November 20th.
I really must give up smoking crack...
The other people we met the day before got up at sunrise to visit the ruins. Not really being that insane just yet, we instead got up about 11am and went to visit the valley of the tombs. These are run as guided tours. You can only go at certain times because the museum has the keys. They are pretty big keys and the keymiester carries them around with him on the tour. It was handy that he was in our taxi. We seconded the mini-bus taxi from a group of Germans that had come down from Aleppo for the day to visit the tombs. The key-meister came with us. As did Jules, Katie, and Jussinta.
We first headed off to the tower of Elahbel, this is four storey multi-tombed
edifice - located south of the city wall. I mentioned the Palmyrenes were very obsessed with death. Well they created large tombs for their deceased loved ones containing Sarcophagi. Actually to be specific, they created large multi-tombs. Tombs contained loculi: these were areas in the wall (not unlike a morgue) where sarcophagi could be slotted in, in vertical rows, the front of these sarcophagi were then decorated with pictures of the deceased (cash permitting) showin them acting out scenes from their life.
The view from the tower was amazing. I never used to mind heights as a kid, but I got a little freaked out by them in later life. However being in Syria has desensetised me somewhat. On top of this mutha, you can walk round the perimeter and look 30 metres straight down. Jessenta and I took each others pictures on the top on the corner. I was still not too happy about being so close to the edge.
We got chatting to a guy from Tunisia doing his PhD in archaeology in Paris. He was a cool dude and a great source of information on the sites we were seeing,
We headed off next to the Hypogeum of the three brothers, dodging the kaffiye selling locals we headed down to explore this tomb from AD 160-191. (that's the tomb not us). They didn't allow cameras in so I haven't got many pics from there. Katie snapped some sneaky ones though. The tomb gives a great insight into the importance of the funerary ritual in Palmyrene times. There are paintings containing many Hellenistic and Roman influences on the walls - using ancient stories and Gods from both cultures. The evil eye is shown there also, as is the ubiquitous blue sky with yellow stars as you see in so many byzantine depictions of heaven. Ridah, as was his name, also explained why so many of the faces on the sarchophagi and busts have noses, or faces, or heads missing. I originally thought the missing heads were from grave robbers, but it turns out that they were a result of Muslems defacing them [you may or may not know that Islam is a non-iconic religion: It does not condone the use of iconic depictions of God or of the prophets] well by defacing the Roman, Greek, and Christian, Gods, they were destroying the life force; the breath. In fact, many statues simply had the nose removed [you can see this everywhere in the Middle East and North Africa] as this was thought to be adequate to destroy the breath.
After this we trotted on home and I arranged to meet the other's to go to the Museum a bit later. Both Marcus and I had been ill at various times in Syria and Marcus was pretty bad today. He went to bed and I went to the Museum but missed the others. I spent a pleasant hour ambling around it. The mummies were well worth seeing as were the statuettes. Most of the information was in French, which I read better then I speak, so I muddled through.
After this I got dragooned into a taxi to take in the sunset from Qala'at Ibn Mann in a Taxi with Ridah, Katie, and Per. I did point out there was a storm going on but it didn't seem to matter much. So I found myself on a hill, in a storm, freezing my arse off, approximately around sunset. It got dark and then we went back and got drunk and smoked Nargile.
I really must give up pretending I have any self-discipline..
I really must give up smoking crack...
The other people we met the day before got up at sunrise to visit the ruins. Not really being that insane just yet, we instead got up about 11am and went to visit the valley of the tombs. These are run as guided tours. You can only go at certain times because the museum has the keys. They are pretty big keys and the keymiester carries them around with him on the tour. It was handy that he was in our taxi. We seconded the mini-bus taxi from a group of Germans that had come down from Aleppo for the day to visit the tombs. The key-meister came with us. As did Jules, Katie, and Jussinta.
We first headed off to the tower of Elahbel, this is four storey multi-tombed
edifice - located south of the city wall. I mentioned the Palmyrenes were very obsessed with death. Well they created large tombs for their deceased loved ones containing Sarcophagi. Actually to be specific, they created large multi-tombs. Tombs contained loculi: these were areas in the wall (not unlike a morgue) where sarcophagi could be slotted in, in vertical rows, the front of these sarcophagi were then decorated with pictures of the deceased (cash permitting) showin them acting out scenes from their life.The view from the tower was amazing. I never used to mind heights as a kid, but I got a little freaked out by them in later life. However being in Syria has desensetised me somewhat. On top of this mutha, you can walk round the perimeter and look 30 metres straight down. Jessenta and I took each others pictures on the top on the corner. I was still not too happy about being so close to the edge.
We got chatting to a guy from Tunisia doing his PhD in archaeology in Paris. He was a cool dude and a great source of information on the sites we were seeing,
We headed off next to the Hypogeum of the three brothers, dodging the kaffiye selling locals we headed down to explore this tomb from AD 160-191. (that's the tomb not us). They didn't allow cameras in so I haven't got many pics from there. Katie snapped some sneaky ones though. The tomb gives a great insight into the importance of the funerary ritual in Palmyrene times. There are paintings containing many Hellenistic and Roman influences on the walls - using ancient stories and Gods from both cultures. The evil eye is shown there also, as is the ubiquitous blue sky with yellow stars as you see in so many byzantine depictions of heaven. Ridah, as was his name, also explained why so many of the faces on the sarchophagi and busts have noses, or faces, or heads missing. I originally thought the missing heads were from grave robbers, but it turns out that they were a result of Muslems defacing them [you may or may not know that Islam is a non-iconic religion: It does not condone the use of iconic depictions of God or of the prophets] well by defacing the Roman, Greek, and Christian, Gods, they were destroying the life force; the breath. In fact, many statues simply had the nose removed [you can see this everywhere in the Middle East and North Africa] as this was thought to be adequate to destroy the breath.
After this we trotted on home and I arranged to meet the other's to go to the Museum a bit later. Both Marcus and I had been ill at various times in Syria and Marcus was pretty bad today. He went to bed and I went to the Museum but missed the others. I spent a pleasant hour ambling around it. The mummies were well worth seeing as were the statuettes. Most of the information was in French, which I read better then I speak, so I muddled through.
After this I got dragooned into a taxi to take in the sunset from Qala'at Ibn Mann in a Taxi with Ridah, Katie, and Per. I did point out there was a storm going on but it didn't seem to matter much. So I found myself on a hill, in a storm, freezing my arse off, approximately around sunset. It got dark and then we went back and got drunk and smoked Nargile.
I really must give up pretending I have any self-discipline..
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