ABSTRACT
Damascus is the oldest and largest city in the Levant. Being the main commercial and industrial center in the south of Syria, the city has always attracted workers and migrants from smaller satellite towns as well as other cities in Syria. The metropolis has considerably expanded during the last thirty years. This expansion has proceeded in two directions. The most widely followed trend is the extension and the development of the nearby villages and towns, which has particularly attracted the city’s newcomers and those of less economic ability. The other form of expansion has been the building of new residential areas and suburbs, mainly on the western fringes of the city. The aim of the city planners was to develop less polluted residential areas, and to preserve the Ghuta oasis and the Old City to the east and south of Damascus. The emergence of the metropolitan suburbia is of most interest here since it has brought together communities with a differing lifestyle.
