Damascus is situated about sixty miles from the coast ... Resting in the midst of a beautiful oasis on the edge of the changeless desert, surrounded by desert hills, she formed the natural harbour whither steered the argosies from the sea of sand, bearing the treasures of the East: whence again the sombre mariners set forth upon their dreary voyage homeward. Herein we have the secret of her perennial greatness. A strong position she never was, and often has she bowed beneath the stroke of the conqueror, becoming "a servant to task work." But, ever as the tides of war rolled back, she has arisen again, fresh and vigorous as of yore. She has been the meeting place and mart of the nations; and as she has been of use to all, to the desert nomad and to the more civilized and settled peoples alike, so the necessities of all have conspired to perpetuate her prosperity.
—From Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible.
