Palmyra exploring the ruins

November 19th

I really must give up drinking 12% beer...

A little history:

The ancient city of Palmyra is one of Syria's must see places of antiquity. Not only for its superb archaeological ruins of the Roman city that once stood here, but also because it boasts one of the largest, and most complete, temples in the Middle East: The temple of Bel.

Palmyra was, and still is, also known as Tadmor - the modern Hebrew name for this place. This title gives some clue to its history. The ancient city of Tadmore is referred to in the bible [in Chronicles 8:4 to be exact] and was thought to have been built by king Solomon himself. It has been further traced back to Babylonian tablets in the ancient city of Mari (see earlier blog) where it had the pre-Semitic name of Tadmur or Tadmor. The exact etymology of the word is a little uncertain but the Semitic name appears to be a corruption of this. The name Palmyra itself is of Greek origin - it means city of palms.

It was an important centre for trade in the network of cities that allowed merchants to travel between Persia and the Mediterranean. The Seleucids left the city mainly to itself, during their conquest of the Syria in 323BC. It grew and flourished independently for the next four centuries... until the Romans turned up. Being the historical equivalent of the Borg from StarTrek, the Romans immediately marched on Palmyra to occupy it. Interestingly enough, the Palmyrenes got word of this ahead of time and buggered off over the Euphrates. This kind of indicates that, at this time, most of the city was nomadic and could be removed and decamped at short notice! This was short lived though, and in the early part of the 1st century AD Palmyra became a Roman province, it retained a great deal of independence though, and its denizens enjoyed a very liberal rule under the Empire. In 121AD Hadrian named it Palmyra Hadriana and declared it a free city. This meant the citizens did not have to pay imperial taxes and also enjoyed equal status as Romans did. Life was good and trade prospered. Power shifted here in the 3rd century AD as the Sassanids, from the Persian empire, began to threaten Syria, and occupied the Tigris and the Euphrates. This led to a series of power struggles for control of the city which culminated in Queen Zenobia taking the throne in place of her assassinated husband, Odaenathus, [by his lovely, caring, nephew], Zenobia was quite some Queen. She was purported to be descended from Cleopatra, and equal do her in beauty, although she did not apparently share her appetite for sexual deviance. She was loved and admired greatly by her people, and during her reign created and extended the Palmyene Empire across Syria, nearly as far as Egypt itself.

The Romans were not too happy about this arrangement, and more than a little suspicious of Odaenathus's untimely decease. So they kicked off. Zenobia responded by giving it a bit of large and thus a brief war ensued. The Romans, of course, won. They besieged the city, and finally defeated Zenobia. Emperor Aurelien had her carted off to Rome as a trophy in golden chains, however it is believed she spent her remaining years as a predominant figure in Roman society -so her punishment didn't sound all that bad.

For the remaining Palmyrenes things didn't work out so well. The city was placed under martial law and became a barracks for the Roman legions in Syria. They were still more than a bit miffed and staged a rebellion in 372AD. Most of the inhabitants were massacred and the city was torched. Diocletion further expanded its fortifications but the city itself fell into ruins. In 636AD it fell to the Muslims under Khalid ibn Walid. A fortress was built above the ancient city it was used as a base for several centuries. It was finally abandoned in 1089AD after an earthquake, and it was left desolate until in the 17th century it was discovered to western history by two English merchants. It was not until the 1920s that large scale excavations began to take place. Work is still continuing today.

To access the ruins one simply walks out of town. There is no entry fee to the site itself - although certain areas within the ancient city charge an entrance fee. The main areas are distinctly divided into the Roman city, the temple of Bel, and the valley of the tombs. The Palmyrenes shared the same fascination and passion in funerary rites as their near by neighbours, the Egyptians: indeed mummification was also practiced in Palmyra. We decided to spend the first day exploring the Roman city. It was a cloudy day, which was unfortunate, as I imagine the ruins look ever more so spectacular in the sunshine, however in a converse fashion the cloud lent an ominous feel to the whole site which made it even more exciting to explore. The walk from the town took no time at all. Rather than being normal, we decided to take a roundabout route which took us to the outskirts of the site along the perimeter wall and then down to the end of the great colonnaded street. This took us to the opposite end of the Temple of Bel. To the camp of Diocletions, the Principia, and the temple of Allat, all in the shadow of the ever-watchful Qala'at Ibn Maan.

From here you can climb the watchtower and experience the amazing view along the decumanus. We then walked through the temple of Allat and onto the decumanus itself. Once on the ancient street you can begin to get a proper idea of just how vast this place was in its prime. Here we were hassled by a family of Bedouins. Bedouins are knights of the desert; renowned for their unsurpassed hospitality. Unfortunately this lot were just after your cash and we spent 10mins trying to get rid of kids who were trying to pickpocketed us.

We walked east along the decumanus, pausing to explore the Byzanine churches and the funerary temple. It is quite a walk down to the crossroads, where the famous tetrapylon stands: one of the most photographed sites in Palmyra. From here you can strike north to the nymphaeum (no, it's not where the nymphos used to live), and the temple of Baal-Shamin; or south to the Senate house, the theatre, and the agora.

We spent a good while lost amongst these amazing ruins before rejoining the massive Corinthian street that was leading down to the monumental arch. The view from this archway back along the colonnaded street is breathtaking. It is as though the whole city could at any moment become a bustling and lively place, full of merchants, traders, nomads, and soldiers from nearly two millennia ago.

After this we were pretty knackered, but we decided to push on and explore the Temple of Bel before sunset. This required an entrance fee but is well worth it. The temple is dedicated to the its namesake, a Babylonian God, the Romans knew him as Jupiter, and he was Zeus to the Greeks.

the Temple is enormous and in very good nick. Inside much of the excavations have been focused on the central enclosure, although to the west there is also altars and sunken porticoes. Around the outside of the perimeter enclosure was once a double colonnaded row of Corinthian columns. Many of the ones adorning the eastern wall have been recreated. It is a superb temple its magnificence still shines out even though it is much diminished from its days of glory.

night was beginning to fall by the time we left. We walked into town and bumped into Jules once more. Jules, you may recall, was the guy we met in Aleppo. He was with an eclectic party of travellers from Australia, Denmark, Switzerland, Korea, and Slovenia. We arranged to go out for a beer with them later on.

The later on beer turned out to be traditional Bedouin food in a restaurant in town. It was delicious and we followed it up with beer and nargile in the Pancake house. We were introduced to all of the party, some who we grew to know us friends, including the wickedly funny Katie, and the very funky Per.

I really must give up smoking nargile.