Damascus and Palmyra

Palmyra is an old city in Syria. The changes in the weather are the reason for the dryness of the city. A few hundred years ago it was just green and they used to plant vegetables there and then export all the vegetables. Now it is very dry and much smaller, only a village. Now it is just a station between the south and the north.

Lots of tourists visit this place. There is a lot of history there, an old amphitheatre in the centre and the palace of the Queen Xenobia. There is an ancient temple too. But it was dry when I was there twenty years ago for a holiday.

Even in Damascus, where I come from, it was very rich with water, only thirty or forty years ago, much more so than now. Too many people came to Damascus from other cities in the north, south and west without organisation. They all built their own houses until there were thousands of them and then the government put in the services.

The temperatures in Damascus used to be about 28° in summertime. Now it is about 40° or even 45°. It also rains less in winter.

The reason for all this is climate change and the cutting of the green land, the trees and bushes and there being less water than before. I remember a river going through Damascus, which is the oldest city in the world. It was flooding. But now it is dry to the ground.
 

Nabeel Kahleel

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