Palmyra

Tadmor

Syria · Homs

Ancient cityIntermittent excavationUNESCO · 1980
Approximate period1,900 BCE — 1,932 CEEspecially the Hellenistic and Roman periods See on the map ↓

In brief

Palmyra was an oasis city at the intersection of trade routes in the Syrian desert. Excavations uncovered public buildings combining local traditions with Greco-Roman architecture; international excavations were interrupted by the conflicts in 2011.

What was found?

  • 1Remains of the Temple of Bel

    The temple's plan and decoration combine classical architectural forms with local worship traditions. Its western entrance and opposing tall niches are among these local features.

  • 2Colonnaded main street

    It is a monumental route connecting the city's principal public buildings. It allows Palmira's urban layout to be understood.

  • 3Theater

    It is one of the public buildings in the city center. It documents Palmira's participation in urban life within the Roman world.

  • 4Remains of the agora and baths

    The marketplace and baths illustrate the everyday functions of the city center. They reveal that spaces for shopping and communal use existed alongside monumental buildings.

What does it point to?

Palmira's buildings indicate that different traditions came together in an oasis city sustained by caravan trade. The architecture shows that Greco-Roman forms could be used together with local and Persian influences.

What did it teach us?

  1. It showed that local arrangements for worship could survive in the architecture of a Roman-period city.
  2. It revealed that an oasis on caravan routes could develop into a city with extensive public buildings.
  3. It showed that colonnaded streets connected the principal monuments and urban neighborhoods.

Images

Temple of Bel, Palmyra 02
Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Palmyra Tetrapylon, Syria
Abdulhadi Najjar · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Roman theatre of Palmyra 02
Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Palmyra Agora 0107
Dosseman · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Record

Culture
Palmyrene; Greco-Roman and local Syrian traditions
First modern dig
1902
Coordinates
34.5542°, 38.2667°

Sources

  1. whc.unesco.org
  2. archeologie.culture.gouv.fr

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