Palmyra, Syria

Roman ruins of Palmyra (Tamador in arabic) are incredible, consisting of an imposing fortress high on a hill overlooking what was once a great colonnaded street that ran for 2 or 3 km’s down to the Temple of Bel. Many of the pillars and archways are in impeccable condition and give indication to the wealth and power of this once great city. The city prospered considerably as one of the outpost for trade and commerce between the Roman Empire in the west and Parthians in the east. In 212 Palmyra became a Roman colony and spent lavishly, enlarging its great colonnaded street and building more temples. It was from this city that Queen Zenobia challenged the Roman Empire. After the assassination of her husband, Zenobia claimed power in the name of her son till he was of age. Suspecting foul play on the Queen’s behalf, Rome refused to acknowledge her claim and sent an army to deal with the rebel queen. Zenobia defeated the Romans and continued on to Bosra, the capital of the province of Arabia, defeating the garrison there and eventually successfully invading egypt. With all of Syria, Lebanon and part of Egypt under her control, Zenobia declared her independence from Rome and began minting her own money. The Romans were not amused. With a great show of military force they besieged the city of Palmyra, demanding her surrender. Defiant till the end, Zenobia refused to surrender and made a mad dash on a camel to the east to try and elicit aid from the Persians. Zenobia was captured where after being paraded through the streets of Rome in gold chains and imprisoned for a time she was eventually freed and got married to a Roman senator. I guess that was punishment of sorts? The fall of Palmyra began with a rebellion in 273 when the Palmyrans massacred 600 Roman troops of the garrison. In response, Emperor Aurelians sent the legions who slaughtered large numbers and put Palmyra to the torch. The great city never recovered.

After touring the ruins we stopped for a bite to eat at a restaurant which we were told served excellent camel meat in tomato sauce. We gave it a try and had to admit it was good. Kind of tasted like beef! We spent the night in a nice new little hotel for a good price. The only snag was having to spend 2 hours killing all the flies in the joint. No kidding, I think we had killed around 30! The flies were everywhere in Palmyra. The next morning we "buzzed off" to Hama.