ThrowBackThursday Palmyra

Today I was thinking about paying tribute to a very special place in a desert, to its beauty and to the most hospitable people I've ever met. We visited Palmyra in summer 2008.

It makes me sad what happened in the past months and weeks there. First the place (btw they have the most delicious dates there) was occupied by IS in May 2015 and the site was mined. In August Mr. Asaad was beheaded and displayed in Palmyra and then the Baalshamin Temple was blown up. All these events make me very sad and I often think of Syrians and their fate. With growing xenophobia in our country I grow even sadder. How could I be against helping immigrants? How could I oppose helping them? However, people who don't travel and don't meet other peoples can't be easily persuaded. The argument, we are all one big family, it is not us and THEM, also fails. These things cannot be just heard, they need to be felt by heart, experienced.

It was also the time when we had only our SLR cameras and took just a limited number of photos. Some on colour, some on B&W films. Many things have changed since 2008.