1) Location and history of construction

The museum is located at the heart of the Syrian capital, at its entrance from the west, along the Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi Street,  just between the University of Damascus and Tekkiye Sulaymaniyah close to the well-known” President’s Bridge”. Syria has not had any establishments that could be described museum until the end of the First World War. When the long Ottoman occupation ended finally, the so –called Diwan (meaning office) of Knowledge was established.  The new body was in charge of looking after the antiquities and to establish a museum in which the relics could be stored safely. Therefore, one of the spacious halls of the Al-Adlia School building in Bab Al-Bareed, in front of the Dhahriya School was allocated and used as a storage for the relics. The museum received support and relics from several generous families in Syria that led to the formation of its first collections artifacts in 1920 AD. Yet, with the continuous growth of archaeological discoveries announced that it was about time to find a more convenient and equipped building for storing properly the large amount of artifacts.  In fact, the museum’s collections began to

grow steadily across time until the old building’s halls were not enough to keep the relics. Hence, the Directorate of the awqaf (meaning Endowments) for Damascus, allocated a piece of land in the “Green plain”, to build the new museum building on which the first section of it was opened in 1936 AD, designed by the French engineer. M. Écochard. The museum’s new building plan was distinguished by its ability to expand and was initially limited to a courtyard, two galleries, four halls, an office suite, and an upper floor containing three other halls. The building plan continued to expand until it has reached its current shape.

3) Department of Ancient Syrian Antiquities

It consists of seven halls that were divided according to the relics of the sites as follows:

• two halls for Ugarit discoveries
• two halls for the discoveries of Mari
• A hall for the discoveries of Ebla
• A hall for discoveries of coastal Syrian sites (such as Amrit, Tal al-Qazl and Ibn Hani)
• A hall for discoveries of internal Syria sites (such as Tal Khwira, Tal al-Sabi Abyad and others).

2. Significant exhibits of the department include

1. The “Ugarit alphabet”, which is a small pottery inscription, (length: 5 cm, width, 3.1 cm) written on it with thirty alphabetical characters, considered the first alphabet known to history.
2. The head of a person made of ivory made with gold, silver, copper and lapis lazuli, perhaps the face of a Ugarit prince or princess, wears a high crown on his head (height: 15 cm, width: 9,5 cm).
3. The shape of an eagle whose body is made of lapis lazuli, its head is in the shape of a lion’s head made of hollow gold foil, eyes lowered with bitumen, and the tail of gold foil also, it was found at the site of Mary and dates back to the third millennium BC. The eagle “Anzu” in Sumerian represents a deity (height: 11.8 cm, width: 13 cm).
4. The statue of the singer (or singer?) Named “Ornina” after an inscription found of it , which is made of beautiful white alabaster stone, dating back to the beginning of the second millennium BC. It was found at the Ishtar temple in the ancient city of Mari (height: 25.4 cm, width: 13,5 cm).

4) Department of Classical Syrian antiquities

This department, which was recently renovated, displays relics covering the rich and diverse history of Syria during the classical ear ranging from Greek, Roman until Byzantine periods. There the visitor can enjoy watching masterpieces of stone carvings, textiles, coins, weapons, jewelry, monuments, and burials, pieces of glass, pottery and mosaics.

3. Significant exhibits of the department include

• 1. A bronze mask dating back to the first century AD, found in Homs.
  2. A marble sarcophagus Naous found in Rastan region, engraved on its cover a man and his wife (the head is missing) sitting on an embroidered sofa. The engraved inscriptions show various mythological details from the legend of the Trojan War, and the sarcophagus is carved from a single piece of marble, dating back to the Roman era
  3.  A tomb stele carved from limestone from the tomb of Taei discovered in Wadi al-Qabr (Palmyra), dating back to the second century AD (length: 55 cm, width:  83, 4 cm).
  4. An Outstanding wall painting from the Synagogue unearthed at the site of Dura Europos, which dates back to the third century AD. In addition, a section was planned in way to resemble the original plan of the synagogue. The Dura Europos hall consists of a courtyard surrounded by three galleries, the clergy section, and a rectangular worship hall.