2006.05.14_Palmyra

Photos: Tetrapylon, Funerary Temple, Funerary Temple and Citadel beyond, Theatre, Monumental Arch and Colonnade Street.

We get up 05:30 in the morning, and left Citadel Hotel at 06:00. We spent about three hours to tour the ruins in the morning sun. Named "Bride of the Desert", Palmyra lies on an ancient desert trade route between Homs in the west and Dura-Europos in the east. From Homs merchants could go further west to Tyre, a large port city at today's Lebanon with all sort of trade routes in the Mediterranean; and from Dura-Europos, the trade route ran eastern along the Euphrates, passing by cities in the Mesopotamia such as Babylon, then to the Persian Gulf, where access to the Indian Ocean and China could be made. Palmyra gained significance after the Nabatean Empire collapsed in AD 106, when earlier trading usually went through the southern routes across Arabia and converged at Petra before reaching the Mediterranean. In the first century AD, Palmyra became part of the Roman Empire and one of the wealthiest cities in Near East. However by mid third century, as the Sassanid Empire emerged in the lands of Persia and beyond, and disrupted trading along the Silk Road, Palmyra's fortunate turned to a gradual decline.

We left the ruins at 08:45, and headed to the post office to mail out some postcards. We dropped by the Palmyra Museum to see the mummies, and headed over to the storefront of Pancake House to wait for our prearranged transportation that would send us to the closest bus station. To much of our surprise a pickup truck came instead of a mini-van. So we all sat down at the back of the pickup truck for the 5-minute journey in the Syria desert. The truck took us to a local tea-house. Nothing here resembled a bus station, but it was the right place where we hopped on the regional bus that bounded to the Syrian capital Damascus. After about 3.5 hours we finally arrived at the renowned Middle Eastern city of Damascus.

2006.05.13_Palmyra Funeral Towers and Temple of Bel

At around 14:30 we finally arrived at Palmyra, the famous desert oasis of magnificent ruins from the time dated back to Alexander the Great. We checked in at Citadel Hotel. The staff asked if we wanted to hire a car to visit the tomb towers, and we agreed. We stepped out to the nearby Pancake House to get some snack. Later we found out that there was supposed to be student discount for the transportation. We asked the hotel staff again at Citadel and after some bargaining he finally agreed to offer us discount. At the village museum we bought the tickets for the tomb towers, and then the six of us squeezed into a small red car for the tombs.

Our hired guide from the museum waited for us at the entrance of one tower tomb. He told us some history, and unlocked the door of a well preserved tower for our visit. Many towers in the valley are badly damaged by earthquakes throughout the centuries. The one we visited was a rare exception. Inside we could see the slots on the walls where coffins were once placed. We walked up to the third level, saw many sculptural portraits of the deceased, beautiful and colourful fresco of stars and constellations on the ceiling. After, we visited an underground tomb in which fresco is still well preserved. I can recognized scenes of the Trojan War with Achilles and Odysseus on one of the fresco. Tower tombs at Palmyra are unique examples of Classical necropolis. Some tower tombs can be dated back to the Hellenistic period. Inside there is a narrow staircase that can reach several floors high. Dead bodies were placed on landings and sealed with a sculptural portrait. Some of the larger towers could hold up to 400 corpses.

After the tombs, we had a moment to visit the Temple of Bel. It is the single largest building in Palmyra, and one of the largest temple complex in the Classical world. Bel was the main god of Babylon. The temple was erected in the first century, with influences from various roots from Classical Greece and Rome, Ptolemaic Egypt, to Syria itself. We bumped into the previous guide again, and he told us some brief information about the temple. We walked through the main gate into a huge courtyard that was once surrounded by Corinthian colonnades. At the centre stands the ruin of the Sanctuary of Bel, where we could admire some detail relief carving.

At last, our little red car drove us up to the citadel behind the ruins of Palmyra, where we could watch the sunset. Nothing spectacular but it was a decent way to end the day. In the evening we headed back to Pancake House again for dinner.