News for the ‘history’ Category

Silk Road Journey

Going out into the desert is akin to a religious experience and not just because you feel walking the same paths that Jesus Christ might have taken all those centuries ago.

In our case it was mostly because our driver had the tendency to floor the accelerator as soon as he hit the open roads. As you can imagine, this causes a predictable chain reaction: we fasten our seatbelts, hold on for dear life, and pray to all the saints in our novena booklet

But yes, there is a sense of history that pervades as we pick our way through wins and abandoned citadels, an awareness that once upon a time a few great men may have passed this way.

It took three years for caravans traveling along the Silk Road ‘to complete the crossing, picking up migrants, pilgrims, and other assorted members along the way, becoming moving communities as the journey progressed.

In the old days, it might have taken trade caravans a few weeks, perhaps a month or two, to travel from Damascus to Palmyra, the next stop on our itinerary. We got there in a matter of hours.

Seat of Girl Power
A visitor seeing the ruins of Paimyra for the first time may be forgiven for genuflecting in reverence. It starts as a collection of stones seen from a distance. As one moves closer, the stones grow into columns and form themsthes into the skeletal remains of this once beautiful and prosperous city that according to the Bible dates back to the time of King Solomon.

Viewed from just the right angle, one can see straight through the colonnaded Central Avenue, which stretches for hundreds of meters, giving visitors a glimpse of Roman urban planning. Along the left side is the amphitheater, where we stumbled upon a tourist singing to a rapt audience (wow, those acoustics where GOOD). et pert frpin the main ruins, in front of the recently-inaugurated visitor’s center, stands the temple of the Babylonian god Bel, whose plain outer wall conceals one of the most interesting, not to mention important temples of the time.

As an oasis in the middle of the Charn dessert Palmyra was a natural pitstop for traders traversing the Silk Road. It evolved into an affluent hub of commerce, enjoying free city’ status for hundreds of years despite Roman rule.
Historians, however, still speak admiringly of Zenobia, a third century Palmyrene queen who rode into battle against the Romans. As the original poster girl for Girl Power Zenobia wrested control of Egypt and Syria from the Romans and expanded the Palmyrene empire from Egypt to the Bosphorus. Declaring independence from Roman rule, she fashioned coins in her own likeness and took the title August provoking the Roman emperor Aurelian into mounting a ferocious campaign to bring her down. Aurelian eventually captured her and brought her to Rome in golden shackles, though legend has it he was so impressed with his prisoner that he let her go and allowed her to live a fairly sedate life as a Roman matron ih what is now Tivoli, Italy. Zenobia’s downfall signaled the end of Palmyra’s prominence.

Two towers
A few hundred kilometers dawn the road is the Crac des Chevalier, a military fortress built on a volcanic crater in Homs. A World Heritage Site, it is one of the more popular and more impressive landmarks of Syria. Reputedly the most famous castle of the Middle Ages, it bears witness to the violent and age- old battle between the Arabs and the Crusaders.

The citadel remains largely intact: from the long flight of stone steps that lead to the courtyard, to the even longer flights of steps that lead to its ramparts, where every window offers a breathtaking view of the lush countryside. In the courtyard, horsemen dressed as Crusaders obligingly pose for photos with several tourists who come to the castle in droves. A cavernous hail off the side of the courtyard was converted into a huge dining room, and this was where lunch was served.

Considered a symbol of Arabian military architecture is the Citadel in Aleppo. More oriental in design than the (Thac des Chevalier, the citadel towers majestically over the city and is both an attraction and a venue for cultural activities.
Aleppo itself is one of the oldest and most beautiful inhabited cities in the world. Excavations in nearby Ebla have uncovered evidence of its existence as far back as 5,000 BC. There is a timelessness to the place that puts visitors in mind of a well-preserved painting. Located between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean, it was also an important trade post for Silk Road caravans.

The city has passed through many hands from the Miorites of Messopotamia, to the Persians, the Seleucids, the Romans, the Muslims, and the Ottomans. Ft has been besieged tice by Crusaders, and nearly demolished by an earthquake that killed more than 230,000 in the 1th century. Yet the city has survived, thriving on a strong mercantile culture that kept trade going even in the dark years.

Edited: August 28th, 2009