Highlights - Essential Info - Itineraries
Palmyra
Palmyra is Syria’s most visited site, not surprisingly since it is one of the world’s most evocative and complete classical cities. It was inhabited as early as the 2nd millennium BC, but most of the ruins you see at Palmyra today date from the 2nd and 3rd Centuries AD when the city was in its heyday.
Palmyra is an Oriental town built in a palm grove on a desert commercial cross roads linking the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea allowing an easy trade from Asia to the Roman Europe. This trade was the source of Palmyra’s tremendous wealth.
Although it was built before the Roman era, the city was later reshaped to look like a Roman city. Colonnaded streets, a triumphal arch, Diocletian baths and an Agora were built. The city, however, kept temples devoted to the oriental gods such as Bel, Baal Shamin and Nebo.
The Valley of the Tombs, the necropolis of Palmyra, is one of the most spectacular sets of graves in the Near East. Tower and underground tombs, were a way of displaying the family's wealth and power to the city. There are over 150 tombs surveyed so far, the tower tombs being the oldest, ranging from 9 BC to 128 AD. Only two tombs are currently open to the public.
The Archaeological Museum displays some of the superb items unearthed during the archaeological excavations in and around Palmyra.
Our preferred hotels include:
Zenobia Palace
Dedeman Palmyra
