The next day (Wednesday) we had another walk further afield in the town of Hama. The local museum has a superb mosaic floor from a nearby excavation. We grabbed a quick fast food bite (some sort of pizza roll and a delicious chicken donar) before we piled into a mini-bus and headed for the town bus station. At 12:15, we took the comfortable local bus for the 3 hour trip to Palmyra, via Homs.
The scenery changes quickly from fields to desert - mainly sand and scattered low-lying bushes.
Isolated tent camps (Bedouin) pass by, along with a large airbase, surrounded by radar posts and anti-aircraft guns.
We arrived at Palmyra about 4 pm and sorted out ourselves in the hotel. Palmyra is a small town, set among low hills in an otherwise flat desert. It is an oasis - the town is surrounded by walled fields of date palms and olives.
Adjacent to the town are the ruins of ancient Palmyra. At 5 pm the group had a guided tour of the Temple of Baal. This is a large walled court area with a central temple area. It had been restored to some extent and much remains. It would have been quite magnificent in 150 A.D. at the height of Palmyra's power and wealth. Palmyra was a Roman ally and colony, whose wealth came as a key city on the Silk Road - its people were merchants and caravans passed through the city (and paid taxes to do so). When its queen, Zenobia, got over-ambitious and took on Rome, Emperor Aurelian defeated their armies, captured the queen and sent the place into terminal decline, so that over time it was partially covered by the desert sands.
We had dinner at the Traditional Palmyra restaurant - a traditional Bedouin dish of lamb and peanuts on a mound of rice.
On Thursday, we headed out early (another rattling minibus), firstly to the tower tombs at the outskirts. These are mausoleums, built as towers of up to fours levels by wealthy families, with bodies stacked in layers. We saw one of the largest (it could hold about 280 bodies). We had to be early, as the tower is closed by about 8.30 am. We then went on to an underground burial crypt (Palmyrenes used both tower and underground tombs), which was also open for only a brief time. This had some interesting wall frescoes. We then went to another underground crypt which isn't normally open to tourists (I think that our guide and our tour leader used some influence or some bakseech here). While this has no frescoes, it is larger and much better preserved, including the bas-relief sculptures of the deceased used to seal their casket 'slots'.
From there we went to the city ruins. On the way, we stopped briefly to photograph the street sign at the town's edge with gives directions to Damascus and Iraq - we are probably about 120 km from Iraq as the crow flies. We walked the length of the main street, which is lined with columns (and also with locals selling scarves, jewellery, along with a couple of local youths on camels). Our local guide was excellent. The city was big and clearly prosperous. There is even a wonderful example of a Roman round-about where two streets cross (a beautiful structure of four groups of four columns, called a Tetrapylon). The city stadium is just near the main street and has been well restored. Other ruins (temples, baths, the agora etc) are visible to varying degrees of completeness.
After lunch and a rest, we briefly walked out into the oasis area. These are largely walled plots of old olive trees and date palms, with channels for irrigation (empty when we were there).
For exercise, the group walked up the nearby hill to watch the sunset over the ruins. This is quite a climb, to an Arab fortress perched on the top. While the haze meant the view wasn't exceptional, the exercise certainly was worthwhile.
We had dinner at the Traditional Palmyra Restaurant (again), which was good.
The scenery changes quickly from fields to desert - mainly sand and scattered low-lying bushes.
Isolated tent camps (Bedouin) pass by, along with a large airbase, surrounded by radar posts and anti-aircraft guns.
We arrived at Palmyra about 4 pm and sorted out ourselves in the hotel. Palmyra is a small town, set among low hills in an otherwise flat desert. It is an oasis - the town is surrounded by walled fields of date palms and olives.
Adjacent to the town are the ruins of ancient Palmyra. At 5 pm the group had a guided tour of the Temple of Baal. This is a large walled court area with a central temple area. It had been restored to some extent and much remains. It would have been quite magnificent in 150 A.D. at the height of Palmyra's power and wealth. Palmyra was a Roman ally and colony, whose wealth came as a key city on the Silk Road - its people were merchants and caravans passed through the city (and paid taxes to do so). When its queen, Zenobia, got over-ambitious and took on Rome, Emperor Aurelian defeated their armies, captured the queen and sent the place into terminal decline, so that over time it was partially covered by the desert sands.
We had dinner at the Traditional Palmyra restaurant - a traditional Bedouin dish of lamb and peanuts on a mound of rice.
On Thursday, we headed out early (another rattling minibus), firstly to the tower tombs at the outskirts. These are mausoleums, built as towers of up to fours levels by wealthy families, with bodies stacked in layers. We saw one of the largest (it could hold about 280 bodies). We had to be early, as the tower is closed by about 8.30 am. We then went on to an underground burial crypt (Palmyrenes used both tower and underground tombs), which was also open for only a brief time. This had some interesting wall frescoes. We then went to another underground crypt which isn't normally open to tourists (I think that our guide and our tour leader used some influence or some bakseech here). While this has no frescoes, it is larger and much better preserved, including the bas-relief sculptures of the deceased used to seal their casket 'slots'.
From there we went to the city ruins. On the way, we stopped briefly to photograph the street sign at the town's edge with gives directions to Damascus and Iraq - we are probably about 120 km from Iraq as the crow flies. We walked the length of the main street, which is lined with columns (and also with locals selling scarves, jewellery, along with a couple of local youths on camels). Our local guide was excellent. The city was big and clearly prosperous. There is even a wonderful example of a Roman round-about where two streets cross (a beautiful structure of four groups of four columns, called a Tetrapylon). The city stadium is just near the main street and has been well restored. Other ruins (temples, baths, the agora etc) are visible to varying degrees of completeness.
After lunch and a rest, we briefly walked out into the oasis area. These are largely walled plots of old olive trees and date palms, with channels for irrigation (empty when we were there).
For exercise, the group walked up the nearby hill to watch the sunset over the ruins. This is quite a climb, to an Arab fortress perched on the top. While the haze meant the view wasn't exceptional, the exercise certainly was worthwhile.
We had dinner at the Traditional Palmyra Restaurant (again), which was good.
No comments:
Post a Comment