Ǧaddat al-Baḥrā al-Daffāqā

Connecting the Citadel with the Great Mosque

Under the French Mandate, architect Michel Écochard and urbanist René Danger were assigned the task of creating a plan for the future development of Damascus. Elaborated in 1935-1936, the plan may conveniently be summarized as follows:

Part One concerned itself with protecting al-Ġūṭā by orienting the expansion of the residential area away from the lush gardens. Unfortunately, what happened in the next few decades was almost the exact opposite.

Part Two aimed at exposing the city's landmarks through the construction of wide thoroughfares crisscrossing Old Damascus in an adaptation of Baron Haussmann's renovation of Paris in the second half of the 19th Century. The new design would allow long distance travellers to bypass the city through an elaborate net of highways. Works started in earnest in 1936 and the project included creating public gardens and a National Museum west of at-Tekīyyā as-Sulaymānīyyā.

The application of the second part of the plan accelerated in 1983 with the uncovering of the Citadel. This entailed the destruction of Sūq al-H̱uǧā, the western end of Sūq al-Ḥamīdīyyā, and several buildings located at the western entrance of the ʾUmayyad Mosque. The demolition extended to Sūq Sārūǧā and parts of the Mīdān Quarter before the pressure of UNESCO and concerned others convinced the civic authorities to halt their "modernization" and spare what's left. 

Photo: Gérard Degeorge August 1984.

Danger (René), Écochard (Michel). Damas: Rapport d'enquēte monographique sur la ville"/réd. P.-S. Khoury. [éd. ?], 1936.
Gérard Degeorge. Damas des Ottomans à nos jours. Éditions L'Harmattan 1994.
Gérard Degeorge. Damas, Répertoire Iconographique. Éditions L'Harmattan 2001.