Syria - The Rough Guide

There are some travel guides that age gracefully. Others become accidental time capsules from vanished worlds. Syria ? The Rough Guide by Andrew Beattie and Timothy Pepper, published in 1998 by Rough Guides, now occupies a strange and rather poignant place somewhere between practical handbook, historical artefact, and portal into a Middle East that feels simultaneously recent and impossibly distant. ( books.google.co.in ) Back in 1998 this was sold as an adventurous but entirely sensible purchase for independent travellers armed with backpacks, mosquito repellent, and a slightly over-romantic idea of ancient caravan routes. Syria, the guide cheerfully explained, was ?one of the most enticing destinations for travellers in the Middle East?, full of Roman ruins, Crusader castles, crowded souks and extraordinary hospitality. ( AbeBooks ) Which, reading it today, gives the whole thing the eerie atmosphere of discovering a holiday brochure for Atlantis. And that is really what makes old travel guides fascinating. They freeze not only places, but assumptions. This book belongs to that glorious late-1990s era when Rough Guides still encouraged people to board questionable overnight buses in pursuit of ?authentic experiences?, preferably while wearing linen trousers and carrying a notebook full of earnest observations about coffee culture. The world still seemed open, complicated but navigable, and full of countries Western travellers regarded with a mixture of fascination and mild incompetence. The result is unexpectedly absorbing even if you never intend to set foot anywhere near Syria. Page after page evokes bustling Damascus streets, Aleppo markets, desert ruins, hilltop fortresses and tiny hotels where backpackers once haggled over room rates while pretending not to have terrible stomach cramps. There is something oddly moving about the confidence of it all. The book assumes, entirely reasonably for 1998, that you might simply decide one Tuesday to go wandering around Palmyra with a camera and a guidebook. History had not yet intervened with its usual tactlessness. As a physical object, this copy is in good condition, which is impressive considering Rough Guides were never intended to survive gracefully. These were books designed to be folded into rucksacks, dropped in border towns, stained with tea, annotated with terrible restaurant recommendations, and abandoned in hostel exchange shelves beside copies of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance . The survivors carry a certain battered dignity, like retired overland travellers who still insist they once found ?the real Syria? before tourism ruined everything. There is also a charmingly pre-digital quality to guides of this era. No QR codes. No apps. No ?top ten influencer experiences? If you wanted to find a bus, you read the bus section. If you got lost, that was apparently part of the cultural immersion. The entire enterprise depended on optimism, maps of questionable accuracy, and the belief that somewhere nearby there would probably be a man smoking under a faded Pepsi sign who knew where Hama was. Collectors of travel writing, Middle Eastern history enthusiasts, nostalgia addicts, and anyone fascinated by vanished versions of the modern world will find this especially compelling. Even sitting on a shelf it has presence: one of those books that quietly reminds you how quickly countries, politics, tourism and assumptions can change. Crappy Old Books: preserving yesterday?s certainties one slightly faded paperback at a time. THIS BOOK BEARS THE CRAPPY OLD BOOKS STAMP. IF THAT IS UNDESIRABLE PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS. THE STAMP MARKS WHICH IS USUALLY TO THE FRONT AND BACK INNER PAGES SAYS SOLD BY CRAPPY OLD BOOKS WITH WEB SITE URL. IT IN NO WAY DEMINISHED FROM THE READING. IF YOU WANT A PRISTINE BOOK, PLEASE FIND ANOTHER BOOK IN BETTER CONDITION SOMEWHERE ELSE.…