Syrians return to Palmyra amid hopes ancient city can attract tourists once again

Khaldoun Al Raba, 32, has fond memories of his days guiding tourists around the ancient ruins of Palmyra, deep in the Syrian Desert.

First as a seven-year-old and then as a teenager in the years before 2011, he would guide groups and manage camel rides at the Unesco World Heritage site that dates to the second millennium BC and later became a vast trading centre under the Roman province of Syria. Its glorious colonnaded street, ancient burial towers and proud temples later attracted tourists from all over the world.

“Thousands of people would come every day,” Mr Al Raba told The National. “There were 200 or 300 groups every day and each was around 50 people.”

Now, all he has of the former city are memories and postcards. One bears a picture of the ancient temple of Ba’al, a first century place of worship for the Mesopotamian god. Today, it lies behind Mr Al Raba in a pile of rubble, after the extremist group ISIS blew it up following their takeover of Palmyra in 2015.

They referred to the site as a “pagan temple,” which they believed justified its destruction: alongside the temple of Ba’al, they blew up the site’s temple to the sky deity Baalshamin, its Triumphal Arch, and part of the second century theatre.

Mr Al Raba came back to Palmyra after Bashar Al Assad’s government fell last month and pro-regime forces fled the city. He left his home city and joined rebel groups in northern Syria following government repression of protests that began in 2011 and led to civil war.

“I prefer this place to my own house – I sleep here, I eat here, I work here,” he said with a wistful smile. “I was working here for 15 years in this place so I know everything. When ISIS destroyed it, I was so upset.”

Upon his return he found the piles of ruins, a looted museum and holes in the ground where, returning residents claim that ISIS and pro-Assad forces had removed or stolen its valuable antiquities.

Palmyra exchanged hands between ISIS and the Syrian army between 2015 and 2017, when Mr Al Assad’s forces finally took it back from the extremist group with heavy support by Russia and Iran-backed militias. They set up bases in the neighbouring city, itself also heavily damaged and mostly deserted.

The tour guide turned fighter is hoping that the ancient city can thrive again, and attract both Syrian and foreign tourists. Millions of Syrians who lived in opposition controlled areas were unable to visit the site when it was under Mr Assad’s rule, and foreign visitor numbers were limited by severe visa restrictions, sanctions and Syria’s global isolation.

Syrians are already returning. Following the offensive that defeated the Assad regime and prompted Syrian forces to flee Palmyra last month, Syrians who been prevented from visiting for over a decade are happy to be back.

“This is the first time I have been here in over 13 years,” said Tayseer Al Hussein, 27, looking around in awe at Palmyra’s ancient theatre, which ISIS also partially destroyed and has not been repaired in more than seven years of regime control.

“We came to see Syria, the Assad regime had banned us from seeing these places,” he told The National. “This is a historical place that shows its civilisations, its ancient civilisations”.

Mr Al Hussein, from Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, had embarked on a road trip around Syria with a friend, Masoud Mohammed, 37, to see the parts of the country he could not visit for so long.

“I didn’t move from my house in 13 years because I was wanted by the regime,” said Mr Mohammed, who like Mr Al Hussein is currently unemployed. Visiting sites including Palmyra now, “feels so good”, he said. “I cannot describe it. This is my country.”

Reconstructing Palmyra

Both men welcomed Syria’s new authorities, whom they said allowed them to visit Palmyra without restriction. Mr Al Hussein hopes that they would renew focus on the ancient site to preserve it and carry out much needed restoration work. “They must establish committees to preserve and restore these sites, and build hotels and tourist facilities to further promote tourism,” he said.

The level of reconstruction needed is clear to see in Palmyra. As well as the destruction within the ancient site, surrounding restaurants and hotels are also destroyed.

One containing an empty swimming pool is being used by men from the new military operations command. In Palmyra city, whole blocks of homes were destroyed in the fighting. Only a few shops and services are open, including mechanics, vegetable sellers and a store selling men’s clothes.

Since the Syrian government fell, a six-man voluntary local council has taken over management of Palmyra city, and has attempted to restore basic services such as water and electricity to the nearly 7,000 residents who returned following ISIS's departure in 2017, and since the Assad regime fell last month. It is just a fraction of the pre-2011 population of around 100,000, according to Zaher Salim, head of the new local council.

Part of their work, funded by donations from the Syrian diaspora and not from the new authorities in Damascus, Mr Salim said, is looking after the heritage site – an enormous task given its vast area. Its golden columns and neighbouring burial towers stretch towards the horizon.

Mohammed Fares, a resident of Palmyra who works for a heritage preservation organisation, said that “hundreds of items” had probably been looted from the ancient site over the years, as well as the neighbouring museum. Like Mr Al Raba, he looked forlorn at the level of destruction.

Since returning to the city in December, Mr Fares said he had seen evidence of looting at the heritage site. Digging and removing items used to be completely forbidden, which suggested that at least two large holes in the ground were illegal excavations, he said.

In a 2017 assessment, Unesco, the UN’s cultural heritage body, said there had been, “destruction, damage, illegal excavations, and looting due to the armed conflict since March 2011.”

According to Mr Fares, pro-government forces had also carried out illegal excavations and looting at the site since they took it eight years ago. He claims stolen items were trafficked to neighbouring Lebanon and to Europe.

“We detected new excavations, they were obvious,” he said, after pointing into two holes in the ground several metres deep.

“Metal detectors were most likely used to search for antiques, coins, and gold. ISIS looted, but this is from the time when the Iran-backed militias were here – we were in contact with people here on the ground, they contacted us and there were assaults on the ground by the militias.”

Mr Salim acknowledged that there have been also been looting attempts since the Assad regime fell, which residents had managed to thwart, he said.

With few security forces in the town and limited resources, authorities do not have the resources to fully guard the site. The National saw some armed men at the resort-turned-base near the ancient ruins, but no systematic guarding system in place around its perimeter.

“Clandestine excavations are taking place day and night,” said Mr Fares. “The archeological city needs protection first and foremost. The current authorities aren't focusing on heritage protection. We are calling on restoration of the heritage site and tourist facilities by the relevant ministries. Palmyra was a major touristic site, it was a miniature version of Rome. We want to return it to how it was before.”

Last year, Unesco said in a report that it commended background work submitted by the former government’s authorities for a project on restoration and reconstruction of the Triumphal Arch, and welcomed progress made towards implementing it.

On the ground, little visible restoration work has taken place. The former regime did not carry out wide scale restoration of either the heritage site or the neighbouring city, Mr Salim said.

“Palmyra was being used as a military barracks, by the regime, the Russians and the Iranian militias,” he told The National from the cramped room currently being used as a local council office. “When we arrived here, there was no state. There was no fuel, nothing.”

Back at the Temple of Ba’al, Khaldoun hopes to be part of a better future for one of the ancient world’s most valuable sites – and also his home city.

He hopes to open a tourism facility, including a Bedouin-style tent, a cafe and even start offering the camel and horse rides he used to master as a child.

“Soon we will have a tent, restaurant, hotels, to bring tourists back,” he says, this time with a more hopeful smile. “When tourists come, I will return to my job to show them around. I feel we will have more than before.”