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Palmyra - Queen of the Desert

In the desert, surrounded by an oasis of palm trees, hiding the ruins of Palmyra. An area of \u200b\u200b50 hectares is home to hundreds of columns, an amphitheater, the Temple of Bel, funeral towers and so on.

The first references to Palmyra are the second millennium BC the Hebrew Bible and quoted the city established by King Solomon, son of David. Its privileged location as well as the above make this oasis city of step-and weight-on the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean.

It was in the IIIrd century AD Palmira was when it reached its zenith under the tutelage of Queen Zenobia. As the story goes, Zenobia was a descendant of Cleopatra, but even more beautiful, smarter and even more ambitious. His reign was brief but intense. In just six years expanded the city, build in her temples and statues erected until the conquered territories west of Egypt. Successfully confronted the Roman Empire, but this milestone also marked its end. The Romans did not give up and the punishment was harsh. Zenobia was eventually imprisoned and exhibited in Rome with huge gold chains binding her body.

Zenobia of Palmyra was an empire rich and developed, with its own language and art. The limestone and gold of the surrounding mountains are a symbol of that empire, which today are amazing ruins. A colonnade a mile long is mixed with sand and desert colors while the amphitheater, recently renovated, takes us to a world very different from ours.

Visit Palmyra is a trip back to that in which different cultures were mixed legacy of the peoples that occupied it, because after the Romans came the Arabs and in the seventh century and the Ottoman Empire, with which its importance waned completely.

A good example of the mixture of cultures is the temple of Bel. Its courtyard is 210 by 205 meters is also full of columns and even though it is half destroyed still reflects what must have been in its heyday. This temple was originally a place of sacrifice to the god Bel (the equivalent of Zeus), after a church in Byzantine times, a fortress with the Arab and Mamluk mosque. But its glory was completed in the fifteenth century, when a raid was destroyed along with the rest of the city. It was not until the XVII century when it was rediscovered by explorers extremely brave (the trip from Aleppo and Damascus at that time was dangerous and very long, about 4 days through the desert) and into the nineteenth no interest to archaeologists, that still working today in the area.

In the distance, almost hidden in the colors of desert towers are erected huge funeral that belonged to the noble families of Palmyra. Is the valley of the tombs.

But the extent of the ruins is such that it can only be appreciated and seen as worth from the Qal Ibn Maan, a sixteenth-century Arab fortress built atop a nearby mountain. It was built by a Lebanese prince who tried to conquer the desert of Palmyra without much success, but the legacy left us this incredible vantage point to admit that for centuries was one of the most glorious cities in the region.

* Photos taken by the elf