DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32867#0080
50
MONUMENTS OF CLASSIC STYLE
intersected the main avenue at different points. A characteristic detail of these colon--
nades is the bracket or console for the support of a statue that appears upon a major-
ity of the columns that have been preserved. These brackets are, in every case, cut
as part of a drum inserted between the upper and middle thirds of the column, the parts
of the shaft above and below being generally monoliths. These colonnades of Palmyra
Temple of the Sun, at Palmyra. Columns and cella vvall on east side.
are often assigned to the third century, probably for the reason that the most famous
inscriptions upon the columns are those of Oueen Zenobia and her family, and range
from 251 to 271 a.u.; but there are other inscriptions which prove that parts of these
colonnades were built at least as early as the first half of the second century. 1 More-
over, the famous tomb of Iamlichus, which is classic in its minor details, dates from the
latter part of the first century, the year 83 a.d., and proves that classic art was
known in Palmyra even in the first century. The temple which is generally referred
to as the Temple of the Sun stood in the midst of a huge rectangular peribolos,
inclosed by a high wall provided with a portico on all sides within, a double row
of columns on the north, east, and south, and a single row of taller columns on the
west. This peribolos now contains a modern village of low mud huts closely crowded
together. The site of the temple is almost entirely hidden by these habitations,
though its cella walls 2 and eight columns of the eastern flank of its peristyle, with the
great portal between two of the columns of the west flank, are still to be seen above
the roofs of the village, while an exedra at one end of the cella is visible within the
1 De Vogii6, Inscriptions S6mitiques, Part I, inscs. 4 and 8.
”The longer axis of this temple lies north and south (see Wood, Ruins of Palmyra and Balbec, Tab. III).
MONUMENTS OF CLASSIC STYLE
intersected the main avenue at different points. A characteristic detail of these colon--
nades is the bracket or console for the support of a statue that appears upon a major-
ity of the columns that have been preserved. These brackets are, in every case, cut
as part of a drum inserted between the upper and middle thirds of the column, the parts
of the shaft above and below being generally monoliths. These colonnades of Palmyra
Temple of the Sun, at Palmyra. Columns and cella vvall on east side.
are often assigned to the third century, probably for the reason that the most famous
inscriptions upon the columns are those of Oueen Zenobia and her family, and range
from 251 to 271 a.u.; but there are other inscriptions which prove that parts of these
colonnades were built at least as early as the first half of the second century. 1 More-
over, the famous tomb of Iamlichus, which is classic in its minor details, dates from the
latter part of the first century, the year 83 a.d., and proves that classic art was
known in Palmyra even in the first century. The temple which is generally referred
to as the Temple of the Sun stood in the midst of a huge rectangular peribolos,
inclosed by a high wall provided with a portico on all sides within, a double row
of columns on the north, east, and south, and a single row of taller columns on the
west. This peribolos now contains a modern village of low mud huts closely crowded
together. The site of the temple is almost entirely hidden by these habitations,
though its cella walls 2 and eight columns of the eastern flank of its peristyle, with the
great portal between two of the columns of the west flank, are still to be seen above
the roofs of the village, while an exedra at one end of the cella is visible within the
1 De Vogii6, Inscriptions S6mitiques, Part I, inscs. 4 and 8.
”The longer axis of this temple lies north and south (see Wood, Ruins of Palmyra and Balbec, Tab. III).