TO shouts of “yella-yella” — move along! — the driver of a donkey lugging a wagon overstuffed with pistachios parted the throngs of shoppers in Aleppo’s medieval souk. It was the middle of Ramadan, just hours before the iftar, the evening meal when Muslims break their daily fast, and the market’s serpentine rows of squat stalls were filled with black-veiled women and keffiyeh-clad men, sniffing the handmade olive soaps and stocking up on spices.

But there was another kind of shopper blocking the donkey’s path: Western tourists.

DAMASCUS - Iranian pilgrims pray beside Arabs at the 8th-century Umayyad Mosque, one of Islam’s grandest sites. Down a nearby alley, European tourists watch restoration work at an Ottoman-era palace being converted into a hotel.

“I’ve not seen such contrast between image and the reality,” said German tourist Anna Kopola, looking at Syrian art on display in a gallery in the capital, Damascus. “Syria is portrayed as a centre of terrorism in the West but it’s peaceful and modern.”

The "Old City" of Damascus, Syria, was once a run-down slum. Now foreign tourists are flocking to the ancient, walled quarter with its historic buildings. And their business has prompted a boom in boutique hotels. Don Duncan reports.

Tucked away in a quiet side street near the Great Omayyad Mosque, the five-star Old Vine Hotel is one of the most sophisticated and tasteful boutique hotels in the Old City of Damascus. The hotel, which takes its name from a 90-year-old vine in the courtyard, is a haven of peace amidst the bustle of the nearby souqs. At the same time, its central location means that it lies just a stone’s throw from the Old City’s major sites.