Tower sights in Palmyra

1. A Map

   Tower of Elahbel

   • Palmyra, Syria
   • Sights › Tower

   Further west of the Towers of Yemliko (a group of towers constructed as multistorey burial chambers), deeper into the hills, are plenty more funerary towers, some totally dilapidated, others relatively complete. By far the best preserved is the Tower of Elahbel, which is situated about 500m west of the Yemliko group. Built in AD 103, it has four storeys and could purportedly accommodate up to 300 sarcophagi. It's possible to ascend an internal staircase to visit the upper storey tomb chambers and to get out onto the roof.

   Also here is the chamber that formerly housed the Hypogeum of Yarhai, dismantled and reconstructed in the National Museum.To visit Elahbel it's…

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2. B Map

   Towers of Yemliko

   • Palmyra, Syria
   • Sights › Tower

   To the south of the city wall at the foot of low hills is a series of variously sized, freestanding, square-based towers. Known as the Towers of Yemliko, they were constructed as multistorey burial chambers, stacked high with coffins posted in pigeonhole-like niches. The niches, or loculi, were then sealed with a stone panel carved with a head and shoulders portrait of the deceased; you can see dozens of these stone portraits in the Palmyra Museum, and in the National Museum at Damascus.

   The tallest of the towers - at four storeys high - is the most interesting. It dates from AD 83 and although it is kept locked you can peer in through the barred entrance. There is also…

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