Where did Zenobia of Palmyra grow up and live?

📍Palmyra, Tadmur, Syria

240 – 274

“I ruled Palmyra — the great oasis city in the Syrian desert — first as regent for my son after my husband Odaenathus was assassinated, and then as queen of an empire that at its height stretched from Egypt to Anatolia. Palmyra was extraordinary: a city of colonnaded streets and temples that blended Roman, Greek and Persian architectural traditions, its wealth built on the caravan trade between Rome and the Persian Empire. When I declared independence from Rome and conquered Egypt, the Emperor Aurelian himself had to come east to stop me. He did, eventually, but not before I had shown the world what a woman could build in the desert.”

👍 LovedPalmyra's unique position at the crossroads of civilisations — the architecture, the trade, the extraordinary mix of cultures. The intellectual life of a court that valued learning.

👎 DislikedThe impossible position of ruling a small state between two superpowers — Rome and Persia. The knowledge that our independence was always provisional.

Map showing where Zenobia of Palmyra lived — Palmyra, Tadmur, Syria

🗺️ Approximate location today

Location associated with Zenobia of Palmyra

📷 Location image · via Wikimedia Commons

Sources: Stoneman, R. Palmyra and Its Empire (1992), University of Michigan Press; Winsbury, R. Zenobia of Palmyra (2010), Duckworth; Watson, A. Aurelian and the Third Century (1999), Routledge