This page groups sacred sites by whether their sacred status is still actively maintained. Wikipedia notes that Mircea Eliade "argues that while the concept of a sacred space is often associated with religious traditions, it is not exclusive to them," since secular societies can keep treating a place as significant too. Browsing this way lets a visitor tell a site with living religious observance apart from one preserved mainly for its history.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingThe sanctuaries of a caravan city whose gods were Mesopotamian, Aramean, Arab and Greco-Roman at once. The temples were paid for and administered by named tribes and civic bodies who recorded the fact in Palmyrene Aramaic and Greek on the same stone, which makes Palmyrene cult unusually legible as a social act rather than only as a theology. 2 Attestation
Era of AttestationPalmyrene religious inscriptions run from the first century BCE to the third century CE. The great temple of Bel was dedicated in 32 CE; the city was sacked by Aurelian in 273 and its civic cults did not recover. 2 Learn More
Palmyrene sacred sites
This small group gathers a sacred site of ancient Palmyra, the caravan city of the Syrian desert whose religion blended Mesopotamian, Aramean and Greco-Roman gods, worshipped in grand temples at the crossroads of the ancient trade routes.
The browser will find the site the atlas classes here. The entry describes its deities and history within the distinctive religious culture of Palmyra.
Practice Status
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. The Religious Life of Palmyra: A Study of the Social Patterns of Worship in the Roman Period
Ted Kaizer, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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