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-Palmyra location:Syrian desert/nCalled Tadmor by the Arabs, Palmyra appeared for the first time in the 2nd millennium BC in the archives of Mari and in an Assyrian text. It was also mentioned in the Bible as a part of Solomons territory./nThe Seleucids practically ignored Tadmor and it became independent. It flourished through trade with Persia, the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula. In 41 BC it had become rich enough to attract the Romans and Anthony attempted to occupy it but failed because of the Palmyreans escaping to the other side of the Euphrates./nIt was fully occupied by the Romans under Tiberius, Augustus successor and was integrated into the Province of Syria between 14-37 AD. During the next 100 years of Roman rule Palmyra prospered greatly as a trade route linking the East Asian empires of Persia, India, China, and the Parthians who were Romes enemy for a long time. They managed this by keeping good ties with both the Romans and the Parthians. In 129 AD Hadrian visited Palmyra and was quite enthralled by it and named it Palmyra Hadriana and proclaimed it a free city. In 212 AD Palmyra was considered as a colony of the Roman Empire and Palmyra took a higher military role and caravan trade diminished. Trade diminished even more when the Sassanians took over and occupied the mouth to the Tigris and Euphrates./nThe leader Septimus Odeinat (Odenathus) became quite favored by Rome and in 256/7 was appointed by the Emperor Valerian as Consul and Governor of the province of Syria Phoenice which Palmyra had been transferred to in 194. A few years later Valerian was captured and murdered by the Sassanian Persians, and in redemption Odeinat campaigned as far as the Sassanian capital Ctesiphon./nPalmyras greatest days however were after the murder of Odeinat, when his wife Zenobia started ruling Palmyra on behalf of her son Vaballath. Zenobia with the help of her Prime Minister Longinus extended Palmyrean power to the west and took over Bosra and occupied as far as Egypt (269-270), then she headed for the north and attempted to take Antioch. This sudden expansion posed a threat for the Romans, and after two years in 272 of being flexible Aurelian retaliated and took back Antioch then Emesa (Homs) and then Palmyra itself. Zenobia tried to escape but was captured and was taken back to Rome as a prisoner./n- - Hatra location: iraq The remains of the city, especially the temples where Hellenistic and Roman architecture blend with Eastern decorative features, attest to the greatness of its civilization. in the year 240 ad Ardashir I, Sassanid king of Persia destroyed Hatra./nThe city was famed for its fusion of Greek, Mesopotamian, Syrian and Arabian pantheons, known in Aramic as the house of the god , The city had temples to Nergal(Sumerian and Akaadian) Hermes(Greek) Atargatis (syro-Aramaean), Allat and Shamiyyah(Arabian) and Shamash ( mesopotamian sun God)/nThe exact details of the site werent known until the 20th century. An excavation team were hugely surprised when they found a Greek temple on this site. The marble columns built in Ionic style look exactly like ones found in Greece. Camel caravans passed through there for a period of several hundred years before and after Christ./nThe Silk Road was then a busy trade route, connecting the Chinese Han and Roman Empires./nHatra was an important stopover between Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean Sea. The discovery of Allat temple unveiled a different side of Hatra. The imposing carvings depict camels, which represent wealth and affluence. This relief could represent the Goddess Allat./nEastern and Western civilizations met here and created a form of art known as the Hellenistan style, a combination of Greek Hellenism and the Eastern style from Asia. ./nIt is possible to see how Eastern and Western culture is fused here. The face of Medusa, of Greek myth, is carved at the entrance. While the temple itself was built in the Iwan style, from Western Asia./nEach God worshipped in the vast area between Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean was enshrined here./nHatra thrived by welcoming and accepting people of different religious faiths./nOnly a part of the town and sacred areas have been excavated so far. Hatra was a city where an array of cultures and religions coexisted in harmony./n- Kendah kingdom location:Saudi Arabia existed in the 4th century BC and ended in the 4 th century AD the capital if the kingdom is called AL-Faw it was fully burried under the golden sands of arabia.

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