This film was released as part of the Kodak Cinegraph library, a business set up by Kodak for home projection of 16mm films in the late 1920s. (Note the slogan,” New Releases Each Month.”) This black and white silent film takes us through some of the most famous religious sites in Damascus. The film is of general high quality, considering its age and shows excellent detail of some of the most beautiful scenery Damascus has to offer of its religious relics. The film opens with sweeping view of the city. The architecture is inspired by the Romans. The camera then opens to the east of the the National Museum and about 1 km west of the Old City of Damascus to view the Tekkiye Mosque, also known as Tekkiya as Suleimaniyya. If the mosque reminds you of Istanbul, it’s for good reason: the fine Ottoman mosque was built at the order of Suleiman the Magnificent and planned by the famed architect Sinan. This mosque was built mostly by Christian masons and architects who had converted to Islam. People walk in front of the mosques and horse drawn carts can be seen. A motor car rumbles by. The Street Called Straight. :37. Straight Street (Latin: Via Recta), known as the Street Called Straight in the New Testament, is the old decumanus maximus, the main Roman road, of Damascus, Syria. It runs from east to west through the old city. Paul the Apostle famously stayed in a house on Straight Street according to the Acts of the Apostles (9:11). During the Greek period in Damascus, the city was re-designed by Hippodamus, who gave the city a grid structure. The longest of these streets, 1,500 metres in length across the city, was called Straight Street. The street bustles with activity, commerce, men and beasts, carrying carts and boxes :51. Men ply their trades in the cramped alleyways behind Straight Street 1:11. The men use tools to smooth out carved handles of wood 1:20. Men, women and children contribute to the many street trades 1:32. A man and a woman work together on a loom 1:38. A man works meticulously on an inlaid wood carving in a plaza by a fountain 1:50. Several blacksmiths pound molten metal 2:05. The Ommayyade Mosque (or Umayyad Mosque) 2:09 also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus, located in the old city, is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. The mosque is also important in Islam because of the historical and eschatological events associated with the mosque. The great spire of the mosque is shown and then, several of its’ façades fill the screen 2:15. Travelers visit outside the mosque 2:35. Several views from within the courtyard 2:53. A local drinks from a fountain in the courtyard 3:00. Some of the walls are peeling with age 3:15. A fountain reflects an image of the mosque 3:17. Moving away from the mosque and into the city, an electric streetcar rumbles down the street 3:28. The aging dome of a smaller mosque is seen in the background 3:38. Crumbling city walls are shown 3:48. Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. First settled in the second millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. Founded in the 3rd millennium B.C., Damascus was an important cultural and commercial centre, by virtue of its geographical position at the crossroads of the orient and the occident, between Africa and Asia. The old city of Damascus is considered to be among the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. The Umayyad Mosque is located in Damascus and Sunni Islam is the main religion in Syria.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com