From Aleppo we travelled south-west towards Tartus, a route that would inevitably take us through the city of Homs. I had asked Ghassan if we could just drive straight through Homs, because I knew how heavily it had been damaged during the war and ultimately, I didn’t come to Syria to tour destruction.
Yes, I knew I would see it during our trip, but I didn’t want to ‘tour it’, to me it just felt wrong.
However, Ghassan insisted that we make two stops in Homs – one at the Khalid inb Al-Walid Mosque and one at Um Al Zennar church. At this point, I didn’t bother arguing, Ghassan hadn’t led us astray yet and I didn’t figure he’d start now.
The mosque ended up being very beautiful and although neither Dad or myself were feeling super crash hot on this particular day, we both enjoyed our visit immensely.
From there we travelled to Um Al Zennar church – which is a place of significance because they claim to have an actual piece of the belt worn by the virgin Mary. The belt is displayed in a glass case and the elderly priest of this church was so sweet and so proud to show us this belt.
From there we travelled to Krak des Chevaliers, a site that I had been really excited to visit.
This medieval castle is renowned for being being one of the most important and one of the most well preserved medieval castles in the entire world.
Dating back to the 11th century, it was first inhabited by Kurdish crusaders before being given to the Knights Hospitallers (a medieval catholic military order hailing from Jerusalem) in 1142. Of all the castles controlled by the Knights Hospitaller, Krak des Chevaliers was by far the most important.
The castle is set atop a 650 metre tall hill and was built to withstand a siege lasting up to five years – which is just mind boggling to me.
There was ongoing restoration taking place during our visit, but we were still able to explore most of the castle without issue, and boy was there a lot to see!
Despite both Dad and I feeling a bit average on this day which was not helped by the extremely hot weather, our visit to Krak des Chevaliers was amazing. I have only ever visited one other Crusader castle (Kerak in Jordan) but I think that genre of exploration has certainly now peaked.
That evening we travelled to Tartus. Dad spent the evening hanging out with Ghassan and Emad, I spent it feeling sick and sorry for myself in bed. Thank goodness the next day I felt better, as it was going to be a big one.
Our day started with a very early rise so that we could get on the road to meet the army general who we needed to give us permission to continue on to our next destination. Lucky for us, he seemed friendly with Ghassan and Ghassan said it also helped having a young lady in our group – lel.
So where was our destination for the day?
The ruins of Palmyra.
The drive took us a solid three hours and by the time we arrived the mercury had hit well over 40 degrees celsius – this was easily the hottest and harshest place we visited while in Syria.
This ancient city dates back to the neolithic period and grew fabulously wealthy as its inhabitants (Palmyrenes) became known for being merchants at key points along the Silk Road. This wealth led to the development of enormous construction projects such as the amazing Great Colonnade.
Rule of Palmyra changed hands multiple times over the centuries until eventually it was conquered in the year 1400 AD. Excavations of the site began in the early 1930s and to this day, there is still much of the city that remains uncovered, hidden below the sand.
Palmyra was once considered one of the grandest and most well preserved ancient cities, unfortunately, due to reprehensible actions by members of ISIS, much of what had been left standing has since been destroyed.
However, despite the destruction, there is still so much to see at Palmyra and it is absolutely still worth visiting. After we arrived, we quickly made our way towards the Temple of Bel – one of the largest structures in Palmyra. Dedicated to the Mesopotamian god of Bel, construction was completed in 32 AD.
It had been one of the best preserved temples in all of Palmyra until much of it was destroyed by ISIS in 2015. However, despite this destruction, much of the exterior walls and the main arched entrance remain intact and are absolutely breathtaking.
Evidence of the destruction was everywhere and it was so unbelievably needless. So many atrocities have been committed by ISIS in Syria and the destruction of historic artefacts is absolutely one of them.
However, despite the destruction, beauty remained at every turn – look at the carving on this stone below.
From the Temple of Bel we made our way towards the Great Colonnade – a grand walkway that connected the Temple of Bel to Funerary Temple in the northwestern part of the site.
Eventually, we found ourselves in a spot that looked all too familiar. The Palmyra theatre was once an incredibly well preserved Roman amphitheatre, however, this spot hit headlines in 2015 when ISIS lined up 25 captive men on the theatre’s stages and shot them all simultaneously. To make matters worse, they filmed this and it ended up all over the internet. Oh, and they also blew up some of the stage – it is an event that is still completely unfathomable to me.
I remember seeing this all over the news, to actually walk into this theatre felt seriously surreal.
From there we made our way to the Tomb of the Three Brothers, unfortunately another site of destroyed artefacts courtesy of ISIS.
Upon entry to the tomb, it was immediately obvious that all of the statues had had their faces removed and destroyed. Ghassan told us that there are ‘no faces in Islam’ before elaborating that some interpretations of the Quran infer that images of beings must be discouraged as they could encourage the worship of these icons.
We left Palmyra and made the long journey back to Damascus. It was crazy to think that our time in Syria was coming to an end, but we did have one incredible adventure on the cards for us before we left – stay tuned!
THE LOWDOWN
Golden Target Tours: This tour company came highly recommended and I can keep those high recommendations coming. Don’t let the lack of a website fool you, the owner Khaldoun is a real pro and responds to any enquiries very quickly and consistently – contact him through whatsapp on +963 944 372 700 to discuss planning a trip through Syria. Make sure to ask for Ghassan and Emad as your crew!
Palmyra: Make sure to wear light coloured clothing, bring sunscreen and way more water than you will think you need – it gets crazily hot in this are
Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this.
During one of my trips to China I saw similar, unfathomable destruction that was done during the Cultural Revolution. It boggles my mind that anyone could think stone images could be dangerous to a belief in a higher being.
Syria would be such a fascinating country to visit. I do remember the 25 men lined up by ISIS at Palmyra theatre. Awful stuff goes on in the world. So sad also many cultural treasures have been defaced and damaged. The Roman amphitheater itself looks extremely well preserved. It looks really big. What an experience that would have been.