Palmyra, Syria (Tadmor)
I've skipped over a part of our trip, namely Damascus. Unfortunately, because of my own time constraints, we were unable to do anything in Damascus except meet the apple-bird man and spend a night in a hotel.
This was, of course, after the totally expected 5 hour wait at the Lebanese-Syrian border.
The following morning, we woke up in Damascus and boarded a bus for Palmyria. The ride in was amazing--Syria has some truly beautiful desert. At one point in the ride, Mikey and I both saw a sign that said "Baghdad-165 KM", which is equal to about 100 miles. Sort of a "we're not in Kansas anymore" moment....
We arrived in the small town of Palmyria, which I believe survives almost solely on the tourist attraction of the ruins themselves. It was one of the roughest towns we had stayed in yet, with only a couple of spots to stay in. We decided to spend the day in the town, and wake up bright and early the following morning to see the ruins, and then hop on a bus to Homs, a town close to the Lebanese border.
We woke up around 5 am to a combination of our set alarm and the call to prayer, which was deafening. Not even in Cairo had I heard the call to prayer this loud, perhaps due to the fact that Palmyria is literally isolated in the desert, and it's a sleepy town--not much in the ways of loud trucks moving around, or construction, or anything. The call to prayer echoed throughout the desert which only doubled its volume.
We headed out to see the ruins, which are incredible.
Palmyra Palmyra ruins from the Citadel
Me at the Citadel in Palmyra The town of Palmyra from the Citadel
History about Palmyra can be found here. Its isolated location, plus the quality of the ruins, really makes for an almost mystical experience.
This was by far one of the coolest places I've ever been to. I hope to make it back to Syria to spend more than just 4 days there, maybe a couple of weeks.
After finishing our visit there, we hopped on a bus for Homs, which would be my last stop in Syria.
Iskandar
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