Middle East Trip 2003: Syria | Lebanon | Jordan | Palestine The Palestinian-Israeli conflict Travelogue
Day 09 - Palmyra
28-09-2003
We wook up at 5:15 in the morning to see the sunrise at the Palmyra ruins. The night was cold and windy and all the night teh windows were sounding. It surprising the changes of temperature in the desert. We We wrapped ourselves up and in the middle of the night to the old roman city. The waiting until the sunset seems like an eternity, but when the first lights of the morning appeared we felt impressive with the beauty of the place. Really, the photos was worth to get up at the crack of dawn.
Very windy morning, so early!
The sun appearing behind the ruins
The tetraphilon silhouette, with the sun as background
At daybreak, the ruins become to shown their real dimensions. The main street have a lenght of 500 meters and ends in the funerary temple that with the columns and the castle as background formed the figure more famous of Syria. The best of all was that during two hours we were the only people in the ruins, except some kids who came to us to request some sweets and we gave them some pencils.
The sun behind a group of columns
Enjoying the sunrise in an incredible place
Doorway of the funerary temple, built in the century III
At 8:15 we met with Ahmad, who took us to the museum of Palmyra and there we bought two tickets to visit the funerary towers. Again the student identification works and we paid a simbolic price, 30 SYP. The funny of the situation is that we had to transport to the man in charge of the keys of the towers in our car. He was opened the padlocks of the doors of the tombs.
In order to visit the funerary towers, the people in charge of the keys have to open each tower, if there is somebody who wants to visit them
We spent the final of the morning visiting the Bel Temple (30 SYP). The temple is empty and we spent less than 20 minutes to visit it. The structures are interesting but at this stage, we are tired of ruins, so we prefered to return to the hotel to rest for a while. At the exit of the Bel temple, we saw the camell-drivers we met yerterday near Zenobia hotel. Under the insistence and how we didn't want to ride a camell, we proposed give them some money if they allow us to take a photo to them and the camells. All agreed with the deal.
main entrace of the temple, where is located the ticket office
While we were walking returning to the hotel, we met with Ahmad in the museum, but now with a jacket and a cap from the museum, from this we follow that as well as a driver he was a guide in the museum. With the status of the tourism (there were not more than 15 tourists in Palmyra that day) the people must found other employments. We chatted for a wuhile and he proposed us to visit a bedouin settlement of some friends of him at the evening. Offering we didn't reject. After had lunch and sleep for a while, we would have an authentic bedouin experience, maybe a little special.

The bedouin settlement is 12 kilometers far from Palmyra, by the desert road, Irak direction. The last two or three kilometers were out of roads between stones and sand. We thought that the car could not stand that bumping. Next to arrive, he introduced us to the male members of the family (we couldn't see the women) and he explained us the way of life of the bedouins. The main work of this people is the cattle and the taking the animals in the trucks to the near fountains that the government installs every 30 kilometers. We spent 2 hours with them in their hospitality tent where they invited us to a welcome bedouin coffee (very bitter and strong) and tea (chai). Ahmad invited us to a narguile of tobacco with apple smell.
From inside the bedouins tent, the car in which we arrived, a little rickety Mercedes Benz
They received us with the typical bedouin coffee. It's a black coffee, very hot and bitter (they add it cardamom) nd luckyly short. In orden to followcorrectly the bedouins rules, the cup must be stired three times and drink all the coffee in one
We practiced a few of sentences in arabic that we learned during the trip, with success. Curious way of life of the bedouins. One of them got married one month ago and we saw the video of the party of the marriage (it spent three days!), although 20 minutes of video seems eternal. They have an electric generator by gas oil which proportionates them electricity to watch TV and the video (there aren't tv stations in the desert), and curiously, to charge the mobile phones. hen the environment is relaxed, we played for a while interchanging the sun glasses and the scarfs and taking us photos.
Of course, the third brother also wanted his photo, but it was difficult to control himself :)
If one of the brothers had his photo... the other wants one. During the visit we watched the wedding video of this bedouin man who got married one month before
In the head of the adopted bedouin!
An a few more ....
Being a woman guest, Yolanda could be in the reserved area in the tent for meeting. The rest of the women were in others rooms and we could not meet them
Ahmad with his friend, the patriarch of the family
Children can be in the meeting room when there are guests
Returning to the village, we had dinner in Traditional Palmyra restaurant other of the local specialities. The dinner, again, exquisite, and no so expensive (425 SYP). We paid to Mohammed and Ahmad, 20$ for the tours and 35$ for the lodge. We decide to go to sleep because Yolanda had a cold due to windy sunrise at the ruins. Ahmad, who is like one more of our family, offered himself to come with us to the bus station next day, early in the morning, to take the bus to Damascus. In Damuscus, we will another transportation to Amman, again in Jordan.

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