Thursday, October 18, 2007

Palmyra

With a predawn start to Palmyra in search with of the good light from the rising sun that gives that nice orange color.

Palmyra has columns every where and lots in rows. The Palmyrians liked their god Bel, from what remains of his temple. It was made to make you feel small in their gods presents and of course impress the shit out of you. They tossed a lot of big pieces of sandstone up six stories tall.

There were also a number of smaller roman temples. We assume they were not as popular.
There are over three hundred tombs and many are in the Valley of the Tombs. The tombs were mainly towers some reaching five stories. The gave each person a two foot tall space then stack the next person on top to enjoy the beginning of their after life. Of course most of the tombs appeared sacked at one time or another. There were stairs leading to the top of a number of tombs and temples. This gave me great views. Earlier I was going over a piece of stone wall and part of it disinigrates dropping me two feet to the ground. This did made the climbing the towers more interesting as they are missing parts of the floor, sides of building and a number of steps. But the old morter held as I went for a view from the top.
I hiked along a ridge that lead from the Valley of the Tombs to Qala' at ibn Maan which was a nice castle on a hill. During the trip I spotted a jackal running over the ridge in front of me. Qala' at ibn Maan has a decent number of rooms to explore and the battlements give great views.
Love and Kisses
Steve

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