions in both Arabic and Greek, engraved on the walls, indicate that Christians and Muslims co-existed peacefully in Syria from the 13th century onwards

 
   
 
More about Syria
 
Locations on the Map

1. Al-Rabie Hotel

2. Al- Marjeh Square

3. Tourist Office

4. Road to Pullman (Bus Station - Harasta)

5. Al-Hamediyeh Souq

6. Telephone Office

7. Rail Way Station

8. Central Post Office

9. Takiyeh As-Sulaymaniyeh

10. National Museum

11. Abou Rmaneh Str.
 
 
::. Contact us

For any inquiry you may contact us any time

Tel: 00963 11 2318374

Fax: 00963 11 2311875

Samir

mob1: 00963 988 262146

Rami

mob2: 00963 933 301363

Tarek

mob3: 00963 955 596596

Email

alrabiehotel@hotmail.com
.
Photographs from Syria
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Click on The Chart for Details

 

AL Rabie Hotel © 2009

Designed and Developed

BY : Mashhoureen