Zenobia Hotel in Palmyra, Syria, is still standing: NPR

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Beaten and bloated but still standing! It does not seem so now, but it was one of the most elegant hotels in the Middle East. Zenobia was built in the 1920s. It was appointed according to Queen Zenobia, the legendary sovereign of the former Palmyra who annexed part of the Roman Empire when the city was a key stop on the silk road.

I took this photo at the end of January, when I returned to Palmyra for the first time in three decades to see how the emblematic site and city had succeeded over the years of war when it was inaccessible to tourists.

I had stayed at Zenobia in the 90s and it was glorious – original and full of life and perhaps even ghosts. A three -hour Damascus training – longer in a doubtful taxi – the ancient Roman city rose in the distance as a mirage of the desert. The hotel itself had certainly experienced better days, but oh, the wonder of having a bad glass of Syrian wine in a dining room literally moves from ruins. A few steps from the caves with underground springs for adventurous bathers.

I did not see ghosts but if there was, perhaps AGATHA Christie, who stayed there with her husband archaeologist a century ago, could have made her appearance. Or Djinns – supernatural beings who prefer to promote life in the desert.

They would have a lot of loneliness. Syria is recovering from 12 years of civil war and Palmyra itself changed hands twice during the fighting between the Syrian regime, the Russian forces and the Islamic State.

Do you see the part of the panel with missing letters? He read “Cham Palace”, the Syrian hotel chain which had run it. No news on the future of the hotel, but people here are eager to welcome tourists again.

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