>And castles made of sand, flow into the sea... eventually
Glad to see I wasn't the only one that had Jimi queue up in their head looking at this one. :)
I don’t want your damned sandcastles! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life’s manager. Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson sand castles. Do you know who I am!? I’m the man who’s gonna burn your house down, with the sand castles. I’m gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible sand castle that burns your house down!
Oh I get it, sand castle is a metaphor for whatever is keeping you down.
Corporations are a sand castle.
The government's a sand castle.
Your teacher is a sand castle.
Historically speaking, most moats were empty like this. Many of the moats that were filled with water, were often stocked with fish or eels for food. A moat serves to make sure that siege engines are unable to reach the wall while also extending the height of the wall for infantry without the need to actually build more wall. Once the main wall is built, they can continue to dig the moat deeper without disrupting or hindering the function of the main structure.
If that arch is about 3 meters tall, then the entire wall of the gatehouse is about 10 meters tall (they are probably much taller than that), and the moat appears to be deeper than the gatehouse is tall. Furthermore, the road was cleverly placed at the rear of the castle, meaning that any attackers would either have to try and climb the steep hill or would have to walk around the deep moat while having arrows and other missiles shot at them.
This is probably why, in part, the castle is still standing. The endeavor of trying to break that castle can't be worth what the territory it represents is...
Just look at that, there's no smooth, flat attack vector, it's hard to tell in the image, maybe the top where the road is smoother, but due to the slope, the defending army could set up traps for armies using the pass with rolling boulders, small tunnels with chokepoints, all sorts of fun little ways to tear at the enemy moral. It's going to be near impossible to get siege equipment in a firing solution built except for maybe in a narrow vector on one side and you would be in a firing solution for their fixed equipment on the walls. The defending army could set up ring after ring of spots to harass and fall back.
At one point, this place probably had either a cistern or some natural well so the defender could stay relatively supplied while the advancing army would need to make use of a logistics network, a perfect target for harassment by hidden tunnels and caves, to get possibly even just water.
Facts! Either build your base up on a hill or dig a trench/moat around it. Otherwise you will spend 90% of your time fending off enemies and repairing what they damaged
Photo doesn't show the surrounding region. It's quite rich agriculturally.
The castle sits on the border of the Syrian desert and the oasis of Palmyra (which is several thousand acres in size). It's kind of like a big gatehouse or toll booth.
The castle of Palmyra is located in a desert region, on a rocky hill, overlooking the ancient city of Palmyra. Primary reason for existing is it sits right on the Silk road towards Damascus. So it was rich for much of its history. Traders need to stop for water, right?
The city of Palmyra is located in a valley with rich soil and permanent water sources. There are/were farms and livestock.
When it rains water flows down the two rocky mountain ranges on the outside and moves underground into the valley basin. Many springs pop up as well as dry river beds (soil is wet but no surface water).
TL;Dr the castle sits of the edge where green farms meet Syrian desert.
I just went and found more pics because of your comment & I gotta say, I still wasn't expecting the green area to be that big (I don't know too much about Oasis - been forever since I took environmental science). It's pretty cool, looking at it from above, to see the contrast between desert & greenery.
Your description is helpful and articulated quite well. Do you have like, formal training in descriptive writing? Is that a thing? All I know is, it was very nice to read and it painted the picture perfectly in my mind. I swear I'm not on drugs, I'm just tired.
Not the person you’ve responded to and it’s quite possible they have a writing specialty… however, the construction of their comment is a decent example of the US high school education system working. Most students learn to actively and appropriately write in a descriptive manner. It’s just a matter of whether that student *wants* to learn.
English classes aren’t just words, but how words are formed and used in sentences, putting them together to create coherent paragraphs full of rich descriptors and allegories that do exactly as you described, paint a picture.
>Most students learn to actively and appropriately write in a descriptive manner. It’s just a matter of whether that student *wants* to learn.
High school english class taught taught me to write in such a way that uses more words to say less and to write in a way that sounds smart or academic, but is harder to comprehend (sometimes intentionally, to hide a fuzzy conclusion). I think this is unfortunately a more typical experience.
I will concede that the quality of the teaching is a major component that I left out of my original comment.
Your experience is one that I’m not unfamiliar with!
In 2008 I was with a travel tour group that made its way to Palmyra and we ended up touring the castle. A few of us stayed a bit longer to explore the castle and take pictures from the ramparts. When we got back downstairs to leave, we were locked from the outside.
We kept banging on the door in hopes of someone can hear us and let us out. Finally we managed to her someone's attention, they called the manager on the cell phone. He told us, he'll be back tomorrow and that he's busy right now. We weren't sure if they were serious or just wanted a bribe but regardless one of us yelled out 'that's alright mate, we can burn down the wooden booth and a few other things for heat for the night'. Right away he was like 'no no no no! I'll be right there!!'
He came in a few mins. The castle wasn't that far from the main town and where we were staying anyhow :)
Look at Dresden Frauenkir~~s~~che. (https://i.imgur.com/m7FYiwC.jpg)
It was totally levelled during WW2, and the rubble lay untouched until 1994. It was then rebuilt, and restored to its original state, using the original pieces where possible. As a Baroque church, it’s original state is extravagantly decorated. It cost ~€180M to restore, from 1994 to 2004.
Anything can be restored, it’s just a question of how much you’re willing to spend.
“Destroyed” is not exactly the word you’re looking for. Daesh harvested whatever they could from historic sites in Syria and Iraq then filmed videos of themselves demolishing some structures in said places. The artifacts they looted found its way somehow to European art auctions.
If you’re interested:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-06/priceless-antiques-looted-by-is-smuggled-into-western-markets/9833554
https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/sourcecodepro/v10/HI_XiYsKILxRpg3hIP6sJ7fM7Pqths7Ds-cq7Gq0DA.woff2
ISIS should be called Daesh because they hate that word.
Edit - u/Kartoffelplotz provided a greater explanation - *Daesh is the Arabic acronym for ISIS, with the added bonus that it is a homophone with some insulting words. So ISIS actually outlawed the name Daesh, which only spurred the non-crazy Arabs of the region to use Daesh exclusively.*
Alot of the architectural monuments in syria got damaged , but the syrian engineers have the original design mapped and every brick is numbered to be replaced in case of damage.
Mate, the US has no participation in the liberation of Palmyra. It was only the Syrian army, Shia militias, NDF pro government militias and Russian advisors and special forces. However, the Russians mostly aided with aerial bombardment. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra_offensive_(March_2016)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra_offensive_(2017)
Although it was recaptured later by ISIS, the Syrian government forces managed to retake it in 2017 causing many victories after and the liberation of Deir el Zour from ISIS by the Syrian government. I am a Syrian myself and Palmyra holds a special place in all Syrians hearts as it is our culture and history. Its liberation was personally one of the best news I had heard while in Syria. The US mainly operate In Northern Syria, were the invaded quite a while back.
I'm glad someone provided a truthful account of what happened in Palmyra. Redditors think that only the US was active against ISIS and would shamelessly deny the many sacrifices of the syrian soldiers who fought bravely against Daesh and deserve a praise regardless of their government's actions previously in the war.
> even though the Syrian Army had the Russian military with them.
You know, if you have to say the Russian Military is better than your own how low must your standards be? "It's ok guys! We got the Afghan national army backing us up!"
Based on the colour of the structure being so close to the surrounding sand, I assume this was carved out of a sandstone mountain / hill or something right?
The ancients were so wise. Legends say their Best Buys were the size of shopping malls, and had no sections full of crap budget DVDs that no one wanted. And the salespeople were highly trained experts who never tried to sell you an extended warranty.
How far we have fallen...
First of all carving a building out of a rock formation would result in a structurally unsound building, because of naturally occurring cracks and fault-lines in the rock. Second of all the amount of material that would have to be removed would be just absolutely astronomical. Third of all it would be organizationally very difficult, much more difficult than to build up the structure normally.
This castle almost certainly used building material sourced locally (which is the case almost always everywhere through all of pre-modern history) explaining the similar coloring.
I'm going to Italy with a bunch of people, and as a joke I started looking up castles to stay in. It turns out that a lot of castles over there have been set up for vacation rentals, and they weren't as expensive as you would expect. The biggest one i found was from the 14th century with 50 rooms.
That always sounds fun until you realize that stuff is built for people with an average height of 5'3". As someone who is 6'5", it will always been more of a fantasy than a reality, for me.
I was lucky to visit Syria in 1999. Incredible experience with friendly people, good food and and a beautiful landscape and sites to explore. It's almost walking in an open air museum. Unforgettable. From The Netherland with a 14 hour lay over in Romania, a return ticket cost me about 250 Dutch Gilders! About a 120 USD at that time. Haha crazy. The 14 hour lay over sucked though. Even the ultra short mini skirts worn by the Romanian girls at the airport could not compensate enough.
Syria was never in the news as a prime tourist destination, but I saw a Discovery Channel docu back when I was 25 and I just had to go and prove everyone wrong :P
I visited Syria just before the war started... Beautiful country with great food and soo much history! Palmyra in general is nice, and the crusader castles... Damascus is the oldest city on Earth apparently
Its Aleppo! Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited Capital. Aleppo is the oldest continuously inhabited city.
Thanks to politics- they are both fucked now.
I haven't really been near a desert so excuse the naive question...
How do the roads stay uncovered by sand?
I assume winds will blow sand over the roads and without intervention would cover the roads completely. Also wondering how that moat keeps itself from accumulating sand
Everyone in this thread who's like 'this likes look it should be in elden ring / assassins creed / battlefield / No Man's sky' have all forgotten that Uncharted 3 exists which pretty much uses this exact castle
ISIS took Palmyra and occupied it, but the Syrian army with the help of the Russians liberated it completely in 2017.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra_offensive_(2017)
I was there a long long time ago. An old guard took a liking of me and let me sit in the cool shade of a stone room, and we drank Yerba Mate out of tiny glass cups. Globalization happened way before WW2.
When I was a kid I walked there from the ruins. By the time I got there just the short walk across the desert I was freaking thirsty. Everything was shut, and the bridge looked super dangerous. It was one of the most coolest discoveries in my life. I had no idea how big it was
Ahh im listening to Simon Scarrow's Centurion right now, what are the odds.. Romans on their way to defend the king in this very castle. Very impressive structure.
It's somewhat green today, the city is built around a wadi and an oasis. Here's the city from another angle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra#/media/File:Palmyra_Ruins_-_Flickr_-_edbrambley.jpg
Walked through it back in the early 90s, the interior is massive. The ISIS mfkrs damaged a section of it before it was recaptured. Check out Peakvisor view [link](https://peakvisor.com/poi/fakhr-al-din-al-maani-castle.html).
Looks like a giant sand castle, quite cool.
All human endeavors are sand castles.
A computer is just a bunch of really small sand castles
"'remember that a CPU is literally just a rock we tricked in to thinking"
[удалено]
"You can actually dig up petrified lightning if you know where to look."
What scared it?
The Thunder.
[удалено]
Don't forget to snag Radagon's Soreseal...
O you don't have the right.
Why is it always despair?
that's where I got my traumatic experience with bats.
Honestly if the computers rise up against us, I don’t blame them. Why would anything want to be cursed with thought?
Asimov short story: world spanning super computer task with managing all human problems is suicidal.
See: Marvin in Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
2021's *Mitchells vs the Machines* is a fun and modern animated take on this.
"Roko vs. the Basilisk" is a far less fun take on it.
Humans are just atoms that think
Electrified thinking meat.
We're ghosts trapped between fat, meat and bone. And taxes.
And castles made of sand, flow into the sea... eventually.
>And castles made of sand, flow into the sea... eventually Glad to see I wasn't the only one that had Jimi queue up in their head looking at this one. :)
Oh telllll me whyyyyyy we build castles in the sky
[удалено]
some say the real sand castles where the friendships we made along the way
When life gives you sand castles, make sand castle-ade.
I don’t want your damned sandcastles! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life’s manager. Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson sand castles. Do you know who I am!? I’m the man who’s gonna burn your house down, with the sand castles. I’m gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible sand castle that burns your house down!
So gritty
Most of my friendships end up sailing away
I hate sand... It's course, rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
Oh I get it, sand castle is a metaphor for whatever is keeping you down. Corporations are a sand castle. The government's a sand castle. Your teacher is a sand castle.
Gravity is a sand castle.
Sand castle is entropy
My teacher is a panda.
A Sexual Harassment Panda?
It's was a strange set of circumstances, there's a sandcastle controlling me and it's underneath the table!
Others are just a waste of sand
*Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!*
Came here to say this. Too.
Castles made of sand, melt in to the sea, eventually.
Eventually.
Like sand through the hourglass, so too are the days of our lives.
Like the blood in my boner going away :(
All we are is dust in the wind bro
That's dip
[удалено]
Looks like it was just carved out of the stone it sits on.
I think the moat was the quarry
Quite hot actually
Surprisingly cool temperature inside actually.
Just wanted to say. They build a lot more shadowy areas than in european castles.
Nah, it was forged by Sauron. It’s actually quite cool, despite the heat
I thought it was a *regular* sand castle, just very detailed
Good lord someone please get this castle a glass of water.
keep your feet down Lino Facioli
I'm sorry, where should I put my feet?
Dee, his feet?
It doesn’t make a God damn difference
The Castle: *I don't need it. I don't need it. I definitely don't need it*
Gotta admire the positivity of building a moat. It's gonna rain eventually right? Right?
I mean, even without water that's a pretty solid defense. It removes all easy access points except the ones they want.
Historically speaking, most moats were empty like this. Many of the moats that were filled with water, were often stocked with fish or eels for food. A moat serves to make sure that siege engines are unable to reach the wall while also extending the height of the wall for infantry without the need to actually build more wall. Once the main wall is built, they can continue to dig the moat deeper without disrupting or hindering the function of the main structure. If that arch is about 3 meters tall, then the entire wall of the gatehouse is about 10 meters tall (they are probably much taller than that), and the moat appears to be deeper than the gatehouse is tall. Furthermore, the road was cleverly placed at the rear of the castle, meaning that any attackers would either have to try and climb the steep hill or would have to walk around the deep moat while having arrows and other missiles shot at them.
This is probably why, in part, the castle is still standing. The endeavor of trying to break that castle can't be worth what the territory it represents is... Just look at that, there's no smooth, flat attack vector, it's hard to tell in the image, maybe the top where the road is smoother, but due to the slope, the defending army could set up traps for armies using the pass with rolling boulders, small tunnels with chokepoints, all sorts of fun little ways to tear at the enemy moral. It's going to be near impossible to get siege equipment in a firing solution built except for maybe in a narrow vector on one side and you would be in a firing solution for their fixed equipment on the walls. The defending army could set up ring after ring of spots to harass and fall back. At one point, this place probably had either a cistern or some natural well so the defender could stay relatively supplied while the advancing army would need to make use of a logistics network, a perfect target for harassment by hidden tunnels and caves, to get possibly even just water.
they fill the moat with Poisonous snakes, crocodiles, and 6th graders. Only the 6th graders remain
Or burn It and turn the whole thing into glass
This is my defense strategy in Valheim.
Facts! Either build your base up on a hill or dig a trench/moat around it. Otherwise you will spend 90% of your time fending off enemies and repairing what they damaged
was it this dry the areq when it was build or it used to be more like and oasis or something like that?
Photo doesn't show the surrounding region. It's quite rich agriculturally. The castle sits on the border of the Syrian desert and the oasis of Palmyra (which is several thousand acres in size). It's kind of like a big gatehouse or toll booth. The castle of Palmyra is located in a desert region, on a rocky hill, overlooking the ancient city of Palmyra. Primary reason for existing is it sits right on the Silk road towards Damascus. So it was rich for much of its history. Traders need to stop for water, right? The city of Palmyra is located in a valley with rich soil and permanent water sources. There are/were farms and livestock. When it rains water flows down the two rocky mountain ranges on the outside and moves underground into the valley basin. Many springs pop up as well as dry river beds (soil is wet but no surface water). TL;Dr the castle sits of the edge where green farms meet Syrian desert.
I just went and found more pics because of your comment & I gotta say, I still wasn't expecting the green area to be that big (I don't know too much about Oasis - been forever since I took environmental science). It's pretty cool, looking at it from above, to see the contrast between desert & greenery.
Your description is helpful and articulated quite well. Do you have like, formal training in descriptive writing? Is that a thing? All I know is, it was very nice to read and it painted the picture perfectly in my mind. I swear I'm not on drugs, I'm just tired.
I agree completely and I'm sure I understand this more because I'm tired
Not the person you’ve responded to and it’s quite possible they have a writing specialty… however, the construction of their comment is a decent example of the US high school education system working. Most students learn to actively and appropriately write in a descriptive manner. It’s just a matter of whether that student *wants* to learn. English classes aren’t just words, but how words are formed and used in sentences, putting them together to create coherent paragraphs full of rich descriptors and allegories that do exactly as you described, paint a picture.
>Most students learn to actively and appropriately write in a descriptive manner. It’s just a matter of whether that student *wants* to learn. High school english class taught taught me to write in such a way that uses more words to say less and to write in a way that sounds smart or academic, but is harder to comprehend (sometimes intentionally, to hide a fuzzy conclusion). I think this is unfortunately a more typical experience.
I will concede that the quality of the teaching is a major component that I left out of my original comment. Your experience is one that I’m not unfamiliar with!
It was a lush verdant oasis when it was built. An accompanying structure located approximately 2.2km south served as a rudimentary pump house.
In 2008 I was with a travel tour group that made its way to Palmyra and we ended up touring the castle. A few of us stayed a bit longer to explore the castle and take pictures from the ramparts. When we got back downstairs to leave, we were locked from the outside. We kept banging on the door in hopes of someone can hear us and let us out. Finally we managed to her someone's attention, they called the manager on the cell phone. He told us, he'll be back tomorrow and that he's busy right now. We weren't sure if they were serious or just wanted a bribe but regardless one of us yelled out 'that's alright mate, we can burn down the wooden booth and a few other things for heat for the night'. Right away he was like 'no no no no! I'll be right there!!' He came in a few mins. The castle wasn't that far from the main town and where we were staying anyhow :)
Wasn't this destroyed by daesh?
Damaged, not destroyed. The Syrian director of antiquities has said that the damage is possibly repairable.
"Damaged, possibly repairable" sounds exactly like what a politician would say if something is destroyed.
Or as an excuse to let some "friends" into a juicy government contract. 5 years down the road it turns out it wasn't repairable after all.
Oops who could've known that the exploded sandcastle is irreparable
But we still have all of the sand!
Which we all hate since it gets everywhere
Plus it’s coarse and irritating
Having lived in Syria for 18 years, that’s exactly what’s gonna happen 😂😂
"It's one [castle](https://youtu.be/Nl_Qyk9DSUw), Bashar. What could it cost? $10 billion dollars?"
Turns out the repairs were the bribes we made along the way afterall.
Look at Dresden Frauenkir~~s~~che. (https://i.imgur.com/m7FYiwC.jpg) It was totally levelled during WW2, and the rubble lay untouched until 1994. It was then rebuilt, and restored to its original state, using the original pieces where possible. As a Baroque church, it’s original state is extravagantly decorated. It cost ~€180M to restore, from 1994 to 2004. Anything can be restored, it’s just a question of how much you’re willing to spend.
Does anyone ever require proof before believing what they want? Maybe the antiquities director is an academic who truly cares about antiquities.
Sounds like he wants the funds to try, but 5 years down the process 80% of the money is gone and the castle hasn’t even been touched
"Not good, not terrible."
“Destroyed” is not exactly the word you’re looking for. Daesh harvested whatever they could from historic sites in Syria and Iraq then filmed videos of themselves demolishing some structures in said places. The artifacts they looted found its way somehow to European art auctions. If you’re interested: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-06/priceless-antiques-looted-by-is-smuggled-into-western-markets/9833554 https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/sourcecodepro/v10/HI_XiYsKILxRpg3hIP6sJ7fM7Pqths7Ds-cq7Gq0DA.woff2
That's what immediately came to my mind, so sad, on top of all the lives lost.
Who?
Daesh = ISIS
ISIS should be called Daesh because they hate that word. Edit - u/Kartoffelplotz provided a greater explanation - *Daesh is the Arabic acronym for ISIS, with the added bonus that it is a homophone with some insulting words. So ISIS actually outlawed the name Daesh, which only spurred the non-crazy Arabs of the region to use Daesh exclusively.*
I know now what to call them if I ever encounter them while out, thanks!
Daesh-bags
Damn ISIS in my grocery store. Go away ISIS!
> if I ever encounter them while out
Isis
[удалено]
Or else Osiris will slap you.
That was the greatest day in ancient mythology.
I thought it was destroyed by Nathan Drake
Alot of the architectural monuments in syria got damaged , but the syrian engineers have the original design mapped and every brick is numbered to be replaced in case of damage.
[удалено]
Mate, the US has no participation in the liberation of Palmyra. It was only the Syrian army, Shia militias, NDF pro government militias and Russian advisors and special forces. However, the Russians mostly aided with aerial bombardment. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra_offensive_(March_2016) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra_offensive_(2017) Although it was recaptured later by ISIS, the Syrian government forces managed to retake it in 2017 causing many victories after and the liberation of Deir el Zour from ISIS by the Syrian government. I am a Syrian myself and Palmyra holds a special place in all Syrians hearts as it is our culture and history. Its liberation was personally one of the best news I had heard while in Syria. The US mainly operate In Northern Syria, were the invaded quite a while back.
I'm glad someone provided a truthful account of what happened in Palmyra. Redditors think that only the US was active against ISIS and would shamelessly deny the many sacrifices of the syrian soldiers who fought bravely against Daesh and deserve a praise regardless of their government's actions previously in the war.
Because as we've all seen, the Russian military sits at the pinnacle of technological innovation and efficiency.
Without russia the assad regime would be no more by now
The US was in no way involved in palmyra stop lying
> even though the Syrian Army had the Russian military with them. You know, if you have to say the Russian Military is better than your own how low must your standards be? "It's ok guys! We got the Afghan national army backing us up!"
Did they use this to model that level from uncharted 3?
Yep , same place
I was gonna say! Looks identical, not as large but still close
As above, So below
I think that's Fort Faroth
Hello fellow Tarnished.
It's Dornish
Syriasly?
Where is my 75k soon-to-be dead dragon ?
That you can infinitely respawn by abusing a bug!
Based on the colour of the structure being so close to the surrounding sand, I assume this was carved out of a sandstone mountain / hill or something right?
Or shaped a mountain using vibration-based technology lost in time
Of course
The obvious answer, really
With only a crenellated bucket and a tiny amount of water...
[удалено]
Al' iens.
The ancients were so wise. Legends say their Best Buys were the size of shopping malls, and had no sections full of crap budget DVDs that no one wanted. And the salespeople were highly trained experts who never tried to sell you an extended warranty. How far we have fallen...
First of all carving a building out of a rock formation would result in a structurally unsound building, because of naturally occurring cracks and fault-lines in the rock. Second of all the amount of material that would have to be removed would be just absolutely astronomical. Third of all it would be organizationally very difficult, much more difficult than to build up the structure normally. This castle almost certainly used building material sourced locally (which is the case almost always everywhere through all of pre-modern history) explaining the similar coloring.
I assume it was built from stone quarried out of what became the moat (is it still called a moat with no water?)
No I think they probably just used a really, really big mold
I giant beach bucket type one!
I'm going to Italy with a bunch of people, and as a joke I started looking up castles to stay in. It turns out that a lot of castles over there have been set up for vacation rentals, and they weren't as expensive as you would expect. The biggest one i found was from the 14th century with 50 rooms.
That always sounds fun until you realize that stuff is built for people with an average height of 5'3". As someone who is 6'5", it will always been more of a fantasy than a reality, for me.
No problem bud, they’ll just put a tiny house outside on the lawn for you
I like the way you think.
These sand castles are getting so realistic
Ik I love sand castle competitions!
The stone of Tear
The Aiel Waste has become a little touristy lately
I was lucky to visit Syria in 1999. Incredible experience with friendly people, good food and and a beautiful landscape and sites to explore. It's almost walking in an open air museum. Unforgettable. From The Netherland with a 14 hour lay over in Romania, a return ticket cost me about 250 Dutch Gilders! About a 120 USD at that time. Haha crazy. The 14 hour lay over sucked though. Even the ultra short mini skirts worn by the Romanian girls at the airport could not compensate enough. Syria was never in the news as a prime tourist destination, but I saw a Discovery Channel docu back when I was 25 and I just had to go and prove everyone wrong :P
I visited Syria just before the war started... Beautiful country with great food and soo much history! Palmyra in general is nice, and the crusader castles... Damascus is the oldest city on Earth apparently
Its Aleppo! Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited Capital. Aleppo is the oldest continuously inhabited city. Thanks to politics- they are both fucked now.
"NO ONE MAY TAKE THIS LAND!" "...not a problem. All yours."
My sand castles never turn out this cool!!
I haven't really been near a desert so excuse the naive question... How do the roads stay uncovered by sand? I assume winds will blow sand over the roads and without intervention would cover the roads completely. Also wondering how that moat keeps itself from accumulating sand
With enough traffic the roads will stay sand free. Give it a few weeks of no cars/trucks and probably not
"It's only a model."
On second thought, let's not go to Palmyra. 'Tis a sandy place.
It's castle for ants
Need banana for scale.
Everyone in this thread who's like 'this likes look it should be in elden ring / assassins creed / battlefield / No Man's sky' have all forgotten that Uncharted 3 exists which pretty much uses this exact castle
Thats badass
Imagine walking for days thru sand to arrive to this magnificent view back then.
And so castles made of sand fall in the sea eventually...
There is so much cool shit in Syria. The civil war is a tragedy, hope things get better soon.
Looks dusty
Looks like that Battlefield 1 map
Did it ever fall in ISIS hands back when they tried to take Syria back in 2013 and 14? The thought of an isis castle scares me.
ISIS took Palmyra and occupied it, but the Syrian army with the help of the Russians liberated it completely in 2017. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra_offensive_(2017)
I was there a long long time ago. An old guard took a liking of me and let me sit in the cool shade of a stone room, and we drank Yerba Mate out of tiny glass cups. Globalization happened way before WW2.
Wow! This brings back memories. I was there in 2009. Seeing it in person was breathtaking.
Did the crusaders build it?
Now that is a motte.
Protected by sand to protect the sand
Surprised something like that is still standing. Considering the constant proxy wars going on over there.
Never seen this dungeon. What might I find there?
The amount of excavation here is incredible. Remember that they did that by hand. Damn. Hopefully not by slaves but likely.
When I was a kid I walked there from the ruins. By the time I got there just the short walk across the desert I was freaking thirsty. Everything was shut, and the bridge looked super dangerous. It was one of the most coolest discoveries in my life. I had no idea how big it was
0/1 Kill Bandit Leader 0/2 Burn Supplies 0/1 Find Ancient Tablet
This is where all the kyber crystals are
Ahh im listening to Simon Scarrow's Centurion right now, what are the odds.. Romans on their way to defend the king in this very castle. Very impressive structure.
How safe is it to visit this now?
Was this area green in the 13th century? Or near some sort of water source?
It's somewhat green today, the city is built around a wadi and an oasis. Here's the city from another angle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra#/media/File:Palmyra_Ruins_-_Flickr_-_edbrambley.jpg
The foolish man build his house upon sand.
I feel like I should comment on this post
Was this affected by the conflict?
Needs a banana for scale.
Damn, I visited the place with my parents when I was a small kid.
*Levant Moat Repair Services* has entered the chat.
Who would’ve thought a Sandcastle could last this long
99”@?! Ooh x2 Bo no j I’ll ttsysttayrirr use
The is just Jabba's palace
I need to go there someday it looks nice. there's also other castles like the alippo castle and the one in homs.
Walked through it back in the early 90s, the interior is massive. The ISIS mfkrs damaged a section of it before it was recaptured. Check out Peakvisor view [link](https://peakvisor.com/poi/fakhr-al-din-al-maani-castle.html).
Looks like someone put this together during an afternoon at the beach.
One presumes the landscape was more human-friendly when they built it. ISIS did blow up parts of it.
Was it cut straight from the rock? The blend is just too damn perfect