Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly collection wherein NPR’s worldwide correspondents share snapshots of moments from their lives and work around the globe.
Battered and bullet-ridden however nonetheless standing! It would not look it now, however this was some of the elegant motels within the Center East. The Zenobia was constructed within the Twenties. It was named after Queen Zenobia, the legendary ruler of historical Palmyra who annexed a part of the Roman Empire when the town was a key cease on the Silk Street.
I took this picture in late January, once I went again to Palmyra for the primary time in three many years for a take a look at how the long-lasting website and metropolis had fared over time of struggle when it was inaccessible to vacationers.
I would stayed on the Zenobia within the ’90s and it was wonderful — quirky and vigorous and presumably even ghosts. A 3-hour-drive from Damascus — longer in a dodgy taxi — the traditional Roman metropolis rose up within the distance like a desert mirage. The lodge itself had actually seen higher days, however oh, the surprise of getting even a foul Syrian glass of wine in a eating room actually steps away from the ruins. An equally quick stroll away had been the caverns with underground springs for adventurous bathers.
I did not see ghosts but when there have been, maybe Agatha Christie, who stayed there along with her archaeologist husband a century in the past, may need made an look. Or djinns — the supernatural beings mentioned to favor residing within the desert.
They’d have loads of solitude. Syria is recovering from 12 years of civil struggle and Palmyra itself modified fingers twice throughout preventing between the Syrian regime, Russian forces and ISIS.
You see the a part of the signal with lacking letters? It used to learn “Cham Palace,” the Syrian lodge chain that ran it. No information on the lodge’s future, however individuals listed below are trying ahead to welcoming vacationers once more.
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