Photo Gallery: Palmyra, Syria
On August 31, 2015, the United Nations informed the world that much of what you see here was destroyed by ISIS. What was for me a happy collection of photos is now a sad memorial for what was lost.
The most impressive ancient ruins in Syria can be found at Palmyra. In Biblical and Babylonian times it was known as Tadmur and today the modern town alongside it bears that name. When I visited Palmyra on a backpacking trip through Syria in 1998, the entire ruins (other than the Temple of Bel) was ungated and open, so we could wander in and out even at night.
Children we met near the ruins. For more photos of children in Syria, see my blog post.
The colonnade at Palmyra extends over 1 km.
A photo of Palmyra from the Arab fortress that overlooks the ruins.
The Arabic fort on a hilltop near the ruins.
An interior shot of the Temple of Baal Shamin or Ba’al
Everywhere we went in Tadmur we were followed by curious children.
The Temple of Bel
The Temple of Bel is Palmyra’s most significant temple ruin.
All photos were taken with a Pentax K-1000 film camera.
My manuscript, based on travels in Egypt and Syria during the year I lived and wrote The Yogurt Man Cometh, is nearly ready for an editor but is standing in line behind a completed book about a year in southern Italy, currently in an editor’s hands.
Kevin, the Temple of Bel is beautiful – I was in Greece and recall feeling very small among the ruins and your photos brought back that memory and rush of Wow! Whoa! Holy smokes! -Kudos and thanks for that.
What floored me here was that there were hardly any tourists. So although the ruins were expansive and impressive, it felt like we had them all to ourselves. That’s a pretty amazing feeling too.
Pingback: The Kindness of Strangers: Syria