Palmyra lies out in the eastern desert of Syria, 130km from Iraq. In the first centuries AD, it flourished under Roman rule as a trading post halfway between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates. Then in 267 the madly ambitious Queen Zenobia came to power. She claimed descent from Cleopatra and extended her power to the west, even taking control of Egypt. Her troops also tried to take Antioch, but then the Romans struck back and she was defeated in 272.

Today Palmyra is Syria's most famous attraction, and as far as I know it's the most extensive collection of Roman ruins there is. In the morning I first visited the Temple of Bel, which lies a bit apart from the rest of the ruins, and then walked through Palmyra`s main street.


In the early afternoon I went back to the village for some food and then took a taxi to the valley on the other side of Palmyra where the kings and nobles built their tower tombs. These towers are sober compared to the monuments in Palmyra itself but their solemnity is impressive and wandering between them added a lot of flavour to my day. I also had fun looking for the entrances of the ruined towers. Inside one of them I found the stairs (using my flashlight); upstairs I got a nice view on the valley.


I showed the tower tombs nearest Palmyra first but I actually had the taxi drop me off at the farthest point and then walked back to Palmyra through the valley and over the plain, a very nice walk. Back in Palmyra the afternoon sun had given the ruins an amazing golden colour (compare the thumbnails with those above).
Palmyra was great, but it was the first time in Syria that I was faced with tourism crap: men selling camel rides, boys selling postcards, etc. It was very little compared to what you get in Egypt and Petra but so far I'd only seen a Syria completely unspoiled by tourism and I'd loved it. A nice thing about Palmyra though is that most of the site is freely accessible, so a lot of locals go there for a stroll rather than to harass tourists.

One Syrian boy who was selling postcards and who can't have been more than 10 years old amazed me with his fluent English, we had a whole conversation. He must be so smart, what a shame that a kid like that is selling postcards instead of going to school.

When the sun set I picked up my luggage at the hotel, got a taxi to the bus station and took the evening bus to Damascus. Thus ended my first 6 days in Syria. I consider these to be the best part of my journey because I got to visit a fantastic site each day, usually with no other tourists around, and met a lot of amazingly friendly local people. Southern Jordan was almost as good though, so keep reading :)


Apamea was founded by Seleucos, Alexander the Great's general, in 331 BC on a grassy plain above the Orontes valley. It is named after his wife, a Persian princess. It was an important city through Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine times, but got plundered by the Persians in 540 and 612 (try being nice to them by naming your city after a Persian princess and this is what you get!) and declined further in islamic times. In 1157 an earthquake finally wiped it off the map.

In recent decades Belgian archeologists excavated the site and reconstructed the city's Roman cardo (colonnaded street), which is perfectly straight and an amazing 2km long. It's a fantastic sight to behold; walking through it from one end to the other takes half an hour and all the time you're surrounded by ancient columns of various kinds. I was almost all alone on this huge site and had one of the best days of my journey here.


Apamea was excavated by Belgian archeologists, and apparently they were very popular coz whenever I told a local I'm Belgian they got all excited and wanted to tell me all about one Jean Balti who I assume to have been the head of the expedition. They even showed me his house as if he was a local saint. Walking back through the colonnade I ran into an old Syrian with a pick-axe who apparently worked on the site. When I told him I'm a Belgian he pointed to his axe while saying "Jean Balti! Jean Balti!" and then he actually kissed me :) Next to the colonnade lies the fortified village of Al Madiq on a hill that was once the citadel of Apamea. The hill was fortified in crusader times. When I'd finished wandering around the ruins I headed over there and got a ride up on the back of a scooter. Inside the village I started looking for a way to get through to the city walls and have a look at the colonnade from there. I didn't find it but some local kids helped me out; I had to climb on some stairs to get on top of one of the fort's towers. Somehow I expected a 2km long colonnade to look spectacular from far away but it didn't. The village was interesting though. What caught my eye is that although the houses looked rather poor, they all had satellite dishes, but I'd see that everywhere in the middle east.

When I started walking around the village, I soon had all the local kids following me around; I was the event of the day apparently. Admittedly, it's very easy to get popular with Syrian kids when you have a digital camera; not only can you satisfy their cries of "soura! soura!" (photo! photo!) at no cost, you can also show them the pic on the camera's screen, and that is always a hit. It was the same in Palestine where the children are equally enthusiastic about foreigners, probably because just like in Syria there are not a whole lot of tourists.

In the mountains near the border with Lebanon lies the Krak des Chevaliers, the most famous of all crusader castles and probably the most impressive medieval castle in the world. It was built in the middle of the 12th century and would be one of the last strongholds of the crusaders. In 1271, after a long siege by Sultan Beybars, the remaining 200 knights (in a castle intended for 2000) agreed to depart in return for safe conduct, so the castle never really fell.

The Krak is actually a castle within a castle. It occupies an area of 30000 m2. On a clear day the Mediterranean, 30km to the west, can be seen from the high towers. The castle has been almost perfectly preserved. Thankfully it has not been prettified and touristified like so many other castles, and no balustrades have been placed to make it safe (except on the highest tower), so it still looks pretty much like it did 800 years ago.

When I arrived at the castle, I didn't go in but started walking around it and climbed the hill next to it to get a complete view. While waiting for the sun to break through so I could take a good picture, I got talking to a very friendly (and very gay) Syrian. He was the owner of the hotel I was standing next to, and it turned out he's actually a bit famous in Flanders since he was interviewed in a famous Flemish TV program about the crusades ("In the schaduw van het kruis"). I'm not surprised, he was a very colourful character.


I was the last visitor to leave the castle, so the minibus drivers didn't want to leave unless I paid 5 times the normal price. I refused and just sat down pretending to have plenty of time. In the end one agreed to drive me to Homs for the normal price, hoping to pick up other people along the way. After 15' I was still the only passenger though, so he stopped in the middle of nowhere and indicated he wanted to turn around and drive back. Actually he just wanted me to pay more of course, so we had a long fight (always funny to argue with someone when he speaks 5 words of English and I 5 words of Arabic). In the end I just left the van and didn't pay anything and continued on foot. I was at some 20km from Homs so I didn't know if I'd manage to get home, but in the next village I found out where the minibusses to Homs pass and before long I was on my way.

Since I'd stayed a second night in Hama after visiting Apamea instead of staying in Homs, I did the following route this day: Hama to Homs, Homs to the Krak, Krak to Homs, Homs to Hama. Back in Hama I had just enough time to pick up my backpack before taking the evening bus to Palmyra, which went via... Homs :) In Palmyra I found a hotel right away.