Valley of the Tombs, Palmyra, Syria

"Moslem story-tellers ascribe the building of Palmyra
to the Jinn commandeered by Solomon..."

"In the first century A.D.,
as the sun of Petra began to set,
another caravan city,
Palmyra,
four hundred miles to the north,
began to rise.

A spring of drinkable water,
at the midpoint of the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia,
gave rise to an oasis,
nucleated by a hamlet.

A shift in international trade routes
from Rome
to Persia, India and China

ENLARGE
raised the hamlet to a dazzling position
of affluence and power
among the cities of antiquity.

Palmyra reached its zenith of power
under its legendary queen,
the beautiful and ambitious Zenobia,
Bath-Zaabbay of the Palmyrene,
known in Arabic legend
as al-Zabba.

The greater part of Mediterranean trade
with the East
passed through Palmyra's gates.
Chinese silk,
Phoenician purple,
Indian perfumes,
glassware,
olive oil,
wool,
aromatics,
dried figs,
cheese and
wine
were handled by the Palmyrenes
who traded as far west
as Britain.

The result was the growth of Palmyra into one of the richest cities of the Near East.

In the fourth century Palmyra was destroyed by Roman legions who
sacked the city,
pulled down it's columns,
put its citizens to the sword
and
took its queen,
Zenobia to Rome in chains.

The great city was overtaken by the desert
for over a thousand years."

Philip Hitti, 1955
A Short History of Syria

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