Che Guevara in Damascus…

ST_The Damascus History Foundation organized yesterday a Damascene evening in a rare visual show of Damascus between 1918 and 1970 at Damascus National Museum. Attending was Dr Bashar Al Jaafari along with a cluster of politicians, artists, diplomats and those interested in the city’s history.

 “To anyone who longs for Damascus the civilization and beauty, we present this documentary archive, which will send us back to ancient Damascus, through a collection of documentaries, the oldest going back to the end of the First World War. Maintaining the visual and written archives of Damascus has always been our foundation goals since the sixties,” said Dr. Sami Moubayed, Damascus History Foundation chairman who initiated the spectacle.

  Dr Moubayed explained that in the sixties, The Damascus History Foundation decided to revive our ancestors experience in the foundation of this place “Damascus National Museum”, which was the oldest, richest and most beautiful among Middle Eastern museums. At the time, there was no directorate of monuments and museums in Damascus, so the Archeology Department in the Ministry of Education allocated small rooms in Aladlia School and the people of Syria begin to donate their personal belongings, their documents, pictures, official and non official correspondence and manuscripts that formed the nucleus of the National Museum library. Then, Damascus Awqaf Directorate donated a piece of land in the Green Meadow of Damascus. In August 1936, Damascus National Museum opened its gates to visitors, and did not close until the beginning of war on Syria eight years ago. Therefore, we replicated our grand fathers experience by contacting the Syrian families that opened their doors and hearts to us providing antique documents and papers.

  What was impressive in this documentary was that among the great historical personalities that have visited Syria was the exceptional revolutionist Che Guevara who visited the country in 1957.  You can as well find through this link Che Guevara visit to the Omayyad mosque in Damascus in a rare record.

 Edited by: Lama Alhassanieh