Palmyra

Palmyra was an ancient city in central Syria. It is in an oasis  northeast of Damascus and  southwest of the Euphrates.

History

It was an important city in ancient times. It had long been a place for travellers to stop when crossing the Syrian Desert. The city was founded some time during the 2nd millennium BC. It became abandoned around 1929. The site was made a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980.

The Semitic name of the city is  (). In Aramaic, which means "a city that cannot be defeated".Palmyra (Syria) - Britannica Online Encyclopedia Retrieved 2008-11-16. The earliest written reference to the city by this name is on Babylonian tablets found in Mari. It is still known as Tadmur in Arabic.

The people of Palmyra worshipped many gods and goddesses from Mesopotamia, Syria, Arabia and Greece. They built a series of temples and large monuments containing funerary art, which represents the dead. The Palmyrans originally spoke Aramaic but later began speaking Greek. 

The area was later made a part of the Roman Empire. The city was important because of the silk commerce from Rome to China, in eastern Asia. Between 260 and 273, Odaenathus and his wife Zenobia used Palmyra as the capital of the Palmyrene Empire, a breakaway portion of the Roman Empire. In 273 emperor Aurelian defeated her and destroyed the city. Later, emperor Diocletian restored it. This period of Roman history is called the Crisis of the Third Century.

During the Muslim conquests, a few Arab tribes had been living in Palmyra.

The city lost its importance after the 16th century. It had been fully abandoned by 1929, after the end of the Ottoman Empire. There, , was built nearby, south of the ruins.

During the Syrian Civil War in 2015, the Islamic State (ISIS) destroyed large parts of the ancient city. It was recaptured by the Syrian Army in 2017.

Notes

Bibliography

Other websites
 Palmyra, with photos and detailed information

Category:Archaeological sites in Syria
Category:Places of Ancient Rome
Category:Ruins
Category:World Heritage Sites in Asia
Category:1932 disestablishments
Category:20th-century disestablishments in Asia