Syrian Artist Milad Al-Ma’arri ‘s paintings embody the secrets of the seven gates of “Damascus”

Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the world and was the cradle of many  civilizations and archaeological sites according to historians  . It is also famous for its seven gates which despite the city’s exposure to many wars and invasions many of these monuments have remained and attracted the attention of many travelers and researchers .

The Muslim geographer , Yaqut Al-Hamwi, who wrote books on a wide range of scientific, geographical and historical topics , indicated in the most famous of his books “Mu’jam al-Buldan”   that the first wall placed on the earth after the flood was the “Damascus” wall. 

A number of  painters have stayed for months in Damascus to embody in their paintings a city that enjoys many archaeological and historical monuments, especially its seven gates including Bab Al-Faradis, Bab Al-Jabiyeh, Bab Al-Saghir, Bab Salam, Bab Kisan, Bab Sharqi and Bab Tuma.

 The plastic artist Milad Al-Ma’arri embodied the mentioned gates through his graduation project entitled “The Gates of Damascus… Legend and Civilization”.

 “I chose this topic because of my strong love for the city of  Damascus and to stress  the importance of preserving the heritage which is the memory of the peoples, especially in light of the brutal war which our country was exposed to in an attempt to obliterate its civilization” artist Milad Al-Ma’arri told the E-Syria blog. 

In his drawings of the seven gates of Damascus, the artist “Milad Al-Ma’arri” drew small details and minute miniatures, to approach realism to the point of photography.

There is no doubt that  Damascus was and still is an attractive station for many local and international artists, as they highlighted it in different ways such as realism, abstraction and miniatures.

In fact, the Gates of Damascus is a unique subject because it includes three stories in one story and they were created according to the planets and their relations with the Greek Gods, according to the artist.

“ These gates are one of the most important Damascene cultural and archaeological landmarks  which we must preserve as they are part of Syrians’ deep-rooted  heritage and culture that  we must immortalize through our artworks. ” Al-Ma’arri said.

“I painted Bab Sharqi , which is believed to have been built at the end of the second century AD, and it has other names such as “The Sun, Helios and Sol” . On the top of it there is a stone inscription on which the image of the sun is drawn, and it is attributed to the Roman era” the artist said.

The original name of “Bab Touma” , according to Al-Ma’ari  is “Venus” (flower), which is the god of love and beauty to the Romans whereas Bab  Kisan’s original name is “Saturn” the god of agriculture and time in the Greek belief.

The artist indicated that “ I draw Bab Al-Faradis which symbolizes  the god Hermes . It was called so which means in the Roman language the fields” adding  Bab Jabiyeh, which was built on the ruins of Bab Arami, is attributed to the planet Mars, the god of war Ares in Greece.

Accordingly  Bab Al-Saghir was created on the ruins ofa Greek gate and then on the ruins of an Aramaic gate. It is attributed to the god “Zeus”, the god of rain and wind, and the Arabs called it Al-Saghir ( the smallest)   because it was the smallest of the seven gates of  Damascus.

It is worth mentioning that the artist Milad Al-Ma’arri was  born in Damascus in 1997 and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in 2021.

Rawaa Ghanam