The Expansion of Damascus 1860-1923, the Northern Quarters

Unlike the Muhajireen Quarter which was divided into spacious and regular lots through central planning, the expansion of the urban tissue outside the wall of the Old City into the Amara Barranyia Quarter took place in an individualistic, random, and gradual manner. Private investors were to guide this process that spanned several decades and converted numerous gardens into housing units. The dwellings were often centered around a cul-de-sac or dead-end and were relatively small and mostly irregular in shape, following the countour of the garden they replaced. The housing clusters correspond to "irrigation units", that is the gardens formerly grouped around creeks derived from the branches of the River Barada. Those quarters were almost exclusively residential and therefore boasted no important governmental, economic, or religious institutions. The the east of this neighborhood is located the more important extensions dependent on Aleppo Street were we find one church and two hospitals. See in the attached diagram is Baghdad Street constructed in 1925 under the French Mandate. 


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