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A Lone Horseman
riding through the desert at dusk Catching the bus to Palmyra offered views of dust, rocks and more dust. I wondered who on earth would want to plonk a city down in this dustbowl and wondered what were the Romans thinking. My thoughts hadn't changed once we arrived as we were dropped at some wind blown outpost, just a road, a shed and a couple of annoying taxi drivers, with no signage at all saying we were in Palmyra. Thankfully though, things picked up once we got into the main part of town. Our humble hotel was cute and comfortable, and most importantly, had clean sheets and did not smell like sewage (always good).
For dinner that night we headed to an eatery down the road. I asked for a menu and the first thing the owner said back was “Are you from Melbourne?” I was a bit taken aback, as half the people here seem to think we're from France. I stuttered a yes, asked how he knew and he said it was my “accent”. Hmm, he must have a trained ear. He said he has a cousin in Melbourne who works in a sheesha shop on Sydney road....of course, where else in Melbourne would
So many columns
those Romans just loved columns a sheesha shop be? (for those wondering, sheesha is tobacco smoked through a flavoured syrup mixture so that the tobacco tastes of apple or some other flavour). Being from Melbourne was kudos all round, as the next eatery we went to the cafe owner nearly burst into tears when I said I was from Melbourne. He exclaimed “My brother, my brother”, ran off and came back with another guy who spoke decent English. This man explained “His brother lives in Melbourne, he works in a Middle Eastern coffee shop. To see someone from Melbourne is like seeing his family”. Wow, what a reception! This was nothing like our welcoming in Damascus. The cafe owner then called his brother in Melbourne and put me on the phone. I wondered if he thought Melbourne was a small as Palmyra. Nick joked that the two cafe owners relatives were probably the same person, and half of Palmyra was probably related to him. We were given the phone number of the brother in Melbourne and told to call him when we get back. The English speaker said the cafe owners brother had met an Australian girl and they were now living together in Melbourne.
Two funny Arabs
These guys stumbled across us lazing around on the top of the castle. They were completely fascinated by us, took photos and even a video of us. I felt I should reciprocate with a photo of them....they were chuffed The cafe owner followed this up with “Australian girl good!” and gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up, and Nick a big smile. By virture of me being from Melbourne we also got a free coffee and were told to come back any time for more free coffee. Great, we love free stuff.
Of course the main reason we were in Palmyra was to see the Roman ruins which are extensive and quite well preserved. The site has had minimal attention paid to it over the years, which means that preservation works are concentrated to the main structures and the rest of the site is left to just 'be'. I have to say I really appreciated this, as it feels less like an amusement park and more like an actual collection of ruins, requiring us to use our imagination a little. This also equated to free entry (or small fees for a few of the better preserved spots), and a generally relaxed feel. The main section is a colonnaded street, and the very large 'Temple of Bel'. You kind of get the feeling that those Romans loved their columns. The first day we were there we had total cloud cover
The Arabic Castle
Taken just after sunset all day, but in the final moments of the sun setting, the clouds broke apart and the ruins and nearby hilltop Arabic castle turned a beautiful pink and magenta.
The Arabic castle was built a few centuries later on the top of a big hill overlooking the ruins. As well as affording great views it's quite majestic in itself, and as it's on a big hill, the automatic inclination is: I want to climb that. The done thing is to get a bus or taxi up, but as we'd decided to stay an extra day we thought we'd set ourselves the challenge of the climb. Phoebe was also ultra keen and had already declared herself “a good climber”. The first section was not too hard and we walked and chatted most of the way. Gradually it got more challenging and soon enough we found ourselves on the steepest part of the climb. We told Phoebe it would best to climb with her hands and feet and she got down low and scrambled away on the scree-covered slope. Not long after her we were also on our hands, clasping at rocks. We were thrilled to finally get to the top
and Phoebe was especially proud of herself for doing such a good job and being “a good climber”. We wandered around the castle which was castle-ish in many ways (many arrow slits, high ceilings and steep passageways) and we had a nice rest up the top, admiring the great views over all of Palmyra.
From the top of the castle it is apparent why the Romans had decided to build a city here: there is a great big oasis night next to the ruins, full a lush green palms. 'Palmyra', it turns out, means 'city of palms', including date palms. A large part of it's wealth came from being a stop on the silk road, where merchants were charged exorbitant prices to stay the night and sell their wares. It was even home to a rebel Queen called Zenobia, who on the death of her husband took over as regent for her son without permission from Rome. As Rome suspected she also had a hand in the death of her husband they were rather unimpressed. She raised an army and fought the Romans successfully. She then went on to conquer neighbouring Roman outposts until her kingdom expanded to encompass
View of the Ruins from the Castle
and in the background you can see the oasis full of palm trees even part of Egypt. Eventually she was captured, paraded around the streets of Rome, and retired to Tivoli (near Rome), married to a Roman senator. We thought this was very merciful and wondered if it was perhaps the Romans being particularly chivalrous. Their patience didn't last though - after the next rebellion they slaughtered most of the town and tore the place to pieces.
Having had such a good time in Palmyra (not to mention being welcomed like long lost relatives), we were starting to feel more positive about Syria. We were looking forward to heading East to see the crusader castle 'Crac Des Chevaliers', one of the must see spots in Syria.
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Katie Redwood
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Wow! This place looks fantastic!! I'd be in my element with all the history. The castle looks stunning. Around what century/ies were the Romans in Syria? Which centruy was the castle built in? Will definitely put this place on my 'to-see' list and I might just put on my Australian accent and say I'm from Melbourne too! xxx