Mt. Kassioun at night

A half-hour bus ride takes us to Karajat Baramke, one of the two main bus stations in Damascus. It's already after dark. Misao says that the green lights indicate the location of mosques. I see quite a few number of green lights. It seems to me that one neighbourhood has more than one mosques.

Halfway down to the bus terminal, I see a cluster of glittering white lights. "Is that the city centre?" "No, it's Mt. Kassioun," says Misao. It becomes clear to me when we get off the bus and walk to the city centre. On the northwest of Damascus looms a mountain (1200m) called Jebel Kassioun. Apart from the very top, it is covered by myriads of houses. As a result, the mountain looks like the inside of a jewel box during the night. The best view of the mountain is obtained from the crossing of Sharia al-Jama'a as-Suriyya (the road from the Baramke bus terminal to the north) and Sharia Mousalam al-Baroudi (the street from Hejaz train station to the west) - near the southwest corner of the National Museum. This is one of the second most beautiful scenes in Syria (the most beautiful comes later). Unfortunately, the photo below does not reflect exactly what I actually saw...