DOI Artikel:
Żuchowska, Marta: The Western Gate at Palmyra
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26422#0111
Marta Zuchowska
other technique had been applied instead, a flat arch perhaps.1 Unfortunately, the tumbled stones
around the gate provide no clues and, moreover, a solution of this kind is not known from any other
monument in Palmyra.
No evidence of a lintel could imply that the gate had never been finished for these explicitly
technical reasons or that from the beginning it was planned as an open central passage flanked by
two independent wings. An almost completely preserved frieze belies both these ideas. A stone
preserving the centre rosette and a pattern of laurel leaves converging from opposite sides [cf. Fig. 2]
would have been placed on the centre axis of the monument and therefore over the central gate pas-
sage, thus proving that the passage had indeed been covered. We remain ignorant, however, of the
actual design of the gate top and the building technique.
Door height was reconstructed based on comparison with other monuments in Palmyra,
where the usual width-to-height ratio is between 2:1 and 1.45:1. The latter proportion, known from
the Agora for example, seems to have been applied in the Western Gate. The lateral passages would
have been about 3.60 m high and the central passage would have risen to a height of about 8.20 m.
The lintel over the central door would thus be more or less flush with the capitals of the pilasters in
the façade and the columns of the Great Colonnade.
Decoration was restricted to Corinthian pilasters on both sides of the gate: two between
the central and lateral passages, and one between each lateral passage and the sides. An archi-
trave identical to that on the Great Colonnade ran over the pilaster capitals, changing to a richly
decorated lintel above the main passageway. The frieze consisted of laurel leaves converging on
a central point marked by an eight-petalled flower encircled with leaves [Fig. 2], Apart from this,
there were the ornamented side-door lintels. A cornice crowned the structure. Some ornamented
consoles were found nearby, but we cannot be sure which part of the monument they had deco-
rated. Small niches in the façade of the gate can be imagined in analogy to other monuments in
Palmyra (Bel Temple Propylaeum, cf. Fig. 6, skene building of the Theatre) and elsewhere in the
Roman Near East (Propylaeum in Philadelphia).
The façades appear to have differed in their decoration judging by the surviving elements of
architecture. The inside face of the gate was decorated modestly in the severe style of the porticos of
the Great Colonnade. The outside took on the more 'baroque' form typified by the latest examples of
Palmyrene monumental architecture, e.g. the Monumental Arch and the Theater.
The gate on the inside joined the entablature of the porticos of the Great Colonnade. The last
columns in the two porticoes stood on pedestals 0.45 m high, matching in height those of the gate
pilasters. Other columns in the portico were placed about half a meter down [Fig. 7], suggesting the
possibility of monumental steps leading up to the gateway. However, no traces of steps exist today
and there is hardly any reason to suppose that they would have been dismantled, considering the
number of readily available blocks from the tumbled structure. It is possible therefore that steps had
been planned, but were never actually executed [Fig. 8],
Indications for the dating of this structure come neither from inscriptions nor from the archae-
ological record as no excavations have been undertaken in this area. Instead, we can be sure that
the Western Gate was built as an addition to the Great Colonnade, which was constructed progres-
sively for over a century from the middle of the 2nd century AD. Furthermore, an analysis of build-
ing technique can contribute to précising the date. It was at the turn of the 2nd and in the early 3rd
century AD that the technique called by Baranski opus Palmyrenum was introduced in Palmyra and
it became common in the 3rd century (Baranski 1995a : 63; 1996: 380). This typically Palmyrene form
(hence the appellation) made use of big, but thin stone slabs, occasionally exceeding 3 m in length,
but rarely 0.30 m in thickness. The technique was to place these slabs vertically back to back, joining
them with mortar. Walls could be raised in this way in less time and with lesser expense than in the
ashlar technique, but they were less resistant.
Most of the Western Gate was constructed of big slabs sometimes exceeding 3 m in length,
but with a thickness between 0.60 and 1.10 m. The opus Palmyrenum technique was impractical in
this case because of the breadth of the monument, measuring 2.70 m. Mortar alone appears not to
have been used, hence the space between the standing stone slabs must have been filled with mortar-
1 I would like to thank Prof. Stanislaw Medeksza for this suggestion.
108
Studia Palmyrenskie XI
other technique had been applied instead, a flat arch perhaps.1 Unfortunately, the tumbled stones
around the gate provide no clues and, moreover, a solution of this kind is not known from any other
monument in Palmyra.
No evidence of a lintel could imply that the gate had never been finished for these explicitly
technical reasons or that from the beginning it was planned as an open central passage flanked by
two independent wings. An almost completely preserved frieze belies both these ideas. A stone
preserving the centre rosette and a pattern of laurel leaves converging from opposite sides [cf. Fig. 2]
would have been placed on the centre axis of the monument and therefore over the central gate pas-
sage, thus proving that the passage had indeed been covered. We remain ignorant, however, of the
actual design of the gate top and the building technique.
Door height was reconstructed based on comparison with other monuments in Palmyra,
where the usual width-to-height ratio is between 2:1 and 1.45:1. The latter proportion, known from
the Agora for example, seems to have been applied in the Western Gate. The lateral passages would
have been about 3.60 m high and the central passage would have risen to a height of about 8.20 m.
The lintel over the central door would thus be more or less flush with the capitals of the pilasters in
the façade and the columns of the Great Colonnade.
Decoration was restricted to Corinthian pilasters on both sides of the gate: two between
the central and lateral passages, and one between each lateral passage and the sides. An archi-
trave identical to that on the Great Colonnade ran over the pilaster capitals, changing to a richly
decorated lintel above the main passageway. The frieze consisted of laurel leaves converging on
a central point marked by an eight-petalled flower encircled with leaves [Fig. 2], Apart from this,
there were the ornamented side-door lintels. A cornice crowned the structure. Some ornamented
consoles were found nearby, but we cannot be sure which part of the monument they had deco-
rated. Small niches in the façade of the gate can be imagined in analogy to other monuments in
Palmyra (Bel Temple Propylaeum, cf. Fig. 6, skene building of the Theatre) and elsewhere in the
Roman Near East (Propylaeum in Philadelphia).
The façades appear to have differed in their decoration judging by the surviving elements of
architecture. The inside face of the gate was decorated modestly in the severe style of the porticos of
the Great Colonnade. The outside took on the more 'baroque' form typified by the latest examples of
Palmyrene monumental architecture, e.g. the Monumental Arch and the Theater.
The gate on the inside joined the entablature of the porticos of the Great Colonnade. The last
columns in the two porticoes stood on pedestals 0.45 m high, matching in height those of the gate
pilasters. Other columns in the portico were placed about half a meter down [Fig. 7], suggesting the
possibility of monumental steps leading up to the gateway. However, no traces of steps exist today
and there is hardly any reason to suppose that they would have been dismantled, considering the
number of readily available blocks from the tumbled structure. It is possible therefore that steps had
been planned, but were never actually executed [Fig. 8],
Indications for the dating of this structure come neither from inscriptions nor from the archae-
ological record as no excavations have been undertaken in this area. Instead, we can be sure that
the Western Gate was built as an addition to the Great Colonnade, which was constructed progres-
sively for over a century from the middle of the 2nd century AD. Furthermore, an analysis of build-
ing technique can contribute to précising the date. It was at the turn of the 2nd and in the early 3rd
century AD that the technique called by Baranski opus Palmyrenum was introduced in Palmyra and
it became common in the 3rd century (Baranski 1995a : 63; 1996: 380). This typically Palmyrene form
(hence the appellation) made use of big, but thin stone slabs, occasionally exceeding 3 m in length,
but rarely 0.30 m in thickness. The technique was to place these slabs vertically back to back, joining
them with mortar. Walls could be raised in this way in less time and with lesser expense than in the
ashlar technique, but they were less resistant.
Most of the Western Gate was constructed of big slabs sometimes exceeding 3 m in length,
but with a thickness between 0.60 and 1.10 m. The opus Palmyrenum technique was impractical in
this case because of the breadth of the monument, measuring 2.70 m. Mortar alone appears not to
have been used, hence the space between the standing stone slabs must have been filled with mortar-
1 I would like to thank Prof. Stanislaw Medeksza for this suggestion.
108
Studia Palmyrenskie XI