All these pictures were taken at the Umayyad Mosque. Though I’m far from religious I find it is always a joy to visit this place. Though I saw Shiites far from joyful, but instead crying at the Mashhad al-Hussein (where the severed head of Hussein, son of Ali, the last Rashidun or Rightly Guided caliph, supposedly was placed in a niche to ridicule him and the supporters of Ali), as if they were personally responsible for the martyrdom of Hussein at Karbala. I was told that, since a pilgrimage to Karbala in Irak nowadays is too unsafe, many pilgrims from Iran travel to Damascus. I met several of them in this and other mosques.