Justinian's Vision

We visited two centres that both gained major fortifications under Justinian as part of his doomed plan to revive the power of the old Roman Empire. One on the Euphrates was known as Zenobia the other in the desert had as its heart the church of Bishop Sergius

Dura Europos

very excited about this, a city right on the edge, of the Euphrates,of the border and in the end of cultures that saw its destruction. It became the haunt of wild beasts and even now seems an isolated and semideserted sort of place. Its a huge site but the amazing finds of frescoes and military artifacts from the great seige are all elsewhere.

Desert Castles

We visited the first castle on the edge of Palmyra but the second is in an isolated area that apparently was a little more fertile in the time of the Arab conquestswhen many of these were developed, hunting and pleasure lodges but security measures as well.

Pretty, pretty Palmyra.

The desert oasis, enormous temple to Baal/Bel, Arab castle, tombs, colonaded street, very lovely, bit too lovely, why don't I warm to them, perhaps it is the rampant commercialism, ancient not modern. Women are well represented in the tombs of the wealthy but pictured in the temple they are anonymous bolts of cloth.

Syrian Desert

We left the coast and turned east to the steppe area, very arid and flat but a surprising number of quite large eating places, often designed for bus tours dot the countryside. The Bagdad cafe is famous, there are now three altogether, they serve, among other things, excellent mint tea.

Black stone Bosra

Over the border into Syria which is in archaeological terms not too different, Bosra, like Jerash is largely Roman ruins over earlier levels. However it is in the basalt area so its all black not the limestone white of Jerash and others. The town still impinges on the ruins and they are scattered into the modern town proper. Many eucalyptus trees in this area legacy of the French. The theatre is particularly interesting because it is so well preserved, even the backstage area. I shudder to think how hot it must have been. We saw it in the morning but it was 30 or so by lunch time and that is autumn. They built a fort around the theatre or rather used the theatre as the heart of a fort in later times

Jerash

Jerash suffers badly from Petra. Without Petra it would be a major site but since nothing can ever be as dramatic the visiters are relatively few, so the triumhpal arch, colonaded streets, pinkish temple of Aphrodite and oval forum are peaceful. The theatre is full of Arab bagpipes whom you pay to stop so peaceful it is not.

Petra

You see plenty of pictures of the tombs and associated funerary stuff but less of what remains of the town. Walking in each day was very hot and took a little over an hour and a half, possibly less if you didn't look at anything. I briefly considered the little horse drawn carts that gallop over the Roman cobles but in the end preferred to be stirred by Petra not shaken.

Syria was not very internet friendly tho otherwise fine and being sick the last few days has made mr really behind so I will tell my tale in retrospect.

Aleppo, Ebla, Apamea

Yesterday I was pretty sick with travellers tummy and missed seeing the church of St Simeon Stylites but did manage to crawl out for the citadel and the Souk, also missed the fancy diner in the old Khan but it was definately not to be. Today we started with the Aleppo museum, no photos unfortunately. The stuff there from Mari and Ugarit and Ebla was very fine, lots of evidence of trade, Mycenean, Cypriot and Egyptian pottery as well as some very nice Phoenician ivory. A pot of Rameses, a lid of Pepi and a sphinx of what looked like Amenhotep III. We then travelled to Ebla which is a working site as the Italian team were still in residence. We travelled on to Apamea, a two kilometre long colonaded street but pics will have to wait till I get to london as they are somehow blocked here.

I am uploading photos but nothing seems to be happening. I am denied the sight of the blog so its hard to know. After Jerash we went over the border into Syria where we are now. We visited black stone Bosra and then on to very pretty Palmyra. We are by the Euphrates having seen desert castles and Dura Europos. Averil Cameron has joined our caravan which quite blows me away as she is a very well known historian whom I did not expect to meet.

Possibly there

The blog appears to have some problems and I can't see it here, I have no idea if this message will be displayed. We spent another day at Petra which was worth every sweaty moment. The walk from the basin back to the hotel takes one and a half hours and is all up hill but it is lined with incredible tombs, a theatre and many shops which continue Petra's trading tradition. The hotel was very pleasannt and had good facilities. I am trying to upload pictures but may not be able to. The next day we drove to Jerash, a beautiful Greaco- Roman city with a temple to Aphrodite and a main street colonaded to an oval forum.

Petra

Huge crowds at the entrance. In the more distant corners there is greater peace although the hawkers are everywhere. Its hard to describe the site and give a flavour of the contrasts, its huge and scattered, the bedouin give it a medieval air with their goats and gorgeously appointed camels but the crowd is modern and international, the Nabatean monuments can also have a curiously modern flavourm a sort odd art deco look as they copied fairly cheerfully all the civilizations around them, as traders they knew them all. Its clearly worn with the ages and the Roman bits in the middle can be rather at odds with the rest, The rest houses and stalls selling all kinds of junk blend in fairly well. I saw some nice cats but I might save those for a more co operative machine. We have a lecture and then dinner still to go, I hope to stay awake for both.

Petra

The very old fashioned computors at this expensive hotel will drive me nuts. I tried to upload to facebook with no success, perhaps blogspot will work. Anyway Petra today was beyound staggering which is what I was doing by the end because it is so hot here. It feels like about 28/30 although there is a breeze through the site. The tombs by themselves would be monumental but the colour of the rock and the often science fiction quality of the landscape certainly heighten the effect. The temple and the theatre seem almost ordinary by comparison. The site is a thronging mass of tourists, bedouin, camels, donkeys,

Below is most of our group who were rather intimidating at first, all confident accents and commanding vowels, but who seem very friendly and ready to chat.

Jordan

Day 2 in Jordan and we are at Petra for the night and visit there tomorrow. Yesterday was the fairly lengthy business of getting here with the night spent in a very squishy hotel in Amman, pity we got in so late. I had about 4 hours in a bed that was larger than my room in London. Today we went to where Moses saw the promised land, he had a rather clearer day than us if he could see much, and we visited the famous Mosaics at Magdaba and generally drove down almost the length of the country. Its a funny mix of frantic building and bedouin tents, every modern convenience with herds of sheep and goats. We visited Kerak, a huge castle but much damaged by earthquakes over time. Saw a dam in the desert

Brompton Cemetary

Lots of wildlife at Brompton, if I had had any food I would have been mobbed. Its a gorgeous day, blue skys about 17 degrees. Walked around the graves for a while then headed on past the Natural History Museum to the V and A. The William Morris Cafe was just astounding and the rest has improved out of sight since I was last here over 20 years ago, perhaps not entirely surprising. Wandered at random a real blast.