I was up at 4AM on the 10th to get ready to head out to watch the sun rise over the ruins in Palmyra. Ali was waiting outside the hotel with his camel. We headed up to what he called Zenobia Palace (the travel guide book says it is Diocletian's camp). Before the sun rose, we checked out a cave tomb behind the structures.
Then we climbed up to the top of the ruins.
The sunrise was good but not great. Not colorful or anything like that. After the sun rose, we went for a camel ride around the ruins.
[tower tomb]
After a bit, we stopped for a little break at the Baths: "It is known as Zenobia's baths, consist of three main parts; Frigidarium (cold), Tepidarium (warm) ,and Caldarium (hot). It has a nice facade with granite columns. (2ed - 3ed Cent AD)." The travel guide book says it is Diocletian's Baths, but the original structure was there before he arrived in Palmyra. I read that he just made the entry a bit fancier (he was obsessed with building). The columns at the entry are Egyptian red granite).
That was when I took the videos of the camel munching away. :) Ali then left me to wander a bit on my own while he went to get his motor bike. 
[the Fakhr-al-Din al-Maani Castle is in the distance on the hill/mountain to the right.]
Every ledge on the sides of the pillars at one time held a statue. Any remaining statues are now in the Palmyra museum and others. It would be amazing to see what the Grand Colonnade would have looked like with all of the statues as it used to be. Above every statue was one of these drain like lion heads (of which this is the only one remaining intact), or something similar:
The explanation I got for the drains is that it didn't rain very often in Palmyra, but when it does, the water would run down over the statues from a roof (I think he was saying that the Colonnade was, at one time, covered), and clean them in the process.
[The Tetrapylon marked the center of the city and was used as some sort of roundabout or traffic circle. It is 4 sets of 4 pillars, which were originally Egyptian red granite. It was reconstructed in 1939]
[view up the Grand Colonnade from the Tetrapylon]
[above is a wall on the side of the Agora, a large rectangular area used as a market place and place for public gaterhings]
[The Theater]
The theater was buried in sand up until the 1950s and has had a lot of restoration work done.
[Part of the aqueduct system?]
[another view of the valley of the tombs]
We drove out into the desert, in the opposite direction from the previous day's trip to the Bedouin camp. The desert here is very rocky, not sandy and smooth like around Dubai or around Siwa in Egypt. After driving a while, we stopped for a breakfast picnic. He had packed tea, cheese (the little triangles like the Laughing Cow cheese) and bread (flat bread). Perfect for a breakfast out in the desert.
[camels at a Bedouin camp in the distance, at 50x digital zoom, with camera just balanced on my knee]
Then we drove some more.
[powerlines in the desert; photo taken from back of moving motorbike - a fairly rough ride, actually] Ali wanted to show me the new(ish) camel race track which is about 30 km out of the town. Before heading there, we checked out some ruins that are sort of near the track. Ali said he has passed them so many times on the way back and forth from the tracks, but had never stopped to see them before.
It is one bigger structure and a few smaller ones.
We climbed to the top of the wall.
Quite the view, and very high (scary!! - I'm afraid of heights). It was amazing to sit atop the ruins with the desert all the way around, and no people.
There's a gecko in this picture... can you find it? It's on one of the rocks in the corner of the structure. Guess it's a tad hard to see. :P
Here is the gecko at 50x zoom.After taking in the view (and taking a few pictures), we headed for the track. The old one, closer to (in) the city, is only a 5 km track but the new one is 10km track.
We drove along the road the follows the oval race track. Ali had raced on the new track about 6 months ago. He came in second. His brother, Adel (the one with the tattoos), came in first. For about 2 months before the race, they stayed at the track and trained the camels. They trained them to run longer races so that the 10 km would seem easy. There are enclosed areas nearby where the racers can set up camp.
After the tracks, we went back to the town.
[a small dust devil on the road ahead of us]
An odd building on the edge of the oasis: some sort of beehive house. There are a couple of villages of beehive adobe houses in Syria, but I didn't have time to go see them. Check out beehive houses on Google and you'll get all sorts of cool pictures. 
We went into the oasis and sat for a while in one of his uncles' garden.Ali and I made plans to meet later to have dinner at his friend's home, and he dropped me off in front of the Temple Of Bel, which is said to have been one of the most important religious structures in the 1st Century.
I checked out the temple in a short time. It was only open for another 15 more minutes. 
Even though there was only a short time left, I still had to pay. That's okay. There isn't really that much within the walls. Only one main structure. I think some of the wall surrounding the structure were not quite put together the way they originally were. It seems they used some fallen pillars in the walls as there are sections of circular stone.
Looks strange and out of place. There were 4 young Syrian police (or army?) men looking around the temple as well. When I went out (when everyone was kicked out), they approached me to say hi and they wanted a picture with me. Each one wanted a picture with me. LOL.
They took turns and then said bye. I was walking away towards the main ruins and they ran after me again and said they wanted one more picture, with the ruins. Funny. I suppose I'm used to having people ask to take pictures with me from living in Korea and from traveling. It doesn't seem unusual to me. Only a tad funny.
[Walking towards the entrance to the Grand Colonnade from Temple of Bel]
While I waited for Ali, I went back to the hotel for a while and then went out to walk a little. I didn't walk far as I decided to check out a little shop. As soon as you walk into a shop there (or in many places around Syria, really), you are invited for tea. The guy was very interesting to talk to and had some suggestions for places to travel and how to get places (though a bit too expensive for me on this trip). As soon as I finished my small glass of tea, he refilled it. A couple of times. That is how it works here. I wonder if by the time I return home I'll be sick of tea?? And they put a lot of sugar in it.
When it was time to meet Ali, he picked me up on his motorcycle and we headed out into the maze of the oasis to his friend's little home. His friend came with a huge platter. On it was a smaller, but still huge platter with a mountain of seasoned rice, topped with chicken and carrots and tomatoes. On the side there were dishes of salad and bowls of yogurt (unsweetened) for each of us - Me, Ali, his friend, his friend's brothers, one of whom was only 5 (?). It was soo good! That, of course, was followed by tea.
After eating and having tea, I went back to the hotel to head to bed. It was a long day and we had a plan to meet at 5 AM for another sunrise.
Then we climbed up to the top of the ruins.The sunrise was good but not great. Not colorful or anything like that. After the sun rose, we went for a camel ride around the ruins.[tower tomb]After a bit, we stopped for a little break at the Baths: "It is known as Zenobia's baths, consist of three main parts; Frigidarium (cold), Tepidarium (warm) ,and Caldarium (hot). It has a nice facade with granite columns. (2ed - 3ed Cent AD)." The travel guide book says it is Diocletian's Baths, but the original structure was there before he arrived in Palmyra. I read that he just made the entry a bit fancier (he was obsessed with building). The columns at the entry are Egyptian red granite).That was when I took the videos of the camel munching away. :) Ali then left me to wander a bit on my own while he went to get his motor bike. [the Fakhr-al-Din al-Maani Castle is in the distance on the hill/mountain to the right.]Every ledge on the sides of the pillars at one time held a statue. Any remaining statues are now in the Palmyra museum and others. It would be amazing to see what the Grand Colonnade would have looked like with all of the statues as it used to be. Above every statue was one of these drain like lion heads (of which this is the only one remaining intact), or something similar:The explanation I got for the drains is that it didn't rain very often in Palmyra, but when it does, the water would run down over the statues from a roof (I think he was saying that the Colonnade was, at one time, covered), and clean them in the process.[The Tetrapylon marked the center of the city and was used as some sort of roundabout or traffic circle. It is 4 sets of 4 pillars, which were originally Egyptian red granite. It was reconstructed in 1939][view up the Grand Colonnade from the Tetrapylon][above is a wall on the side of the Agora, a large rectangular area used as a market place and place for public gaterhings][The Theater]The theater was buried in sand up until the 1950s and has had a lot of restoration work done.[Part of the aqueduct system?][another view of the valley of the tombs]We drove out into the desert, in the opposite direction from the previous day's trip to the Bedouin camp. The desert here is very rocky, not sandy and smooth like around Dubai or around Siwa in Egypt. After driving a while, we stopped for a breakfast picnic. He had packed tea, cheese (the little triangles like the Laughing Cow cheese) and bread (flat bread). Perfect for a breakfast out in the desert.[camels at a Bedouin camp in the distance, at 50x digital zoom, with camera just balanced on my knee]Then we drove some more.
[powerlines in the desert; photo taken from back of moving motorbike - a fairly rough ride, actually] Ali wanted to show me the new(ish) camel race track which is about 30 km out of the town. Before heading there, we checked out some ruins that are sort of near the track. Ali said he has passed them so many times on the way back and forth from the tracks, but had never stopped to see them before.It is one bigger structure and a few smaller ones.We climbed to the top of the wall.Quite the view, and very high (scary!! - I'm afraid of heights). It was amazing to sit atop the ruins with the desert all the way around, and no people.There's a gecko in this picture... can you find it? It's on one of the rocks in the corner of the structure. Guess it's a tad hard to see. :PHere is the gecko at 50x zoom.After taking in the view (and taking a few pictures), we headed for the track. The old one, closer to (in) the city, is only a 5 km track but the new one is 10km track.We drove along the road the follows the oval race track. Ali had raced on the new track about 6 months ago. He came in second. His brother, Adel (the one with the tattoos), came in first. For about 2 months before the race, they stayed at the track and trained the camels. They trained them to run longer races so that the 10 km would seem easy. There are enclosed areas nearby where the racers can set up camp.After the tracks, we went back to the town.
[a small dust devil on the road ahead of us]An odd building on the edge of the oasis: some sort of beehive house. There are a couple of villages of beehive adobe houses in Syria, but I didn't have time to go see them. Check out beehive houses on Google and you'll get all sorts of cool pictures. We went into the oasis and sat for a while in one of his uncles' garden.Ali and I made plans to meet later to have dinner at his friend's home, and he dropped me off in front of the Temple Of Bel, which is said to have been one of the most important religious structures in the 1st Century.I checked out the temple in a short time. It was only open for another 15 more minutes. Even though there was only a short time left, I still had to pay. That's okay. There isn't really that much within the walls. Only one main structure. I think some of the wall surrounding the structure were not quite put together the way they originally were. It seems they used some fallen pillars in the walls as there are sections of circular stone.Looks strange and out of place. There were 4 young Syrian police (or army?) men looking around the temple as well. When I went out (when everyone was kicked out), they approached me to say hi and they wanted a picture with me. Each one wanted a picture with me. LOL.They took turns and then said bye. I was walking away towards the main ruins and they ran after me again and said they wanted one more picture, with the ruins. Funny. I suppose I'm used to having people ask to take pictures with me from living in Korea and from traveling. It doesn't seem unusual to me. Only a tad funny.[Walking towards the entrance to the Grand Colonnade from Temple of Bel]While I waited for Ali, I went back to the hotel for a while and then went out to walk a little. I didn't walk far as I decided to check out a little shop. As soon as you walk into a shop there (or in many places around Syria, really), you are invited for tea. The guy was very interesting to talk to and had some suggestions for places to travel and how to get places (though a bit too expensive for me on this trip). As soon as I finished my small glass of tea, he refilled it. A couple of times. That is how it works here. I wonder if by the time I return home I'll be sick of tea?? And they put a lot of sugar in it.
When it was time to meet Ali, he picked me up on his motorcycle and we headed out into the maze of the oasis to his friend's little home. His friend came with a huge platter. On it was a smaller, but still huge platter with a mountain of seasoned rice, topped with chicken and carrots and tomatoes. On the side there were dishes of salad and bowls of yogurt (unsweetened) for each of us - Me, Ali, his friend, his friend's brothers, one of whom was only 5 (?). It was soo good! That, of course, was followed by tea.
After eating and having tea, I went back to the hotel to head to bed. It was a long day and we had a plan to meet at 5 AM for another sunrise.
The bus ride was only a little more than 3 hours. I had a small snack on the way (from what I had bought the day before) and the bus attendant gave me some tea (he only gave tea to the front seats - the two women behind him and me). Ugh. At one point during the trip, he was sitting there picking his nose... really digging. Gross.
My first stop was the museum. It isn't a large museum, so didn't take a long time to go through. It is full of all of the good statues and carvings, tombstones and such from around Palmyra. There are also 4 mummies from some of the nearby tower tombs.
After the museum I wandered into the area with the ruins. Amazing!!! It is such a huge area.
I only managed to check out the closest temple; The Temple of Ba'alshamin ["It was devoted to Ba'alshamin God of heavens, storms and fertilizing rains, built at the 2nd Cent AD."] before a camel guy came up. Ahmed was his name. We made an agreement for a 1 hour ride through all the ruins, to the tombs and to the castle, and then to the oasis for tea, and I hopped on.
He took me the shortest route through the ruins straight to one of the tower tombs. On the way there, two of his friends came up on their camels to say hi, and then left. He took me to one of the many tower tombs, though not the biggest and most well preserved one.
Then when I was in the tower tomb, the friends returned.
It was decided that I would go with Ali from there on (with my consent, of course). Apparently, he had asked Ahmed to let him take me around instead. According to Ali, Ahmed is not to be trusted. They are friends, but not close friends because Ahmed is not a good guy, says Ali. The camel guys seem to have a bad reputation here. Many of the hotels warn the guests about them, saying be careful.
Ali took me around the area where all the tower tombs are. He wanted to take me the long way around, but his camel was being stubborn and decided he didn't want to go that way, so that was that. We went back through the ruins to the oasis. I asked about the castle, and he said the camels can't go all the way to the castle, only to the base of the hill. He said Ahmed was probably 'just joking' when he said he'd take me to the castle. Nice.
We went along the narrow roads in the oasis, with high stone and mud walls on either side. I loved it. Then he dropped me off and said to wait, as he would get his motorcycle to take me all the way to the castle. He returned a short time after and off we went.
The 
[the old camel race track - a 5 km track, and the town and oasis of Palmyra beyond]
I wandered around the castle and checked out the amazing view all the way around.
It was getting quite cold by that point.
We sat on the side of the mountain, beside the castle [on the smaller mound to the right in the picture above, which would have been part of the outer side of the moat which encircled the castle] and watched the sun set and talked a bit.
[That's the moon to the left of the castle.]
He invited me to go to a Bedouin camp for tea, and then his home for dinner, and he offered to pick me up at 5AM the next morning so I could watch the sun rise over the ruins.
The Bedouin camp is quite a ways out into the desert, past the castle. There wasn't anyone there except for the Bedouin man that owns the tent. His wife had just left to go visit family. In the summer, and many times through the rest of the year, guides take tourists to the tent for dinner, a show, and often to camp there. As a result, it's a bit fancier than an actual Bedouin home would be (of course). After finishing our tea, we went back to the oasis and to his brother's home (almost attached to their family home). Ali dropped me off and went to get some food, as it was late already. His brother, Adel, is interesting. He has tattoos on both arms. I asked where he got the tattoos. In the army and in prison was his answer. ?? He went to prison a couple of times. Once for fighting, once for causing an accident. He had all sorts of music videos saved and so we had plenty to watch. Things like NeYo and Akon and Britney Spears (womanizer). LOL. Didn't expect to be seeing that in Syria!!! Ali returned with the food. Shwarma. Yum!!! Chicken with a tahini sauce wrapped in flat bread and cut.