Roman Sites in Syria: Explore Colonnaded Streets, Theatres and Temples
Roman sites in Syria include long colonnaded streets, basalt theatres, temple precincts and urban arches. Many belonged to cities with histories extending well before and after Roman rule. At Apamea and Palmyra, streets connected large public and religious complexes; at Shahba and Qanawat, individual buildings preserve different uses of the region’s dark volcanic stone. The collection includes damaged archaeological sites as well as standing structures, so the surviving fabric needs to be distinguished from monuments lost during the recent conflict.
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Sergiopolis, formerly Resafa, developed from a Roman frontier watchpost into a fortified Christian pilgrimage city and later an important Islamic…
Dura Europos in Syria was founded around 300 BC as a Seleucid fortress and later became a multicultural Parthian administrative center and Roman…
Bosra’s Roman theatre was built after the city became the capital of the Roman province of Arabia and was later incorporated into an Ayyubid citadel.…
Palmyra developed from prehistoric settlements into a major caravan city linking the Roman, Iranian, Mesopotamian, and Mediterranean worlds. Its…
Qirqbize is an abandoned Roman and early Byzantine settlement in northwestern Syria, notable for preserving an early fourth-century house church and…
The Roman Theatre at Palmyra was a second-century Roman performance venue that remained unfinished, later serving as a festival setting before…
Kharab Shams was an early Byzantine settlement in Syria’s Dead Cities region, known for its unusually tall three-aisled basilica, sixth-century…
Qanawat in southern Syria developed from an early settlement into the Hellenistic-Roman city of Canatha, a Christian episcopal center and later an…
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Apamea: a colonnaded avenue and its drainage
The principal avenue at Apamea extends for roughly 1.8 kilometres through the ancient city. Rows of columns marked the porticoes beside the roadway, with spiral-fluted shafts among the most recognisable architectural details. The major Roman rebuilding followed the earthquake of AD 115, when the street and other public buildings were reconstructed on a large scale.
Later work changed the avenue’s width and surface. Under Justinian, new walkways narrowed the road, and paving covered a renewed drainage system. These alterations belong to the city’s continued late antique occupation. Apamea also suffered extensive looting and damage during the Syrian conflict, including damage to columns and walls; its surviving avenue should not be understood as an untouched or fully preserved Roman streetscape.
Shahba: the theatre of Philippopolis
Philippopolis at Shahba was developed under the emperor Philip the Arab in the third century. Its principal streets followed a grid, with a theatre, baths and other public buildings forming part of an ambitious programme that remained incomplete when his reign ended.
The theatre’s dark basalt masonry gives it a markedly different appearance from marble-fronted venues elsewhere in the Roman world. Its curved seating and compact arrangement preserve the organisation of a performance building within the planned town. The adjoining urban remains include the building conventionally called the Philippeion, associated with the imperial family’s commemoration.
Qanawat: temple buildings and a rock-cut theatre
At Qanawat, ancient Canatha, a small theatre uses the rock of the hillside for its seating. Its surviving rows descend towards the performance area, while nearby channels and reservoirs preserve elements of the settlement’s water supply. The theatre’s construction takes advantage of the slope rather than relying entirely on freestanding vaulted supports.
The complex known as the Seraya contains the remains of a Roman temple subsequently altered for Christian use. Columns and a long portico remain prominent within the later religious buildings. Their survival records the reuse of an established sacred site, but the resulting complex includes several building phases: the basilica arrangements are later than the original temple.
Latakia: a four-way Roman arch
The Roman Arch of Latakia has openings on four sides beneath a central domed structure. Corinthian capitals and carved decoration articulate the exterior, while the connected passages distinguish its plan from a conventional arch with one main opening. Military imagery survives among the decorative details.
The building has undergone repairs and the reopening of passages blocked during later use.
Palmyra: colonnades and a damaged temple precinct
Palmyra developed around routes crossing the Syrian desert. Its colonnaded avenue connected civic and religious buildings, while the agora contained a surrounding colonnade and numerous statue bases. The city’s architecture combined forms familiar across the Roman Empire with local religious traditions and inscriptions.
The Temple of Bel was destroyed in 2015, and other major monuments also suffered deliberate destruction. It would therefore be misleading to describe its former roofed sanctuary as an intact feature of the site. The surviving and damaged remains still identify the temple precinct, street alignments and other parts of the ancient city, but older photographs can show buildings and details that no longer survive in that form.
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