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Palmyra

T.Qusai Mushwah

Site of Palmyra*

State Party Syria

Type Cultural

Criteria i, ii, iv

Reference 23

Region† Arab States

Inscription History

Inscription 1980 (4th Session)

* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List.
† Region as classified by UNESCO.

Palmyra (Arabic: تدمر) was in the ancient times an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 120 km southwest of the Euphrates. It has long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert and was known as the Bride of the Desert. The earliest documented mention of the city by its pre-Semitic name Tadmor, Tadmur or Tudmur, is recorded in Babylonian tablets found in Mari. Though the ancient site fell into disuse after the 16th century, it is still known as Tadmor (in Arabic تدمر) and there is a small newer settlement next to the ruins of the same name.

History

Ancient

In the mid-first century, Palmyra, a wealthy and elegant city located along the caravan routes linking Persia with the Mediterranean ports of Roman Syria and Phoenicia, came under Roman control. During the following period of great prosperity, the Arab citizens of Palmyra adopted customs and modes of dress from both the Iranian Parthian world to the east and the Graeco-Roman west.

Tadmor is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Second Book of Chronicles 8:4) as a desert city built by the King Solomon of Judea, the son of David.

In the First Book of Kings (9:18) is mentioned the city of תמר Tamor or Tamar, also built by Solomon. But it is traditionally read (see Qere) as Tadmor, and several citations in the tractates of the Talmud and of the Midrash refer to that city in the Syrian desert (sometimes interchanging the letters "t" and "d" - "Tarmod" instead of "Tadmor"). (Some modern scholars wrote that it could refer to a place near the Dead Sea.)

Tadmor is also mentioned as built by Solomon in Flavius Josephus Antiquities of the Jews - Book VIII, along with the Greek name of Palmyra.

Tadmor is the name of Palmyra in modern Hebrew. The exact etymology of the name "Palmyra" in this case is unknown, although some scholars believe it was related to the palm trees in the area. Others, however, are less certain, and believe it may have come out of an incorrect translation of the name "Tadmor"; c.f. Colledge, Seyrig, Starcky, and others.

The city was first mentioned in the archives of Mari in the 2nd millennium BC. It was another trading city in the extensive trade network that linked Mesopotamia and northern Syria. Terry Jones and Alan Ereira write in 'Barbarians', p. 183:

"There had been a temple at Palmyra, for instance, for 2000 years before the Romans ever saw it. Its form, a large stone-walled chamber with columns outside, is much closer to the sort of thing attributed to Solomon than to anything Roman. It is mentioned in the Bible as part of Solomon's Kingdom. In fact, it says he built it (2 Chronicles 8 v. 4)."

Greco-Roman & Persian Periods

When the Seleucids took control of Syria in 323 BC, the city was left to itself and it became independent. The city flourished as a caravan halt in the 1st century BC. In 41 BC, the Romans under Mark Antony tried to occupy Palmyra but failed as the Palmyrans escaped to the other side of the Euphrates. The Palmyrans had received intelligence of the Roman approach. This proves that at that time Palmyra was still a nomadic settlement and its valuables could be removed at short notice.

Jones and Erieira note that Palmyran merchants owned ships in Italian waters and controlled the Indian silk trade. "Palmyra became one of the richest cities of the Near East.""The Palmyrans had really pulled off a great trick, they were the only people who managed to live alongside Rome without being Romanized. They simply pretended to be Romans."

Palmyra was made part of the Roman province of Syria during the reign of Tiberius (14–37). It steadily grew in importance as a trade route linking Persia, India, China, and the Roman empire. In 129, Hadrian visited the city and was so enthralled by it that he proclaimed it a free city and renamed it Palmyra Hadriana.

Beginning in 212, Palmyra's trade diminished as the Sassanids occupied the mouth of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Septimius Odaenathus, a Prince of Palmyra, was appointed by Valerian as the governor of the province of Syria. After Valerian was captured by the Sassanids and died in captivity in Bishapur, Odaenathus campaigned as far as Ctesiphon (near modern-day Baghdad) for revenge, invading the city twice. When Odaenathus was assassinated by his nephew Maconius, his wife Septimia Zenobia took power, ruling Palmyra on the behalf of her son, Vabalathus. Zenobia rebelled against Roman authority with the help of Cassius Dionysius Longinus and took over Bosra and lands as far to the west as Egypt, establishing the short-lived Palmyrene Empire. Next, she attempted to take Antioch to the north. In 272, the Roman Emperor Aurelian finally retaliated and captured her and brought her back to Rome. He paraded her in golden chains but allowed her to retire to a villa in Tibur, where she took an active part in society for years. This rebellion greatly disturbed Rome, and so Palmyra was forced by the empire to become a military base for the Roman legions. Diocletian expanded it to harbor even more legions and walled it in to try and save it from the Sassanid threat. The Byzantine period only resulted in the building of a few churches and much of the city was in ruin.

Islamic

In 634 the first Muslims arrived in Palmyra. The city was taken by the Muslim Arabs under Khalid ibn Walid in 636. In the 6th century, Fakhreddine al Maany castle was built on top of a mountain overlooking the oasis. The castle was surrounded by a moat, with access only available through a drawbridge. The city of Palmyra was kept intact. After 800 people started abandoning the city.

Funerary Art

Palmyrenes constructed a series of large-scale funerary monuments. These structures, some of which were below ground, had interior walls that were cut away or constructed to form burial compartments in which the deceased, extended at full length, was placed. Limestone slabs with human busts (in Roman and Parthian Iranian fashions) in high relief sealed the rectangular openings of the compartments.

These reliefs represented the "personality" or "soul" of the person interred and formed part of the wall decoration inside the tomb chamber. A banquet scene as depicted on this relief would have been displayed in a family tomb rather than that of an individual.

Further excavations

Archaeological teams from various countries have been working on-and-off on different parts of the site. In May 2005, a Polish team excavating at the Lat temple discovered a highly-detailed stone statue of the winged goddess of victory Nike.

Tadmor . Tadmor the town located in the center of the Syrian Arab Republic on current name in Aramaic (ܬ ܕ ܡ ܪ ܬ ܐ, "Tadmrta" meaning miracle), 215 kilometers north of Damascus. The city commercial station very important between Asia and Europe, where the Kingdom destroyed. Destroy the Kingdom flourished in the second half of the first century BC, and was carrying a Greco-Roman cities Babinitha public and private, but the most important effects of the huge temple and the most high-street bar, theatre and Agora market, known as the Great Gate arch victory addition to hundreds of sculptures and statues and ancient cemeteries, which were huge City Oval on the wall form and subsidized ditch. There are detained by the opposition politicians and the events occurred famous massacre destroyed in 1982. Date Kingdom destroyed . The nature of the Kingdom of destroying the population is divided into layers are: citizens are free, Obaid, foreigners. Citizens are the sons of the tribes and some clan alliances. The cultivation and care of Altdmouryon Ahthm and organized and irrigation channels and dams and dug wells for drinking basins. The Aramaic commercial correspondence and official Ballatynet (in Roman times). They also have their own language and script Altdmouryh taken from the Aramaic.

Wrote a. Ameen Saeed . Religion and art . Altdmouryon people was purely commercial but did not abandon his religion and, on the contrary, was slow in building temples and large graves. The many gods and the convergence of thirty-headed god Ala (but), which shows a single in the carvings, and more gods Altdmouryh imagine him as events, but what is more with his wife (Baldi), (Irehol). The triangular (but - Irehol - Aglbol) enjoys more popularity in Palmyra. The temple, but of the largest and most religious temples in the ancient east. Since the first century AD, built constructive basic Ncz land remained builds and expands until the late era destroy, that is, compared to large (220x205) meters, surrounded by walls b 375 columns along each of which more than 18 metres, and remains in the seven major interface. The most prominent area of cemeteries where Altdmouryon distinctive ingenuity. It was far from the graves, where they decorate with flowers and places to sit call (Beit eternal). Since the second century landfill became more like home than one floor accommodates sometimes eighty graves were carefully carved walls and ingenuity.

Queen Zenobia of Tadmor

professor: Haj Hussein Raad . Presented by: . Of outstanding natural phenomena and the emergence of striking characters brilliantly intermittently spaced or close ago, and has been the emergence of Zenobia one of those phenomena. The shining star emerged in the days long and huge for us. Have been eligible for that visibility was qualified in the same person, they were eligible in the environment in which they were generated, all this has been completed to marriage and training, but experience in governance and responsibilities. Zenobia seems as if one of the myths, legends and more old people, which seems the time from various quarters and peoples of the Middle West and the Arab origin, a strong personality, show high-rearing, views the Greek and Aramaic, speaking by such fluency spoken by Arab , and was not ignorant of America, and has informed the history of the West in addition to being codified may itself summary of the history of the Middle, which shows the capacity informed. woman is not like women, lived a great and faded also great, wonderful it a model for human beings deserve our study and research, and to make this whole This research modest.

Downs: Zaba Bint Amr Bin Alzerb bin Hassan Ibn Uthaina Ben Asameeda Asameeah famous in the modern ignorant, Her destroyed and queen Levant and the island. Call Frank Zenobia, and her mother from the Greek atomic Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. Attributes: The wealth of knowledge, Badea beauty, fond of fishing, hunting, improved more common languages in its time, and wrote a history of the East. Queen Zenobia of view and great wisdom, reason and policy consideration and Equestrian accuracy and intensity of good and beauty laude. Brown colour was strong Allhz The prestige, beauty and greatness waving to her face and her teeth were white Kallele, voice strong and Jhora, the true body safely, and the smiles are Tvargaha, Facht greatness imperious imitation kings Alakasrh was put turbans on her head and wear the purple dress inlaid mother were often left arm exposed. Tthagaft culture and the Greek and speak Aramaic, Coptic and some Latin and Greek and has ample knowledge of the history of East and West, and was read Homer and Plato and draw on the history of Egypt and Asia

Wrote a. Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz. The issue of governance: The wife of Zenobia Uthaina Middle Mr. Roman, who extended his authority on Syria ff and the title King of Kings. Vastather Uthaina Syria and the rest of Asia Romanian, and was often fought Persians and hung from his country. It was left to war if delegated by the Government of destroying his wife, Zenobia, so it was said: The conclusion reached by an Uthaina of excellence in leadership and expertise in mobilizing armies due to it. What killed Uthaina (and some point the finger in the death of her husband) Atlt sofa on behalf of her son King Lat donation, and then took her son to seek confirmation producer and strengthen State Altdmouryh. After worsened when relations between the Roman Emperor and the State Altdmouryh, sent some battalions Roman emperor to restore its influence Romanian, but Zenobia smashed battalions are attached and the defeat of evil. Benefited from the turmoil in Rome, went to Egypt, the country rich grain and opened up so ably and so strengthened the position destroy commercial and trade relations have made extend to Abyssinia and the Arab Peninsula. Egypt did not convince even begun to sweep the Balad and open home and indomitable soldiers and army to defeat even widened Mmketha greatly expanded its borders taken from the shores of Bosphorus until Nile fired by Empire East. Turning to the government in Rome, the Emperor Orljnos initiated immediately to negotiate with Zenobia and stopped the advance of their armies against great gifts and recognized her son titles and prerogatives of money and struck in Antioch, Alexandria was the image of the Lat gave me the first and second image on the face Orljnos. Next step in the King entrusted to Egypt created and removed money from the image of the emperor and advocated absolute independence. Once Orljnos briefed on the work of Zenobia is only pouring out anger Jam, a nation the same punishment and crush Altdmouryh State. Alama mobilized an army commander and the head Brobos and sent to Egypt in 271 m, and give himself another army directed him to Asia Minor to meet upheaval in Palmyra. Started having success plan, which came Brobos Egypt without sheds considerable resistance, either Orljnos bringing Antioch and was able to Altdmouryh invincible forces in a major battle erupted which was forced to withdraw to destroy

End: Orljnos Homs track towards following up Zenobia which withdrew it, thanks to its Armed Forces to defeat other occasions, landscape their battle Antioch arrived destroyed and fully equipped beleaguered spent on the Altadmrien supplies, and had prepared all they can prepare a means of defense as set up at each tower towers of the fence Two or three of the attackers Majanic throw stones, and fixed fire burning oil, and are designed to resist heroic courage, stating that if it was necessary for its judgement of the end of this Feltkturn end her life. Show Orljnos the Zenobia recognized for moderate conditions: attribution generous withdrawal, and to retain their privileges old citizens. But they refused and then inflicted conditions, but not accompanied rejection insulted, and after that he by despair, Zenobia tried to escape and reached the Euphrates River but they occurred in captivity and taken to Orljnos is on the battlefield so well treated in 282 m. Then Dragged him to Rome did not kill her but killed Some senior pimp and advisers after a trial held them in Homs. And the likelihood that the words have ended their lives in a house in a shaggy Tibor promising them Orljnos, did not materialize the way her death, but one of the novels says it absorbed the poison and died, but her daughters have married some supervision of the Romans.

Conclusion: Was her closer to the functioning heroes of the progress of women, they did not travel to ride horses, and does not have the Alhodg, before the pimp and its collaborators and Tbageshm, and if Jadlthm beating strongly determines eloquence and tongue, and often included its men from the United various delegations, including kings of the Persians The Armenians, and the fair in the nationals, especially Arabs on their boards were the usual interference with her son gave Lat with pride and the dress and on her shoulders Medlar short purple, chiefly Crown, and was entrusted to measure things shortcomings some elders permission, but if the girls toured stumbling blocks of supervision .. When reviewing personnel in the fields passed in front of rows over Jawadha They cloak of the war, especially the Roman helmet made of Baldr and essence, if people saw in that position Hspoha gods of gods bone was also common in the Greek and Roman mythology. effects still destroyed until he saw the What was it and prevent TAKES greatness and richness and splendor led Zenobia, the effects remain in Lebanon, which channels water from the river to Ibrahim Jbeil, as well as from the river Kadiha to Tripoli and Beirut to Beirut River was truly a great woman all specifications Human ancient and modern, have become a lesson for those willing that is ...