Ishtar Hotel Palmyra

It was a hard thing to leave Mar Musa Monastery behind but we still had a couple of things to see in Syria. <br><br>We caught a mini bus to Damascus where we dropped off our bags as we where heading to Palmyra for a night. With a couple of new found friends we headed for the bus station. Within seconds of us looking dazed and confused an elderly man had shuffled us onto a bus and had payed for our tickets. Shona being skeptical of the man's intentions immediately thought the man ...

... with the security official at the tombs to take us to a current underground tomb which was not open to the public. It was very cool to see the practically undisturbed tombs in very good condition. I was even able to open the limestone door! (very very heavy and sounds exactly like it does in the movies with the whooosh sound. The door was around 2 feet thick and weighed a couple tons). Last night we were planning on visiting some more of the Palmyra ruins in ...

... exchange) and the old city. We were not able to do much other than visit St. Simeon and the Aleppo Citidal as it was unusually hot for this time of year (mid 30s instead of 25-28°C). A lot of our time was spent in our hotel room with small breaks into the city to acclimitize. We then made our way to Hamas - home of the water wheels and visited Krac des Chevalliers; one of the best preserved crusader castles in the world. It was very interesting and ...

... and India with the western civilisations. One of the most interesting oddities of the area is the funary towers that held upwards of four hundred people. By the year 800 AD under Arab rule the city fell into ruin. It was expensive to keep a Roman styled city in good shape. The Arabs built an impressive castle on the hill in the 15th century and supervised the Oasis for many centuries until it declined to a small village today. The photos speak for themselves.

Arrived in the desert oasis town of Palmyra. Wandered around the ancient roman ruins of the queen zenobia and climbed to the top of the hilltop fortress to watch the sunset. Not much to do in this town apart from the ruins and stayed in a flea infested hotel. Looking forward to going to Jordan!

... so some suggested that I take a bus 80 km past al'Hosn to Homs, wait for another bus and return to al'Hosn. Well...al'Hosn was only 10km from the main road that I would be traveling on so I arranged to have the bus let me off there. I then quickly hitched a ride the last 10km to the base of the castle. No biggee! <br><br>Paul Theroux described the Krak des Chevaliers as the epitome of the dream castle of childhood fantasies of jousts, armour and pennants ...