Engraved in the collective memory

Syria | Anno 1990

 

 

You would not immediately expect a Christian baptismal font here. Moreover, the small white chapel, in the centre of the prayer hall, with windows in green glass, is said to contain the head of one of the most important prophets of Christianity – John the Baptist. Quite strange for a mosque. But after the advent of Islam in 634, no one took offense that Christians also were allowed to use the great mosque of Damascus for their worship. Tolerance between Islam and Christianity at that time still was a matter of course. And John the Baptist was revered by both religions.

 

Damascus – Umayyad Mosque

Treasure-house

Undoubtedly, it's a stunning edifice, this Umayyad Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in the world and one of the most famous examples of Islamic architecture. On this Monday it is rather quiet in the enormous prayer hall. The mihrab, the large prayer niche in the southern wall, points towards Mecca. Next to it is the minbar, the pulpit.

 

Chapel of John the Baptist

Mihrab and minbar

We marvel at the beautiful gold mosaics. They are so old that the Islamic ban on depicting living beings did not yet apply. The treasure-house in the courtyard has no equal. The number of minarets also is unusual – not two or four, but three. Two of them are erected on the corners of the building, as they should be. But the grandest, Al'Arous, the minaret of the Bride, towers up halfway the wall above the entrance gate.

 

Mosque - Courtyard

The other two are the minaret of the Mamluks and the minaret of Isa ibn Maryam, or the minaret of Jesus, son of Mary. This is yet another example of the age-old intertwining between Islam and Christianity. Muslims recognize Jesus as one of their prophets. Incidentally, in the Islamic reading, He did not die on the cross, but was taken up to heaven by Allah. Exactly on the spot where this minaret stands, He will return to earth at the end of time.

We leave the mosque. Our guide Anas takes us to the Old City. Along Via Recta, as the Romans also have left their mark on this city. This is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Here, at the foot of Mount Qasioun, the Barada River has created an oasis of green palms that has grown over the past 4 500 years into a city of nearly three million inhabitants.

 

Water seller

Al-Hamidiyah Souq

Cool drinks

High above the entrance to the al-Hamidiyah Souq is the effigy of President Hafiz al-Assad. The Syrians are constantly reminded that their president is a man who will not be messed with. He is preparing his son Bashar al-Assad for the succession, it is whispered.

 

Souq

In the busy souq people apparently don't let it get to their heart. The mercantile activity goes on as usual. Herbal sellers offer a wealth of scents and colours in jute bags. Butchers display their meat products openly in the sultry atmosphere. A water seller with red fez quenches thirst for a small fee. We opt for a flowering tea in a coffee house.

A few gates of the old city wall are still standing. Bab Kisan is one of them. If we are to believe the Acts of the Apostles (9:23-25), Saint Paul once would have been let down here in a basket to escape bloodthirsty Jews who did not like his sermons. With absolute certainty Anas even points the window where that event took place.

 

Bab Kisan

Prickly pears

Another such gate is Bab Sharqi, a little further east. Anas leads us into the underground chapel of Saint Ananias, where he tells the story of the recently converted Saul of Tarsus that was healed of his blindness by Ananias. It does not escape his notice that we have forgotten some of those Biblical stories. He grins. In the eyes of this proud Arab, it once again illustrates the moral superiority of his people.

 

Glassblower

Bread sellers

Anas is just under thirty, a slender, tall young man, tastefully dressed in western clothing, with glasses and an inevitable moustache. The English in which he expresses himself is almost flawless. He is extremely proud of his city and his country, and of Syria's cultural heritage that spans nearly five millennia. That pride is completely justified, by the way. But he is also a bit aggrieved, because despite that glorious background, it is the United States that is calling the shots in the Middle East. The discord between the Arab countries, which have failed to form a solid front against Israel and the United States, annoys him immensely.

The fact that the United States launched Operation Desert Shield yesterday and today is transferring ground troops, tanks, helicopters, fighters and bombers to Saudi Arabia en masse is an additional trigger for his annoyance. Admittedly, Saddam Hussein made a huge mistake when he invaded Kuwait last Thursday. But that stupid move must be dealt with among Arabs, he thinks. Americans have no business here.

 

Hookah smokers

Family photo

Through a maze of narrow streets we reach Bab Tuma, named after Saint Thomas. It's like a walk through the New Testament here. Bab al-Salam, the Gate of Peace, is quickly putting an end to that perception.

 

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Maaloula

Fifteen hundred metres high, at the entrance of a deep gorge, the village of Maaloula clings to the steep slopes of the Anti-Lebanon. Below is the green oasis that is the source of all life in this arid desert. What makes this peaceful mountain village special is the fact that they still speak Aramaic, the language that Jesus almost certainly spoke. Apart from two villages in the area, this language is no longer spoken anywhere.

 

Mar Sarkis

Mar Sarkis – Sergius and Bacchus

But Mar Sarkis, the monastery of Saint Sergius, is also one of the exceptional assets of this mountain village. This is one of the oldest monasteries in Syria, dating back to the fourth century. Remarkable are the images of Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus on the iconostasis of the church. We can observe them unimpeded, even though they are among the oldest icons in the world. The early Christian altar is so old that its design is still indebted to pagan sacrificial tables on which animal sacrifices were offered. The altar stone still has a drain hole to collect the sacrificial blood.

 

Early Christian altar with drain hole to collect sacrificial blood

Mar Taqla

From a height we look down on Mar Taqla, a monastery dedicated to Saint Thecla, a pious virgin and disciple of Saint Paul. Through a long, deep gorge we can reach the sanctuary. We owe this to the saint herself. For when she was on the run from the soldiers of her father, who had her persecuted for her Christian faith, her prayer was answered. The mountain split open, allowing her to escape. Today her relics are kept in a chapel in a niche under the rock.

 

Reuters, Mon Sep 9, 2013, 2:05 pm. Inside Syria, government forces launched an offensive to wrest back control of Maaloula, activists said. In the past six days, the town has already changed hands three times between Assad's forces and rebels, some of whom are linked to al Qaeda.

 

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The fact that western Christians have embarked on a Crusade up to nine times, ostensibly to liberate the Holy Land, still haunts the Arabs. Not least Anas. But that does not prevent him from joining us in admiration for the world-famous Krak des Chevaliers, which the Knights Hospitaller built around 1170 in al-Huzn near the border with Lebanon. It became the largest Crusader fortress in the Middle East. Even skilled army leaders like Nur ad-Din and Saladin failed to capture the Krak.

 

Krak des Chevaliers

Immediately Anas takes us to the King's Tower, the highest point of the enormous Crusader fortress. Nowhere better than here one can see how the castle rules the valley – the only valley in a mountainous coastal strip of 250 km along the Mediterranean Sea. In practice, the stronghold controlled the only entrance to the interior of Syria. Nowhere better than here one can see how immense this castle is, with an enormous outer wall with several bastions, a wide water moat and an inner wall that rises tens of metres above it. A huge, square tower guards the entrance bridge.

 

Krak des Chevaliers

You can call this castle huge, immense, gigantic, colossal. But in fact no word is suitable to describe this giant. We descend to the open courtyard, the rooms of the soldiers and the officers, the kitchen with the huge oven, the dormitories, the warehouses, the chapel. Not one pillar supports the gigantic horse stables that extend over a length of 120 m.

 

Krak des Chevaliers

That this unapproachable fortress was finally conquered from the Crusaders – by cunning, that is – the proud Anas describes with a pleasure that is almost tangible. It was the Mamluk sultan Baibars of Egypt who delivered this tour de force in 1271. He had a tunnel dug under the large square tower, which he had supported with wooden beams during the excavations. As soon as the tower was completely undercut, he set fire to the wood, causing the tower to collapse and the entrance to the castle to be unprotected.

 

Reuters, Thu Mar 20, 2014, 2:23 pm. The Syrian army has retaken Crac des Chevaliers, a war-damaged Crusader castle and Unesco World Heritage site, from rebel fighters, state television said on Thursday.

 

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Like Damascus, Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The city probably owes its name to the word halab, which means milk. Abraham, the patriarch of Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, is said to have milked his cow here on the citadel hill and distributed the milk to the poor.

 

Gilgamesj

Hadad and Isjtar

Isjtup-Ilum

With undisguised pride Anas confronts us with some showpieces in the National Museum. First, a basalt palace relief representing Gilgamesh. At least three thousand years old, this work of art was discovered during excavations at Tell Halaf, close to the Turkish border. Together with two demigods depicted as bulls, Gilgamesh carries a winged sun disk. The figures are black, except for the wide-open eyes inlaid with white stone.

Being two-thirds god and one-third human, this Gilgamesh must have been a superhero avant la lettre. His exploits are described in great detail in the famous epic that bears his name. One of the oldest literary works in the world it is, the Bible as well as the Iliad and the Odyssey have been influenced by it. And though the epic is full of gods, demigods and demons – it even includes a descent into the underworld – the prevailing belief is that the stories are based on a historical figure. That person would have lived between 2800 and 2500 BC. If we are to believe the ancient texts of the Sumerian king’s list, Gilgamesh would have been the fifth king of the city-state of Uruk in present-day Iraq.

An elderly couple peacefully musing on a bench, that is our first impression when we come across a double image of two life-sized figures. But looks are deceiving. These figures are no less than Hadad, the god of storm and rain, and Ishtar, the Mesopotamian counterpart of the Greek Aphrodite and the Roman Venus. This basalt artwork also comes from Tell Halaf and is about three thousand years old. In vain we look for something divine in these rather sluggish figures who only seem to be staring blankly ahead.

Much more impressive is the life-size statue of Ishtup-Ilum. And so it should be, for he was a shakkanakku, a military governor appointed by the Akkadians to rule in their name the city-state of Mari on the banks of the Euphrates. The beautiful artwork is almost four thousand years old and hewn from diorite, an extremely hard rock that is very difficult to work with. Apparently, compared to the raw basalt, it can be worked and even polished much more finely.

 

Aleppo – Citadel

Anas attaches particular importance to the finds from Ebla, a city-state in the north of present-day Syria. More than twenty thousand clay tablets have been found in the palace archives. They give us a good look at daily life at that time, but also at cultural, religious, economic and political life. Ebla had its first bloom between 2500 and 2350 BC. This places the city-state in the same era as the Egyptian dynasties that built the Great Pyramids of Giza, Anas cleverly notes.

 

Citadel – Entrance Gate

We leave the museum and start exploring the city. The icon of Aleppo is without a doubt the citadel, the fortress that dominates a hill in the heart of the city. Everything about this building has been conceived to keep intruders out. Bare, steep slopes surround the castle and make it almost impossible to penetrate. The imposing stone bridge is the only access. But it is dominated by two huge towers with embrasures and machicolations. Once at the top, the besieger awaited a long tunnel with three massive gates and five ninety-degree bends.

 

Aleppo – Cityscape

Citadel – Fortress wall

Once these fortifications are behind us, we can see the residential quarters of the fortress – a palace, mosques, water cisterns, granaries. Some structures are beyond recognition, others are still in excellent condition. In the ruins of the hammam, we can still get an excellent idea of the water supply and the function of the different rooms of the bathhouse.

 

Citadel – Hammam

Citadel – Throne Room of the Ayyubids

The wooden sculptures on the pillars and ceilings in the throne room of the Ayyubids are of superior quality. In the 12th and 13th centuries, this dynasty of Muslim Kurds ruled as far as Egypt and Iraq. Its founder was Saladin, one of the great historical heroes of Anas. For it was he who managed to recapture Jerusalem from the Crusaders and reduce their territory to a narrow coastal strip. In this rigid fortress, where brutal power sets the tone, the artistic sophistication of the throne room makes us gasp. The contrast hardly can be greater.

 

Umayyad Mosque

With its namesake in Damascus, the Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo has much in common – the large marble courtyard, the colonnade, the huge prayer hall with a small shrine inside. That shrine, the Maqsurah, is said to contain the remains of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. Father and son are revered by both Muslims and Christians. In the courtyard are two beautiful covered fountains available for ablution, the ritual washing. But it is the forty-five metres high minaret that especially draws the attention. Dating back to 1090, it is considered quite unique in Islamic architecture due to its varied masonry, its rich relief decorations and the Mediterranean influences that permeate the square structure. There are even elements of Gothic architecture to point out.

 

The Associated Press, Thu Apr 24, 2013. The 11th-century minaret of a famed mosque that towered over the narrow stone alleyways of Aleppo's old quarter collapsed Wednesday as rebels and government troops fought pitched battles in the streets around it, depriving the ancient Syrian city of one of its most important landmarks.

 

Al-Madina souq

We only have to cross the street to enter the al-Madina souq – more authentic than the souq of Damascus, and much bigger too. The souq owes its importance to its strategic position on the trade routes, in particular the Silk Road that connected China with the west. This is believed to be the largest souq in the world – over thirteen kilometres of covered passageways. In fact, it is not one souq, but a conglomerate of souqs, each specializing in a particular sector – textiles, cotton, silk, leather, shoes, carpets, copper, jewellery, spices, dyes, … We stroll through the busy narrow alleys and enjoy the scents and colours of exotic herbs, vegetables and fruits. Heavily loaded donkeys bring in fresh supplies. Filled jute bags obstruct the passage. Carpet sellers sit comfortably among their merchandise. An elder is snoring on the woolly sheepskins he is supposed to sell. Silver and gold jewels sparkle strikingly in glass cases.

 

Reuters, Sat Sep 29, 2012, 7:02 pm. Hundreds of shops were burning in the ancient covered market of the Old City of Aleppo on Saturday as fighting between rebels and state forces in Syria's largest city threatened to destroy a Unesco world heritage site.

 

Al-Madina souq

Ghostly black figures occasionally appear among the market-goers. Such women in niqab, you don't see many of them, but they are an unmistakable part of the street scene. The amorphous robes cover their bodies from head to toe, exposing only the eyes through a tiny rectangular window. In doing so, these Muslim women go a long way beyond what verse 31 of the twenty-fourth surah of the Quran prescribes. The fact that a woman's face and hands should also be counted among her intimate body parts is, after all, a concept that is only part of the strict interpretation within the Salafist tradition.

The position of women remains a tricky issue in this society. Anas also turns out to be very conservative on this point. Despite his western appearance and his political open-mindedness, he remains indebted to a patriarchal body of thought that denies women their rightful share of public space. If one of the women in our party asks him a question, without hesitation he will turn to her husband with his answer. Talking to a woman who does not belong to his immediate family is completely unthinkable to him.

 

Al-Madina souq

As a westerner, you have not been to Aleppo if you didn't visit Le Baron. The oldest hotel in Syria it is, and probably the oldest hotel in the area. Spending the night in a caravanserai was no longer an option for western travellers in the nineteenth century. So around 1870 an Armenian businessman conceived the idea of running a real hotel. Since then, Le Baron has become part of the legend. Agatha Christie wrote the first part of Murder on the Orient Express here. Lawrence of Arabia 'forgot' to pay his bill here. Charles de Gaulle, David Rockefeller, Charles Lindbergh and Yuri Gagarin sipped tea here. Or something stronger, perhaps. We stick to a glass of arak amid a sumptuous backdrop of faded glory.

 

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In the far north, close to the Turkish border, a barren hilly landscape awaits us, strewn with rocks and boulders. According to Anas, you can find no fewer than four hundred dead cities in this area, abandoned by their inhabitants because the climate was no longer bearable. That doesn't surprise us at all, when we look through the windows of Hisam's bus.

 

Qalat Samaan

Precisely in this wild environment, a certain Simeon managed to become a saint in the early fifth century. His life as an ascetic in a hut and later in a cave in the desert had earned him a certain fame. More and more admirers came to ask for his advice and his support. If you want to meditate in peace, then you obviously don't appreciate such crowds. So Simeon withdrew to a place where no one could bother him anymore – a platform on a small pillar in Qalat Samaan.

But the people continued to flock, and Simeon had his pillar raised higher and higher to avoid the commotion and noise. Until finally – depending on the source – he was sitting twelve to eighteen metres above the ground floor. In total he would have stayed there for a respectable thirty-six years. Food was regularly handed to him by admirers.

 

Qalat Samaan – Basilica with Simeon's pillar

It was inevitable that Simeon's heroic act was imitated. Until the tenth century, ascetics sitting on a pillar were noticed here and there in the Byzantine Empire. They even have a name for it – stylite or pillar-saint.

 

 

Nowadays it is not the famous pillar that attracts most attention, but the huge Basilica of Saint Simeon they built around it in 459. Of course, the pillar, or what remains of it, is central in the transept of the basilica. Anas guides us through the ruins of the orange-red church building, past the baptistery and some graves of monks. A few mosaics are exposed without any protection in this bleak climate. But it is above all the enchanting tranquillity of the environment and the sweet scents of nature that intoxicate us.

 

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Founding new cities was one of Alexander the Great's favourite pastimes. After his death, his generals enthusiastically continued on that momentum. One of them was Seleucus. He had four cities built in the second century BC, each named after himself or one of his close relatives – Antioch in present-day Turkey, Seleucia in present-day Iraq, and Latakia and Apamea in present-day Syria. The latter city is located just north of Hama, on the right bank of the Orontes. At its peak Apamea had about 120 000 inhabitants, but today not much remains of the old city.

 

Apamea – Great Colonnade

Yet the image of the magnificent colonnade is immediately imprinted on our retinas. From afar we see the long line of mighty Corinthian columns towering over the field. Lonely in the grim wind, as if there were no other traces of human habitation in this area. In the past, these nine-metre high pillars bordered the entire Cardo Maximus on both sides. That was the main street of the city, it ran right through the centre and connected several important buildings – the baths, the agora, the temple of Tyche, the nymphaeum, the atrium church, the basilica. This street was nearly forty metres wide and eighteen hundred metres long. That makes this colonnade one and a half times as long as the more famous one in Palmyra. Many columns, the so-called fluted pillars, are decorated with vertical shadow grooves.

 

Fluted pillars

Floor mosaics

Marvellous mosaics have surfaced here. Many of these are shown in a small museum housed in a former caravanserai. There we discover lively scenes with animals in brilliant colours. Using tiny stones, the artists managed to create graceful representations of hares and roe deer, and of a peacock that surprises us with its grace and its wealth of colours.

 

Peacock

It is mainly Belgian archaeologists who have carried out excavations here. Today you can admire one of the most beautiful mosaics of Apamea in the Art & History Museum in the Cinquantenaire Park in Brussels. It’s a 120 m² hunting scene from 420. Both technically and thematically, experts place this one on a par with the mosaics of the Imperial Palace of Constantinople from the same period. What's more, part of the imposing colonnade was also reconstructed in the same museum in Brussels.

 

Reuters, Thu Aug 29, 2013, 10:31 pm. A comparison of satellite images from before the crisis and today at Apamea, known for its extensive Hellenistic ruins, shows clearly the scale of looting and destruction, Unesco said.

 

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Forty thousand dead. That was the sad balance when, in 1982, President Hafez al-Assad bloodily suppressed an uprising by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood in Hama. From February 2 to early March, he had the city shelled with artillery and then soldiers marched into the city to kill people. That was barely eight years ago. Yet Anas does not hesitate to openly criticize this murderous regime. His presentation of the facts largely corresponds to what is known about this in the west.

 

Hama – Norias

We are not at all surprised that the black niqab is worn more frequently in this ultra-conservative city than elsewhere in Syria. But it is the famous norias we’re interested in, the famous waterwheels powered by the Orontes. It was the Ayyubids who had thirty undershot mills installed here in the 13th century. Nevertheless, the technique of norias was probably known about a thousand years earlier, because a mosaic in Apamea depicts a similar noria as early as 469.

Seventeen norias have stood the test of time. The intention was to siphon water to an aqueduct and thus irrigate the fields. They no longer fulfil that function. Today we can only be charmed by the technical ingenuity and indeed the aesthetic appearance of the black wooden giants of up to twenty metres in diameter.

 

Reuters, Sun Jul 31, 2011. Syrian tanks storm Hama, residents say, after besieging it for nearly a month. At least 80 people are killed.

 

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Across the desert to Palmyra

Bedouin women

From now on we will definitely drive east into the desert. It turns out to be a fascinating ride, right through a kind of semi-arid steppe, with the occasional camel hair Bedouin tent as a brown stripe in the distance. Anas has planned a short visit to such a family for us. They are not bound by any national borders, these Bedouins. Hospitality is apparently the norm in the desert, we are warmly welcomed, although language is a serious barrier.

 

Bedouin tent as a brown stripe in the distance

The road is straight, the dunes follow each other in a monotonous rhythm. The moment we will be able to cast our first view of the oasis from a high dune is approaching, Anas announces with a hint of mystery.

 

Palmyra

There it is, the mythical desert city of Palmyra. In the distance we perceive the golden glow of the ruins. On the edge of the archaeological site stretches a forest of palm trees that turns this piece of dry desert into a fertile oasis.

No one has left his mark on Palmyra more than Queen Zenobia. She came to power in 267, after her predecessor and husband, King Odaenathus, died of poisoning. It remains unclear whether she had anything to do with it herself. What was clear was her intention not to be content with a second-rate role. She was known for her strong character and was said to be exceptionally intelligent and attractive. She ruled Palmyra in a way that impressed both the East and the West. She was fluent in Greek, Latin, Aramaic, and Egyptian, and entertained countless philosophers, scientists, and theologians at her court.

Under Zenobia's rule, Palmyra grew into a rich and prosperous desert city of about two hundred thousand inhabitants. It was above all the toll she levied on caravans that formed the basis for that prosperity. After all, the oasis was an important junction on the Silk Road. Travellers who saw the Palmyra skyline looming in the distance after crossing the desert no doubt heaved a sigh of relief.

The fact that Palmyra was formally part of the Roman Empire was an eyesore for Zenobia. Already in 268 she started to occupy one Roman region after another. Syria, Egypt and important parts of Asia Minor capitulated. All approaches to the Silk Road, both by land and sea, fell into her hands. This is how she could secure her monopoly. From then on she allowed herself to be called Augustus – a title strictly reserved for the Roman emperor – and issued her own coin with her likeness.

 

Temple of Bel

Of course, the Romans couldn't let that happen. But Emperor Aurelian had some other things to take care of first – the incursions of Germanic tribes, to be more specific. Once he had defeated them, he turned his gaze and his armies to the east. In 274 Palmyra fell to the Romans after a prolonged siege. Queen Zenobia was taken captive to Rome and shown there in a triumphal procession – cuffed with gold chains, of course. What subsequently happened to her is not certain. Presumably she was assigned a villa in Tibur, present-day Tivoli near Rome, not so far from Hadrian's famous Villa.

 

Temple of Bel

In ancient Palmyra, religious life mainly took place in and around the temple of Bel. Bel was a Mesopotamian god of war and fertility, comparable to the Greek Zeus and the Roman Jupiter. Incidentally, Bel is regularly demonized in both the Bible and the Quran because both Christians and Muslims saw this idol as a formidable competitor. The gigantic building from the first century AD appears to be one of the best preserved in the city. The fifteen metre high outer wall is still largely intact, although only the northern part is original. It surrounds a gigantic square site with a side of 205 m. Even part of the double colonnade is still standing.

 

Temple of Bel – Cella

Statues of generous donors

Originally, the cella, where Bel's statue stood, was completely covered. Today only the walls remain. Anas points to supporting stones at half height against the columns. Statues of generous donors who made possible the construction of the temple were placed there. Remnants of the original colours can still be seen on some of the friezes. Every year on April 14, a great festival was held in this temple. Sacrificial animals – even camels – could then be brought into the cella through a separate corridor.

 

Reuters, Tue Sep 1, 2015, 11:07 am. Satellite images have confirmed the destruction of the Temple of Bel, which was one of the best preserved Roman-era sites in the Syrian city of Palmyra, a United Nations agency said, after activists said the hard-line Islamic State group had targeted it.

 

Today, an asphalt road meanders brutally through the archaeological site. Heavily loaded trucks thunder past at high speed, barely a few tens of metres from the fragile, ancient structures. It is clear that these monuments are having a hard time.

 

Decumanus – Monumental Arch

Across the street we arrive at the foot of the Monumental Arch that marks the beginning of the Decumanus, one of the main avenues of the city. That arch has become an icon of Palmyra and is now featured in just about every travel brochure about the city. Impressive is the perspective of the magisterial colonnade that extends some 700 m behind the arch. Originally, that colonnade even ran all the way to the Temple of Bel, over a length of twelve hundred metres.

 

Decumanus – Colonnade

The famous tetrapylon, four groups of four columns each, marks the intersection of the two main streets. Those columns, Anas assures us, are made of pink granite and come all the way from Egyptian Aswan.

 

Tetrapylon

The immense theater could seat two thousand spectators. It's mostly intact – actors still could get started right away.

 

Theater

Even in Zenobia's alleged bathroom, we can take an indiscreet look. The granite columns were brought in from Aswan. The alabaster columns, on the other hand, come from Italy, explains Anas. Apparently the queen liked a little pampering.

 

Qalaat ibn Maan (on the hill)

If you have an emperor coming all the way from Rome to visit your city, then you have to observe some respect. Thus, in anticipation of Hadrian's visit, the Temple of Baalshamin was completed in 131. It was dedicated to Baalshamin, the Lord of Heaven and the second supreme god of Palmyra. This is the most intact temple of the site. The walls, the vestibule and even the architrave are virtually undamaged. The supporting stones still adorn the beautiful Corinthian columns. Sheep graze peacefully in the area.

 

Reuters, Sun Aug 23, 2015, 11:22 pm. Islamic State militants on Sunday blew up the temple of Baal Shamin, one of the most important sites in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra, said Maamoun Abdul Karim, the country's antiquities chief.

 

With a set of huge keys in his hands, a guard climbs aboard our bus. Promptly, Hisam sets course for the Valley of the Tombs west of Palmyra. Members of noble families were buried there at the time.

 

Valley of the Tombs

Funerary Tower of Elahbel

A few funerary towers rise between the dunes. Anas leads us into Elahbel's tower. Left and right are niches in the walls for burial boxes. We count fifty-four. Beautiful frescoes on the back wall depict human figures – probably the deceased with their families. A dilapidated staircase leads upstairs. It’s windy and not without danger on the fifth floor in the open air, but the view of the valley and distant Palmyra is magnificent. A bit like the Valley of the Kings in Egyptian Luxor, but without hordes of tourists.

 

Underground tomb

Hypogeum

Funerary towers are not the only form of burial in this valley. We descend into a hypogeum, an underground vault that has been arranged as a tomb. Three brothers and their families are buried here. Here too, the wall is richly decorated with beautiful frescoes.

 

Valley of the Tombs

It won't be long before the sun disappears behind the horizon. Anas takes us to Qalaat ibn Maan, an Arab castle from the 17th century, high on a mountain. That castle doesn't interest us at all – it’s closed anyhow. It is the sunset over Palmyra that captivates us. Swift as a mountain goat, the agile Anas walks up. Grinning, the proud Arab watches us as we climb the hill, sighing and groaning in the leaden heat of the evening.

 

Valley of the Tombs

But the climb is more than worth it. The ruddy glow of the setting sun casts a golden sheen over Palmyra's monumental structures. The palm forest in the background fades gently into the advancing twilight. To the west, the enigmatic silhouettes of the funerary towers command respect for the valley's sacred character. This view is truly unforgettable. A place that deserves to be engraved in the collective memory of humanity forever.

 

Reuters, Fri Sep 4, 2015, 10.29 am. Islamic State has blown up three ancient funeral towers in the ancient city of Palmyra, Syria's antiquities chief said on Friday, continuing the destruction of a World Heritage site that UNESCO has condemned as a war crime.

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Jaak Palmans

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