GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

In War-Torn Syria, It's Business as Usual

Charles Glass

Board of Contributors

Apr 26, 2017 | 08:00 GMT

In War-Torn Syria, It's Business as Usual

Resurrecting the Hotel Semiramis will require a makeover in public relations as much as engineering.

(JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images)

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Blue cloth, stretched like the fabric in which Christo enfolded Berlin's Reichstag, swaddles a six-story building in central Damascus. Inside, the shell of an old hotel awaits its rebirth. When the Hotel Semiramis opened in 1952, its owners advertised it as "the newest hotel in the world's oldest city." Sixty-five years later, within earshot of artillery and mortar fire on Damascus' outskirts, new owners are betting on a prosperous future for the hotel and the country....

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