NARRATOR: Palmyra,
a monumental ancient city
at the crossroads of some
of the world's greatest civilizations.
NARRATOR: This spectacular site survives
in remarkable condition since antiquity.
But in our lifetime,
it falls into the hands of an extremist terror group.
NARRATOR: Today, we have unique access to follow investigators
as they return to this once dangerous site.
Equipped with pioneering technology,
they're on a mission to
piece together this recently shattered city.
[speaks indistinctly]
They put ancient engineering to the test...
Stop, stop, stop.
...and venture into forgotten tombs
to uncover how thousands of citizens survive
and thrive here two millennia before ISIS arrive.
NARRATOR: They discover how one queen is
responsible for both its greatest glory
and it's tragic downfall.
To solve these mysteries,
we digitally reconstruct the city at the height of
its glory.
We open long-lost tombs, come face-to-face
with the people who live
and die here and reveal the secrets
of the lost Empire of Palmyra.
Palmyra lies in the remote heart of Syria.
Known as the Pearl of the Desert,
its grand ruins survive for almost 2,000 years,
inspiring legends of its awesome power.
But in the last decade,
it has come under fire from the militant group, ISIS.
In 2015,
ISIS stormed Palmyra and its museum,
smashing artifacts and demolishing monuments in
a bid to wipe out its non-Islamic heritage.
Courageous archaeologists race to remove what they
can in the days before ISIS arrives,
transporting statues and other relics
to Syria's capital, Damascus,
but not everything is saved.
The terrorists destroy many temples, tombs, and treasures.
NARRATOR: Now, with ISIS gone,
our cameras have exclusive access to follow investigators
as they return to explore this still
perilous site and help reconstruct this lost wonder as
it was almost 2,000 years ago.
Palmyra is once a magnificent city.
The main colonnaded street stretches for over half a mile.
In its center sits an ornate structure called a tetrapylon.
To the north and west, an extravagant bathhouse
and temples, and in the south,
an impressive theater to entertain Palmyra's
30,000 residents.
Now, experts want to solve an enduring riddle.
What are the origins of this remote desert city?
Ahmad Deeb has been fascinated by Palmyra most of his life.
NARRATOR: Ahmad is on a mission to discover the city's origins.
Studying an ancient ruin ravaged by time is tough.
Piecing together a site battered by
recent conflict is an even greater challenge.
Ahmad searches for any surviving clues of the city's builders
and soon spot something intriguing.
NARRATOR: Palmyra has all the hallmarks of
a Roman city, almost 1,500 miles from Rome.
Grand civic buildings,
colonnaded streets,
temples,
and a theater.
Ancient texts reveal that by the 1st century CE,
this area is part of the Roman Empire,
and Palmyra becomes one of
the key cities on its eastern frontier.
But Ahmad suspects its people have
roots here before this Roman takeover.
He heads to the ruins of the main temple of the city.
Before the ISIS attacks,
this temple is a jewel in the desert,
but today, it's shattered into millions of pieces.
Ahmad looks for fragments,
which he hopes may hold clues about
the origins of the people who live in Palmyra,
known as Palmyrenes.
He eventually finds some pieces,
which reveal Roman-style decoration
and figures in Roman military dress.
But other carvings now likely buried deep in
the rubble are special, as they show male figures
wearing trousers,
and women in veils,
distinctly un-Roman fashions.
These depictions suggest the Palmyrenes are
not originally Roman,
and that's not the only clue.
Before its destruction,
the temple's floor plan is a colossal 27,000 square feet.
Grand columns surround it,
just like a typical Roman temple.
But unusually, the roof is flat with openings,
perhaps so that rituals can be performed here.
Further breaking with Roman convention,
the temple's entrance is not on the short end,
but on the long side.
And within is an altar dedicated to
three mysterious Gods.
Who are they, and what can they tell us
about the origins of the Palmyrenes?
Many artifacts rescued from the clutches of ISIS are
now securely held here, in the National Museum of Damascus.
Dima Ashkar
has rare access to surviving relics from
Palmyra's temples and other parts of the site.
She scours the collection for clues to
the identity of the mysterious gods from the main temple
and comes across an incredibly
well preserved relief found nearby.
She recognizes two figures on the right,
their large halos evidence of their godly status.
Bel and Aglibol are often worshiped alongside
the Sun God, Yahibol,
who Dima believes is once on the right side of the relief.
They are a unique blend of local and Mesopotamian gods
and are very likely the trio worshiped in the main temple.
And these are not the only Eastern influences in Palmyra.
Many sculptures depict gods from all
over the Levant, Arabia, and beyond.
Clearly, Palmyra is a mix of cultures,
coexisting and merging their ideas and beliefs.
Ahmad wants to know what brings these different
people here to this remote part of the desert.
On the edge of the city,
he finds a stone enclosure full of water.
A natural spring.
Ahmad believes this source may be what first attracts
people here, at least as early as the Bronze Age.
NARRATOR: Desert tribes live here for millennia.
But it is the citizens of the 1st century CE
who put Palmyra on the map.
The Silk Road is vital for Rome's trade with the East,
but the usual route is blocked by conflict with
Rome's enemies, the Parthians.
The Palmyrenes have a plan.
Their camels take western goods through the desert
to the River Euphrates,
where they're sent on to the East.
And they return with spices, silk, and precious gems
to be sent on to Rome.
Palmyra becomes a melting pot of different
people who come here to do business.
Palmyra booms over the next two centuries
and reaches its population's peak.
But there's a mystery.
How does this enormous city get the water it needs
to survive
and supply its many flowing fountains?
And what can these mysterious piles of rubble
tell us about the lives and deaths of the Palmyrenes?
NARRATOR: Palmyra, deep in the Syrian desert.
Archaeologist Ahmad Deeb wants to find out how its 30,000
citizens survive in this arid landscape
with limited local water.
He hunts for clues to this Roman city's water supply.
It's no easy mission, as so much has
been recently razed to the ground by ISIS.
But he soon discovers something
that retains a distinctive shape.
NARRATOR: These fountains are a clue that pressurized water
flows here.
But the Efqa Spring is lower in altitude
than the city, and water can't flow uphill.
So there must be another hidden source.
A maze of underground channels lies deep beneath the city.
An incredible engineered network of aqueducts
feeds Palmyra with fresh drinking water.
A tank on a nearby hill stores the water,
which then flows through pipes downhill
for almost a mile
It bursts out at high pressure
into cascading fountains throughout the city.
Where does this supply of flowing water come from?
Ahmad examines satellite imagery from
the area around Palmyra to find out.
NARRATOR: This line of dots is, in fact,
a series of manholes,
clear evidence of an underground aqueduct
leading to the city.
Ahmad follows the aqueduct for mile afrrer mile.
and discovers it suddenly disappears underground.
He wants to know where this subterranean water
is coming from.
Ahmad launches a drone to get a bird's eye view...
...and it soon reveals something distinctive,
hills scarred with deep wadis, or river canyons.
This region is dry today but always has wet seasons
where huge amounts of rain scour out these wadi canyons.
Some water collects underground at the foot
of the hills to create permanent natural springs.
The clever Palmyrenes exploit
these springs and use gravity alone
to channel at least 260,000 gallons
of fresh water to Palmyra each day
so the city's residents can
enjoy a sophisticated Roman lifestyle.
They develop innovative ways
to harness additional fresh rainwater.
High in the mountains,
they build dams across the rivers
to slow and regulate water flow.
They create walled fields inside
the wadis to capture the rich sediments
and provide the perfect soil for crops.
And for farms and houses out of town,
they construct cisterns to collect
and retain water for when it is needed.
These water control and capture techniques allow
a huge area around Palmyra to be transformed into farmland.
The Palmyrenes not only survive but thrive in
the desert thanks to these techniques,
and their ingenuity doesn't stop there.
How do Palmyra's citizens create one of
the grandest cities of the ancient world?
And how do they do this
hundreds of miles from any other civilization?
NARRATOR: Palmyra,
a vast city
crammed full of incredible ancient wonders.
Houmam Saad has been studying Palmyra for over 20 years
and has a unique bond with the site.
NARRATOR: Houmam ventures into the ruins.
Many of Palmyra's most impressive monuments were badly
damaged by Islamic extremists,
ISIS, during a four-year reign of terror that sees them
capture much of Syria and Iraq.
Houmam wants to study these ruins to find out how
the Palmyrenes create a city as grand as Rome
in this isolated desert.
He examines the stone used to create
most of the buildings here,
a beautiful local limestone.
The Palmyrenes choose it not only for
its striking appearance but also its structural properties.
The stone is almost as hard as marble,
and its natural strength is the key
to how so much survives,
even withstanding demolition by ISIS.
NARRATOR: Archaeologists are now trying to
piece together these particular stones
to rebuild one of the most
impressive structures that ISIS does destroy.
A spectacular arch once towers over the heart of Palmyra,
over 40 feet tall 20 feet wide.
It appears like a typical Roman arch,
but pulling the stones apart
reveals a fascinating piece of ancient engineering.
The blocks are all irregular shapes.
And instead of a triangular keystone,
an 8-foot lintel caps the arch like a doorway.
Why do the Palmyrenes make their arch this unusual way,
unlike any others across the Roman Empire?
Egyptian archaeologist, Adel Kelany,
wants to solve this mystery
using ancient building techniques.
A Roman arch stays up because it's made of
wedge-shaped stones locked in place with a keystone.
But the Palmyrenes reject the Roman arch
in favor of a different style.
Adel examines a photo of the Palmyra arch,
taken before the ISIS destruction,
for clues to the ancient engineers' design.
NARRATOR: Unlike in a Roman arch,
the blocks are square cut rather than wedge-shaped,
and they extend horizontally into the walls on either side.
Adel believes these uniquely shaped
blocks could be the engineer's secret.
NARRATOR: Adel's team tests his theory by building
a 1/8 scale replica of the Palmyra arch.
It soon starts to become clear just
how clever the Palmyrene engineers are.
Each stone overhangs the one before
to form the curve of the arch.
Some are long to act as counterbalance,
and as more stones are added,
they hold in place the blocks below.
The Palmyra arch is built like a wall without supports,
right up to the top.
They complete the curved shape with
the addition of a wide lintel
that provides downward pressure to
hold the whole structure together.
The Palmyrenes likely invent this clever method
as the true arch technique
has not yet traveled to their remote part of
the Roman world.
It's an effective and practical solution.
NARRATOR: This isn't the Palmyrenes'
only engineering innovation.
They have another clever trick
for their homes and commercial buildings.
Houmam examines the walls of an ancient shop in
central Palmyra.
Opus Palmyrenum is a unique building method.
Quarrymen use large picks
to cut thin sheets of stone.
They are far lighter than solid blocks
and are more easily transported
and lifted into position using cranes.
Two walls are then secured together with mortar to give
the appearance of solid stone at a fraction of the cost.
This helps the Palmyrenes construct
homes and shops quickly and cheaply,
and the city expands rapidly.
These expert engineers are masters at inventing solutions,
which mimic Roman monumental style and make
the most of their limited local resources.
Palmyra grows to over three square miles
by the 3rd century CE,
a shining beacon in the desert.
What is life like here?
And how does Palmyra transform into
the capital of a vast empire?
NARRATOR: Palmyra,
a monumental stone city,
a triumph of engineering, which, before its destruction
by ISIS, rivals even the grandeur of Rome.
Ahmad Deeb is on a quest to
piece together the lives of the Palmyrenes.
He explores the columns in the main colonnaded street.
These are some of the only standing ruins
ISIS does not destroy.
Ahmad spots strange shelves that
protrude from halfway up the columns,
and he suspects what they are for.
NARRATOR: These are plinths for now lost sculptures.
And they're on nearly every column.
This huge colonnaded street runs through
the heart of Palmyra.
It connects the western gate to the Temple of Bel
in the east.
The columns along the street display
different bronze statues.
Each statue is a portrait of a person, not a god,
a hall of fame,
clearly designed to be seen by all who visit the city.
Who are these people,
and what can they reveal about life in Palmyra?
Ahmad investigates the columns for further clues.
He spots something intriguing.
NARRATOR: These texts are written in both Greek,
the language of the Eastern Roman Empire, and local Aramaic.
One text in particular catches Ahmad's eye.
NARRATOR: The name of the person memorialized here, Sallamathos,
son of Males, does not sound Roman.
And the same is true of most
of the inscriptions on the other columns.
They each honor local people who pay for public works
or protect the trade on which the city relies.
This reveals that it's Palmyrene locals,
not their Roman overlords, who ensure the smooth
running of life here.
And in return, they have an elite,
revered position in society.
Ahmad investigates what life is like for these elites,
and for the rest of the Palmyrenes living here.
He studies images of strange objects,
known as tesserae, unearthed across the city.
NARRATOR: These small ceramic tokens depict priests
with vines or people serving wine.
These are single-use tickets, or tokens, to dining parties,
which take place in banqueting halls at the temples.
At the annual Festival of Bel,
the city's inhabitants take part in a procession along
the colonnaded street.
When they arrive at the main temple,
priests gather with bulls to make sacrifices to the gods.
The majority of Palmyra's citizens picnic and celebrate
together outside around the courtyard of the sanctuary.
But a select few dine in a private banqueting hall,
enjoying wine and the best of the sacrificial meats.
The Palmyrenes enjoy many feasts throughout the year
and life is good
in this desert oasis,
especially for the lucky elites.
Now, strange structures unearthed outside the city
reveal another aspect to life and death here.
What can these mummified remains reveal
about the beliefs of the Palmyrene people?
NARRATOR: Palmyra is a bustling city,
home to some 30,000 people at its peak
between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE.
Its citizens include a wealthy elite, shown
in statues along the main colonnaded street.
Houmam Saad is on a mission
to unearth more clues about Palmyra's inhabitants.
He ventures to the last surviving relics of
an area on the edge of the city.
Piles of enormous stone blocks
are scattered across the landscape,
the remains of structures destroyed by terror group, ISIS.
Houmam searches for clues to what these buildings were.
He finds an inscription in Greek and Aramaic.
NARRATOR: These are the remains of a colossal
tower tomb, which soars over 65 feet tall.
More than 180 of these giants dot the landscape
around Palmyra,
striking monuments each dedicated
to a different wealthy family.
Inside, there are several stories,
end each level has rows of niches from floor to ceiling.
Mummies lie inside,
some of the only ones in the Middle East outside
of Egypt.
What can these burials reveal of
Palmyrene beliefs about life and death?
ISIS terrorists destroy the towers and their contents.
They think these symbols of
pre-Islamic belief offend their God,
but luckily,
archaeologists photographed the mummified
bodies in the years before.
These rare images are some of
the only surviving evidence of these curious mummies.
Lidija McKnight and Jenefer Metcalfe
want to unlock their secrets.
JENEFER: Mummies are absolutely fascinating to study,
to understand an actual ancient culture
in a totally unique way.
NARRATOR: They want to find out why the Palmyrenes mummify
their dead and if they could be
influenced by Egyptian ideas and practices.
It's really interesting to find them in places
that are close to Egypt but not Egypt itself.
NARRATOR: First, the team analyze a CT scan
of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy.
We can see that the skull cavity is empty.
The brain's been deliberately removed.
NARRATOR: Brain removal is typical of
Egyptian mummification.
The brain rots quickly.
It is carefully extracted with a special hook
via the nostrils.
The Egyptians also remove abdominal organs, preserving
and often storing them in special vessels called
canopic jars.
LIDIJA: The Egyptians believed that by preserving the organs,
the person would be a complete body for the afterlife.
So it was vitally important to their religious beliefs.
NARRATOR: Next, they investigate the mummies from Palmyra.
They want to find out whether
the Palmyrenes also remove these organs.
We do know that from a report that at least one mummy
had its brain removed,
but that was centrally through a hole in the forehead.
NARRATOR: This method causes much greater facial damage,
and they discover evidence that the Palmyrenes
do not preserve any of the abdominal organs.
They may have been burnt rather than being retained.
NARRATOR: The Egyptians take great care to keep the body
intact as a physical home for the soul in the afterlife,
a belief which doesn't appear to be shared
by the Palmyrenes.
The skin of the Palmyrene mummies
also appears to be drier and more brittle.
It is evidence they may
use less sophisticated preservation techniques.
But the Palmyrenes certainly seem to put
great care into the final stage of the process.
Chinese silk, also discovered by archaeologists inside
the tombs, suggests the mummies are wrapped luxuriously.
All this evidence shows
the wide scope of Palmyra's cultural influences.
They share similar mummification techniques
with Egypt but have a set of beliefs of their own.
It is impossible for researchers to draw
firm conclusions about these beliefs without more evidence.
But one thing is clear, wealthy Palmyrenes honor
their dead in a unique way,
with techniques and materials imported
to their cultural crossroads.
Wealthy families each build their own tower tomb,
into which they place their dead relatives.
These tombs line the main road into town
and are admired by all who pass,
but only family members may enter.
They carefully wrap the deceased
and then seal their resting place
with a stone likeness of their face.
When descendants pay visits,
they light candles and make offerings
to assert their right to
the same wealth and power as their ancestors.
Houmam's survey of Palmyra reveals one final
secret of Palmyrene burial traditions.
He has been granted unique access
to enter another type of tomb.
The towers can only hold a finite number of bodies.
So over time, the Palmyrenes build these,
underground tombs,
which hold many more burials
and are just as richly decorated as the tower tombs.
But a clue inside suggests they are
no longer reserved for a single wealthy family.
NARRATOR: These underground crypts mean elaborate burials
are now available to all who can afford it.
The Palmyrenes are businesspeople, even in death.
The funerary inscriptions date up to
the end of the 3rd century CE
but then abruptly stop.
It suggests monumental tomb building suddenly halts.
Is this the end of Palmyra's golden age?
What happens to this once great city?
NARRATOR: Palmyra,
a city which venerates its dead
with extraordinary burial traditions.
Ahmad Deeb investigates what happens to bring
this vibrant culture to a sudden stop.
He examines a column on the main street
and finds one of the last
statue inscriptions written in the city.
NARRATOR: Queen Zenobia is the most famous ruler of Palmyra,
a brave warrior queen
who is responsible for the city's greatest triumph.
Zenobia's husband is the client king of Palmyra.
He dies suddenly in 267 CE,
and she becomes regent for their young son.
Zenobia embraces the role -- she is determined to
expand Palmyra's territory and challenge her Roman overlords.
Ahmad explores whether Zenobia is successful in this quest.
He examines a rare coin.
It is now faded,
but Ahmad can identify Zenobia's profile.
NARRATOR: This is one of the only existing
images of Queen Zenobia from her lifetime.
And coins like this are found in sites all over the Near East.
NARRATOR: The wide distribution of these coins is evidence
that Zenobia conquers much of the Eastern Roman.
She overruns the Romans, from Türkiye to Egypt,
in less than two years of fighting,
a rare and incredible feat against a mighty opponent.
And Palmyra becomes the capital of her vast empire.
But Zenobia's conquering spree does not last.
Ahmad finds a final clue in the city,
evidence of Roman military fortifications.
NARRATOR: These Roman military structures date
to around 290 CE
and suggest a hostile takeover.
Zenobia is a threat to Rome who needs to be eliminated.
Troops tear into Palmyra, attacking the city.
Zenobia's fate is a mystery, but some say she is
taken to Rome, paraded in chains, and then killed.
Following her death,
the Romans turn Palmyra into a military camp.
No longer the capital of a great empire
nor a buzzing Silk Road city,
Palmyra's glorious golden age is over,
and it is gradually abandoned,
eventually becoming a target for ISIS terrorists.
But today, Palmyra is still a globally important site.
NARRATOR: Archaeologists are determined not to let Palmyra's
destruction by ISIS be its final chapter.
NARRATOR: Palmyra will always be a pearl of the desert.
Its people use ingenious engineering to
combine the best of East and West.
They honor locals as heroes
and build intricate tombs for their dead.
This is the true story of the epic rise
and fall of the great Empire of Palmyra.