Damastodon

Syria's wine is slightly better than Jordan's, and that's not praise for either.  Word had it that a town two hours south of Damascus called Suweida produced Syria's best red wine, which people make at home.  The wine, available in "new" or "aged" comes in old liquor bottles with the labels still attached.  My roommate and I bought three bottles of the 'aged' wine and one 'new' and sampled all of them.  Sort of like two-buck chuck, insofar as there's a lot of variance between bottles.  Two of them kind of tasted like rust; another tasted like the cheap whiskey ("White Horse: Finest Whiskey") whose bottle it was stored in.  Needless to say, you don't travel to Syria for the liquor.  On the upside, neither of us went blind from the hooch, and the nature and ruins around Suweida were attractive; photos above.