UNESCO World Heritage List and Palmyra in Syria

This week the UNESCO-agency of the United Nations is inviting us to make a trip to explore the extraordinary roman remains in Palmyra, an oasis in the Syrian desert, north-east of Damascus in Syria.

Palmyra, in Arabic Tadmor, was in ancient times an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 120 km southwest of the Euphrates river.

The city contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.

From the 1st to the 2nd century, the art and architecture of Palmyra, standing at the crossroads of several civilizations, married Graeco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences.

Next to this, it has long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert and was known as the Bride of the Desert.

The earliest documented reference to the city by its pre-Semitic name Tadmor, Tadmur or Tudmur, is recorded in Babylonian tablets found in Mari.

Though the ancient site fell into disuse after the 16th century, it is still known as Tadmor in Arabic, and there is a small newer settlement next to the ruins of the same name.

The Palmyrenes constructed a series of large-scale monuments such as limestone slabs with human busts representing the deceased.

An oasis in the Syrian desert, north-east of Damascus, Palmyra contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.

http://www.WHTour.org/23

Damascus in Syria en the World Heritage List of UNESCO

This week the UNESCO welcomes us to visit Damascus, a 5000 years old city and nowadays the capital of the country Syria. Founded in the 3rd millennium B.C., Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the Middle East.

In the Middle Ages, it was the centre of a flourishing craft industry, specializing in swords and lace.

The city has some 125 monuments from different periods of its history. One of the most spectacular is the 8th-century Great Mosque of the Umayyads, built on the site of an Assyrian sanctuary.

The modern state of Syria was formerly a French mandate and attained independence in 1946, but can trace its roots to the fourth millennium BC.

Damascus (Dimashq) is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Its current population is estimated at about 1.67 million.

It was the seat of the Umayyad Empire and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Empire.

http://www.WHTour.org/20

Jerash in Jordan en Bosra in Syria

This week we are welcome to explore two splendid ancient Roman cities: Jerash in Jordan and Bosra in Syria. Jerash is known for the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa, also referred to as Antioch on the Golden River.

It is considered one of the most important and best preserved Roman cities in the Near East. It was a city of the Decapolis.

Jerash is sometimes misleadingly referred to as the “Pompeii of the Middle East or Asia”, referring to its size, extent of excavation and level of preservation, though Jerash was never buried by a volcano.

Bosra
Bosra is an ancient city in southern modern-day Syria. It is an archaeological and UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Under the Roman Empire the city was renamed Nova Trajana Bostra, residence of the legion III Cyrenaica and capital of the Roman province Arabia Petraea.

The city flourished and became a major metropolis at the juncture of several trade routes, including the Roman road to the Red Sea.

Today, Bosra is a major archaeological site, containing ruins from Roman, Byzantine, and Muslim times. The city features what is thought to be the best-preserved Roman theater in the world. Every year there is a national music festival hosted in the theater.

Jerash at our World Heritage Tour
http://www.WHTour.org/22

Bosra at the UNESCO World Heritage Tour
http://www.WHTour.org/10070

Beautiful places to visit at the World Heritage List of UNESCO

This week I was invited by the UNESCO to visit their virtual tours of the World Heritage List in Jordan and Iraq. Next week there will be Syria.

This week, you are invited to visit the ancient hammam of Qusair Amra in Jordan: http://www.WHTour.org/327

Also on this way in the desert towards Irak, you can find Qasr Al-Kharana: http://www.WHTour.org/10072

UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This specialized agency of the UN has 193 Member States and 6 Associate Members.

The organization is based in Paris, with over 50 field offices and many specialized institutes and centres throughout the world.

Projects sponsored by UNESCO include literacy, technical, and teacher-training programmes, science programmes, promotion of independent media and freedom of the press, regional and cultural history projects, the promotion of cultural diversity.

With the World Heritage Site, the agency is also trying to secure the world cultural and natural heritage.

Next week they will visit Jerash and then enter Damascus in Syria.