The seed of the idea travelling to Syria was planted in my heart in a quiet minute, sitting in the midst of the archeological sight of Anjar/Lebanon, hard on the Syrian border, on a pleasant day in November 2019. Anjar was once a stronghold of the Umayyad Dynasty, now in ruins, but the elegance and grace these buildings once radiated could still be sensed 1200 years later. I was struck, deeply touched by this peaceful moment, I was the only person around, complete silence, only the sounds of birds could be heard. Syria was behind a small hill. Syria moved in on me, it became very close, not the country marked in red, too dangerous for travelling. This very moment, I decided to visit the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Five months, later an unforgetable epic trip took me to Damascus, Homs, Aleppo, the two cities that were most affected by the war and where it was most visible and the Aramaic speaking village of Mallula. It was an emotional roller-coaster ride, I witnessed destruction beyond imagination, but also life that could no be more normal and peaceful.
Anjar/Lebanon – once a stronghold of the Umayyad Empire – the idea to travel to Syria was born right there
Umayyad Mosque in Damascus
Why travel to Syria in 2019?
The war had ended the year before, most Europeans were not even aware of that. But why travel to a place that has just suffered such a tremendious humanitarian crisis? Was it disrespectful to all the people who had to flee, many losing everything? After travelling there: I had a completely different view of how Syria was presented in the European media. At one hand, the destruction was beyond imagination, on the other hand there were parts of Syria that were completely untouched. Even within one city, like Aleppo and Homs, the difference between neighbourdhood was so incredible.
Aleppo 2019
Aleppo 2019 Neighborhood next to citadelle
Aleppo – destroyed building at the foot of the citadelle
Aleppo 2019
Aleppo 2019
Aleppo 2019
I let the people of Syria tell themselves. No matter where I went in Syria, people were thrilled to see tourists coming back, everybody was eager to speak to me, scrambling for words in English. In Homs a teenagers asked me for a selfie, saying they had not seen foreigners since 2010. Well, there were lots of foreigner in Syria during the war, but they came for different reasons: persons from 80 different nationalities were making up the IS army, which was determined to defeat the godless Syrian army. In Europe this war is still called a civil war, which is never really was. The man in the videos correctly describes the war “it was not a war between Syrians, it was terrorists coming to Syria.”
How do travel to Syria in 2019
Right after returning from Lebanon end of 2018, I started reading blogs of people who had just travelled to Syria. There weren’t many, but their stories encouraged my plan. A few guys had left comments on those travel blogs, I got in touch with some of them, One of them knew an agency that issued the invitation needed to pick up your visa at the border. This is not cheap, about 2000€ for eight days. Plus you had to travel with a guide, this was a new rule, after a German tourist had behaved like an idiot and made his way illegaly into Idlib, which then was completely off limit.
Leaving Lebanon behind – driving towards the Syrian border
In Beirut I met my fellow travelers, we were 6 different nationalities, a driver took us across the border to Damascus, 115km away, where we met our guide. It took about 4 hours, including the time going through Immigration on both sides. Now travelling to Syria is much easier, lots of small companies like https://www.rockyroadtravel.com or https://lupinetravel.co.uk/all-tours/ offer trips.
I returned to Syria in 2023 with one of those without you having to worry about money transfers and who are are going to meet, if the visa is really waiting for you.
The trip to the Syrian border takes you though the very fertile Bequa Valley, along the road refugge camps can be seen once in a while, its white tents huddled closely together, as if they wanted to protect each other.
Entring Syria in March 2019 from Beirut
Our six passports, Swiss, Hungarian, Austrian, Bosnian, German and Pakistani
Immigration Syria coming from Beirut
Exchanging Syrian pounds at the border
At the border we got our visa stamped into our passport, which was another 120 US, a short stop to exchange money and an hour later we were in Damascus, which had no suffered any destruction during the war at all.
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