"The street called straight," Damascus, Syria

Underwood & Underwood · (c) 1900

Damascus, "The Eye of the East" and "The Joy of the Whole Earth," and moreover, the street called "Straight!" There it is, beneath that long arched roof, one of the widest streets in the city, extending across it from east to west, roofed over nearly all the way. Very grateful, under a fierce eastern sun, is the shade which the roof affords... The house said to be that of Ananias is a little to the left of this street, almost at its end; and we know that the house of Judas, where Ananias was sent to restore the sight of Saul, was in this very thoroughfare. Yonder, in the distance, is the old wall, from the top of which Saul was let down in a basket to escape the angry Jews watching at the gates to kill him as an apostate from their faith. The Mediterranean, over which he sailed to carry the good news to Greece and Italy, is only fifty miles away, straight ahead of us, beyond the mountain ranges of Hermon and Lebanon. These minarets - mosque towers they are - tell us that we are in the Moslem quarter of the city... The Jewish quarter is at our right, where, in a synagogue, Saul, "the wolf changed into a lamb" gave his first testimony for Jesus.