Palmyra

Last week C-lo and I took a trip out to the desert to visit the ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra. A brief history lesson: Palmyra was an important caravan city, located besides an oasis along one of the main trade routes linking the East (Persia, India, China) with the Roman Empire in the West. It reached a peak of wealth and importance in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries AD, culminating in Queen Zenobia's unsuccessful bid to set up her son as an independent emperor in the East (Syria, Arabia, Egypt). The crushing of this rebellion by Rome in 271 AD ended Palmyra's semi-autonomy, and marks the start of a long fall from grace. By the time of the Muslim conquest in the 7th Century, the city had largely been abandoned to the desert. This abandonment was the key to its survival in its Classical state. In 1678 two English merchants resident in Aleppo came across the site, thus beginning a long and ongoing process of rediscovery - though the first serious survey only took place in the 1920s.

The ruins are a three hour bus-ride north east of Damascus. Its a very dramatic journey. Once you pass through the hinterland of Damascus, it is a journey through the desert. Aside from a couple of petrol stations, the Baghdad Cafe, and a single railway line there is nothing except the rocky landscape stretching out on all sides.

We arrived in Tadmur (the modern town which lies besides the site of the ruins) in the early evening, which gave us just enough time to drop off our stuff at the hotel and to enjoy a tea with the friendly owner. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of football, a strange obsession with the movie Titanic, and was somewhat lovesick, constantly talking about an Italian girl (always Italians!) who had stayed there a few weeks previously. However he wasn't too upset because that day the football team he played for had just won a match, making it into the final of the Palmyra Cup! After a couple of glasses of shay, our driver came to take us to Qalat ibn Maan, the castle on the hill overlooking the ruins, in order to enjoy the sunset. This was our first view of the ruins, and it was very impressive. It was beautiful to see the remains of the ancient city in the pinky-orange light, and then to turn around and say goodbye to the Sun as it disappeared behind the desert hills.

In the evening our driver took us to a Bedouin tent party, which turned out to be adjacent to a restaurant complex catering for tourists. Nevertheless it was a fun evening - the food was excellent, a real feast (as usual!) and, as well as some small groups of tourists (from France and Spain), we were sharing the tent with a party of 40-50 women from Latakia (prosperous city in north-west Syria). They were really enjoying themselves (not least because they were free from their menfolk), especially when the entertainment started - a group of Bedouin musicians and dancers (male). C-lo was one of the first to be dragged up to dance, swiftly followed by the rest of us. The music lasted until well after midnight...

The following morning it was time for an early start to have plenty of time to explore the ruins before travelling back to Damascus in the afternoon. We began in the valley of the tombs - a very eerie place, though home to some Bedouin families who herded goats, but seemed to make most of their living from selling trinkets to tourists, such as traditional Arab headscarves or plastic snakes.

There are several different types of tomb here, but for me the most interesting were the towers, originally three or four storeys high. The larger ones would have contained dozens of bodies. Although they have long since been emptied by tomb robbers many have been excavated from the desert and are in surprisingly good condition, silent sentinels over a bleak landscape.


After walking through the valley of the tombs for a couple of hours, taking our time to explore some of the structures, we reached the edge of the ruins of Palmyra. Coming at the ruins from the desert was a great idea, stimulating the imagination and evoking a sense of awe. Although I had seen the ruins from the hill the night before I was not prepared for the scale of the site - the colonnaded streets stretch for several kilometres. It is easy to get a sense of the grandeur of this place in its heydey.

One of the highlights was the wondrfully preserved theatre (below), which amazingly was only rediscovered in the 1950s!

One of the other things that impressed me the most were the carved details and the amazingly high degree of preservation - delicately carved vine leaves showing little sign of weathering, geometric designs that retain their clarity, and wonderful details of zodiac signs, mythological characters or other scenes.

We concluded our trip at Temple of Bal This was originally a pagan temple built around 50 AD. The outer enclosure (below, with Menno) is huge, it could have housed several thousand people who would have participated in public sacrifices of animals (there is a sacrificial altar and channels for the blood). In the 5th Century the inner sanctum was converted into a church (some frescoes of Christian saints are still visible) and then into a mosque following the Arab conquests, whilst the outer walls were fortified.

The temple afforded some good views of the lush green palm trees of the oasis in the background - a reminder of the water in the desert that made this settlement of an estimated 90,000 people at its peak, possible. Beyond the green only the bleak yet beautiful reds and oranges of the desert...

By now the midday sun was really bearing down upon us, and we had been walking for many hours - we still had a lot left to see (the baths, several smaller temples, a church and a basilica, the agora etc... you get the idea) but it was time to leave in order to catch the afternoon bus back to Damascus. What a magnificent place Palmyra is!

Ma'a Salaama - With Peace

So far I have tried to avoid going too deeply into political issues on this blog, but as Bush and Ahmadinejad - is it just me, or has anybody else noticed the uncanny 'simian-arity' of the two? – prepare to go head to head, I often think of the effect this might have on this part of the world. I don't want to discuss what I think of the current sabre-rattling and the complexities involved (not least the fact that Iran has a great deal of influence in Iraq, which should hopefully give US hawks some pause for thought before they decide to try to ‘kick some ass’). Nevertheless, I believe that a US air attack or missile strike on Iran remains a possibility (hopefully not yet a probability) and this would undoubtedly further stir up violence and instability across the Middle East, including in Syria.

In the first week that we were here, C-lo and I sat one evening in a cafe overlooking the Citadel, the Barada river and the Old City, and, as we looked out upon the ramshackle array of roofs, green-lit minarets and ancient fortifications we said - 'I hope to God that nothing bad happens to this place'. Damascus, especially the older and poorer parts, is in many ways an ugly city to eyes used to English towns and cities – the streets are strewn with rubbish and often have a buckled, chaotic quality to them, many of the houses are dilapidated, indeed some are literally crumbling apart. Yet, behind this ugliness there is a tarnished beauty in even the most mundane of streets – a beautifully carved door here, some fine stonework there, maybe even a domed shrine quietly tucked away.

Yet, more than a concern that further chaos in the Middle East might bring destruction to the historical wealth represented by Damascus’ buildings is our concern for the people we have met here. As one of the hummus sellers in our neighbourhood, said to us one night, as we were picking up some beautifully prepared moutabbel (smoked aubergine-based dip) for dinner: 'Politics is hard but between people it is easy' - I took what he said to mean that although the governments of our countries might not get along so well, which stirs up all sorts of animosities and distortions on both sides, and despite our different languages, cultures and backgrounds when we meet face to face most of us are able to arrive at some kind of coexistence (though I concede that it’s not always so easy!).

And it is for this reason that I hope that the current crisis is defused. In London or Washington there is little conception that the words ‘Syria’ or ‘Damascus’ contains more than the distorted images of an enemy but for us here it means a whole plethora of people and memories (both bad and good), too rich, complex and precious to be easily caught, categorized and contained. This country undoubtedly has its share of idiots and bigots, but this has to be contrasted with the countless examples of courtesy and hospitality that we have been shown wherever we have been.

As we say when we say goodbye in Arabic: Ma'a Salaama – with peace.

Dance and hammams

Last week we went to see a dance called 'Stillness' - a fusion of contemporary and traditional Arabic dance with a great soundtrack. Now, I'm no expert at dance, but I was impressed by how accomplished and moving the pieces were. It seems to me that it wouldn't have seemed too out of place in London. To cap it all, admission was free!

This was one of those events that, in my ignorance, I would never have dreamed I would find in Damascus. I mean its not "typical" Syria (whatever that means) - it was an obviously middle class audience - but it is still part of this place's make-up and a far cry from the kind of distorted image that even we "interested" people have about this place.

The weather here is starting to really heat up - April was very changeable, but its now sunny and warm every day - and everyone tells us its just gonna get hotter. Strewth! Thankfully my factor 15 is preventing me burning too much, though I'm not changing colour too much - a nice tan for once in my life would be nice :-) (though maybe I'm getting one - just too slow and subtle for me to notice..?)

In this weather its nice to go to one of the many parks that you can find, especially in the western (more affluent) part of central Damascus (below, Tishreen park, now full of cherry blossom).

Speaking of relaxation, on Monday night I went to a hammam (a public bath) - a lad's only excursion, which C-lo was a little disappointed about (some hammams have women-only hours during the day but never at night). It was a great experience - I steamed the dust from my pores before having a scrub and a massage to put my back back in order after 5 weeks sleeping on a rubbishy mattress. So good! To cap off all the relaxation, whilst sitting swathed in towels (like a mummy!) drying off, we had tea and a nargileh (water pipe). When I came home my skin was so soft and I smelled beautiful.

Tuesday we went to check out some live music in a bar in central Damascus, near the posh hotels. It was a swish place, kinda reminded me of the stylish bars in London that I never go to
. The crowd was a little thin and a contrasting mix of rich Arabs (some old man with young girl dynamics going on, plus small groups of young Syrians from wealthy families) and European students there to see their mates play some "Latin" music. It was nice to hear some blues and some Latin (the Arabic pop can be too much sometimes - overproduced and a little sickening y'know), and, though it wasn't the kinda place I'd choose to go to back home, it felt comforting to sit and have a couple of beers in a bar for once.

Oh yeah, and we've been studying hard - I'm getting pretty good at writing simple sentences, but I'm still unable to speak anything but the most rudimentary sentence. Slowly, slowly...