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"No recorded event has occurred in the world but Damascus was in existence to receive the news of it," wrote Mark Twain after visiting Syria's capital -- known colloquially as al-Sham -- in the 1860s. "She has looked upon the dry bones of a thousand empires, and will see the tombs of a thousand more before she dies."

Over the centuries, Damascus has been conquered by a string of foreign invaders that extends from King David of Israel -- chronicled in the Old Testament -- straight through to the French, who occupied the city until 1945. In between, Damascus fell to a list of conquerors that includes the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Umayyads, Egyptian Mamluks, and Ottoman Turks. But now, roiled by the Arab Spring, the invasions are internal, with Syrian tanks and troops rolling into restive cities.

After the Umayyad conquest of Damascus in the seventh century, the Umayyad Mosque (seen above, circa 1900) was constructed on the site where a Byzantine church, a Roman temple, and before that an Aramean temple to the god of thunder and rain once stood.

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Damascus's fortunes rose and fell under successive Islamic dynasties, but it never lost its importance -- both as a "desert port" for the caravan trade that traveled to and from Mesopotamia and modernday Turkey, and as a stopping point for observant Muslims making the long pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca. But by the late Ottoman period (when many of these photos were taken) Damascus had become a regional backwater, a relatively unimportant provincial capital in an empire on the wane, though one that still reached from the Arabian Peninsula into the Balkans. The city's fortunes sank even further during the French Mandate period (1920-1945), when French troops shelled the city on several occasions to put down protests.

Even the meager trade between Damascus and the port city of Beirut had dwindled by the latter half of the 20th century, and the city became largely known as the seat of power for the regime of President Hafez al-Assad, and later his son Bashar. Despite some tentative attempts at liberalization in the 1990s and 2000s, Syria stumbled into the 21st century hamstrung by international sanctions and unable to borrow on international lending markets. Then, of course, came the Arab Spring. Still, although Damascus has witnessed scattered protests against the Assad regime in recent months, the city remains one of the few areas of calm in a country consumed by revolutionary fervor.     

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Above, Damascenes relax in this pristine example of an Ottoman courtyard-style home around the turn of the 20th century. Although it was likely built much later, the building's architecture hearkens back to a more glorious medieval Islamic era. The black and white horizontal stripes on the far wall are typical of the 14th-century Mamluk period, and the rear mosaics inside the domed alcove are intended to mimic the Abbasid palatial style of the eighth and ninth centuries.

In the modern era, courtyard homes are gradually disappearing from Damascus -- a result of rapid population growth crowding out available land and declining economic prospects.

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Above, shoppers mingle in the covered bazaar of Souk al-Arwam in the Old City of Damascus circa 1920. A mainstay of cities across the Arab world, the bazaar still offers shoppers anything from spices and textiles to dried snakes and other exotic ingredients for the daring homeopathic medic.  

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This street scene in Damascus's walled Old City captures the buzz of an early 20th century souk, or commercial quarter. Open markets like these are a vital part of the Damascene economy, but with protests sweeping much of the country, commerce and tourism have ground to a virtual halt. Adding to the concerns of many residents is the rapidly depreciating value of the Syrian pound. As more and more Syrians convert their savings into foreign currencies, the black-market Syrian pound-to-dollar exchange rate is inching steadily upward and is now at least 10 percent higher than the official rate.

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Taken in the early 1900s, this photo shows travelers in Damascus's Cemetery of the Meidan on horseback. Once considered a pilgrimage site and often used by families as a picnic location, it is largely abandoned now.  

Throughout history, cemeteries like this one have been a point of contention between orthodox and "popular" strands of Islam that incorporated rituals and beliefs beyond those defined by Islamic legal doctrine. Because they were places of congregation and posed significant challenges to enforcing social norms -- particularly norms related to gender segregation -- they often became associated with iconoclast or subversive religious movements. In a way, cemeteries were "in between" spaces -- in between the dead and the living, and in between freedom and social control.

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Considered the first monumental work of architecture in Islamic history, the Umayyad Mosque (also called the Great Mosque of Damascus) is a melting pot of different faiths. It houses the mausoleum of John the Baptist -- which is said to contain his head -- as well as the tomb of Hussein ibn Ali, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and an important figure in the Shiite tradition. Its rectangular layout, Roman arches, and Corinthian columns became a prototype for mosques around the Islamic world, influencing structures from Cairo to Istanbul.

During his reign as caliph in the eighth century, it is said that al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik addressed Damascenes thusly: "Inhabitants of Damascus, four things give you marked superiority over the rest of the world: your climate, your water, your fruits, and your baths. To these I wanted to add a fifth: this mosque." The above photo captures the Great Mosque's entrance circa 1920.

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Above, the south aisle of the Umayyad Mosque, circa 1940. During the reign of the first Umayyad caliph -- before the transformation from Byzantine church to Umayyad mosque had been completed -- Muslims and Christians worshipped side by side on its eastern and western halves, respectively. It was in this spirit of religious tolerance that Pope John Paul II made the first papal visit to a mosque in history, touring the Great Mosque as part of a pilgrimage to Syria in 2001.

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Above, a servant looks on as three Damascenes enjoy a water pipe in a coffee garden circa 1895. Syria is and always has been deeply divided along class lines, perhaps explaining why protest movements have struggled to gain traction until now.

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A Damascene shopkeeper poses with his wares in the early 1900s. Brassware, tapestries, and hand-crafted furniture can still be found in a Damascus souk today. But since the outbreak of the "problems" earlier this year, salesmen in this city have done little except play backgammon, drink tea, and fret over lost business, according to the Washington Post.

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Solemn and forbidding, the Sultan Selim mosque in Damascus is seen in 1914. The mosque, completed in 1516, is named for the man who commissioned it -- a 16th century Ottoman sultan known colloquially as Yavuz, the inflexible or cruel.

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Above, women escape the heat in a market near the Sultan Selim mosque circa 1956. Cooled by white marble tiles and shaded by Islamic archways, Damascus's markets are a haven during the hot summer months.

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Above, a donkey cart rolls beneath a green canopy of leaves on a boulevard in Damascus, circa 1900. Mark Twain once described Damascus as a "billowy expanse of green foliage" and "an island of pearls and opals gleaming out of a sea of emeralds." As population growth has pushed the city's limits outwards, however, many of the orchards that once ringed Damascus have been razed to make way for additional housing. Even so, Twain's description of the city's beauty rings true a century and a half later.

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