The battered face of utter Doom

Is any place in the news as much as the Syrian city of Douma, which perhaps deserves to be re-spelt as Doom-a? It shouldn't happen, but tragedy is so common here and so unimaginable that the

moment the city is mentioned on the news yawns are probably inspired in the UK, right across Europe, and maybe most of the world.

The city is referred to day after day, and the likely mental picture for most of us will be of some small place, busy as a Western city, with lots of evidence of bombings, and blown up cars strewn about, and too many desperate people.

Probably not having television is the reason I haven't seen images of the real Douma until today.

I put aside the manuscript I'm working on, deciding this morning to learn something of this tragic name on BBC radio.

Neighbouring the capital

I looked at Google Maps to see its situation in that large map of Syria. What a surprise to find that it is so close to Damascus – just over 10 kilometres to the North East.

I clicked from the map of Syria, switching to photos of the city of Douma. I was shocked utterly by the devastation, so much of a mighty city crushed and smashed.

It's hard to believe from the photos that Douma's population is just 110,000, which is not great in British city terms.

However, the extensive ruins show how amazing it is that there's any population at all.

In one way I can't recommend it, but do look at this ... Continues on the blogs for my ocean adventure book, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com