I would not have made my visit to the Bel temple at Palmyra تدمر , had I trusted the Lonely Planet Guide, which has it closed on Tuesday. Me and my travel companion felt pretty stupid when we found that, having spent all Monday afternoon on the Palmyra site, we had utterly forgotten about this day of closure. But when we circumambulated (wonderful word) the complex after closing hours on Monday, contemplating scaling its walls and trying to get a glimpse of the temple inside, I didn’t see any indication of that closure on the schedule posted in the office. So we gave it a try an lo and behold, the temple complex was open.
For some reason I forgot to take a proper distance and take pictures of the row of columns still standing at the back side of the cella. Sorry.
The first pictures in the series have been somewhat edited, raising the amount of light compared to the overcast weather it was, and, when reliefs are concerned, increasing contrast to bring out more detail. As I went along I decided my Nikon D3 knows best in most cases, and I kept many pictures as they came out of camera. They may be a bit lackluster, but the stone has a very mellow yellowish colour, and not much contrast, so what you see is close to life. Only when relief would turn too flat to see the design I fiddled contrast somewhat.

On October 30th 2015 the world was informed of the loss of this, the Bel temple, also, due to the vile hands of Isis. How much longer will these miscreants destroy human treasures, as well as humans themselves?