Some interesting comments from her blog:
I am returned from a very un-solo trip to Syria, a country labeled a ‘state sponsor of terror’ by the US administration. It did not feel like that as we walked unmolested late at night through the streets of Damascus, or met with scores of teenage girls in Maloula, mingled with thousands of schoolchildren in Bosra, went shopping in Palmyra and had a private visit of the citadel in Aleppo.
…
Reem Qudsi, the engineer working on the Aga Khan Trust for Culture Aleppo citadel project, who took me around the citadel on my last visit, graciously took us around again, showing us recent finds of carvings from what was an ancient Amorite temple dating back to the 16th century BC. This is quite a find as until now the earliest discoveries in the citadel dated back to the neo-Hittite period of the 9th or 10th century BC. The site is locked for the time being as funds are required to carry out the necessary excavations. You can get further information on the project from Aleppo Citadel Friends at www.aleppocitadelfriends.org or from the Aga Khan Trust for Culture at http://195.186.63.162/agency/aktc.html or from UNESCO World Heritage Sites at http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/21
Ismailimail 