Palmyra Travel Guide
Queen Zenobia’s ‘Bride of the Desert’
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4 or 5 hours from Damascus amid low hills and what seems an endless desert one comes to what is one of the world’s most important and dramatically located ancient cities. Overlooked by a much later Arab fort that crowns a hill this city straddled the trade routes between China and the Mediterranean and has always been one of those crucibles civilization. Here Zenobia ruled and created a city that the world still remembers 1700 years later. Monuments are many and include a theatre, magnificent colonnaded street and temple dedicated to Bel. Unmissable!
Syria is one of several Mediterranean and Near East cradles of civilization, and nowhere showcases this to better effect than Palmyra.
Palmyra first appeared in the 2nd millennium BC in the archives of Mari and in an Assyrian text and was mentioned in the Bible as a part of Solomon's territory. Ignored by the Seleucids it became independent and trade with Persia flourished; by 41 BC it had become rich enough to attract the attentions of Rome. It was under Tiberius that the city was occupied and it was integrated into the Province of Syria between 14-37 AD. Again the city prospered capitalising on its position on the great Silk Route
In 129 AD Hadrian visited the city and named it Palmyra Hadriana, so enthralled was he; he proclaimed it a free city, though a colony of the Roman Empire, and Palmyra took a higher military role, guarding the eastern borders. Trade at this time was diminishing and the leader Septimus Odeinat (Odenathus) who was favoured by Rome was appointed by the Emperor Valerian as Consul and Governor of the province of Syria Phoenice to which Palmyra had been transferred to in 194. At this point the most famous epoch in Palmyra’s history begins.
After the murder of Odeinat his wife Zenobia ruled Palmyra on behalf of her son Vaballath and she extended power to the west, capturing Bosra and occupied as far south as Egypt – it was now 269AD. Heading north she attempted to take Antioch in today’s Turkey and the Romans saw the threat she posed.: Aurelian retaliated and took back Antioch then Homs and captured Palmyra itself. Zenobia tried to flee but was captured and was taken back to Rome as a prisoner, some say in chains of gold…
It continued as a Roman colony for years after Zenobia was captured, expanding under emperor Diocletian; later in Byzantine times churches were built and added to the now much ruined city. Palmyra was taken by the Arabs under Khalid Ibn Al Walid whereupon it again played minor defensive role until its gradual and inexorable decline.
Attractions in Palmyra
Today the modern town is known as Tadmor and the site ruins lie just outside of town. You can wander around the theatre, along the main thoroughfare with its unusual Corininthian columns, see the tetrapylon, visit the Temple of Bel and climb the hill to the Arab fort of Fakhredin Al Maany. Palmyra Museum houses many of the antiquities found in Palmyra, with exhibits dating from the Prehistoric age of the city, inscriptions, religious and funerary art and great statuary. Not far from the main site is the famous Valley of the Tombs, where several tower and temple tombs and hypogeums can bee explored.
Activities in Palmyra
Allow a minimum of a 2 night / 1 day stay in Palmyra, 2 days if possible.
Relaxing
There are several great little café-bars in town where you can relax in the shade of trees after a hard day exploring.
Getting Around
Exploration is on foot, and you’ll need good stury and comfortable footwear. Taxis can be hired to reach the Arab fort of Fakhredin Al Maany that looms over the site if you can’t face the walk up.
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