The ancient city of Bosra in southern Syria has metamorphosed several times since the early Bronze age. Although traces of Bosra’s earliest incarnations are long gone, it is possible to take a tour through certain parts of the city’s ancient past, particularly its Nabataean and Roman eras. 

For ancient Bosra’s main streets, gateways and much of its public and religious architecture remain — including Gateway of the Winds, Bosra’s western entrance, its Nabatean Gateway  to the east and the pinnacle of Bosra’s ancient architecture — its Roman theatre.  

The Gateway of the Winds and the Decumanus Maximus

The Gate of the Winds marks the western entrance to Bosra. The gateway and Bosra’s Roman city walls —which still flank it— were erected in the early second century AD when Bosra extended westwards after the city became part of the Roman province of Arabia.

Once through the gateway, visitors to Bosra would find themselves in an oval forum which then funnelled them down the Decumanus Maximus— Bosra’ main Roman road which still runs 900 metres west to east through the ancient city. The Decumanus Maximuswas designed to impress. Eight metres wide, its entire length was collonaded. Interestingly, this Roman main street became a modern residential area, and — before the Syrian civil war — was lined by many of the homes of Bosra’s citizens, built from the remains of the columns that once flanked the roadway.

The hub of Roman Bosra was marked at the Decumanus’s junction with the city’s main Cardoby a large second-century public water fountain or nymphaeum whose four thirteen metre columns remain in situ. This central hub was home to many of the city’s important new Roman buildings. However, the Romans also kept certain pre-roman features in place, upgrading rather than removing them because of their necessity to Bosra’s prosperity.

Trade in Bosra

The main cardo of any Roman town ran north to south and Bosra was no exception. At the southern end of Bosra’s main cardolay the long rectangular forum or market place.  This area had been used long before the Romans arrived as a central stopping point for caravans running to and from Bosra — and for the buying and selling of goods within the city. In recognition of its importance, the Romans redesigned this market area soon after they took over Bosra.

However, just behind the market, running parallel to the main decumanus was an entirely new, market-related feature built by the Romans at the same time as they upgraded the market. This structure was an underground storage area or cryptoporticus, which was now used to store goods ready for export. It needed to be easily accessed from the market — which is why it was entered from its east end.

The Kalybe and the Byzantine Cathedral

Opposite the market, near the junction between the main cardo and Decumanus Maximusis another piece of second-century architecture, identified from an inscription asa  Kalybe or “cradle of the King’s daughter.” A type of local temple or open-air shrine, the kalybe is believed to have been dedicated to one of Bosra’s local kings. The shrine consisted of a half-domed exedra with wall niches for statues inside. Today, only one of its back walls survives, complete with one column and its capital, still bearing the stain of its original paint. The remaining columns are nearby, incorporated into the wall of a modern building. 

Bosra’s Byzantine cathedral lies away from the main Roman road system, to the west of the main cardo.Dedicated in 512/3AD by Julianos, the Archbishop of Bosra to the memory of three local early Christian martyrs, the cathedral was an important structure in its day and acted as the template for Emperor Justinian’s cathedrals at Constantinople and Ravenna.  

Today, only the shell of the nave and two antechambers survive. However, even these scant remains give some idea of the Cathedral’s once impressive structure. It was a square building containing a central circular chamber, with corner exedra connecting the two parts together. The central chamber was thirty-six metres in diameter — the same size as the original church of Hagia Sophia — and domed. In the centre of this chamber lay a sanctuary encircled by 41 shaped pillars. 

The Roman Baths

Back on the Decumanus Maximus and opposite the intersection with the main cardo are Bosra’s southern baths. Built in the late second or early third century AD, baths are as badly ruined as the cathedral. However, enough remains to give visitors an overview of the bathing experience. 

Bather’s entered the baths from the Decumanus Maximusthrough an imposing eight columned porch. This entrance opened directly onto an octagonal apodyterium, whose dome (now collapsed) was built from dark volcanic scoria — a less weighty alternative to the dark basalt rock that typifies many of Bosra’s buildings.  

Once they had undressed, bathers would have continued straight ahead into the cold room or frigidarium before passing into the tepidariumor warm room. Once they had finished in this room, bathers could choose between one of two caldariaor hot rooms that flanked either side of the tepidarium. 

Once they had bathed, there was no need for customers to head back to Bosra’s busy streets immediately. Instead, they could relax and chat with friends in the shade of the collonaded portico that surrounded the  exercise yard at the back of the bathhouse. This exercise yard was also an alternative starting point for bathers who could enjoy workout before they soaked and scraped off in the baths.

The Roman Theatre

The baths were conveniently located close to Bosra’s most well-preserved feature: its’ Roman theatre, which was accessed from the Decumanus Maximus down a short, collonaded street. Like so many of Bosra’s Roman buildings, the theatre dates to the second century AD. However, unlike most Roman theatres, whose seating areas were usually built into hillsides, Bosra’s theatre is something of a rarity in that it is entirely freestanding. 

The structure owes its remarkable preservation to Bosra’s later Arabian invaders who surrounded the theatre with imposing defensive walls, gateways and bastions when they turned it into the Ayyubid fort in the thirteenth century. Once inside, the visitor finds themselves amongst the arches and corridors of the Roman theatre’s seating area. Bosra’s theatre was built to accommodate 6000 spectators, seated over thirty-seven tiers — as well as two to three thousand standing spectators. 

All of these spectators would have been able to see and  hear the theatre’s performances perfectly as the auditorium was pitched so that even the lowest whisper was audible from the highest seats. 

Most of this seating remains intact, as does the theatre’s stage. The stage facade is also remarkably well preserved, although some of its columns and backdrop have been partially reconstructed in white marble. 

Nabatean Bosra

Bosra’s Decumanus Maximusterminates at the eastern end of the city. This was the site of the original, pre-roman city of Bosra. So naturally, it is where most of  Bosra’s Nabatean ruins can be found. The remains of the city’s “cyclopean” walls be found to the southwest of this area, as can the unexcavated remains of the old Nabatean palace and a grand Roman villa believed to have housed either the city’s governor or bishop. However, the best preserved Nabatean feature is at the end of the Decumanus Maximus. 

The Nabatean gateway, is a roman style archway dating from the first century AD. Its decorative details, however, are typically Nabatean. Instead of having a classical design, the capitals of the columns are undecorated — a typical Nabataean feature — as are the semicircular arches and the triangular stepped indentations at the top of the gateway. Despite its position on the decumanus, Archaeologists believe that the Nabatean gateway was originally the entrance to the temenos of one of the city’s pre-Roman temples.

 Sources

Lonely Planet Guide to Syria and Lebanon

Monuments of Syria: An Historical Guide, Ross Burns, I b Tauris Publishers, 1999