Missing Door

Just when the gate of victory collapsed, the spell was broken and I had to leave the country of my enemies, now I have the right to tell you some of my city’s secrets that for many centuries were known to only few people ... “ Zenobia, Queen of Palmira escaping Damascus on a camels back being sus- pected of having poisoned her husband.

When Bab al-Nasr, the gate to the great Damascus market, was destroyed in order to extend the bazaar of Hamedya, people who worked in the market started to fear for the future. A superstitious atmosphere spread inside the Suq al-Hamedya. The lack of the gate could mean a tremendous tragedy for the future: No door could be closed in front of enemy lines, no way to prevent the anger of God. Nobody could enter Heaven without the Door of Victory; the missing gate was the symbol of the eighth door of Paradise.

The merchants tried to find a solution to the situation; they started to collect all the remaining stones of the door. All over the Suq pieces of the old gate are preserved in the new walls of the shopkeepers. The merchants believe that keeping the stones was a way to avoid future defeats; they also believe that when Messiah will appear on the minaret of Jesus to conquer the Antichrist, the stones of the missing gate will leave the shops of the merchants to recompose the Gate and grant the faithful access to Paradise.

Sometimes, during nights of full moon you can see the merchants cross the Suq al-Hamedya and proceed in the direction of the Roman bath, preserved inside of an older bazaar, at the right side of the Umayyad Mosque. Many of those who still believe in the old stories open the lock of the only door that gives access to the old bath; they remain in silence, purifying themselves with the hot water. According to their beliefs this is a way to alleviate the sense of sin.

The Roman bath is visible only from a shop of one of the merchants: Abu Joseph, a Christian Syrian who built his store at the first floor of the Gold Suq to not forget his sinfulness and to remind himself to visit the Roman bath often. He is an old man, and he was afraid that age would make him forget the secret of the merchants.

The Roman bath in Damascus is visible to the people who use the knowledge of the history and of the city to recompose the puzzle of its hidden struc- ture. On the left part of Bab al- Nasr, at the right part of a big mosque, an old Roman quarter still exists: Qanawat, which was built by the Romans

to bring the water to the Roman Bath (Qanawat in Arabic, means: canal, waterway or aqueduct). This quarter in Damascus is famous for its beauty and for its big market of second hand clothes that come from almost all parts of Europe.

The legend presents the collapse of the Door of Victory as a metaphor for the weakness of the humans who value material needs over the need to preserve a holy gate. On judgment day when the gate will reappear on earth whoever will be lucky enough to pass through the 8th door of Paradise will be free of fear forever; he won’t need a door anymore.