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.”
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Specs
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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Most F1 world titles
7 — Michael Schumacher (1994, ’95, 2000, ’01 ’02, ’03, ’04)
7 — Lewis Hamilton (2008, ’14,’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20)
5 — Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57)
4 — Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89, ’93)
4 — Sebastian Vettel (2010, ’11, ’12, ’13)
Results:
6.30pm: Handicap (Turf) | US$175,000 2,410m | Winner: Bin Battuta, Christophe Soumillon (jockey), Saeed bin Suroor (trainer)
7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas Trial Conditions (Dirt) | $100,000 | 1,400m | Winner: Al Hayette, Fabrice Veron, Ismail Mohammed
7.40pm: Handicap (T) | $145,000 | 1,000m | Winner: Faatinah, Jim Crowley, David Hayes
8.15pm: Dubawi Stakes Group 3 (D) | $200,000 | 1,200m | Winner: Raven’s Corner, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
8.50pm: Singspiel Stakes Group 3 (T) | $200,000 | 1,800m | Winner: Dream Castle, Christophe Soumillon, Saeed bin Suroor
9.25pm: Handicap (T) | $175,000 | 1,400m | Winner: Another Batt, Connor Beasley, George Scott
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
360Vuz PROFILE
Date started: January 2017
Founder: Khaled Zaatarah
Based: Dubai and Los Angeles
Sector: Technology
Size: 21 employees
Funding: $7 million
Investors: Shorooq Partners, KBW Ventures, Vision Ventures, Hala Ventures, 500Startups, Plug and Play, Magnus Olsson, Samih Toukan, Jonathan Labin
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
RESULT
Bayer Leverkusen 2 Bayern Munich 4
Leverkusen: Alario (9'), Wirtz (89')
Bayern: Coman (27'), Goretzka (42'), Gnabry (45'), Lewandowski (66')
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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SPECS
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Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
THREE
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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1.
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United States
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2.
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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6.
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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9.
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
more from Janine di Giovanni
match info
Southampton 2 (Ings 32' & pen 89') Tottenham Hotspur 5 (Son 45', 47', 64', & 73', Kane 82')
Man of the match Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
The five pillars of Islam
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Fight card
1. Bantamweight: Victor Nunes (BRA) v Siyovush Gulmamadov (TJK)
2. Featherweight: Hussein Salim (IRQ) v Shakhriyor Juraev (UZB)
3. Catchweight 80kg: Rashed Dawood (UAE) v Khamza Yamadaev (RUS)
4. Lightweight: Ho Taek-oh (KOR) v Ronald Girones (CUB)
5. Lightweight: Arthur Zaynukov (RUS) v Damien Lapilus (FRA)
6. Bantamweight: Vinicius de Oliveira (BRA) v Furkatbek Yokubov (RUS)
7. Featherweight: Movlid Khaybulaev (RUS) v Zaka Fatullazade (AZE)
8. Flyweight: Shannon Ross (TUR) v Donovon Freelow (USA)
9. Lightweight: Mohammad Yahya (UAE) v Dan Collins (GBR)
10. Catchweight 73kg: Islam Mamedov (RUS) v Martun Mezhulmyan (ARM)
11. Bantamweight World title: Jaures Dea (CAM) v Xavier Alaoui (MAR)
12. Flyweight World title: Manon Fiorot (FRA) v Gabriela Campo (ARG)
RESULTS
5pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Purebred Arabian Cup Conditions (PA) Dh 200,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner: Hameem, Adrie de Vries (jockey), Abdallah Al Hammadi (trainer)
5.30pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Cup Conditions (PA) Dh 200,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: Winked, Connor Beasley, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Cup Listed (TB) Dh 380,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: Boerhan, Ryan Curatolo, Nicholas Bachalard
6.30pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Group 3 (PA) Dh 500,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: AF Alwajel, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Jewel Crown Group 1 (PA) Dh 5,000,000 (T) 2,200m
Winner: Messi, Pat Dobbs, Timo Keersmaekers
7.30pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Handicap (PA) Dh 150,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Harrab, Ryan Curatolo, Jean de Roualle
8pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 100,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: AF Alareeq, Connor Beasley, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: N2 Technology
Founded: 2018
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Startups
Size: 14
Funding: $1.7m from HNIs
Results
6.30pm: Mazrat Al Ruwayah – Group 2 (PA) $36,000 (Dirt) 1,600m, Winner: RB Money To Burn, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer)
7.05pm: Handicap (TB) $68,000 (Turf) 2,410m, Winner: Star Safari, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
7.40pm: Meydan Trophy – Conditions (TB) $50,000 (T) 1,900m, Winner: Secret Protector, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
8.15pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 - Group 2 (TB) $293,000 (D) 1,900m, Winner: Salute The Soldier, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass
8.50pm: Al Rashidiya – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,800m, Winner: Zakouski, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) $65,000 (T) 1,000m, Winner: Motafaawit, Sam Hitchcock, Doug Watson
