Occasionally, however, there are oases, where the fertility is considerable.

Such an oasis is the region about Palmyra itself, which derived its name from the palm groves in the vicinity; here the soil is good, and a large tract is even now under cultivation.

Another oasis is that of Karyatein, which is watered by an abundant stream, and is well wooded, and productive of grain.

The Palmyrene, however, as a whole possesses but little value, except as a passage country.

Though large armies can never have traversed the desert even in this upper region, where it is comparatively narrow, trade in ancient times found it expedient to avoid the long detour by the Orontes Valley, Aleppo, and Bambuk, and to proceed directly from Damascus by way of Palymra to Thapsaeus on the Euphrates.