Modern-day Damascus contains no evidence of Abraham’s passage or of David’s conquest. But there are remains of the old Roman city as well as a main thoroughfare through the old city that follows the course of the ancient Roman Via Recta (Straight Street). It was in a house on this street that Ananias found Saul after Saul’s miraculous conversion to Christianity just outside Damascus. (Acts 9:10-19) While the street is far different today from what it was in Roman times, it is here that the apostle Paul began his outstanding career. Straight Street ends at the Roman Bab-Sharqi gate. The city walls, with houses perched atop, help us to understand how Paul was able to escape by being lowered down in a basket through an opening in the wall.​—Acts 9:23-25; 2 Corinthians 11:32, 33.

Modern-day Damascus contains no evidence of Abraham’s passage or of David’s conquest. But there are remains of the old Roman city as well as a main thoroughfare through the old city that follows the course of the ancient Roman Via Recta (Straight Street). It was in a house on this street that Ananias found Saul after Saul’s miraculous conversion to Christianity just outside Damascus. (Acts 9:10-19) While the street is far different today from what it was in Roman times, it is here that the apostle Paul began his outstanding career. Straight Street ends at the Roman Bab-Sharqi gate. The city walls, with houses perched atop, help us to understand how Paul was able to escape by being lowered down in a basket through an opening in the wall.​—Acts 9:23-25; 2 Corinthians 11:32, 33.

[Pictures on page 24]

Damascus (below) and Straight Street (above)