Cafes
Cafes, where only coffee, tea and water are served, are a real institution in Syria as was the case long ago in many European cities when men liked to spend time with friends and street neighbors.
Instead of cards the social game played mostly isbackgammon, a game which may very lively and as full of suspense as chess. As you may have guessed, it is the best place to observe and be observed. In these congenial places, crowds of passers-by are scruted by people wearing the Keffiyeh or the Tarboosh and water-pipe (Hubbell bubble) fans, sphinxes without enigmas but not without mystery, so absorbed they are by their dreams, caused, or not, by their harmless tobacco. In Syria this very monopolized occupation of watching other people is needless to say, exclusively masculine.