Arabian nights

While Damascus is a city with a huge amount of history, it is also a modern capital, and outside the old town is reminiscent of many others. The traffic through the roundabout, seen from the hill above the city (see reverse shot up the hill from our hotel below), is constant and completely manic - the road rules being something along the lines of "first in, best dressed".

Traffic regulations in general, or rather the observation of them, are what could be called relaxed (if you would agree that driving the wrong way down motorways is a reasonably casual approach). But as seems to be the case in so many countries with such driving habits, everyone seems a lot more relaxed towards one another on the road, despite the chaos - I'd wager the issue of road rage certainly hasn't made headlines in the Damascene dailies.