trees which mark the site of Palmyra.

It was several miles before we reached the city, that we suddenly found
ourselves--landing as it were from a sea upon an island or continent--in a
rich and thickly peopled country. The roads indicated an approach to a
great capital, in the increasing numbers of those who thronged them,
meeting and passing us, overtaking us, or crossing our way. Elephants,
camels, and the dromedary, which I had before seen only in the
amphitheatres, I here beheld as the native inhabitants of the soil.
Frequent villas of the rich and luxurious Palmyrenes, to which they
retreat from the greater heats of the city, now threw a lovely charm over
the scene. Nothing can exceed the splendor of these sumptuous palaces.
Italy itself has nothing which surpasses them. The new and brilliant
costumes of the persons whom we met, together with the rich housings of
the animals they rode, served greatly to add to all this beauty. I was
still entranced, as it were, by the objects around me, and buried in
reflection, when I was roused by the shout of those who led the caravan,
and who had attained the summit of a little rising ground, saying,
'Palmyra! Palmyra!' I urged forward my steed, and in a moment the most
wonderful prospect I ever beheld--no, I cannot except even Rome--burst
upon my sight. Flanked by hills of considerable elevation on the East, the
city filled the whole plain below as far as the eye could reach, both
toward the North and toward the South. This immense plain was all one vast
and boundless city. It seemed to me to be larger than Rome. Yet I knew
very well that it could not be--that it was not. And it was some time
before I understood the true character of the scene before me, so as to
separate the city from the country, and the country from the city, which
here wonderfully interpenetrate each other and so confound and deceive the
observer. For the city proper is so studded with groups of lofty palm
trees, shooting up among its temples and palaces, and on the other hand,