Further Wanderings

After a disappointingly hasty exit from Deir ez Zur, we were on our way to Palmyra.  Right out in the middle of the desert, this Roman era city is one of, if not THE tourist highlight of Syria.  Constructed in front of a huge oasis, the ruins of Palmyra are truly amongst the most impressive in the world.

We were planning on making it part of a larger entry, but Palmyra is just SO photogenic that we needed to give it its own, if only so we could include as many pictures as we wanted to without completely overwhelming everything else.  Thus, we have an entry pretty much entirely dedicated to photos of Palmyra.

 

Palmyra’s Monumental Arch and part of the grand collonade.

Most (though not quite all) of the ancient city of Palmyra… Hopefully this, combined with the fact that we spent over two days wandering around, gives some idea of the scale of the place. 

Sunset from a hilltop behind the city (we enjoyed three sunsets and, believe it or not, woke up for two sunrises while at Palmyra)

The prevalent life forms in old Palmyra these days are black beetles like these (similar to the Darkling beetles of the southwest US.  I’ve just learned that there are over 20 000 species of darkling beetle, so it’s quite plausable that they’re related.)

The Monumental Arch and collonade by night.  A few select parts of the HUGE complex of ruins are illuminated in the evening.

Spot the castle!  The 12th century arab fortress is there somewhere amongst the classical ruins.  (Hint:  As in Cappadocia, Turkey, we had some pretty windy, dusty weather in Palmyra.)

A rather longer stretch of the grand collonade.  You’ll notice that in this and most other photos there’s not a person to be seen.  Outside of Friday, when many Syrian families had picnic days out amongst the ruins, old Palmyra was frequently empty.  This hasn’t stopped new Palmyra (or at least the part of it that most visitors see) becoming very tourist oriented, with the usual hotels, restaurants and souvenier shops lining the two main streets nearest the ruins, their proprietors constantly encouraging potential patrons to come in and have a cup of tea.

Columns and funerary towers in the background.  There are over 300 tower-type tombs in varying states of preservation in the valleys and hills surrounding the old city.

One of the approximately 3000 gardens in Palmyra’s oasis.  From afar they appear to contain only date palms and olive trees, but pomegranates, figs, grapes, lemons and herbs can also be found growing within.  Each garden is walled and tended to by one family, so they’re not always easy to get a close look at.  Fortunately we happened upon a very friendly gentleman who invited us to have a look at his.  Following the tour of the garden he encouraged us to sit down inside his home, where we enjoyed several cups of tea, some visits from his neighbours, lots of dates, and still more handfuls of dates when we were ready to leave.  After our unfortunate incident in Deir ez Zur, and the very touristy parts of new Palmyra that we’d seen, this gentleman went a long way towards restoring our faith in and happiness with the fabulous hospitality of the Syrian people.

The inner gateway at the Temple of Bel, certainly the largest and best preserved of Palmyra’s many buildings.  The outer temple was perhaps 200m on a side, the inner 30×15m and 20m high.

Some more ruins.

One of the most complex structures remaining is the series of arches and porticos that marks one end of the collonade.

Looking out across a bit of the old city towards the valley of the tombs at sunset.

Sarah and I on top of one of the funerary towers.  While it would be perfectly possible to visit Palmyra as part of a tour and/or in a single day, this is the kind of thing you’d miss out on.  We found this tower while wandering up the Valley of the Tombs and discovered that not only was it’s entrance clear, the interior staircase was well preserved and it was possible to climb right up to the roof.  Exictement!  Adventure!  Fun!

Sarah acting as Key Lady at the Hypogeum of the Three Brothers.  In additon to the funerary towers, Palmyra also boasts dozens of underground tombs, several, like this one with lovely, intact frescoes.  This particular tomb was locked except during a few short visits when the “key man” would come and open the door with a set of monstrously big keys.  Sarah was so entertained by their size that she asked if she could open the door, as the profession of “key lady” had a fun ring to it.  He kindly obliged

So… This was Palmyra.  Other than wandering around the ruins for hours and hours and hours, (and attending a local football match, which was fun, but didn’t lead to any photos or much to write about, since we could hardly communicate with the other fans) there wasn’t too much to actually SAY about Palmyra.  Thus, please forgive the lack of actual text here, enjoy the photos and stay tuned for more exciting stuff about our trip back out of the desert and into exciting western Syria.

Tags: Llew Bardecki, Palmyra, Syria, Travel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Syria, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.