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Syria: Palmyra’s avenue, Ugarit’s alphabet and Aleppo ghar soap

At Palmyra, a 1.1 km colonnade linked public monuments; Ugarit used thirty cuneiform signs as an alphabet; Aleppo ghar soap follows a seasonal cycle.

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A weathered stone arch with a tall central opening stands beside rows of columns along a colonnaded street, with fallen blocks in the foreground and pale desert hills under a clear blue sky — The monumental arch and part of the colonnaded street at Palmyra, photographed in February 1996.Photograph: PhipipY

At a glance

Palmyrene: A 22-letter alphabet written from right to left[1]
Ugaritic: A cuneiform alphabet of thirty signs[3][4]
Aleppo ghar soap: Stamped cubes undergo six to nine months of drying[5]

A place worth remembering

Palmyra: a long avenue and its side streets

UNESCO describes a street network with one main colonnaded avenue and secondary crossings. The avenue is 1.1 km long, with an open centre between covered side passages; cross streets link it with the principal public monuments.[2]

Ugarit: an alphabet written in cuneiform form

Ugaritic used a cuneiform alphabet of thirty wedge-shaped signs on clay tablets. The 1999 Tentative List submission links bronze tools bearing Ugaritic dedications with the language’s decipherment in 1930.[3][4]

Aleppo: ghar soap across the seasons

UNESCO describes a family-taught craft with a seasonal rhythm: wild laurel berries are gathered in autumn, while soap-making starts in winter.[5]

Good to know

A few clear answers before you explore.

How did scholars decipher Palmyrene?

A bilingual Greek–Palmyrene inscription offered a comparison: Barthélemy matched a proper name across the two texts and used that clue to work out the script.[1]

What makes Ugaritic an alphabetic form of cuneiform?

Its thirty wedge-shaped characters were used alphabetically. The Biblical Archaeology Society contrasts this compact system with ordinary cuneiform scripts that use hundreds of signs.[3][4]

When are the berries gathered, and when does soap-making begin?

The berries are gathered in autumn; soap-making begins in winter.[5]

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