Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Map Hunting

I woke up today, again, and as I had nothing significant to do yet I decided to go on a "crusade" to find something. That something is a map of Safita, and specifically a historical map of it.
To give a brief, unreferenced, history of its ruins I will have to describe it a little bit. Others are welcomed to fill some blanks or correct any info. The landmark of Safita is its tower "The Burg البرج ", which sits on one of the hills. The Burg currently serves as a church, it has a main floor, a second floor (mainly unused), and as per one of my relative a basement that is locked and served as a water container or a pool. It is said that in the old days there used to be a third floor (where the current roof stands), but this was damaged in a 1920's earthquake.
The tower, similar to all other castles in the area, was built by the crusaders, and was called "The White Castle". It served as a communication center with other towers or castles in sight. As any tower, it had a wall that surrounds it (a double wall I was told) and the second part was also an earthquake victim it seems. The remaining wall has suffered major violations, whether by the government (by building the post office in front of it) or by residents (by building their homes on and in front of the wall, including one of my aunts house).
My aunt's husband told me once about foreign engineers who had a detailed historical map of Safita and knew things he didn't know of, and other things that no one until now know whether they exist or where (like the escape tunnels from The Burg to other neighboring areas). So I was like, if they have it then we should, and I wanted it.
I started my day by going to the Ministry of Tourism (MT) and asked the information clerk, who was busy talking to friends, about the map. His advice was to go to the public information center as they would have all the maps available. That place was a bit far, so I walked to the neighboring Bureau of Ruins and Museums (BRM) "مديرية الآثار والمتاحف" and I was directed to the third floor (division of engineering) where I waited few minutes for Umm Wael to arrive. Not surprisingly, she had no clue about a map of Safita and suggested I check with the National Museum library. As I walked into the library, not very far from the BRM, I asked a clerk about the map. He opened an index (a hand written (or rotten) index) and attempted looking at some references there. I had a look meanwhile and discovered that they have plenty of references that no one has probably bothered to look at or open its pages, including a whole series on Syria dating from 1900 until now, in French. The final result of the search is that they have some written information but no maps.
I decided to go now to the tourism information desk, and the Bureau of Buildings "مديرية المباني" (per suggestion of Umm Wael). In the meantime I passed by almost all the movie theatres in the area. Cinema Dimashq was undergoing renovations, it only in the past played "the most recent Indian movies". "Most recent" usually means 10-15 years old. On the way was Al-Ahram Theatre playing the only adult "recent" Turkish movie called Mav Mav (blue, blue). It also advertises itself as a theatre for the most recent Arabic, Indian, and American movies. I had one experience with this one, out of curiosity, maybe 14-15 years ago. The ticket was 5 SYP (10 cents), I was offered a soda inside, and the place was full of privates who ran from their service and wanted to hide for the day. 5 SYP was enough to spend the whole day because the show is a continuous mixture of Arabic, American and other movies; all of which make no sense.
The next one was Cinema Dunya, located on a cobble-stoned road. It was playing… I really don't know. The ad was for, I think, two movies at the same time. In one line they present Egyptian actors and in the other the "prettiest hot Hollywood babes" heroes of the famous movie "flamed sex الجنس الملتهب". If any of you have seen this one please let me know.
Finally I arrived to the information desk and asked them about the map. They declined having any and suggested the BRM, which I was just at. I turned my back and started walking towards what is supposed to be the Bureau of Buildings. There was Al-Sufaraa Theatre showing a play by Kanou3 Brothers (الأخوين قنوع) called "A groom on hold عريس مع وقف التنفيذ" and another by Abu 3antar called "A citizen below zero مواطن تحت الصفر", in addition to the most recent Arabic, Indian and American movies.
I didn't find anything called the Bureau of Buildings, but there was the Bureau of Real Estates Affairs "مديرية الشؤون العقارية". Ij tried my luck there asking about the engineers Elias, but no luck. Anyway, in the midst of my search I passed by the Division of Cadastral Survey "قسم المساحة". So I asked about the other question I had (which by the way I asked at all the previous places I visited today), the question is about a detailed map of Damascus and its maps (naming all the streets). I talked with the division director who said that there isn't such a thing, but it is possible that I would find something like that in the Administration of Military Landscape "إدارة المساحة العسكرية".
Here I was already tired and invited to lunch, so I decided to stop my quest and postpone the second part until later. Next step will be asking for Safita's map in Safita itself. This will be in a week time. And I would like to poll you and write in the comment section whether you think I will find it or not. I think I may write a letter to the Secretary of Tourism to explain the poor performance of all these divisions.

1 Comments:

At Tue Aug 23, 03:40:00 PM GMT+3, Anonymous Anonymous said...

For God sake, stop being unrealistic.

 

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