Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly sequence through which NPR’s worldwide correspondents share snapshots of moments from their lives and work around the globe.
Battered and bullet-ridden however nonetheless standing! It does not look it now, however this was one of the vital elegant motels within the Center East. The Zenobia was constructed within the Nineteen Twenties. It was named after Queen Zenobia, the legendary ruler of historic Palmyra who annexed a part of the Roman Empire when the town was a key cease on the Silk Highway.
I took this picture in late January, once I went again to Palmyra for the primary time in three a long time for a have a look at how the enduring web site and metropolis had fared over time of conflict when it was inaccessible to vacationers.
I would stayed on the Zenobia within the ’90s and it was superb — quirky and lively 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 nasty 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 stated to favor dwelling within the desert.
They’d have loads of solitude. Syria is recovering from 12 years of civil conflict and Palmyra itself modified palms twice throughout combating 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 here are trying ahead to welcoming vacationers once more.
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