DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32867#0410
378 PAGAN ARCHITECTURE IN THE DJEBEE HAURAN
found at Shakka indicates that there was once a theater in that city. 1 We saw no
other ruined cities in the Djebel Hauran where colonnaded streets had been an archi-
tectural feature, and no other example of an aqueduct constructed in Roman fashion,
i.e., upon arches.
Philippopolis would seem to have been a city of a different type from the other
cities of the Hauran, a city in which the life of the great cities of the empire was
reproduced on a small scale. If this city was unique among the cities and towns of
the Hauran in these respects, its architecture will be found to be still more so in
matters of construction and ornament. The particularly Roman influence that found
expression in the great public baths, in the triple gateways and the square temple, is
further represented in the common use of mortar and concrete, in the employment of
the barrel vault of cut stone and the dome of concrete, and especially in the intro-
duction of marble revetments applied to the interior surfaces of walls. These details
are essentially Roman as opposed to Greek in the field of architecture, and serve
better than anything else to illustrate the direct influence of the Imperial City upon
the architecture of Philip’s capital in Arabia.
hexastyle temple. 2 Facing upon the north side of the avenue which runs east and
west, and about fifty meters west of the intersection of the two main avenues, are the
remains of a lofty hexastyle portico. Three of its columns
are intact—the angle column at the east end, the fourth and
fifth columns from it. Of the other columns of the portico,
one is preserved up to half of its original height; the posi-
tions of the other two are marked only by their pedestals.
Northward from the two end columns extend the remains
of side walls, that on the west being traced only in a mound
of debris buried in soil; the other shows several courses
of good ashler with a base molcl on the east side, where
the surface of the grouncl falls slightly. The north ends of
the two side walls are connected by the massive remains
of a ruined wall, over 9 m. high and 4 m. thick, which, with the columns, makes the
plan of the structure very nearly a square. The ruins of this north wall, however,
indicate that it was not straight; the exterior shows three flat faces of a polygonal
structure with very obtuse angles, and its inner side, near the east wall, preserves a
face that is not parallel with any of the three outer faces. In this fragment of interior
wall-facing the remains of a niche are still to be seen. This wall was constructed of
rather coarse rubble and faced with quadrated ashler, but most of the facing has
been stripped off and carried away, leaving so little of the original surface that it was
impossible to determine the exact disposition of the wall. The almost square plan,
‘See Wad., 2136. 'Laborde, Voyage de la Syrie, Pl. 52, p. 110.
Fig. 131. Plan of hexastyle tem-
ple at Shehba.
found at Shakka indicates that there was once a theater in that city. 1 We saw no
other ruined cities in the Djebel Hauran where colonnaded streets had been an archi-
tectural feature, and no other example of an aqueduct constructed in Roman fashion,
i.e., upon arches.
Philippopolis would seem to have been a city of a different type from the other
cities of the Hauran, a city in which the life of the great cities of the empire was
reproduced on a small scale. If this city was unique among the cities and towns of
the Hauran in these respects, its architecture will be found to be still more so in
matters of construction and ornament. The particularly Roman influence that found
expression in the great public baths, in the triple gateways and the square temple, is
further represented in the common use of mortar and concrete, in the employment of
the barrel vault of cut stone and the dome of concrete, and especially in the intro-
duction of marble revetments applied to the interior surfaces of walls. These details
are essentially Roman as opposed to Greek in the field of architecture, and serve
better than anything else to illustrate the direct influence of the Imperial City upon
the architecture of Philip’s capital in Arabia.
hexastyle temple. 2 Facing upon the north side of the avenue which runs east and
west, and about fifty meters west of the intersection of the two main avenues, are the
remains of a lofty hexastyle portico. Three of its columns
are intact—the angle column at the east end, the fourth and
fifth columns from it. Of the other columns of the portico,
one is preserved up to half of its original height; the posi-
tions of the other two are marked only by their pedestals.
Northward from the two end columns extend the remains
of side walls, that on the west being traced only in a mound
of debris buried in soil; the other shows several courses
of good ashler with a base molcl on the east side, where
the surface of the grouncl falls slightly. The north ends of
the two side walls are connected by the massive remains
of a ruined wall, over 9 m. high and 4 m. thick, which, with the columns, makes the
plan of the structure very nearly a square. The ruins of this north wall, however,
indicate that it was not straight; the exterior shows three flat faces of a polygonal
structure with very obtuse angles, and its inner side, near the east wall, preserves a
face that is not parallel with any of the three outer faces. In this fragment of interior
wall-facing the remains of a niche are still to be seen. This wall was constructed of
rather coarse rubble and faced with quadrated ashler, but most of the facing has
been stripped off and carried away, leaving so little of the original surface that it was
impossible to determine the exact disposition of the wall. The almost square plan,
‘See Wad., 2136. 'Laborde, Voyage de la Syrie, Pl. 52, p. 110.
Fig. 131. Plan of hexastyle tem-
ple at Shehba.