Of all the great things I love about publishing online are the interesting emails I get. One day I might even get a comments page on this site.

 

But today, I got an email from someone looking to see some of my photos from Syria. Since I don't feel like reading, or writing, I figured I'd play with pictures.

 

St. Simeon Stylites: pictures from an ancient site of a crazy saint who sat atop a stone pillar for decades. He had a cult of followers. Wild. Just a bunch of rocks high on a desert plain.

 

Abu Kamal: Life goes on 10 KM from the Iraqi border.

 

Damascus: The capital city, vibrant and stunning.

 

Damascus 2: It's such a great city, I made two pages of photos.

 

Dier Ez Zor: Eastern Syria, oil country. The Russians come here, the Armenians escaped here, and the French hang out.

 

Speaking of the French, Robert Fisk today lamented that dictator Bashar Al-Assad will sit on the dias with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to review a French military display. Fisk is a bit upset that torturers and tyrants get a welcome in the West. But then, he notes, that the West has its own brigands and thugs in government.