Every Then & Theory plate comes from a true story, and this card tells the one behind yours.

The Then & Theory team

A city of caravans

Ruined arcades rise above a camel caravan. The plate names no city, but Palmyra, an oasis in the Syrian desert, is the best-known place like it. Palmyra was already an established caravan stop when it came under Roman control in the first century AD, and trade made it rich. Its main street ran for 1,100 metres between columns, and its art joined Greek and Roman forms with local and Persian ones. In 2015, during Syria’s civil war, its Temple of Bel and its monumental arch, built around AD 200, were blown up.

Note. The plate’s pyramid is not at Palmyra. The scene is a composite, not a view of one site.

Sources

1. UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “Site of Palmyra”
2. UNESCO, on the destruction of the Arch of Triumph (2015)