Supper on a Roof Above the Citadel

We start at the Citadel gate ninety minutes before sunset, walk the Temple of Hercules and the Umayyad palace, and watch the whole valley below switch its lights on at more or less the same minute. Then we go down the hill on foot to a family flat under the walls, where dinner is cooked in the kitchen you are standing in: maqluba turned out of the pot at the table, stuffed courgettes, three salads, and a tray of knafeh we carry up warm from Balad. The practical bits. The flat is a fourth-floor walk-up with no lift and the stairs are steep - tell us before you book if that rules you out and we will move you to the ground-floor family instead. The roof is glorious in May and genuinely cold from November to March; bring a jacket, we bring blankets. Citadel closing times move with the season, so your start time shifts by up to an hour across the year. And the mosque below is close enough that conversation stops for four minutes at the evening call to prayer. Most people decide that is a feature.