And today, I am grateful to visit one such place. The Umayyad Mosque . I am not a man of any personal God, but I have a deep respect for all belief, which makes this site a must see. After Mecca, The Umayyad Mosque is considered by many to be the most significant place in Islamic culture.
At the end of the main thoroughfare of the souk I enter a square teeming with activity, and before lay the gates to the mosque. I light a smoke and take it all in. I see a gate before me through which people are entering freely.
I look around the square and see boys feeding pigeons. I see another group of boys of about nine or ten taunting and chasing an older gentleman. I'm kind of stunned, because even in my own dilapidated culture, such behaviour would not be tolerated.
The man even appeals to local authorities, and they do nothing. Later, inside the mosque, I find him preaching, and I begin to understand that the guy is nuts (probably), is here everyday (probably), and is held in little regard by the locals.
Given that all this is in Arabic, my eyes can only surmise, as my ears are useless. I stamp out my smoke and attempt to enter the gate. I say attempt, because I am rebuked with utter politeness. Tourists need a ticket. I am directed to a ticket booth, where I happily pay a paltry fee.
If tourists pay a fee it helps keep it all going for the next soul on the road, and I have no problem with that. Ditto for the idea that locals in poor countries should have access to their own sacred sites for free. As a traveler, I have no problem subsidizing the locals, and supporting the tremendous cost of maintaining these places for the benefit of all of us.
And I also give a lot of respect to the principle of access at the Umayyad Mosque. Not all mosques allow almost unfettered access, and I feel deeply humbled to be permitted entry to this historic place.
As I enter the square I am overwhelmed.
The mosaics are sublime, even to my uneducated eye.
I enter the great hall and a sense of sacredness shoots through as souls worship all around me.
I see people weeping at ancient exhibits, and I begin to understand the depth of where I am, at once stunned and in awe.
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