Syria​—Echoes of an Interesting Past

IT STOOD at one of the crossroads of the ancient world​—the place where caravan routes that ran from the Mediterranean to China and from Egypt to Anatolia once met. Armies of Akkad, Babylon, Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome once tramped its soil. Centuries later, Turks and Crusaders passed through it. In modern times, armies from France and Britain fought to control it.

Today a portion of that region still bears the name by which it was known thousands of years ago​—Syria. While the area has seen many changes, the echoes of history still resonate there. It is a land of particular interest to students of the Bible, as Syria played a role in Bible history.

Damascus​—An Ancient City

Take, for example, Damascus, the capital of Syria. It is said to be one of the oldest cities in the world to have been continuously inhabited since its foundation. Situated at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon range, with the Barada River flowing through it, Damascus has served for centuries as a welcome oasis on the edge of the great Syrian Desert. Likely the patriarch Abraham passed by this city on his way south to Canaan. And he took Eliezer, “a man of Damascus,” into his household as a servant.​—Genesis 15:2.

Nearly a thousand years later, Syrian kings of Zobah fought against Israel’s first king, Saul. (1 Samuel 14:47) Israel’s second king, David, also engaged in combat with kings of Aram (the Hebrew name for Syria), defeated them, and “put garrisons in Syria of Damascus.” (2 Samuel 8:3-8) Israel and Syria thus became long-standing enemies.​—1 Kings 11:23-25.

By the first century C.E., enmity between the Syrians and the Jews had apparently calmed down. There were even a number of Jewish synagogues in Damascus at that time. You might recall that Saul (later Paul) of Tarsus was on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus when he was converted to Christianity.​—Acts 9:1-8.

Modern-day Damascus contains no evidence of Abraham’s passage or of David’s conquest. But there are  remains of the old Roman city as well as a main thoroughfare through the old city that follows the course of the ancient Roman Via Recta (Straight Street). It was in a house on this street that Ananias found Saul after Saul’s miraculous conversion to Christianity just outside Damascus. (Acts 9:10-19) While the street is far different today from what it was in Roman times, it is here that the apostle Paul began his outstanding career. Straight Street ends at the Roman Bab-Sharqi gate. The city walls, with houses perched atop, help us to understand how Paul was able to escape by being lowered down in a basket through an opening in the wall.​—Acts 9:23-25; 2 Corinthians 11:32, 33.

Palmyra​—A Historic Oasis

About a three-hour drive northeast of Damascus is a remarkable archaeological site: Palmyra, called Tadmor in the Bible. (2 Chronicles 8:4) Situated midway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates River, this oasis is watered by underground springs that emerge here from the mountains to the north. The ancient trade route between Mesopotamia and lands to the west followed the Fertile Crescent and therefore ran far north of Palmyra. However, in the first century B.C.E., political instability in the north made a shorter, more southerly route desirable. Palmyra thus entered its heyday.

 Useful to Rome as a buffer on the eastern outskirts of its empire, Palmyra was integrated into the Roman province of Syria, but it was eventually declared a free city. Large temples, monumental arches, baths, and a theater lined a magnificent colonnaded street. The porticoes on each side were paved for pedestrians, but the main central street was left unpaved for the convenience of the camel trains that passed through. Caravans plying the trade route between China and India in the East and the Greco-Roman world in the West made stopovers in Palmyra. There they were forced to pay taxes levied on the silks, spices, and other commodities they transported.

At its zenith, in the third century C.E., Palmyra had a population of about 200,000. It was at this time that its ambitious Queen Zenobia crossed swords with Rome and was finally defeated in 272 C.E. In this way, Zenobia unwittingly fulfilled part of a prophecy recorded by the prophet Daniel some 800 years earlier. * (Daniel, chapter 11) After Zenobia’s defeat, Palmyra survived for a time as a strategic outpost of the Roman Empire, but it never regained its former power and splendor.

On to the Euphrates

Northeast through the desert after a three-hour drive is the town of Dayr az Zawr, where the mighty Euphrates River can be seen. This historic waterway leaves its source in the mountains of eastern Anatolia (Asian Turkey), enters Syria just north of Carchemish, and flows southeast through Syria into Iraq. Not far from the Iraqi border lie the remains of two ancient cities of Syria.

Sixty miles [100 km] to the southeast, at a bend in the Euphrates, lie the ruins of the ancient fortress city of Dura-Europos. Another 15 miles [25 km] to the southeast lies the site of Mari. Once a prosperous commercial city, it was destroyed in the 18th century B.C.E. by Babylonian King Hammurabi. The archives of its royal palace have yielded at least 15,000 inscribed clay tablets​—documents that have done much to bring history to life.

When Hammurabi’s troops demolished the city, they knocked down the upper walls, filling the lower rooms with bricks and earth. This had the effect of protecting its mural paintings, statues, ceramics, and countless other artifacts until a French team of archaeologists discovered the site in 1933. These items can be viewed in the museums of Damascus and Aleppo as well as in the Louvre, in Paris.

Ancient Cities of Northwest Syria

Following the Euphrates northwest brings one to Aleppo (Haleb). Aleppo, like Damascus, claims to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Aleppo’s souks, or covered bazaars, are among the most picturesque in the Middle East.

Just south of Aleppo is Tell Mardikh, the site of the ancient city-state of Ebla. Ebla was a powerful trading city that dominated northern Syria in the latter half of the third millennium B.C.E. Excavations there uncovered the remains of a temple dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. Also discovered was a royal palace whose archive rooms yielded some 17,000 clay tablets. Artifacts from Ebla can be seen in the museum of Idlib, a small town 15 miles [25 km] from the site.

South on the Damascus road is Hama, the Biblical Hamath. (Numbers 13:21) The Orontes River winds through Hama, making it one of Syria’s most pleasant cities. Then comes Ras Shamra, the site of the ancient city of Ugarit. In the third and second millenniums B.C.E., Ugarit was a prosperous trading port steeped in the worship of Baal and Dagon. Since 1929, French archaeologists have unearthed many clay tablets and inscribed bronzes that have revealed much about the degrading nature of Baal worship. This helps us to understand better why God condemned the Baal-worshiping Canaanites to extermination.​—Deuteronomy 7:1-4.

Yes, in modern Syria one can still hear the echoes of an interesting past.

[Footnote]

 [Map on page 24, 25]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

‐‐ Disputed borders

EGYPT

ISRAEL

JORDAN

LEBANON

SYRIA

DAMASCUS

Barada

Orontes

Hama (Hamath)

Ugarit (Ras Shamra)

Ebla (Tell Mardikh)

Aleppo (Haleb)

Carchemish (Jerablus)

Euphrates

Zenobia

Dayr az Zawr

Dura-Europos

Mari

Palmyra (Tadmor)

IRAQ

TURKEY

[Pictures on page 24]

Damascus (below) and Straight Street (above)

[Picture on page 25]

Beehive homes

[Picture on page 25]

Ugarit

[Picture on page 25]

Hama

[Picture on page 26]

Mari

[Picture on page 26]

Aleppo

[Credit Line]

© Jean-Leo Dugast/Panos Pictures

[Picture on page 26]

Royal palace, Ebla

[Picture on page 26]

Shepherds at Zenobia

[Pictures on page 26]

Palmyra

[Picture on page 26]

The Euphrates at Dura-Europos

[Picture Credit Lines on page 25]

Children: © Jean-Leo Dugast/Panos Pictures; beehive homes: © Nik Wheeler