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From Syria's Palmyra to Mexico's Uxmal
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Habeeb Salloum
My driver, Ahmad, was beaming as, together, we stood atop Qalaat Ibn Maani (Ibn Maani's castle), located on a hill top overlooking the remains of Palmyra, known to the Arabs as Tadmur. "See these majestic ruins! They say Solomon sent his jinn (mythical Arab spirits) to build this city in one night." "What?" For me it was déjŕ vu. A few months before I had visited the Mayan city of Uxmal in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and the guide related a story of how a magician had built its pyramid in one night. The two cities were a world apart, yet both had similar tales about the supernatural working at their construction. "Was there something to the stories?" I asked myself.
Now I gazed in wonder at the majestic ruins of this city made famous by Zenobia - labelled in her time 'Empress of the East'. The pillars and tumbled stones gave me a deep thrill, seemingly conveying a message from long ago. They told of magic riches, romance and courage produced by a brilliant Arab civilization which flowered for a short period before being snuffed out by the legions of Rome.
 These fantastic remnants of a once thriving desert metropolis, 220 km (134 mi) northeast of Damascus, have for centuries inspired romantic recollections by wayfarers and literary men. A leftover from a magnificent civilization in the heart of the Syrian Desert, they still, even in our times, astonish visitors. In the past, some believed that only a supernatural being could have conjured such a magnificent metropolis in the middle of a desert.
"Rise up and go into the world to release it from error and send word to the Jinn and I will give them leave to build Tadmur with hewn stones and columns."
These were the words God is said to have told Solomon according to the pre-Islamic Arab poet Nabigha al-Dhubyain.
Like this poet, Arab storytellers through the ages ascribed the building of the city to the jinn commandeered by Solomon. "The work of jinns", asserted Said ibn Taimur, sultan of Oman, when he visited the ruins in the 1950s. Guides love to tell tourists, as they walk them above the hot-steaming-sulphuric waters of Afqa Spring, now a part of the luxury Cham Palace Hotel complex, that Solomon left a jinn in the spring to keep the water boiling
Now in my mind, magic and fantasy intertwined. The sheer size of today's ruins surrounded by the endless desert made Ahmad's words plausible. It appeared as if someone had magically planted a colossal wreck in the barren heart of Syria. Unmatched in their spectacular grandeur, the ruins are Syria's most astonishing sight.
 They are one of the most majestic and wonderful relics in the world - a fabulous leftover from an extraordinary Arab civilization which reached its zenith some four centuries before the dawn of Islam. The city flourished economically and its commercial attributes became well-known throughout the ancient world.
Its epitome of splendour reached its zenith under the rule of Queen Zenobia, one of the most fascinating and interesting conquerors to stride across the deserts of the Middle East. In the ensuing centuries, not only her city but she herself was to become a mythical legend.
Resenting Roman encroachment on her territory and taking advantage of Rome's troubles with the Germanic tribes, she declared herself 'Queen and Empress of the East' and laid claim to the eastern half of the Roman Empire. In 269 A. D., she defeated the army of the Roman general Heraclianus, sent by the Emperor Gallienus against her, and took control of Syria, and most of Mesopotamia and Arabia. The following year her armies occupied Egypt, then challenged Rome in Asia Minor, advancing as far as Ankara in present day Turkey.
Zenobia's military conquests were the most spectacular the Middle East had seen since the days of Alexander the Great. In a few short years, she became Rome's most serious threat since Hannibal.
Rome bided her time and built up its army in the east. In 272 A. D., the Roman Emperor Aurelian defeated Zenobia and brought her back to Rome and paraded her in gold chains through the city streets.
After Zenobia's demise, Palmyra's star began to wane. Subsequently, the city reverted back to its ancient Semitic name of Tadmur and faded into oblivion until rediscovered, in the 18th century, by the Europeans. Today there are very few ruins, which are more magnificent or romantic. They are a constant object of awe and mystery.
 Visitors walking between the stones will feel they have stepped back into the history of a superb civilization. The ancient walls, arches, bas-reliefs, columns, statues, temples and tombs speak in engraved stone, telling the never-ending visitors - about 70,000 a year - the story of Zenobia's Palmyra and its once renowned glory.
To me, the dominating 17th century Qalaat Ibn Maani , built in the 17th century by the rebellious Ottoman governor, Emir Fakhir el-Din al-Maani, and forming a splendid backdrop to the ruins, appeared to be a guardian watching over Zenobia's city - majestic and haughty in its eternal isolation. As I watched the sun setting, throwing the castle's shadows toward the ruins, I experienced a haunting dream of how Palmyra must have appeared at the time, when the legends say, it was built overnight by Solomon's Jinn.
It was fitting that soon thereafter when I journeyed to Mexico's Uxmal for the second time, Palmyra would come to mind. A little way past the entrance, the oval-shaped La Pirámide Adivino (The Magician's Pyramid), the only one of its kind in the Mayan world, loomed in front of me, overpowering in its majesty.
The pyramid, the highest and oldest structure in Uxmal, gets its name from legends that relates how it was built in only one night by a dwarf-magician with supernatural power. The story goes on to say that the dwarf was hatched from a witch's egg and grew to maturity in one year. His birth struck terror into the heart of the ruler of Uxmal since it was foretold that he would be replaced by a man 'not born of a woman'.
Looking for ways to outwit, the dwarf, the ruler challenged the dwarf to a contest of building skills. The dwarf's pyramid, built overnight, easily outclassed the ruler's pyramid, today still not restored. Angered, the ruler proposed that he and the dwarf compete to see who could break a cocoyol (a hard-shelled fruit) on his head. As a result, the dwarf-magician, in whose skull a turtle shell had been placed, easily broke the cocoyol, while the ruler crushed his skull.
Another legend relates how a witch and a dwarf were told by the king of Uxmal to build a great palace in a single night. With the help of the witch, the dwarf completed the project on time. Today, besides the Pyramid of the Magician, the Casa de la Vieja (the house of the old woman) in the ruins is said to be the home of this witch who became the adoptive mother of the dwarf.
 Thereafter, the dwarf's handiwork became the crowning jewel of what is considered to be the most splendid archaeological site in the Pre-Hispanic era on the American continent. Uxmal, which has been excellently renovated, is considered to be one of the great showplaces of Mayan architecture and refinement and is famous for the purity and delicacy of its architecture and decorative art.
According to archaeological experts, Uxmal was one of the largest cities in the Mayan world and its economic and political power, between 250 and 900 A.D., dominated a large area of the Yucatán. In this long era, it witnessed important intellectual and construction advances. What some call `the Athens of Mexico', besides its scholarly activities, Uxmal developed the finest achievement of the Puuc architectural style.
Now, as I surveyed the Pyramid of the Magician, I was astounded by its majesty. "Perhaps, the legend of the magician builder had some basis of truth", I thought to myself as I reflected about its construction.
Along with the imposing edifices beyond, the pyramid is a testament to the achievements of its Mayan builders. Some 40 m (131 ft) high, this colossal structure, only partially restored, is the tallest building in the complex of edifice. Along with the imposing edifices beyond, it is a testament to the achievements of its Mayan builders, or as the legend goes, its magician creator.
My struggle to the top of this pyramid, even though tiring, was worthwhile. All around one could see the deep-green countryside hugging the pyramid and its sister ruins in all their splendour. Resting awhile atop the pyramid, with this scenic view around me, I reminisced about Palmyra and its jinn and the magician building this structure - could there be a connection?
Was Palmyra's story related to that of the Magician's Pyramid? Why is the dwarf's structure the only oval-shaped pyramid in the lands of the Maya? I have reflected on these thoughts many times since my last trip to that Mayan city. Well did these reflections have some basis. Travelling more than a dozen times through both Syria and the Mayan world I have come to firmly believe that there is some connection between the ancient Middle East and the Mayan world.
In Mayan mythology, there are stories that their chief god, Quetzalcoatl had come from the East. One day he left, promising to return. For the Maya, therefore, the East was sacred and they believed that from the East their bearded god would return. This proved their undoing. When the Conquistador, Cortez, came from the East, the Maya did not resist. They believed their god had come home.
This tale and others had some bases of truth. There are interesting parallels between the Mayan civilization and the civilizations of ancient Syria, Egypt and the other lands in the Middle East. In both ancient Egypt and the Maya world, society emphasized the place of the semi-divine ruler within the cosmos and focused upon public monuments. Perhaps, even more interesting, both the Maya and Mesopotamian societies were politically fragmented, but united by an overreaching civilization - a tradition of shared elite culture.
Like the records of ancient Egypt, Sumer and the other early states in the Middle East, Maya texts deal with histories of specifics centres, the reigns and political fortunes of their rulers, and with their alliances, conflicts, genealogy and marriages. In their daily life, their narratives and in their architecture there are numerous indications of connections between the Mayans and the ancient Middle Eastern world.
To the Mayans, the most highly prized dye was a deep purple obtained from a type of a large sea snail - very similar to the mollusk, which gave the Phoenicians the renowned `royal purple'. I have seen with my own eyes on the wall of the Ball Court in Chichén Itzá, a replica of a ship that is similar to one carved on a stone in the Palmyra Museum. While exploring the ruins of the second millennium city of Ugarit in Syria, I noticed that the arch of the main gateway is exactly the same as the arch found throughout the Mayan world.
With these similarities and others like the pyramids, it is no wonder then that the stories of the supernatural builders of Palmyra and Uxmal have something in common. There is little doubt that the people of the Middle East and the Mayan world had some connection with each other. The story of Solomon and his jinn and that of the magician in Uxmal could be virtually the same tale.
June
2006
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Habeeb Salloum is a Freelance Writer and Author
who writes from Don Mills (Toronto), Ontario, Canada. Tel: 416-445-4558, Fax: 416-510-2143.
E-mail: habeeb.salloum@sympatico.ca
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