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The ancient world The Ancient World Bloodline

Episode B54, Efka. Africa.

From the very beginning, the essential ingredients were already there.

Palm trees encircling a natural spring surrounded by open desert.

I've never been to Palmyra myself, but I once did visit the Seawa Oasis,

the isolated spot in Western Egypt where Kambyses lost an army.

And it's absolutely shocking and bizarre to drive for hours with zero relief then suddenly come across

something so lush and fertile. Which must have been kind of how it felt for

ancient nomadic pastoralists, exploring the desert

in search of forage, the first time they saw Palmyra' Efka Spring. We have no idea what year that was. We're only able to date the time,

maybe hundreds or even thousands of years later, when folks decided to settle down, at least for a little

while.

Stone Tools mark a local settlement from 7,500 BC and the nearby tell holds multiple layers of more substantial remains.

A mud brick structure from 2,500 BC and additional structures slowly built up until the

tell was crowned around 30 AD with the majestic temple of Bell.

All that time, all those tribes, and all those generations, drawn to the magic of a watering hole in the middle of the Syrian desert.

You could even build a city nearby and watch that city grow and thrive and watch that city be sacked and burned and eventually all but abandoned.

But down through all these major events, the Efka Spring kept flowing.

And it would be resonant and lovely and even poetic

to give the Bloodline series some closure by telling you all that the

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