Constructing a road between the Citadel and the Omayyad Mosque August 1984

The mandatory authorities assigned the architect Michel Écochard and the urbanist R. Danger the task of creating a plan for the future development of Damascus. The plan thus conceived could be summarized in two parts. Part One was concerned with protecting the Ghouta by orienting the expansion of the residential area away (which of course did not materialize); and Part Two exposing the main monuments though the construction of wide thoroughfares crisscrossing the old city (an adaptation of Baron Haussmann's plan for Paris in the second half of the 19th Century) while allowing long distance travellers to bypass the city through an elaborate net of highways. The works started in earnest in 1936 and included creating public gardens and the National Museum of Damascus west of the Tekya.

The application of the second part of the plan accelerated in 1983 with uncovering the Citadel (which entailed the demolition of Suq el Khuja and the western end of Suq el Hamidya) along with destroying several buildings next to the entrance of the Omayyad Mosque. The wreckage extended to Suq Saruja and parts of the Midan Quarter before the pressure of UNESCO and others caused the powers that be to halt their "modernization" and save what's left. 



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