Palmyra Syria

Palmyra lies in the heart of the Syrian Desert and is often described as the “bride of the desert”.  Her magnificent remains tell of a heroic history during the reign of Queen Zenobia! Palmyra was an ideal hault for the caravans moving between Iraq and Syria, Lebanon and Jordon, trading in silk from China to the Mediterranean, hense the name “Silk Road”.

I found this bit of history interesting,  Zenobia was the wife of Auzania, the ruler of the east, when he was assassinated,  his wife,  Zenobia became the ruler of Palmyra.  It was said that she was renowned for her exceptionally strong character, intelligence and attractive to boot! She was a gifted linguist, an eloquent  speaker of Palmyrian, Greek and Egyptian.  Zenobia had a wide knowledge of politics, and in her court she had many philosophers, scholars and theologians.  She became very powerful in her reign and took over Syria, conquered Egypt and sent her armies to Asia Minor, gaining control of the land and sea-ways to the Far East.  She was defeated and taken captive in Rome in 274! What a gal.  

Queen Zenobia’s ambitious dream is still embodied in the magnificent remains of what she built, isnt this piece beautiful!

A tour among the ruins, which cover an area of 6 square kilometres, requires a full day in order to form an adequate idea of the beauty of the architecture which still remains today. Well worth the drive to see,  we believe it to be the best example of Roman Ruins we have seen todate.

What fascinates me,  is that in my ignorance, I thought that “women” in the middle east didn’t have much of a say, I thought it a mans world, however, this proves me very wrong indeed!  A misconception Im sure many of us North Americans are guilty of? And furthermore talking with some of the local men, it may appear that the men have all the power, allowed to have several wives etc. But believe me the 1^st wife gets something out of this, like, he must get permission from her first to take another wife, if the second wife gets a gift the first wife better too, its quite interesting and pretty funny at the same time.  That being said, times are changing and today with the younger generation, multiple wives and keeping women inside the home just aint happening any longer!!!!! 

Our World is Indeed Changing and we are seeing this along our travels.  I believe one day we will be

“One World and One Language” and all of our common goal will be “Love”, a Syrian man in Aleppo said to us, “One Heart, One World”.   Oh how I love being back in the School of Life.