TADMOR (taci'mi)r), (Heb. tad-more').
A town built by King Solomon (i Kings ix :18; 2 Chron. viii :4). The name Tamar signifies a palm tree, and hence the Greek and Roman desig nation of Palmyra, 'city of palms ;' but this name never superseded the other among the natives,who even to this day give it the name of Thadmor.
(1) Location. Palm trees arc still found in the gardens around the town, but not in such num bers as would warrant, as they once did, the im position of the name. Tadmor was situated be tween the Euphrates and Ilamath, to the southeast of that city, in a fertile tract or oasis of the des ert. It was built by Solomon, probably with the view of securing an interest in and command over the great caravan traffic from the east, similar to that which he had established in respect of the trade between Syria and Egypt.
(2) History. Tadmor was for a long period under the sway of the Romans. But in the third century it attained independence under Odenathus and his celebrated con-sort Zenobia. It returned again, however, under the dominion of the Ro mans, and after various vicissitudes of fortunes, it ultimately fell into the hands of the successors of Mohammed. From about the middle of the eighth century it seemed gradually to have fallen into decay, but its magnificent ruins were scarcely known in Europe till towards the close of the seventeenth century.
(3) Present Condition. The ruins cover a sandy plain stretching along the bases of a range of mountains called Jebel Bclaes, running nearly north and south, dividing the great desert from the desert plains extending westward towards Damascus, and the north of Syria. Volney well describes the general aspect which these ruins present: 'In the space covered by these ruins we sometimes find a palace of which nothing remains but the court and walls ; sometimes a temple whose peristyle is half thrown down ; and now a portico, a gallery, or triumphal arch. Here stand groups of columns, whose symmetry is de stroyed by the fall of many of them ; there, we see them ranged in rows of such length that, similar to rows of trees, they deceive the sight and assume the appearance of continued walls.
If from this striking scene we cast our eyes upon the ground, another, almost as varied, presents itself : on all sides we behold nothing but sub verted shafts, some whole, others shattered to pieces, or dislocated in their joints; and on which side socver we looked, the earth is strewed with vast stones, half buried; with broken entablatures, mutilated friezes, disfigured reliefs, effaced sculp tures, violated tombs, and altars defiled by dust.' The present Tadmor consists of numbers of peasants' mud huts, clustered together around the great temple of the sun. This temple is the most remarkable and magnificent ruin of Palmyra. The court by which it was enclosed was one hundred and seventy-nine feet square, within which a double row of columns was continued all round. They were three hundred and ninety in number, of which about sixty still remain standing. In the middle of the court stood the temple, an oblong quadrangular building, surrounded with columns, of which about twenty still exist, though without capitals, of which they have been plundered, prob ably because they were composed of metal. In the interior, at the south end, is now the humble mosque of the village.
The remains of Palmyra, not being of any di rect Scriptural interest, cannot here be more par ticularly described. Very good accounts of them may be seen in Wood and Dawkins, Ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tadmor in the Desert; Irby and Mangles, Travels; Richter, Iliallfahrten; Ad dison, Damascus and Palmyra. The last work contains a good history of the place; for which see also Rosenmiiller's Bib. Geog., translated by the Rev. N. Morren ; Porter, Handbook for Syria and Palestine, p. 543, sq.; Beaufort, Egyptian Sepulchers, vol. i.