Damascus.

this is the one we've all been waiting for...

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Legend has it that on a journey from Mecca, the Prophet Mohammed cast his gaze from the mountainside onto Damascus but refused to enter the city because he wanted to enter paradise only once – when he died. In a place that vies for the title of the world’s oldest continually inhabited city, this is but one of thousands of stories.

Damascus (Arabic: دِمَشقُ‎, Dimashq, commonly known as الشام ash-Shām  also known as the "City of Jasmin" Arabic: مدينة الياسمين‎) is the capital and largest city of Syria. The Damascus Governorate is ruled by a governor appointed by the Minister of Interior. In addition to being widely known as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, Damascus is a major cultural and religious center of the Levant.

Currently, the city has an estimated population of about 1,669,000. Unofficial estimates often assume a much larger population. First settled in the 2nd millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661-750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad. Damascus saw a political decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. During Ottoman rule, the city decayed completely while maintaining a certain cultural prestige.
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hopefully we'll be spending quite a few days getting our Damascus on. in the meantime, you can get your wiki on, and learn more about Damascus.

this pre-written post brought to you in part by beavers. because beavers make dams, and i'm out of witty ideas for sponsors.