Palmyra is an ancient city in the eastern part of the Levant, now in the center of modern Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early second millennium BC. Palmyra changed hands on a number of occasions between different empires before becoming a subject of the Roman Empire in the first century AD.
The ruins of Palmyra in 2010
The northern Palmyrene mountain belt
Alphabetic inscription in Palmyrene alphabet
Palmyrene funerary portrait representing Aqmat, a Palmyrene aristocrat
Syria or Sham is a historical region located east of the Mediterranean Sea in West Asia, broadly synonymous with the Levant. Other synonyms are Greater Syria or Syria-Palestine. The region boundaries have changed throughout history. However, in modern times, the term "Syria" alone is used to refer to the Syrian Arab Republic.
The ancient city of Apamea, Syria was an important trading center, and a prosperous city in Hellenistic and Roman times
Ruins at Sergiopolis
Palmyra, one of ancient Syria's wealthiest cities
1803 Cedid Atlas, showing Ottoman Syria in yellow