HANS — FIRST HOTELS OF THE ARAB WORLD

Abstract

Khans, being among the oldest guest houses in the world, also being the unique objects of cultural and historical heritage in the Middle East, are considered in this article. Author takes Syria and its khans as the example. Author emphasizes the importance of Syrian cultural heritage coverage due to the fact that insufficient attention is paid to it in the western countries. The novelty of the article consist of in the fact that the information presented, collected on the basis of sites in Arabic, is unique and practically isn’t studied in Russia. Meanwhile, the theses presented in the article are true due to the fact that the author of the article relied not only on official information of Arab countries, but also on his own observations, living most of his life in Syria.