Khan As'ad Pasha Al-Azem and its fascinating story

Khan As'ad Pasha Al-Azem, ceiling © Marwa Al-Sabouni

An old standing oak, her arms wide open; storms, fires, axes all may try to break her but her head somehow manages to still hold up. Just as many other great monuments in Syria Khan As'ad Pasha Al-Azem had witnessed great deal of ordeals; Damascus earthquake in year 1757 cost it two of its brick domes, the battles during the French occupation of Syria also left their marks on it, yet the saddest one of all is when it fell victim of human greed during the process of its restoration in 1986.

This building, arguably the finest and most ambitious piece of architecture in the Old City, had been built in 1752 under the patronage of As'ad Pasha al-Azem the governor of Damascus under the Ottoman rule. With its 27,000 sq. ft., it had served as a guesthouse for travelling merchants with their loaded caravans and animals; that's why it was built in the heart of the trade center "Al-Buzuriyah Souq" surrounded by key monuments many of them still there till today.....Continue Redaing

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