The main public square of modern Damascus, just west of the Old City walls. Marjeh ("Meadow") was the gateway between the Ottoman administrative quarter and the medieval city, and is still a busy crossroads of buses, taxis and cheap hotels.
The bronze column in the centre is the Telegraph Column, commemorating the laying of the telegraph line from Damascus to Mecca. The surrounding square has occasionally been the scene of executions and large political demonstrations — its alternative name "Martyrs' Square" recalls the Ottoman hanging of Syrian and Lebanese nationalists here in 1916. Useful as a navigation point rather than a destination, with the Hijaz railway station ten minutes to the south.