Sheraton of Old Times

The khan of As'ad Pasha al-Azem is situated along Suq al-Buzuriyyah in the old city of Damascus. It was built between 1751 and 1752 by the city governor As'ad Pasha al-Azem. It is one the most prominent khans of the old city, and covers an area of 2500 square meters.

The building follows a typical khan layout with two floors giving onto a central courtyard. The Khan is entered from Suq al-Buzuriyyah, through a monumental gateway lavishly decorated with stone carvings and roofed by a muqarnas semi-dome. The entrance leads to a square courtyard with shops on the ground floor, used for commerce and storage. The second floor, accessible by a staircase located to the right of the main entrance was used mainly for lodging, and has eighty rooms arranged along a gallery facing the courtyard.

The space of the courtyard is divided into nine equal square modules, where each module is covered with a dome raised on a drum pierced with twenty windows. The domes are supported by pendentives that transfer the load onto four piers and to the courtyard walls. An octagonal marble fountain occupies the center of the courtyard below the central dome. Each of the four courtyard walls has three doorways on the ground floor, flanked by two rectangular windows. The symmetry is maintained on the second floor where each gallery façade has three archways flanked by two smaller ones. The khan is built of alternating courses of basalt and limestone.

Three of the courtyard domes were destroyed in an earthquake seven years after the khan's completion. The openings were covered with wooden planks until 1990 when the khan was restored and the domes rebuilt. No longer used for commerce at the beginning of the twentieth century, the khan was used for manufacture and storage until it was restored in 1990 for touristic use. The khan will probably host the Natural History Museum of Damascus in the future.

Source:archnet.org

Query :
I was arguing with my friend if using these kinds of old historical structures as a place to display new types of arts such as Plastic Art the one shown in the pictures below, what do you think of it?

Fascinating Art

A lot of people consider A name on rice is good luck! This unique form of art is considered to be one of the world wonders. After your name is written on a grain of rice, The rice is inserted into a glass container and soaked in oil. The container is attached to a string of beads to become a lovely necklace or keychain.

On the other hand this stand offers Beautiful designs of sand inside bottles, the handmade bottles are filled with naturally colored sand illustrated in shapes of desert dunes, camels, and palm trees inspired from desert nature!

Have patience!!

At Random

Yummy Iceberg

	Arabic ice cream (bouza bil haleeb) is a totally different experience from the rich American ice creams. It is quite light and gummy in texture. It actually stretches a bit as you spoon it. What makes it different is the flavor of Miskeh (Arabic gum) and sahlab (an extract from the tubers of orchids like a cornstarch).

The pictures are taken from Bekdash ice cream shop in Hamidyeh. Bekdash shop was first opened in 1895.