It has been said that Palmyra was founded by King Solomon, which garners a mention in the Old Testament. Palmyra really comes into her history at the beginning of our own era ... when suddenly it became one of the ancient world's most magnificent and wealthiest cities.

This explosion of riches was due to Palmyra's location on the caravan route that brought the fabulous goods of the East, especially silks and spices, to the great cities bordering the Mediterranean Sea: to Antioch, Alexandria, Athens and, above all, on to Rome. This was the western end of the fabled Silk Road, and the oasis of Palmyra had the luck to lie almost midway on the shortest way across the desert from Asia to the sea. Click here for map.

Palmyra is the Greek name for the City in the Desert that the Syrians call Tadmor (both Palmyra and Tadmor mean palm tree). She lies midway between the fertile, inhabited parts of western Syria and the Euphrates River, which marked the border of the Parthian (later the Persian) empire, the only enemies who could withstand the power of Rome's legions. Palmyra’s geographical position, midway between the Greco-Roman cities of Syria and the eastern world beyond the Euphrates, is always the most important force in the city’s brief history. Almost every feature of Palmyran life - whether artistic, cultural, architectural or military - reflects this geographical fact: a place midway between East and West, where two ways of life mingle and interact, sometimes with the most extraordinary results.

The oasis of Palmyra, though much reduced in size today, is still filled with date palms. Surging springs continue to rush out of a crevice in the earth, drenching the oasis and providing plentiful, if slightly sulphurous, drinking water. In ancient times, there was also a large lake beside the city, but little remains of it today. A few water channels and a vast spread of salt pans testify to its previous extent. However, one must imagine irrigated fields running in every direction into the now barren desert, for there is no other way that the 200,000 people living in the city at its height could otherwise have been fed.

Contributed by Xena ApilSin

Welcome to Palmyra ~ the City of Palms Greetings, oh mortal one! I, the Goddess Allat, welcome you to our magnificent city of Palmyra. Here in the heart of the desert, between bare mountains and desolate flatlands, you shall find wonders that have been lost to the ravages of the winds of time. May they never be forgotten! Once you have finished your explorations, please partake of some palm wine and the invigorating hot-water springs at the Aqfa Bar & Grill. My companion Bel, and I have ensured that all manner of luxuries be available to our visitors. After all, Palmyra was on the Silk Road, and as a caravan trade city prospered well. Enjoy your visit, and may this oasis, this city of palms, be both boon and blessing! I, Allat, salute you! Location: modern-day central Syria, located near the hot-water spring of Aqfa Other Names: Tadmor, the Oasis History Timeline Architecture Allat image by Thalia Took