Richard Halliburton extolled Palmayra..... where Zenobia did dwell. Alas though it is on my list along with Giza and Karnak and Isfahan, I will never be able to follow the tracks he laid out in his Book of Marvels.
I loved those books when I was a kid, and I was crushed when I found out that he had died in a sailing accident. As an 11 year old, my ambition was to meet him some day.
Although I have forgotten much of which I read, I still visualize him swimming the Panama Canal and exploring the sacrificial wells of the Incas (or was it the Mayans) in his 2nd volume. I should re-read those books.