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Damascus National Museum

About the place

Country : Syria , Damascus

Address : Damascus National Museum, Shoukry Al-Qouwatly, Damascus, Syria

Category : Museums

Damascus National Museum

Overview:

• The National Museum in Damascus is located at the western entrance to the city of Damascus, between Damascus University and the Hospice Sulaymaniyah.

• The National Museum of Damascus is one of the most important Arab and even international museums, due to the important architectural and artistic relics it contains. It contains traces of the first man in his primitive ages before history, and others from the ancient and Islamic historical eras up to modern art.

• The following buildings were reconstructed:

The Palmyrene tomb was built by Yerhai in 108 AD.

Dura Synagogue and its important frescoes from the middle of the third century AD.

Facade of Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi in 727 AD at the entrance to the Museum.

One of the entrances to the Mamluk Yalbugha Mosque in the museum garden.

The Levantine Hall from one of the palaces of Damascus in the neighborhood of Sidi Omar, next to the Hamidiya market, dated 1150 AH-1737 AD.

• The museum's garden looks like an open-air museum, in which a group of statues, monuments, doors, windows, mosaic panels, column capitals, coffins, and a number of magnificent huge sculptures distributed in the garden between roses and trees, are displayed. Its materials are distinguished by their strong resistance to natural factors such as basalt in order to preserve them.

• The museum also has a valuable library specialized in archaeological and historical books, and a cafeteria for visitors and tourists.

Historic overview:

• The establishment of the Damascus Museum was ordered in 1919 AD for the Archeology Division in the Diwan of Knowledge, and the Division chose the Adiliya School building, which was built in the Ayyubid era as a temporary headquarters for the museum.

• Syrian families competed to provide the newborn museum with the antiques and antiquities they owned, which were the first nucleus of its holdings.

• With the increase in collectibles - after allowing archaeological missions to excavate - there has been an urgent need to construct a new building for the museum. The French engineer "Ecochard" was entrusted to draw up the design of the current building overlooking the Barada River between Damascus University and the Hospice Sulaymaniyah. The first phase was completed in 1936, and the construction of the eastern section of the museum began in 1939, but the work stopped due to the circumstances of the Second World War, and the construction work ended in 1950 to officially open the museum in its new building.

Resources:

Prince Jaafar al-Hasani, a brief guide to the holdings of the National Antiquities House in Damascus (Al-Mufid Press, Damascus 1348/1930).

Bashir Zuhdi, Museums (Publications of the Ministry of Culture, Damascus, 1988).

The National Museum in Damascus - a brief guide (Dar Al-Hayat Press, Damascus 1969).

discover-syria website

Ministry of Culture website

tishreen.news website

Facebook of the Museum

The website of the Syrian Ministry of Culture

arabic.rt website

elan website

flickr website