Dier-Ez-Zur, Dura Europos, and Mari

November 16th-18th

<16th>

We got into Dier-Ez-Zur pretty late last night. We checked into a reasonable hotel. The rooms were ok apart from someone had white-washed the the bedroom walls in some chalk based paint. We got it all over our rucksacks. What was immediately apparent when we got here was the complete lack of European tourists, which was very nice. The other thing I noticed straight off was the people were so friendly and so genuine. We went out exploring in the evening armed with our lonely planet; we opted for a Russian restaurant on the banks of the Euphrates. I think maybe it was launched into space to join the Mir space-station at some point; either that or the people writing this book never actually visited this town at all. There was a suspension bridge leading over the Euphrates as the book said. However on the far side there was no sign, nor indeed any remnants, of any Russian restaurant. We met a nice chap from Damascus who helped us hunt high and low for said restaurant. In the end we all had to give up. We ended up back by the hotel starving to death after walking around everywhere. We ate in a local cafe which was really good. No beer though. I was gagging for one; I am still finding it hard to shake off the stereotypical English lager swilling image. Burp!

17th Morn...

This morning started off well. Incredibly well in fact. We were woken up by someone banging a pipe. They were pretty keen on banging this pipe (and also pretty good at it), and proceeded to thwack it thus from about 7am to 8:30am. I have no idea what they achieved by doing this; apart from driving us batshit. But whatever they were attempting to do, I admire their dedication.

Although I desperately wanted to stay curled up in bed and listen to the sadistic pipe-banger all morning, we wanted to see two historical sites today: Dura Europos, and Mari. So we upped and out pretty early. We grabbed a load of fruit in the market, cheese, bread, and olives, from the bakers. I paid a mad old woman 5p for a huge bunch of, what I thought was, coriander but turned out to be flat parsley. We then got a Sharwarma and headed up to the bus station.

It was a beautiful sunny day and Dier-Ez-Zur was teeming and bustling with people. We got to the bus station and were promptly shunted off to the Tourist police who decided they were very interested in where we were going; probably as it took us right to the Iraqii border. We were made sit in the police office whilst the local constanbularly took absolutely no interest in us or our passports. We began to realise we were in for a long morning. Another bunch of guys came in, one looking like a character straight out of a James Bond movie with a glass eye and a huge trench coat, and began to question us. I was just beginning to think there is going to be an expensive largess involved here when two Slovenian guys came in kicking up a huge fuss because the police were detaining them. This was pretty fortuitous for us as we were just sitting around chilling out and being quiet. They were pretty cool guys but they were breaking one of the golden tenets of travelling: never, ever, give anyone a heap of shit, who a) in a position of authority and b) has cock all else to do for the whole day other than to make your life difficult. The police soon lost interest in us and started interrogating the Slovenians so we jumped on a servise to Abu Kamal. We were heading firstly to the archaeological site of Dura Europos aka Tell Selhiye.

Dura Europos is another one of Syria's hidden gems. Stuck out in the back of beyond, with almost no visitors poking their head's in, it is a Hellenistic/Roman fortress city, much of which is still undergoing large-scale excavations. The Seleucids founded Europos on the site of other settlements in approx 280BC taking also the Assyrian name of Dura - meaning fort. The city was built along an plateau that ends in a sheer 90metre wall that overlooks the Euphrates which provided a great natural defense. The Parthians claimed the city in 128BC and remained under their control until the Romans re-took it in AD165. Along with the mighty Palmyra, the city was integrated into an armormentarium of Roman frontier fortifications to keep the Persian empire at bay.

One of the the most fascinating things about Syria is the continuum, and harmony, of different cultures and religions. It is very much apparent in Christian and Muslim worship and you will often see Mosques and Churches juxtaposed in the same area. But historically, in places such as Dura Europos, you can see evidence of Roman temples, Greek Deities, Parthian altars, synagogues, and mosques side-by-side.

We got the driver to stop and let us off on the roadside as it was another 1km walk to the site. It was only when we alighted from the bus we realised how completely in the middle of nowhere we were. It was quite an interesting feeling being stuck in the back-of-beyond. As we hiked toward the site two guys in a 4x4 stopped and kindly gave us a lift. The ticket office tout was openly shocked to see tourists at the site. He was even more shocked to discover we were British. We soon realised why when we entered the site as we had the entire place to ourselves. Well, I say to ourselves. We did have to share it with a couple of thousand flies. They were quite friendly little insects though, and spent most of the time flying around my head. At one point I could barely even see there were so many of them. We sat down and tucked into the food we bought. It was pretty bland, but starving fat b*stards cannot be choosers, so we made do.

After lunch we spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering around this wonderful site. The edition of the lonely planet we have is probably 4 or 5 years out in some places. So places like Dura Europos are mentioned in passing, with maybe a half a paragraph dedicated to it. The reality is the site is expansive, virtually unvisited by European tourists, and so much fun to explore. Many of the temples are still being excavated and just the foundations remain. as you walk through the ruins you approach the edge of the fortress and you discover that an entire new area has been excavated on the east side of the city. Not only this but further to the North-East is the remains of the new citadel. You can climb up inside of here and get a gobsmacking view over the Euphrates; if you can get the flies out of your face for two minutes that is.

We were quite tired, and quite hot, after this, but we decided to push on to Mari - Tell Hariri as the Syrians know it. Unfortunately, like so many eastern archaeological sites, it is even more in the middle of nowhere than Dura Europos. So we had to hitch. We got a lift surprisingly quickly. Ok, the lift was in a ten ton oil-tanker, but it was still quicker than walking. The driver was a very chilled out guy. He was on his way to Iraq. He was also a ginga. It is surprising how many red-headed people we have met in Syria. It could not have been an influx of those virtuous crusader types - as we all know them to be paragons of chastity and decency.. so it is a wonder where they came from. Maybe Genghis Khan was secretly of the carrottesque persuasion. That would explain the hat... Our erstwhile driver and host hammered it through the Syrian desert, passing through peaceful and idyllic towns and villages, beeping and waving at several people on the way. It was a very relaxing, if not surreal, sojourn in the truck on the way to Mari, perched it the cabin of a vehicle that wouldn't have looked out of place on the set of a Mad-Max film.

We got a little worried at one point that we may have over shot so we tried to confirm with our driver. He happily confirmed that we were just about to cross the border into Iraq. It transpired he was just messing with us, and he was pretty amused to see the look on our faces. it is good to see how humour is universal; oh how we guffawed!

He dropped us at the site and said he'd pick us up at 5pm if we were around to take us back. We hiked the kilometer or so up to Mari to find the friendly gentlemen with the 4x4 sitting in the tent taking in the afternoon air. It was nice to see the Syrian government taking such an interest in our welfare.

Mari was once a vibrant Mesopotamian city dating back to 3000BC and lies 10km north of Abu Kamal. The site has remains of the city from various dates around this time, however the most important excavations going on are of the palace of Zimri-Lim, the eponymously entitled palace of the ruler who reigned in the 18th Century BC. Mari was the focal point of the most important trade routes across Syria and into Mesopotamia. Even in ancient times, the royal temple was vast, measuring 200m by 120m with over 300 rooms. There is a French team of archaeologists currently working on the site and the entire temple has been placed undercover to protect it from the elements. The city was destroyed in 1758BC by the Babylonians. Until this time it stood, and was occupied, for well over a millennium. One of the main unique points of interest, of this site, is the ceramics that have been uncovered in and around it. Most of these have been swiped to be put on display in Damascus, and in the Louvre. To the north east of the palace lies the remains of domestic houses, several other temples and a ziggurat - a kind of Mesopotamian pyramid.

This was by no means the most aesthetically stimulating site I have ever visited, however Syria, I am beginning to realise, has so many unexploited and exciting places to explore, that are not overrun with streams of tourists, driving each other, and you, nuts. It brought to my mind the poem, by Shelley: Ozymandias. King of Kings! For anyone that has ever been to Egypt It is something much more apropos to the majesty and splendour, and of course the decline, of such an ancient civilization. But out here on the perimeter, there isn't two or three thousand other people. Out here there is just you, and the desert. As we made to leave Mari, the sun was just setting over the desert. It was a pretty amazing sunset and we got some great pictures.

OZYMANDIAS
I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,

Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,

The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains: round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

We trekked back to the main road, and to our great surprise, we found the lovely Syrian government guys, who insisted on securing us a lift back to Deir-Ez-Zur. They were so insistent, that they stuck on us on a servise and left two old ladies - who'd been hitching since before us - standing on the roadside so we could get on; I think they wanted to avoid any diplomatic incidents on the border.

We got back into Dier-Ez-Zur and naively, and somewhat optimistically, went hunting for what the Lonely Planet described as the 'best kebab in Syria'. Yup. We had all the fun trying to find that place. I think we walked over 2K out of town looking for it. No. It wasn't there. Marcus actually wanted to continue. neither was the bar. Oh no. No chance me old china plate. That was right out. My feet were also right out at that point. We did stumble on a fantastic restaurant though, that served pretty good kebabs and Amistal beer. Result!