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Chinese antiques have long held fascination in the west. In fact, the oldest continually settled city in the world, Damascus, was for 7,000 years the natural western terminus of the fabled Silk Route to the Orient. Merchants from Egypt and north into modern Turkey or west into Greece would have gathered at Damascus, which had valley routes past burning deserts and high mountain passes all the way to China. In Damascus was crafted woven Damask from raw silk from faraway Cathay, or China, the only source of this mystery product none others could duplicate.