Hello guys, thank you very much for all messages regarding my post of travel.
I recently finished my master degree in History. My specialization is ancient history and I had the opportunity to visit distant countries where Alexander the Great was said to have traveled. This is my third part of journey - if you want to see first one, just search for "Lebanon path of Alexander the Great" or "Syria (path of Alexander the Great)".
Because of your interest, this is my second part of Syria, especially Palmyra.
It’s unbelievable what people are capable of… After ISIS captured Palmyra, its members stormed the local museum, where they murdered the archaeologist Khaled al-Asaad, 82 years old, who had led excavations there for 50 years and refused to reveal where he had hidden ancient valuables from the terrorists. After beheading him, they hung the rest of his body on one of the columns of the ancient colonnade.
The museum then ended up as you can see in the pictures… but even those don’t fully capture the insanity you could witness with your own eyes. Classical statues, an ancient model of Palmyra, and more were destroyed with hammers and even machine guns… What happened to the museum is just an introduction to what happened to the entire site (see below).
Palmyra should now be relatively safe under state control and at least partially cleared of mines (leaving the marked paths is still forbidden because of them), but at the time of my visit, ISIS positions were still located roughly 50-60 km away.
It’s easy to scroll past photos like this. It’s a lot harder to stand there and realize that everything you’re looking at survived thousands of years and was almost erased in a matter of days (pics 6-7 are great examples).
Take care everyone and will hop back later (if you´re interested) with new country that I visited during this "Alexander the Great path".
