25th Palmyra

25th Started the day with the standard breakfast of olives, flat bread,tomato, cucumber, jam and cheese, then set off for a tour of the ruins of Palmyra. Palmyra was an important trading city in the Bysantine times. We saw many of the usual thing for Roman ruins like the colonaded street some baths and most importantly the water and sewerage systems. The difference with these water pipes is that they were not made from teracotta but carved from rock so that they would not be damaged by the horses and chariots.

After visiting the temple of Bel, Jill Kathy and the two of us went to see the Funerary towers, called the towers of Yemliko. There were four levels to the burial chambers with carvings of heads depicting the dead. We then set off to view the temple of the three brothers, which was an underground tomb. The frescos inside were remarkably well preserved due to the lack of humidity.

We met the rest of the group back in town and had pancakes with banana and chocolate for lunch, then we all squeezed into a little mini van for the 3 hour trip to Crac des Chevaliers. Our hotel was opposite the castle but we did not have a direct castle view room however we could see it if we leaned out over our balcony. This is the view from the bar at the bottom of the hotel. We walked up the road for another huge dinner that had the mezze, chicken with a garlic sauce and we finished off with a rakki. Western tourists are still quite a novelty here as on the way to the restaurant a few local girls were taking our picture, quite funny.

Back at the hotel we played a few rounds of cards downstairs at the bar before heading to bed.