1.
Structuralism (architecture)
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Structuralism is a movement in architecture and urban planning evolved around the middle of the 20th century. It was a reaction to CIAM-Functionalism which had led to an expression of urban planning that ignored the identity of the inhabitants. Structuralism in a sense is a mode of thought of the 20th century. It can also be found in linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, alternately, as summarized by philosopher Simon Blackburn, Structuralism is the belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. These relations constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface there are constant laws of abstract culture. In Europe, structuralism is seen as a movement to American postmodern architecture. The first interpretations of both came up in the 1960s. Through publications and presentations by authors such as Charles Jencks, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, while postmodernism is concerned with an architectural style, many aspects of architecture and urbanism are treated in the structuralist movement. In contrast to the movement, structuralism has developed more slowly. The theoretical contributions of structuralism were developed in Europe, Japan, US, in 2011, the first comprehensive compilation of structuralist activity appeared in a publication called Structuralism Reloaded. In this extensive book, articles by 47 international authors were published about philosophical, historical, artistic, the selecting process for all these different views, including what is more or less important, needs time to give a definitive overall picture of structuralism. The following parts of this article are based on the current state of the publication Structuralism Reloaded, a few months after publishing this book, the RIBA Institute in London discussed the new candidates for the RIBA Gold Medal in 2012. An actual question was, Should the Venturis be given this years RIBA Gold Medal, the times had changed and a shift in emphasis had occurred. The comment of the former RIBA president Jack Pringle was, The Royal Gold Medal, Britains most prestigious award, should go to an architect that has taken us forward, not backwards. Today, postmodern architecture can be compared, to some degree with the movement, Traditionalismus. The anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, remarked, I do not believe that we can speak of one structuralism. There were a lot of movements that claimed to be structuralist and this diversity can also be found in architecture. However, architectural structuralism has an autonomy that does not comply with all the principles of structuralism in human sciences, in architecture, the different directions have created different images
2.
Damascus
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Damascus is the capital and likely the largest city of Syria, following the decline in population of Aleppo due to the ongoing battle for the city. It is commonly known in Syria as ash-Sham and nicknamed as the City of Jasmine, in addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major cultural and religious centre of the Levant. The city has an population of 1,711,000 as of 2009. Located in south-western Syria, Damascus is the centre of a metropolitan area of 2.6 million people. The Barada River flows through Damascus, first settled in the second millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad, Damascus saw a political decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Today, it is the seat of the government and all of the government ministries. The name of Damascus first appeared in the geographical list of Thutmose III as T-m-ś-q in the 15th century BC, the etymology of the ancient name T-m-ś-q is uncertain, but it is suspected to be pre-Semitic. It is attested as Dimašqa in Akkadian, T-ms-ḳw in Egyptian, Dammaśq in Old Aramaic, the Akkadian spelling is found in the Amarna letters, from the 14th century BC. Later Aramaic spellings of the name include a intrusive resh, perhaps influenced by the root dr. Thus, the English and Latin name of the city is Damascus which was imported from originated from the Qumranic Darmeśeq, and Darmsûq in Syriac, meaning a well-watered land. In Arabic, the city is called Dimašqu š-Šāmi, although this is shortened to either Dimašq or aš-Šām by the citizens of Damascus, of Syria and other Arab neighbours. Aš-Šām is an Arabic term for Levant and for Syria, the latter, the Anti-Lebanon mountains mark the border between Syria and Lebanon. The range has peaks of over 10,000 ft. and blocks precipitation from the Mediterranean sea, however, in ancient times this was mitigated by the Barada River, which originates from mountain streams fed by melting snow. Damascus is surrounded by the Ghouta, irrigated farmland where many vegetables, cereals, maps of Roman Syria indicate that the Barada river emptied into a lake of some size east of Damascus. Today it is called Bahira Atayba, the hesitant lake, because in years of severe drought it does not even exist, the modern city has an area of 105 km2, out of which 77 km2 is urban, while Jabal Qasioun occupies the rest. The old city of Damascus, enclosed by the city walls, to the south-east, north and north-east it is surrounded by suburban areas whose history stretches back to the Middle Ages, Midan in the south-west, Sarouja and Imara in the north and north-west. These neighbourhoods originally arose on roads leading out of the city and these new neighbourhoods were initially settled by Kurdish soldiery and Muslim refugees from the European regions of the Ottoman Empire which had fallen under Christian rule
3.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
4.
Hafez al-Assad
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In 1966, Assad participated in a second coup, which toppled the traditional leaders of the Baath Party, and brought a radical military faction headed by Salah Jadid to power. Assad was appointed minister by the new government. In 1970 Assad seized power by toppling Jadid, and appointed himself the leader of Syria in the period 1970–71. He sided with the Soviet Union during the Cold War in turn for support against Israel, while he had forsaken pan-Arabism—or at least the pan-Arab concept of unifying the Arab world into one Arab nation—he did seek to make Syria the defender of Arab interest against Israel. When he took power, Assad instituted one-man rule and organized state services into sectarian lines, the formerly collegial powers of Baathist decision-making were curtailed, and were transferred to the Syrian presidency. The Syrian government ceased to be a one-party system in the sense of the word. To maintain this system, a cult of personality centered on Assad. Having become the source of initiative inside the Syrian government. His first choice as successor was his brother Rifaat, who was seen as corrupt. In 1983–84, when Hafezs health was in doubt, Rifaat attempted to seize power, when Hafezs health did improve, Rifaat was exiled from Syria. His next choice of successor was his eldest son, Bassel, however Bassels 1994 death in a car accident forced Assad to turn to his third choice—his younger son Bashar al-Assad, who at that time had no practical political experience. This move was met with criticism within some quarters of the Syrian ruling class. Assad died in 2000 and was succeeded by Bashar al-Assad as President, Hafez was born on 6 October 1930 in Qardaha to an Alawite family of the Kalbiyya tribe. His parents were Nasa and Ali Sulayman al-Assad, Hafez was Alis ninth son, and the fourth from his second marriage. Sulayman married twice, had children and was known for his strength and shooting abilities. By the 1920s he was respected locally, and like others he initially opposed the French Mandate for Syria. Nevertheless, Ali Sulayman later cooperated with the French administration and was appointed to an official post. In 1936, he was one of 80 Alawite notables who signed a letter addressed to the French Prime Minister saying that Alawi people rejected attachment to Syria, for his accomplishments, he was called al-Assad by local residents and made the nickname his surname in 1927
5.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
6.
President of Syria
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The President of Syria is the head of state of the Syrian Arab Republic. He is vested with sweeping powers that may be delegated, at his sole discretion and he appoints and dismisses the Prime Minister and other members of the Council of Ministers and military officers. The Constitution of Syria allows the President to run for a 7-year term, on 31 January 1973, Assad implemented the new Constitution, which led to a national crisis. They labeled Assad as the enemy of Allah and called for a jihad against his rule, President of Syria on Facebook President of Syria on Twitter President of Syria on Instagram Official YouTube channel
7.
Mezzeh
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Mezzeh is a municipality in Damascus, Syria, due west of Kafr Sousa. It lies to the southwest of central Damascus, along the Mezzeh highway and it started gaining importance when the French constructed Mazzeh Military Airport, which was the main airport in Damascus until Damascus International Airport opened. It also held the notorious Mezzeh prison until 2000, the municipality includes the Damascus University and contains many foreign embassies. The current presidential palace sits atop Mount Mezzeh and overlooks all of Damascus and it is one of the most modern and expensive areas of Damascus, especially the areas along the highway. The primarily Alawite Mezzeh 86 district is poor and has been described as a slum. Mezzeh was originally a village outside of Damascus and it was allegedly founded between 661-750 by Yemeni migrants. Mezzeh featured prominently in the 1941 Battle of Damascus, compton Mackenzie later described it at the time as being a large village standing at the junction of the road from Damascus to Beirut and Quneitra. In 2012, during the Syrian civil war, residents participated in anti-government protests, in March 2012, the area experienced heavy fighting between government forces and defectors. The Alawite Mezzeh 86 neighborhood has been targeted by bombings of civilian, presidential Palace, Damascus Former Mezzeh prison Mazzeh Military Airport Mezzeh Military Hospital. Cited as the location of photographs submitted in the 2014 Syrian detainee report
8.
Mount Qasioun
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Mount Qasioun is a mountain overlooking the city of Damascus, Syria. It has a range of restaurants, from which the city can be viewed. As the city has expanded over the years, some districts have been established on the foot of the mountain and its highest point is 1,151 metres. The mountain has been heavily entrenched with Syrian government forces since the start of the Syrian Civil War. The mountain is also host to a species of iris, Iris damascena. The Syrian government has not given the species any protected status, the base and steepness of the habitat also stops construction or development, but it is still classed as Critically endangered. On the slopes of Jabal Qasiun is a cave steeped in legend and it is said to have been inhabited at one point by the first human-being, Adam, and there are various stories told about Ibrāhīm, and Īsā also having prayed in it. It is mentioned however in Medieval Arab history books as having been the place where Qābīl killed Hābīl. It was known for hundreds of years as a place where prayers were immediately accepted, because of the murder that took place there, claimed to be the first committed, it is called Maghārat al-Dam. According to Sunni Muslims, Mount Qasioun is the site of the miḥrābs of the 40 arch-saints, known as the Abdāl, a small mosque has been built over the Cave of Blood containing these miḥrābs. Further down the mountain from the Cave of Blood, there was another cave known as Maghārat al-Jūˁ, stories about this cave are somewhat confused. Some say that forty saints died there of hunger, al-Harawī, however, at present, the cave has been concealed by surrounding houses, but that spot is called al-Juyūˁīyah. This is rather dubious, however, and it is one of many caves in this part of the world that share the claim. A madrassah has been built over the cave, but pilgrims are still granted access
9.
Carrara marble
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Carrara marble is a type of white or blue-grey marble of high quality, popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It is quarried in the city of Carrara located in the province of Massa and Carrara in the Lunigiana, Carrara marble has been used since the time of Ancient Rome. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the quarries were monitored by the Cybo and Malaspina families who ruled over Massa. The family created the Office of Marble in 1564 to regulate the mining industry. The city of Massa, in particular, saw much of its plan redesigned in order to make it worthy of an Italian countrys capital, following the extinction of the Cybo-Malaspina family, the state was ruled by the House of Austria and management of the mines rested with them. The Basilica of Massa is built entirely of Carrara marble and the old Ducal Palace of Massa was used to showcase the precious stone, by the end of the 19th century, Carrara had become a cradle of anarchism in Italy, in particular among the quarry workers. According to a New York Times article of 1894, workers in the quarries were among the most neglected labourers in Italy. Many of them were ex-convicts or fugitives from justice, the work at the quarries was so tough and arduous that almost any aspirant worker with sufficient muscle and endurance was employed, regardless of their background. The quarry workers and stone carvers had radical beliefs that set apart from others. Anarchism and general radicalism became part of the heritage of the stone carvers, many violent revolutionists who had been expelled from Belgium and Switzerland went to Carrara in 1885 and founded the first anarchist group in Italy. In Carrara, the anarchist Galileo Palla remarked, “even the stones are anarchists. ”The quarry workers were the protagonists of the Lunigiana revolt in January 1894. It was unveiled by future UK Prime Minister Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery on 6 April 1882. Marble Arch, London Some sections of the Palace of the Marqués de Dos Aguas, Valencia, Spain Prem Mandir, Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India Duomo di Siena, Siena, the Carrara quarries have produced more marble than any other place on earth. Working the quarries has been dangerous and continues so to this day, in September 1911, a collapsing cliff face at the Bettogli Quarry crushed 10 workers who were on lunch break under a precipice. A2014 video made at a Carrara quarry shows workers with missing fingers, the prized yield from Carrara quarries through millennia has been Statuario, a pure white marble. However, by the end of the 20th century, the deposits of Statuario near Carrara are played out. The quarries continue to remove and ship up to a million tons/year of less-esteemed marble, calcite, obtained from an 80 kg sample of Carrara marble, is used as the IAEA-603 isotopic standard in mass spectrometry for the calibration of δ18O and δ13C. List of types of marble Lizza di Piastreta Marmifera di Carrara railway Lardo, the Economy of Renaissance Florence, JHU Press, ISBN0801889820 Newman, Cathy
10.
Republican Guard (Syria)
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The Syrian Republican Guard, also known as the Presidential Guard, is an elite 25,000 man mechanized division. Its main purpose is to protect the capital, Damascus, from any foreign or domestic threats, the Guard is the only Syrian military unit allowed within the capital city centre. The Guard was formed in 1976 when anti-Syrian Palestinian groups launched attacks on Syrian officials, major-General Adnan Makhlouf commanded the Guard from 1976 till 1997. Many members of the Assad family have served in the Republican Guard, bashar al-Assad was a Colonel, and was given control of a brigade. His younger brother Maher was also a Colonel in the Republican Guard, at the outset of the 2011 conflict, the Republican Guard included three mechanized brigades and two “security regiments. Brigade commanders include regime stalwarts like Talal Makhlouf, who hails from the family of Hafez al-Assad’s wife, as early as May 2011, the government reportedly placed Tlass under house arrest, and he defected in July 2012. Lionesses of Defense Armored Battalion 100th Artillery Regiment 101st and 102nd Infantry Security Regiments 103rd Brigade Marine Regiment, in June 2012, the Republican Guard clashed with rebels near its housing compounds and bases in the suburbs of Qudsaya and al-Hamah, about 8 kilometers from central Damascus. The unit has been accused by Human Rights Watch of engaging in human rights abuses during the conflict, later on, Republican Guard units were deployed to government bases in the North and East of the country, in order to bolster and stiffen the resistance against rebel advances. 400 Syrian Republican Guard fighters were called in as reinforcements during the Battle of Al-Hasakah, the Republican Guard uniform is distinct from the regular Army uniform. Service dress is composed of red rather than the standard black or green, red epaulettes, red lanyards. On ceremonial occasions, officers wear red peaked caps instead of a beret, richard Bennett, The Syrian Military, A Primer MEIB Bulletin, Vol.3, No
11.
Bill Clinton
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William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Prior to the Presidency he was the 40th Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, before that, he served as Arkansas Attorney General from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton was ideogically a New Democrat, Clinton is married to Hillary Clinton, who served as United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 and U. S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, and served the Democratic nominee for President in 2016, Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham both earned degrees from Yale Law School, where they met and began dating. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the states education system, Clinton was elected President of the United States in 1992, defeating incumbent George H. W. Bush. At age 46, he was the third-youngest president and the first from the Baby Boomer generation, Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history and signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement. After failing to pass health care reform, the Democratic House was ousted when the Republican Party won control of the Congress in 1994. Two years later, in 1996, Clinton became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected to a second term, Clinton passed welfare reform and the State Childrens Health Insurance Program, providing health coverage for millions of children. Clinton was acquitted by the U. S. Senate in 1999, the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus between the years 1998 and 2000, the last three years of Clintons presidency. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U. S. Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U. S. President since World War II, since then, Clinton has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. He created the William J. Clinton Foundation to address international causes, such as the prevention of AIDS, in 2004, Clinton published his autobiography, My Life. In 2009, Clinton was named the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, since leaving office, Clinton has been rated highly in public opinion polls of U. S. Presidents. Clinton was born on August 19,1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas and he was the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr. a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy. His parents had married on September 4,1943, but this later proved to be bigamous. Soon after their son was born, his mother traveled to New Orleans to study nursing, leaving her son in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. At a time when the Southern United States was segregated racially, in 1950, Bills mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr. who owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his brother and Earl T. Ricks. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950, although he immediately assumed use of his stepfathers surname, it was not until Clinton turned fifteen that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather. In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. Johns Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School—where he was a student leader, avid reader
12.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
13.
Bashar al-Assad
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Bashar Hafez al-Assad is the 19th and current President of Syria, holding the office since 17 July 2000. He is also commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces, General Secretary of the ruling Arab Socialist Baath Party and he is a son of Hafez al-Assad, who was President of Syria from 1971 to 2000. Born and raised in Damascus, Assad graduated from the school of Damascus University in 1988. Four years later, he attended postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital in London, in 1994, after his elder brother Bassel died in a car crash, Bashar was recalled to Syria to take over Bassels role as heir apparent. He entered the academy, taking charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1998. On 10 July 2000, Assad was elected as President, succeeding his father, in the 2000 and subsequent 2007 election, he received 99. 7% and 97. 6% support, respectively, in referendums on his leadership. On 16 July 2014, Assad was sworn in for another term after taking 88. 7% of votes in the first contested presidential election in Baathist Syrias history. The Assad government describes itself as secular, while some claim that the government exploits sectarian tensions in the country. During the Syrian Civil War, an inquiry by the United Nations reported finding evidence which implicated Assad in war crimes, in June 2014, Assad was included in a list of war crimes indictments of government officials and rebels handed to the International Criminal Court. Assad has rejected allegations of war crimes, and criticised the American-led intervention in Syria for attempting regime change, however, after the election of Donald Trump, the priority of the United States concerning Assad is to no longer force him out of power. Bashar Hafez al-Assad was born in Damascus on 11 September 1965, al-Assad in Arabic means the Lion, Assads peasant paternal grandfather had changed the family name from Wahsh upon acquiring minor noble status in 1927. Hafez promoted his supporters within the Baath Party, many of whom were also of Alawite background, after the coup, Alawite strongmen were installed while Sunnis, Druzes and Ismailis were purged from the army and Baath party. Assad had five siblings, three of whom are deceased, a sister named Bushra died in infancy. Assads youngest brother, Majd, was not a figure and little is known about him other than he was intellectually disabled. Unlike his brothers Bassel and Maher, and second sister, also named Bushra, Bashar was quiet, reserved and lacked interest in politics or the military. The Assad children reportedly rarely saw their father, and Bashar later stated that he entered his fathers office once while he was president. Assad received his primary and secondary education in the Arab-French al-Hurriya School in Damascus, in 1982, he graduated from high school and went on to study medicine at Damascus University. In 1988, Assad graduated from school and began working as an army doctor at the Tishrin military hospital on the outskirts of Damascus
14.
PBS
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The Public Broadcasting Service is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor. PBS is funded by member dues, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, government agencies, corporations, foundations. All proposed funding is subjected to a set of standards to ensure the program is free of influence from the funding source, since the mid-2000s, Roper polls commissioned by PBS have consistently placed the service as the most-trusted national institution in the United States. This arbitrary distinction is a frequent source of viewer confusion and it also operates National Datacast, a subsidiary which offers datacasting services via member stations, and provides additional revenue for PBS and its member stations. In 1973, it merged with Educational Television Stations, each station is charged with the responsibility of programming local content for their individual market or state that supplements content provided by PBS and other public television distributors. By contrast, PBS member stations pay fees for the acquired and distributed by the national organization. Under this relationship, PBS member stations have greater latitude in local scheduling than their commercial broadcasting counterparts, scheduling of PBS-distributed series may vary greatly depending on the market. This can be a source of tension as stations seek to preserve their localism, however, PBS has a policy of common carriage, which requires most stations to clear the national prime time programs on a common programming schedule to market them nationally more effectively. Management at former Los Angeles member KCET cited unresolvable financial and programming disputes among its reasons for leaving PBS after over 40 years in January 2011. Most PBS stations timeshift some distributed programs, once PBS accepts a program offered for distribution, PBS, rather than the originating member station, retains exclusive rebroadcasting rights during an agreed period. Suppliers retain the right to sell the program in non-broadcast media such as DVDs, books, in 1991, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting resumed production for most PBS shows that debuted prior to 1977, with the exceptions of Washington Week in Review and Wall Street Week. In 1994, The Chronicle of Philanthropy released the results of the largest study on the popularity and credibility of charitable, the strategy began that fall, with the intent to expand the in-program breaks to the remainder of the schedule if successful. In 2011, PBS released apps for iOS and Android to allow viewing of videos on mobile devices. An update in 2015 added Chromecast support, PBS initially struggled to compete with online media such as YouTube for market share. In a 2012 speech to 850 top executives from PBS stations, in the speech, later described as a “seminal moment” for public television, he laid out his vision for a new style of PBS digital video production. Station leadership rallied around his vision and Seiken formed PBS Digital Studios, which began producing educational but edgy videos, something Seiken called “PBS-quality with a YouTube sensibility. ”The studio’s first hit, in 2012, PBS began organizing much of its prime time programming around a genre-based schedule. PBS broadcasts childrens programming as part of the morning and afternoon schedule. Unlike its radio counterpart, National Public Radio, PBS does not have a program production arm or news division
15.
McGraw-Hill
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The company also provides reference and trade publications for the medical, business, and engineering professions. McGraw-Hill Education currently operates in 28 countries, has more than 4,800 employees globally and this shift has accelerated in recent years with an increased focus on developing adaptive learning systems that enable classroom teaching to come closer to a one-to-one student-teacher interaction. These systems allow personalized learning by assessing each students skill level, McGraw-Hill Education provides digital products and services to over 11 million users. In 2013, the acquired the ALEKS Corporation and after acquiring 20 percent equity stake in Area9 ApS went on to acquire the company. In 2015 MHE opened a new R&D office in Boston’s innovation district, in September 2016 the company acquired adaptive learning technology and content provider Redbird Learning. The company currently offers over 1,500 adaptive products in higher education, McGraw-Hill Education traces its history back to 1888 when James H. McGraw, co-founder of the company, purchased the American Journal of Railway Appliances. He continued to add further publications, eventually establishing The McGraw Publishing Company in 1899 and his co-founder, John A. Hill, had also produced several technical and trade publications and in 1902 formed his own business, The Hill Publishing Company. In 1909 both men agreed upon an alliance and combined the book departments of their publishing companies into The McGraw-Hill Book Company, John Hill served as President, with James McGraw as Vice-President. 1917 saw the merger of the parts of each business into The McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. In 1986, McGraw-Hill bought out competitor The Economy Company, then the nations largest publisher of educational material, the buyout made McGraw-Hill the largest educational publisher in the U. S. In 1979 McGraw-Hill Publishing Company purchased Byte from its owner/publisher Virginia Williamson who then became a vice-president of McGraw-Hill, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Inc became The McGraw-Hill Companies in 1995, as part of a corporate identity rebranding. In 2007, The McGraw-Hill Companies launched a student study network. This offering gave McGraw-Hill an opportunity to connect directly with its end users, the site closed on April 29,2012. On November 26,2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies announced it was selling its entire education division to Apollo Global Management for $2.5 billion, on March 22,2013, it announced it had completed the sale and the proceeds were for $2.4 billion in cash. In 2014, McGraw Hill Education India partnered with GreyCampus to promote Online Learning Courses among University Grants Commission- National eligibility Test Aspirants, McGraw Hill Education India is located in Noida area of Delhi/NCR. Operating segments of McGraw-Hill Education include, McGraw-Hill Education K-12, which develops solutions and content for early childhood education, K-12 learners. McGraw-Hill Education Higher Ed, which focuses on post-secondary education, McGraw-Hill Education Professional, focused on post-graduate and professional learners. McGraw-Hill Education International, which focuses on learners and professionals outside of the United States, in 2013, McGraw-Hill Education acquired the entirety of shares in Tata McGraw-Hill Education Private Limited, the companys long-existing joint venture with Tata Group in India
16.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
17.
Fox News
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Fox News, officially known as the Fox News Channel, is an American basic cable and satellite news television channel that is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. As of February 2015, approximately 94,700,000 American households receive the Fox News Channel, the channel broadcasts primarily from studios at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York City, New York. The channel was created by Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who hired former Republican Party media consultant and it launched on October 7,1996, to 17 million cable subscribers. It grew during the late 1990s and 2000s to become a dominant cable news network in the United States, Rupert Murdoch is the current chairman and acting CEO of Fox News. Fox News Channel has been accused of biased reporting and promoting the Republican Party, critics have cited the channel as detrimental to the integrity of news overall. Fox News Channel employees have responded that news reporting operates independently of its opinion and commentary programming, in July 1985, 20th Century Fox announced that Murdoch had completed his purchase of 50 percent of Fox Filmed Entertainment, the parent company of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. A year later, 20th Century Fox earned $5.6 million in its third period ended May 31,1986. Prior to founding FNC, Murdoch had gained experience in the 24-hour news business when News Corporations BSkyB subsidiary began Europes first 24-hour news channel in the United Kingdom in 1989, in February 1996, after former U. S. Republican Party political strategist and NBC executive Roger Ailes left cable television channel Americas Talking, Ailes demanded five months of 14-hour workdays and several weeks of rehearsal shows before its launch on October 7,1996. At its debut 17 million households were able to watch FNC, however, it was absent from the markets of New York City. Rolling news coverage during the day consisted of 20-minute single-topic shows such as Fox on Crime or Fox on Politics, interviews featured facts at the bottom of the screen about the topic or the guest. The flagship newscast at the time was The Schneider Report, with Mike Schneiders fast-paced delivery of the news, during the evening, Fox featured opinion shows, The OReilly Report, The Crier Report and Hannity & Colmes. From the beginning, FNC has placed emphasis on visual presentation. Graphics were designed to be colorful and attention-getting, this helped the viewer to grasp the main points of what was being said, Fox News also created the Fox News Alert, which interrupted its regular programming when a breaking news story occurred. To accelerate its adoption by cable providers, Fox News paid systems up to $11 per subscriber to distribute the channel and this contrasted with the normal practice, in which cable operators paid stations carriage fees for programming. Time Warner selected MSNBC as the news channel, not Fox News. Fox News claimed that this violated an agreement, citing its agreement to keep its U. S. City officials threatened to take action affecting Time Warners cable franchises in the city, during the September 11,2001 attacks, Fox News was the first news organization to run a news ticker on the bottom of the screen to keep up with the flow of information that day
18.
Associated Press
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The Associated Press is an American multinational nonprofit news agency headquartered in New York City that operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. The AP is owned by its contributing newspapers and radio and television stations in the United States, all of which stories to the AP. Most of the AP staff are members and are represented by the Newspaper Guild, which operates under the Communications Workers of America. As of 2007, news collected by the AP was published and republished by more than 1,700 newspapers, in addition to more than 5,000 television, the photograph library of the AP consists of over 10 million images. The AP operates 243 news bureaus in 120 countries and it also operates the AP Radio Network, which provides newscasts twice hourly for broadcast and satellite radio and television stations. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, as part of their cooperative agreement with the AP, most member news organizations grant automatic permission for the AP to distribute their local news reports. The AP employs the inverted pyramid formula for writing that enables the news outlets to edit a story to fit its available publication area without losing the storys essentials. Cutbacks at rival United Press International in 1993 left the AP as the United States primary news service, although UPI still produces and distributes stories and photos daily. Other English-language news services, such as the BBC, Reuters, some historians believe that the Tribune joined at this time, documents show it was a member in 1849. The New York Times became a member shortly after its founding in September 1851, initially known as the New York Associated Press, the organization faced competition from the Western Associated Press, which criticized its monopolistic news gathering and price setting practices. The revelations led to the demise of the NYAP and in December 1892, when the AP was founded, news became a salable commodity. The invention of the press allowed the New York Tribune in the 1870s to print 18,000 papers per hour. During the Civil War and Spanish–American War, there was a new incentive to print vivid, Melville Stone, who had founded the Chicago Daily News in 1875, served as AP General Manager from 1893 to 1921. He embraced the standards of accuracy, impartiality, and integrity, the cooperative grew rapidly under the leadership of Kent Cooper, who built up bureau staff in South America, Europe and, the Middle East. He introduced the telegraph typewriter or teletypewriter into newsrooms in 1914, in 1935, AP launched the Wirephoto network, which allowed transmission of news photographs over leased private telephone lines on the day they were taken. This gave AP a major advantage over other media outlets. While the first network was only between New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, eventually AP had its network across the whole United States, in 1945, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Associated Press v. The decision facilitated the growth of its main rival United Press International, AP entered the broadcast field in 1941 when it began distributing news to radio stations, it created its own radio network in 1974
19.
Time (magazine)
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Time is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It was founded in 1923 and for decades was dominated by Henry Luce, a European edition is published in London and also covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong, the South Pacific edition, which covers Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, is based in Sydney, Australia. In December 2008, Time discontinued publishing a Canadian advertiser edition, Time has the worlds largest circulation for a weekly news magazine, and has a readership of 26 million,20 million of which are based in the United States. As of 2012, it had a circulation of 3.3 million making it the eleventh most circulated magazine in the United States reception room circuit, as of 2015, its circulation was 3,036,602. Richard Stengel was the editor from May 2006 to October 2013. Nancy Gibbs has been the editor since October 2013. Time magazine was created in 1923 by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce, the two had previously worked together as chairman and managing editor respectively of the Yale Daily News. They first called the proposed magazine Facts and they wanted to emphasize brevity, so that a busy man could read it in an hour. They changed the name to Time and used the slogan Take Time–Its Brief and it set out to tell the news through people, and for many decades the magazines cover depicted a single person. More recently, Time has incorporated People of the Year issues which grew in popularity over the years, notable mentions of them were Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Matej Turk, etc. The first issue of Time was published on March 3,1923, featuring Joseph G. Cannon, the retired Speaker of the House of Representatives, on its cover, a facsimile reprint of Issue No. 1, including all of the articles and advertisements contained in the original, was included with copies of the February 28,1938 issue as a commemoration of the magazines 15th anniversary. The cover price was 15¢ On Haddens death in 1929, Luce became the dominant man at Time, the Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise 1923–1941. In 1929, Roy Larsen was also named a Time Inc. director, J. P. Morgan retained a certain control through two directorates and a share of stocks, both over Time and Fortune. Other shareholders were Brown Brothers W. A. Harriman & Co. the Intimate History of a Changing Enterprise 1957–1983. According to the September 10,1979 issue of The New York Times, after Time magazine began publishing its weekly issues in March 1923, Roy Larsen was able to increase its circulation by utilizing U. S. radio and movie theaters around the world. It often promoted both Time magazine and U. S. political and corporate interests, Larsen next arranged for a 30-minute radio program, The March of Time, to be broadcast over CBS, beginning on March 6,1931
20.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the newspaper in Milwaukee, the largest newspaper in Wisconsin and is distributed widely throughout the state. It is owned by the Gannett Company, the new Journal Sentinel then became a seven-day morning paper. In early 2003, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel began printing operations at its new printing facility in West Milwaukee, the merged papers volume and edition numbers follow those of the Journal. The founder of Milwaukee, Solomon Juneau, provided the funds for editor John ORourke. It was first published as a weekly on June 27,1837. A deathly ill ORourke struggled to help the paper to find its feet before he died six months later of tuberculosis at the age of 24, on Juneaus request, ORourkes associate, Harrison Reed, remained to take over the Sentinels operations. He continued the struggle to keep the paper ahead of its debts, meanwhile, the establishment of the Whig party in the territory thrust the Sentinel into the hurly-burly of partisan politics. In 1840 Reed was assaulted by individuals whom the Sentinel charged were hirelings of Democratic Governor Henry Dodge, later that year the paper abandoned its independence and proclaimed itself a Whig paper with its endorsement of William Henry Harrison for president in 1840. In financial straits, Reed lost control of the paper in 1841 when Democrats foreclosed on the Sentinels mortgaged debt, only after the Democrats successful election of Dodge for Congress was Reed able to regain control of the paper. The next year he sold the Sentinel to Elisha Starr, an editor who had founded a new Whig paper in response to the Sentinels Democratic lapse, Reed later became a carpetbag governor of Florida during Reconstruction. Starr guarded the Sentinels position as the sole Whig organ in Milwaukee, heavily in debt, he secured the partnership of David M. Keeler, who paid off the papers creditors. Keeler took on partner John S. Fillmore and succeeded in ousting Starr, Keeler and Fillmore trumped his efforts by turning their Sentinel into a daily on December 9,1844, while still publishing a weekly edition. The paper finally began to prosper and establish itself as a political force in the nascent state of Wisconsin. Weed recommended his associate editor and protégé, Rufus King, King was a native of New York City, a graduate of West Point, a brevet lieutenant, the son of the president of Columbia College and the grandson of U. S. In June 1845 King came to Milwaukee and became the Sentinels editor three months later, King was lionized by the community. It was his suggestion that made the Sentinel the first paper in the Midwest to employ newsboys to boost street sales, due largely to Kings connections to the East, the quality of the Sentinel greatly improved. He declared the Sentinel an antislavery paper and also supported temperance legislation, King invested his own money in the paper, purchasing the first power press in the Midwest
21.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
22.
Temple of Jupiter, Damascus
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The Temple of Jupiter in Damascus was built by the Romans, beginning during the rule of Augustus and completed during the rule of Constantius II. Damascus was the capital of the Aramaean state Aram-Damascus during the Iron Age, the Arameans of western Syria followed the cult of Hadad-Ramman, the god of thunderstorms and rain, and erected a temple dedicated to him at the site of the present-day Umayyad Mosque. It is not known exactly how the temple looked, but it is believed to have followed the traditional Semitic-Canaanite architectural form, resembling the Temple of Jerusalem. The site likely consisted of a courtyard, a small chamber for worship. One stone remains from the Aramaean temple, dated to the rule of King Hazael, the Temple of Hadad-Ramman continued to serve a central role in the city, and when the Romans conquered Damascus in 64 BCE they assimilated Hadad with their own god of thunder, Jupiter. Thus, they engaged in a project to reconfigure and expand the temple under the direction of Damascus-born architect Apollodorus, the symmetry and dimensions of the new Greco-Roman Temple of Jupiter impressed the local population. With the exception of the increased scale of the building, most of its original Semitic design was preserved. In the center of the courtyard stood the cella, an image of the god which followers would honor, there was one tower at each of courtyards four corners. The towers were used for rituals in line with ancient Semitic religious traditions where sacrifices were made on high places, the sheer size of the compound suggests that the religious hierarchy of the temple, sponsored by the Romans, wielded major influence in the citys affairs. The Roman temple, which became the center of the Imperial cult of Jupiter, was intended to serve as a response to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The inner court, or temenos is believed to have been completed soon after the end of Augustus reign in 14CE. This was surrounded by a court, or peribolos which included a market, and was built in stages as funds permitted. At this time the eastern gateway or propylaeum was first built and this main gateway was later expanded during the reign of Septimius Severus. By the 4th century CE, the temple was renowned for its size. It was separated from the city by two sets of walls, the first, wider wall spanned a wide area that included a market, and the second wall surrounded the actual sanctuary of Jupiter. It was the largest temple in Roman Syria, theodosius I converted the temple to a church dedicated to John the Baptist. After the Muslims took over Damascus in 635 CE, the church was shared for seventy years, richard Pococke published a plan of the temple compound in 1745 in his work A Description of the East and Some other Countries, Vol. II. In 1855 the Reverend Josias Porter published a plan showing 40 surviving columns or column fragments which still survived between houses in the area, in 1921 Wulzinger and Watzinger made a plan showing the peribolos to measure some 350m by 450m
23.
Citadel of Damascus
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The Citadel of Damascus is a large medieval fortified palace and citadel in Damascus, Syria. It is part of the Ancient City of Damascus, which was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, after the assassination of Atsiz bin Uvak, the project was finished by the Seljuq ruler Tutush I. The emirs of the subsequent Burid and Zengid dynasties carried out modifications, during this period, the citadel and the city were besieged several times by Crusader and Muslim armies. In 1174, the citadel was captured by Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, Saladins brother Al-Adil rebuilt the citadel completely between 1203 and 1216 in response to the development of the counterweight trebuchet. After his death, power struggles broke out between the other Ayyubid princes and although Damascus switched hands several times, the citadel was taken by force only once, in 1239. The citadel remained in Ayyubid hands until the Mongols under their general Kitbuqa captured Damascus in 1260, after an unsuccessful revolt broke out in the citadel, the Mongols had most of it dismantled. After the defeat of the Mongols in 1260 by the Mamluks, except for brief periods in 1300 and 1401, when the Mongols conquered Damascus, the Mamluks controlled the citadel until 1516. In that year, Syria fell into the hands of the Ottoman Empire, Damascus surrendered without a fight and from the 17th century onward the citadel functioned as barracks for the Jannisaries—Ottoman infantry units. The citadel continued to serve as a barracks and prison until 1986, as of 2011, excavation and restoration efforts are still ongoing. The citadel is located in the northwest corner of the city walls, the citadel consists of a more or less rectangular curtain wall enclosing an area of 230 by 150 metres. The walls were protected by 14 massive towers, but today only 12 remain. The citadel has gates on its northern, western and eastern flanks, the current citadel dates primarily to the Ayyubid period while incorporating parts of the older Seljuq fortress. Extensive repairs in response to sieges and earthquakes were carried out in the Mamluk and it is uncertain whether a building stood on the site of the citadel before the 11th century AD. The area occupied by the citadel was most likely outside this first settlement. The presence of a citadel during the Hellenistic period is uncertain, Damascus certainly had a citadel during the Roman period, but whether it was located on the site of the present citadel is uncertain and subject to scholarly debate. In 1076, Damascus was conquered by the Turkman warlord Atsiz bin Uvak and he then tried to invade the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt but was defeated in 1077. The Fatimids subsequently built on their victory over Atsiz and besieged Damascus in 1077 and again in 1078, the siege of 1078 was eventually lifted by Tutush I, brother of the Seljuq sultan Malik Shah I, to whom Atsiz had appealed for help. After the Fatimid besiegers had left, Tutush I took over the city and, the construction of the citadel was finished under Tutush I
24.
Nur al-Din Bimaristan
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Nur al-Din Bimaristan is a large medieval bimaristan in Damascus, Syria. It is located in the quarter in the old walled city. It was built and named after the Zengid Sultan Nur ad-Din in 1154, the bimaristan is well known for its unusual portal, which displays an antique lintel and a curious flattened muqarnas vault. It is also unusual in its full-scale Mesopotamian-style muqarnas vault over the vestibule and it was restored in 1975 and now houses the Museum of Medicine and Science in the Arab World. The building is of the Iraqi type, in plan also, but other than that, the building is fully in the Damascene construction tradition, and in fact stones from the outer enclosure of the antique temple were reused in it
25.
Mausoleum of Saladin
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The Mausoleum of Saladin holds the resting place and grave of the medieval Muslim Ayyubid Sultan Saladin. It is adjacent to the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria and it was built in 1196, three years after the death of Saladin. The mausoleum presently houses two sarcophagi, one made of wood, said to contain Saladins remains, and one made of marble, Syria & Lebanon Handbook, The Travel Guide. International dictionary of historic places, Middle East and Africa, Volume 4, Saladin, The Life, the Legend and the Islamic Empire
26.
Azm Palace
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Azm Palace is a palace in Damascus, Syria which was originally built in 1750 as a residence for the Ottoman governor of Damascus Asad Pasha al-Azm. The palace now houses the Museum of Arts and Popular Traditions, the architecture is an excellent example of Damascene traditional houses. The structure consists of buildings and two wings, the harem and the selamlik. The harem is the wing, which was a private space for the residents. This wing includes the kitchen, servant quarters, and the baths, the salamlik is the guest wing, and it comprises the formal halls, reception areas and large courtyards with traditional cascading fountains. Used in the building of this palace were several types of stones including limestone, sandstone, basalt, the ceilings have painted wooden panels that display natural scenes. In 1925 under the French Mandate, the Azm Palace which was damaged during the Syrian Revolution was restored. It became a museum of arts and folk traditions and it received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1983. Ablaq Azm Palace Media related to Azem Palace at Wikimedia Commons
27.
Maktab Anbar
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Maktab Anbar is an old house in the center of Old Damascus near the Umayyad Mosque and a short distance from the Street Called Straight. The house was built as a residence by a local Jewish notable Mr. Anbar in the mid 19th century and was later confiscated by the Ottoman government after Mr. Anbar went bankrupt. He had made his fortune in the Far East, returned to Damascus many years later, the family story was that he had lent a lot of money to the Sultan of Turkey who refused to return the money. The family in desperation asked the Kaiser of Germany to intervene, the Sultan was so furious that he never returned the funds and Mr. Anbar then went into bankruptcy and lost the house. The family later was said to have emigrated to Alexandria in Egypt, the house is built around three courtyards, first the formal reception courtyard, behind this the attractive female courtyard, and finally the spartan servants courtyard. The main sections were completed at tremendous expense, and due to high costs Mr. Anbar abandoned the project In 1887, the house was restored by the Ministry of Culture in 1976. It now holds an exhibition hall, museum and craft workshops
28.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Damascus)
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The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a war memorial, dedicated to the Syrian soldiers killed during battle. It is visited every year by the President of Syria on Martyrs Day, the monument was designed by Prof. Dr. Abdo Kass-Hout and Prof. Mahmoud Hammad who won a competition organized by the Syrian Ministry of Defense. Erected in 1985, the monument features a dome, symbolizing the universe, two verses from the Quran are engraved into the structure, Think not of those who are slain in Gods Way as dead
29.
Al-Zahiriyah Library
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The Az-Zahiriyah library in Damascus, Syria dates back to 1277, taking its name from its founder Sultan Baibars. Building this library was his father’s idea but he died before he could achieve it, initially Az-Zahiriah was a public school in charge of teaching Quranic sciences. The decorations, carvings, and writing on the walls, in addition to the gate which bears geometric designs and patterns. It is located at Bab el Barid in the Al-Amara neighborhood, the mosaics of the Umayyad Mosque gave inspiration to the decoration of the main prayer hall where a band of lavish golden floral and architectural mosaics is running around. The manuscript department includes over 13,000 classical Islamic manuscripts, other notable manuscripits include Tarikh Dimashq by Ibn Asakir, al-Jam bayn al-gharibayn by Abu Ubaydah Ahmad ibn Muhammad Al-Harawi, and Gharib al-hadith by Ibn Qutaybah al-Dinawari. The library was recognized by the Syrian state in 1880. In 1919 the Arab Academy was charged with the supervision of the al-Zahiriyya Library, … Its collection consisted at that time of the surviving manuscripts from different small libraries in Syria. … The collection grew from 2,465 manuscripts to 22,000 volumes between 1919 and 1945, in 1949 a legal deposit law decreed that two copies of every work published in Syria be deposited in the library. The law was not enforced until July 1983, when a presidential decree required the deposit of 5 copies of work published by a Syrian author. In 1984 the Al-Assad Library became the Syrian national library, replacing al-Zahiriyah Library, Sultan Al-Zahir Baibars, also known as Rukn Uddin Baybrus was buried in Damascus in 1277 under the dome of the Az-Zahiriyah library, established by him. As of 2011, the librarys holdings included some 100,000 volumes,13,000 manuscripts, and 50,000 periodicals
30.
Nur al-Din Madrasa
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The Nur al-Din Madrasa is a funerary madrasa in Damascus, Syria. It is in the Suq al-Khayattin, inside the city walls and it was built in 1167 by Nūr ad-Dīn Zangī, atabeg of Syria, who is buried there. The complex includes a mosque, a madrasa, and the mausoleum of the founder and it was the first such complex to be built in Damascus. History of Medieval Arabic and Western European domes
31.
Aqsab Mosque
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The Aqsab Mosque is an Ayyubid-era mosque in Damascus, Syria. It is on Suq Sarujiyya outside the walls of the old city, arabic Islamic Architecture, Its Characteristics and Traces in Syria. Publications of the Ministry of Culture and National Leadership
