My Facebook memories today made my blood run cold. 10 years ago this week I was a 24 yr old backpacking around the Middle East, inc. Syria. I’d read “Sea of faith” and wanted to see the Dead Cities near Aleppo. My sunny memories of the Citadel, and how it look now. 
The Umayyard Mosque - an oasis of silence and calm in a bustling city. Then & now.
I had days of changing buses in countless small towns to get to places like Palmyra, Roman ruins there for centuries you could just wander around & touch. Reuters says they’re almost gone.
I was brought into homes for tea & snacks wherever I went. When bus drivers saw I was traveling alone, they sat me behind them & found an old lady to sit next to me. I dreamed of renting a room in Damascus - continually inhabited for 3k years - to write a book one day
I also couldn’t spell, evidently.
But what really kicks me in the stomach is looking back in time into the faces in these children.
This is the book - it is an excellent read - history told geographically amazon.co.uk/Sea-Faith-Chri…
