It was said to have been founded by King Solomon and is mentioned in the Old Testament, but it really only comes into history at the beginning of our own era ... when suddenly it became one of the ancient world's most magnificent and wealthiest cities.

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This explosion of riches was due to Palmyra's location on the caravan route that brought the fabulous goods of the East, especially silks and spices, to the great cities bordering the Mediterranean Sea: to Antioch, Alexandria, Athens and, above all, on to Rome.  This was the western end of the fabled Silk Road, and the oasis of Palmyra had the luck to lie almost midway on the shortest way across the desert from Asia to the sea. 

            Palmyra also lies midway between the fertile, inhabited parts of western Syria and the Euphrates River - which marked the border of the Parthian (later the Persian) empire, the only enemies who could withstand the power of Rome*s legions.   Palmyra’s geographical position - midway between the Greco-Roman cities of Syria and the eastern world beyond the Euphrates - is always the most important force in the city’s brief history.  Almost every feature of Palmyran life - whether artistic, cultural, architectural or military - reflects this geographical fact : a place midway between East and West, where two ways of life mingle and interact, sometimes with the most extraordinary results.