Palmyra

Visited on a group tour to Syria in May 2023.
Our Syrian guide was most nervous about visiting Palmyra, and he was very anxious to get us out of there while it was still light. ISIS has been pushed back to the mountainous regions of Syria, but it is precisely in this region that jihadists still make their forays from time to time, although tourism is slowly but reviving.
Palmyra was once the largest trading center between Rome and Parthia, and this oasis literally bathed in money. But the inhabitants of the city managed to remain in history in a non-trivial way, through the creation of many necropolises of the local elite with a unique culture of posthumous portraits, which became the main witnesses of the phenomenal prosperity of this city for the whole world.
Palmyra was ruined by political ambitions, the legendary queen Zenobia began to seize neighboring lands and mint her own coins. The Romans could no longer stand this, and under the emperor Marcus Aurelius Palmyra was captured by the Roman army and looted. The ruins of the once majestic city were also destroyed by Islamic fundamentalists from ISIS, another unexpected tragedy.
A vivid reminder to us that barbarism has not gone anywhere in the contemporary era. Militants of the Islamic State captured the ancient capital of the trading kingdom twice, and they purposefully destroyed the monuments of the past.
They blew up the temple of Bel, the triumphal arch, the massive tetrapylon, looted and destroyed the …

The sun was already setting. In all likelihood I had arrived too late. But I climbed, regardless. The road wound around the hill and up it I ran. Loose stones skittered beneath my boots. But then, breath catching in my chest, I emerged from the shadows of the peak. From here, the watery blood-orange sun hung just over the horizon. I stepped around the corner of the towering Arab castle and looked down over the oasis. There, far below on the ash grey plain, bracketed by a hinge of palms, millennia old stonework glowed in the fading light. A long colonnaded processional route marched away from my vantage point for over a kilometre towards a squared-off area of temples. Their walls and columns still stood proud of the sands and trees that surrounded them. Behind me the sun sank away and I watched the shadows of night fold down over Palmyra.

Palmyra is a bewitching sight, a lattice of soaring ruins sketched out in the sands of the Syrian Desert. It carries all the exoticism of Egypt. But the history of Palmyra at its 3rd century peak – the Palmyra that I visited – is well-documented. And its story is as interesting as any myth.

Palmyra sat on the fringes of the Roman empire, a wealthy waystation on the trade routes to the east and a bulwark against encroaching threats. The high-water mark of its influence and power occurred during what is known as ‘The Crisis of the …

Lonely Planet talks of Syria and Jordan’s “Unflattering media profile” as putting off tourists. I can’t see how that can apply to Jordan but it is certainly the case with Syria. In fact we found the country very pleasant to travel round in 1999 – hopefully more recent events in a neighbouring country won’t have altered this! The trip had many highlights some of which are described in my reviews of the 3 other WHS. (In fact Syria also has 15 Tentative List sites - many of which in my opinion fully justify inscription). I hesitate to state that the ruined desert city of Palmyra is the best, since the others are very good too, but it certainly merits a visit by anyone who enjoys atmospheric historical sites.

The journey to it across the desert sets the scene whether you come from East or West - its earlier name was Tadmor meaning “City of Dates” and both its old and new titles seem fully justified as you reach the oasis with its large palm groves.

The city was Roman in the sense that it reached its peak when the area was part of the Roman Empire. However the colony had a degree of independence as a buffer state between Rome and Persia and had its own monarch. One of these, a Queen Zenobia, rather unwisely declared independence and finished up being carted off to Rome in chains. She is the “romantic figure” which Palmyra plays heavily upon (with …