Demo site — Arsu Tours is not a real company. Nothing here can be booked. What this is
The Great Colonnade at Palmyra in low golden light. Photo by Wietse Jongsma on Unsplash · Unsplash Licence
A long drive for a short, unforgettable stay: the Great Colonnade at dawn before the heat, and a night under the desert sky. This is also where the god the site is named for was worshipped.
Be clear about what is here and what is not. ISIS destroyed the Temple of Baalshamin outright in 2015, gutted the cella of the Temple of Bel, destroyed the Monumental Arch, toppled 12 of the Tetrapylon’s 16 columns in January 2017, and destroyed at least seven tower tombs including the Tower of Elahbel.
The Great Colonnade is largely standing. So is the theatre, though its stage facade is damaged. So is the Arab castle on the hill above, Qalaat Shirkuh, minus its entrance stair. That is what you come for now, and it is still worth the desert road.
The Palmyra Museum remains closed to visitors. The building was damaged by shelling; an internationally funded restoration was expected to begin in January 2026, and rehabilitation of the wider site is estimated at six to seven years.
Palmyra is where Arsu — the caravan-guardian this demo is named after — had his temple. Excavators there found a jar of 125 tesserae, clay tokens used as entry passes to sacred banquets: one of the few complete sets ever recovered from a single occasion.
Condition notes are given for each site, including where something was destroyed or is closed. They are the point of this page.
The mile-long spine of the ancient city, its columns still carrying the brackets that once held statues of Palmyra’s merchant families.
Largely standing. Some columns lost or destabilised by nearby conflict damage, rather than deliberately targeted.
The great sanctuary at the eastern end of the colonnade, dedicated in 32 CE.
Cella destroyed by ISIS on 30 August 2015. The monumental entrance arch and parts of the outer wall survive.
The triple arch that turned the colonnade’s axis, and the single most reproduced image of Palmyra.
Destroyed by ISIS in October 2015. Reconstruction from surviving fragments has been proposed and debated.
A 2nd-century theatre set into the middle of the colonnaded city.
Seating largely survives; the stage facade was damaged and partly collapsed.
The hilltop castle above the oasis — the view everyone wants at sunset.
Largely intact, with entrance stairway and a tower damaged by retreating fighters.
Destruction here was deliberate and severe. What survives survives; what was destroyed is not coming back in the form it had. Neither fact should be softened.
The archaeological site has resumed limited access, with accessible sectors open roughly sunrise to sunset. The museum is closed. Conditions change — verify before travelling.
Tadmur grew rich taxing merchants moving silk, spices and incense between the Mediterranean and the East — the caravan trade that made a guardian of travellers worth invoking.
