Palmyra, Syria 10-12 May

The trip from Hama to Palmyra through the desert took about three hours and the ticket cost us £1.20 each. Transport here is incredibly cheap. Oddly enough, the torrential downpour overnight had flooded part of the desert road but the bus went on through with a splash. No worries. We didn’t enjoy Palmyra as much as Hama but we met some characters nonetheless. Larger than life Mahran who the self proclaimed “King of Tourism”(!), 26yo and going back to study at high school with the local kids. He had left to help with the family business when he was 12 or 13. The chap who ran the pension we stayed in (all single beds thank you very much) was a devout Muslim and chided Mahran when he shook my hand. He was kind of scary at first and had a rather manic sounding laugh (I was a bit worried that we were staying with a mad man) but really came out of his shell once Mahran had gone and (I think), even warmed to me in the end and went to shake my hand on the way out. The place we stayed was somewhere you’d never even consider from the outside but inside, it was basic but clean and for £4 for the room we were not complaining.

Hiked up to the citadel to watch the sunset – I wanted to go straight up the hill through the scree but Euan wasn’t having any of it and he probably would have beaten me anyhow as the scree went backwards pretty fast.

Citadel from outskirts of Palmyra


View from the Citadel


The Palmyra ruins are just that and spread over a large area. We visited them early in the morning before the hoards and had the main temple virtually to ourselves

Palmyra ruins viewed from the Citadel at sunset


Main Temple in the Temple of Bel, dating from AD 32


Some of the detailed carving at Palmyra (someone had butchered the angel figure)


These columns once circled the entire temple complex (I’m hugging one of them to give it scale)


Another part of the same ring of coulumns. The archway is where they used to bring in the animals for sacrifice


Part of the tetrapylon with the Citadel in the background


Monumental arch on the right


A very friendly baby camel ate my hair. He was incredibly cute and surprisingly cuddly – I didn’t think camels would be. They offered to sell him to me.


I have never ever seen so many old Mercs in one town. Euan was quite at home and some of them were really well done up. This one took us to the bus station but needed a wee bit of work.


Off to Damascus (bus again.... cheapest and easiest form of transport in this country).