Palmyra and drive to Damascus

Antipodean Hijab

OMG - whatever possessed me ?  Up at 0500 to walk down to the ruins to see them as the sun rose.  At least I had the warm Santa hat to keep my head warm, as the temperature was early-morning made worse by a cutting wind.  There were seven of in total who probably needed our collective bumps read to volunteer to sit on cold stone for 45 minutes waiting for light - in retrospect, it was quite a primitive ritual - but we didn't have anybody appropriate to sacrifice.  The darkness gradually gave way to shade of grey until the colours gradually started too leach back into the ruins suffused with pink when the sun, at long last made an appearance.  The antipodean hijab made its final appearance this morning !

After returning to the hotel just in time for breakfast, we returned to the site to spend the morning exploring.   Looking down over Palmyra, colonnaded streets draw the eye towards the impressive monumental arch and onwards to the great enclosure and the white limestone Temple of Bel, built around AD32.   With many walls missing, the lines of Corinthian columns and tetra pylons link together like the bare bones of a skeleton.   The barren desolation surrounding the city is broken on one side by the palm oasis of Ain Eafa Spring, the main water source for the 200,000 inhabitants who lived in Palmyra at the pinnacle of its economic power in the 3rd century AD and now the only date oasis in Syria.

Just down the road were a number of tombs - a number were tall towers and one was subterranean.  Both had held a number of sarcophagus in a stack system like a filing cabinet.  The underground version had the remains of a number of wall paintings - one describing the Achilles story - that must have been stunning when in their vibrant prime.

Back in town for a brief lunch stop and took the opportunity to visit its small museum.  On reflection we wished that we had more time to inspect its contents : many of the fine heads that had been 'rescued' from the tombs and lots of exquisite little bits & bobs.

This afternoon returned, through the stark Syrian desert to Damascus, for a short stop at the Damascus Cafe and a photo stop at a Damascus to Baghdad road sign, for our last night in Syria.

There were 5/6 of us that had been in both Lebanon & Syria, had got on well and spent some good times together - we went out together (with a couple that joined us the previous week) to celebrate our experiences and wish bon voyage to the three that still had another week to go exploring Jordan.