Palmyra, The Bride of the Desert
Trip Start
Jul 03, 2007
1
20
33
Trip End
??? ??, 2009
Palmyra, Syria
Monday, October 15, 2007
I will start by giving a brief history lesson.
Palmyra is located in the centre of Syria and is Syria's most famous tourist attraction. It is an oasis and was centrally located for trade between Persia, Asia, India as well as Greece and Rome. The caravans of old met in Palmyra (called Tadmor by the Arabs) and the city became a centre of unsurpassed wealth. Palmyra's most famous resident was the Queen Zenobia who claimed descent from Cleopatra. She ruled(after the suspicious death of her husband) in 267 AD for 7 fabulous years but was too ambitious and in her zeal to conquer no less than Rome, she met defeat. Many peoples ruled after Zenobia, including the Romans, Byzantines, Muslims and was eventually completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1089.
We started out tour at the monumental arch which is believed to have been erected in 200 AD.
Once you enter you are in the great collanade which is certainly impressive. South of the arch is the city's theatre which was only recently excavated in the 1950's and due to being under sand for thousands of years, is in amazing good shape.
The senate is virtually gone except for the 4 pillars on each corner and is quite small compared with the agora or the temple.
The agora is huge! One can only imagine the trade that took place here over the centuries.
The funerary was also impressive. There are huge tombs for the very rich which not only housed the family but the servants as well who would be there to take care of them in the afterlife.
There are also underground tombs which could house up to 300 bodies. Interestingly the tombs underground are very slender so they used to put the bodies in sideways! The one we visited is called the Hypogeum of the Three Brothers and has wonderful frescos but we were not able to photograph in here and there were two restoration artists at work.
The Temple of Bel was the most impressive and best preserved of the ruins. It was dedicated to a divinity of Babylonian origin. Bel was the top god but there are two other gods of note, Yarhibol and Aglibol (god of sun and god of moon). There are statues and bas-relief dedicated to these gods that date from 32 AD.
On April 6th every years since BC! there is a sacrifice to the god Bel.
There is a castle overlooking Palmyra which looks quite impressive and is empty but for the fortress walls. Most people go up here to take pictures of the sunset of Palmyra.
That completes my historical analysis. Now I will tell you of our personal experience.
We started off from home about 8am with full enthusiasm. Once we left the city the kids fell asleep as the view of endless desert is quite uneventful. We stopped for tea at the Bagdad Cafe as do most people who travel to Palmyra. It is a funky touristy shop with quite wonderful bathroom facilities...clean for potties on the floor. I was tres impressed! We are also truly in the desert now. Nothing but sand and scrub to be seen. After travelling another hour or so we entered Palmyra. This is obvious by the huge palm trees. We are entering an oasis that millions before us in time have entered quite happily!
We checked in to our hotel which was almost in the ruins! It is such a shock to the system to drive up to a wonderful hotel on one side of the street and ruins from BC on the other! I don't think I was able to pick my jaw up from the sidewalk all weekend!
We met out guide at 4pm at the hotel. We were all disappointed to find out that camels and their drivers had been banned from the ruins site for the three days of Eid! We took our tour but just before sunset a sand storm brew which totally obscured any photo ops of one of the most photographed sunsets in the world. Bummer!
We headed into the town to shop. Grace bought a wonderful sand sculpture that was made onsite, for Jodie. Sandy bought the gruesome Roman headgear as seen in photo. That will be a dust collector in our life but he was happy!
I made a great point of telling Bruce that I bought nothing!!!
But truth be told I found a wonderful item which was too expensive to purchase without further investigation.
Once a Palmyrian lady gets engaged she starts to make a wedding cloth for her husband. It is batik squares which are elaborately decorated to show off her sewing skills. She presents the cloth upon marriage hence the name "wedding cloth". They are so beautiful. I want one to put behind glass for a fabric art piece. But I didn't buy into the "special price for you madam!" etc. I have lots of time to select the piece I want.
Since we were robbed of our sunset due to a sandstorm, I was keen to get up for sunrise but I was the only one.
I got up at 5am and dressed as warmly as I could (as the wind had been howling all night). I reconfirmed with Bruce that he truly was not joining me....he said that was correct but wished me well.
I went out into the darkness of night to see a party of 10 heading out on camels???? The camel driver approached me and told me he had two camels available! I promptly ran back to the hotel to rouse the troups! No takers!
I skulked back to the camel driver to thank him for holding the two camels and he said, no problem (he spoke incredible English) would I like to go anyway? Hell yeah!
So, I found myself at 5:30am in the Palmyrian ruins....alone with a camel driver and camel!!! There was no one else there!! The party of 10 had left the ruins and were gone from sight.Imagine being the only tourist in such a site! Mohamed had to gear me up with more scarves due to the sandstorm and the sunrise was slightly obscured but.....the experience was incomparable.
When I returned to the hotel Mohamed told me that he would be available for my kids with camels but I had to meet him behind the walls of the ruins, in the oasis, if I would like! I booked him for 9am!
I returned to the hotel and ordered up a Syrian desert coffee in the lobby. Wow, this stuff should be analyzed! The coffee is brewed for about 10 hours and has cardamon in it. It has the consistency of mud but is quite enjoyable to drink and is extremely energizing!
I went to our room to tell Bruce about the wonderful experience I just had while he was sleeping, truly a snooze ya loose situation. He was thrilled for me! We woke the kids (in the room across the hall) and said get your butts in gear! We have camels to ride at 9am!
They loved it!
Sandy rode a camel who had won 10,000 Euros at the camel races the previous summer. (Add camel racing on the list of things to see). Grace was a bit skiddish on her camel. But she hung on tight...maybe too tight as she got 2 blisters on her hands. We all had fun. Bruce opted out on the camel riding this time but he enjoyed watching us.
We said our goodbyes to Mohamed. His mobile number is in my phone now as he has offered to put together a few days of camel riding into the desert or mountains where we will ride during the morning and evening and stay in Bedouin tents at night. Sounds great!
We toured the Museum, The Valley of Tombs and the Temple of Bel during the day and left Palmyra for our three hour drive home.
Sandy is very pleased with his Roman headgear and will be wearing it with toga to his Halloween party. Grace has pefected the Bedouin scarf roll. Bruce and I are up on Corinthian, Doric and Ionic architecture!
There is no active dig at Palmyra at present but there is so much more to be discovered. The Palace of Queen Zenobia is still under sand. It is truly an amazing site and we will return. Perhaps for the sacrifice on April 6th or for the camel races or for a two day adventure on camels??? (OK, perhaps this idea is a tad bit ambitious)
Happy trails!
