The National Museum in Damascus maintains its international rank and hosts a musical evening

In the center of the capital, Damascus, in the area of “Al-Baramkeh”, the “National Museum” sits as one of the most visited destinations in Syria and one of the most important Arab museums. The “National Museum” carries an international human value due to the fact that it contains  the most prominent discovered Syrian antiquities covering thousands of years and representing some of Syria’s ancient history.

The first phase of the Damascus Museum building was constructed in 1936, where the first pavilion was dedicated to Syrian antiquities in the eras of the Greeks and Romans and to the antiquities of Arab Islamic art. Then the rest of the pavilions were constructed in stages to become one of the ten most important museums in the world according to the classification of the British Museum.

The museum includes five basic sections, the first section is “prehistoric antiquities” in which flint and bone tools and some human and animal bones are presented from prehistoric sites.

The second section, “Ancient Syrian Antiquities”, contains findings from Ugarit, Ras Shamra, Mari, Tel Hariri, Ebla,Tel Mardikh,  Tel Rifaat, Tel Sukas, and Tel Khuwayrah, and the antiquities of coastal, central and interior regions in Syria.

The third section is dedicated to Syrian antiquities during the reigns of Greece, the Romans and the Byzantines and includes artifacts from Palmyra and the governorates of Daraa and Suwayda in addition to sculptures, textiles, coins, weapons, jewelry, monuments, tombs, glass pieces, pottery, and mosaics.

The fourth section is devoted to Arab Islamic ruins and includes the façade and monuments of the Umayyad Palace of Al-Hayr, the ruins of Raqqa, Hama, Pottery, , Plaster Decorations, Numismatics, Archives, and Textiles in addition to the Damascene Hall.

The fifth section of modern and contemporary art displays the paintings of pioneering artists since the beginning of the twentieth century, as well as sculptures and modern art masterpieces of “pottery, glass and coins”, while the museum garden includes a group of huge stone artifacts dating back to different eras.

The museum witnessed several processes of renewal and development, including the modernization of display methods to match the development of science of museums worldwide.

In light of the terrorist war on Syria, the museum closed its doors for seven years, but it returned to welcome its visitors in 2018.

In the current situation and the application of quarantine measures to prevent coronavirus, the museum will regain some of its glory by hosting activities for the “culture in your home” event through a musical evening for the National Symphony Orchestra which demonstrates the heritage and a picture of Syria’s cultural history through “music”, the language of the world.

Inas Abdulkareem