DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45583#0015
Bosra eski Sham (Bostra. or Bosra)
225
like those of a Roman theatre, are to be seen lying on the north side. Two springs
at the bottom of the depression supplied a means of flooding the place, and naturally
suggested the name which has been given to it.
The remains of Mohammedan architecture outside the Castle are chiefly the mos-
ques which are scattered well over the area within the walls, suggesting that the Arab
city was almost, if not quite, as large as the city of Roman days. Five of these
mosques remain, in addition to one in the Castle, and another which is known to
have existed near the Central Arch, but which has been wholly destroyed. Only one
of them is in use to-day — Djarnf il-Fatmeh —; another, the DjarnF il-Khidr, is in
good preservation but disused, the others stand partly ruined, their walls and minarets
being preserved, while their roofs have fallen in. Like the Castle, the mosques were
built out of the ruins of Christian and Pagan buildings, most of them having been
constructed on the principles of architecture peculiar to the earlier styles employed in
the Hauran.
Walls.
The walls of Bostra must have constitued one of the most imposing features of
the city. As I have said above, they were not laid out upon any symmetrical scheme.
The Roman walls, of which this brief account is to treat, were probably built upon
the lines of far more ancient structures, remains of which are perhaps to be seen in
the southwest quarter of the ruins, west of the Theatre, where huge masses of rough
bowlders lie as if they had once constituted parts of some work executed by the hand
of man. At a few points where these great rocks lie one upon another, in a fashion
almost too regular to have been placed by nature, one can not fail to be struck by
the resemblance of this crude work to the massive, almost Cyclopean, walls to be
seen at a number of sites in the Southern Hauran, like Korn Ku'aiyid \ Kharab is-
Sakhl2 and ir-Ruk^s 3. The walls of the Roman period have disappeared almost com-
pletely ; they were broken up, and their material was carried away, to build the
Arabic Castle during the Middle Ages. Yet there are sufficient remains of them at
three or four points to enable us to determine how they were built. Throughout the
entire length of the west wall, and for a considerable distance along the western end
of the north wall, there are remains which show that these sections of the city walls
are standing to a height of three metres or more; but are so completely buried in
debris from the upper parts of the structure which were broken up to be carried away
that it is difficult to realize that the lower parts are as well preserved as they actually
are. The wall itself, about 4 m. thick, consisted of two faces of quadrated and
draughted masonry of unusually good quality, such facing as was used in many of the
best government works in this part of Syria, with a core between them of rougher
stonework and broken stone. When the higher courses of the draughted blocks and
the quadrated blocks of the core were taken to build the Castle, the roughly hewn
blocks and the broken stone were left behind, and these create a mass of disordered
material which well nigh buries the better preserved portions of the wall, and in certain
quarters of the circuit, where the blocks of stone were all removed, is the only remnant
by which the walls are to be traced. These western and northwestern stretches of
1 II, A. 2. p. 100.
2 Ibid. p. no.
225
like those of a Roman theatre, are to be seen lying on the north side. Two springs
at the bottom of the depression supplied a means of flooding the place, and naturally
suggested the name which has been given to it.
The remains of Mohammedan architecture outside the Castle are chiefly the mos-
ques which are scattered well over the area within the walls, suggesting that the Arab
city was almost, if not quite, as large as the city of Roman days. Five of these
mosques remain, in addition to one in the Castle, and another which is known to
have existed near the Central Arch, but which has been wholly destroyed. Only one
of them is in use to-day — Djarnf il-Fatmeh —; another, the DjarnF il-Khidr, is in
good preservation but disused, the others stand partly ruined, their walls and minarets
being preserved, while their roofs have fallen in. Like the Castle, the mosques were
built out of the ruins of Christian and Pagan buildings, most of them having been
constructed on the principles of architecture peculiar to the earlier styles employed in
the Hauran.
Walls.
The walls of Bostra must have constitued one of the most imposing features of
the city. As I have said above, they were not laid out upon any symmetrical scheme.
The Roman walls, of which this brief account is to treat, were probably built upon
the lines of far more ancient structures, remains of which are perhaps to be seen in
the southwest quarter of the ruins, west of the Theatre, where huge masses of rough
bowlders lie as if they had once constituted parts of some work executed by the hand
of man. At a few points where these great rocks lie one upon another, in a fashion
almost too regular to have been placed by nature, one can not fail to be struck by
the resemblance of this crude work to the massive, almost Cyclopean, walls to be
seen at a number of sites in the Southern Hauran, like Korn Ku'aiyid \ Kharab is-
Sakhl2 and ir-Ruk^s 3. The walls of the Roman period have disappeared almost com-
pletely ; they were broken up, and their material was carried away, to build the
Arabic Castle during the Middle Ages. Yet there are sufficient remains of them at
three or four points to enable us to determine how they were built. Throughout the
entire length of the west wall, and for a considerable distance along the western end
of the north wall, there are remains which show that these sections of the city walls
are standing to a height of three metres or more; but are so completely buried in
debris from the upper parts of the structure which were broken up to be carried away
that it is difficult to realize that the lower parts are as well preserved as they actually
are. The wall itself, about 4 m. thick, consisted of two faces of quadrated and
draughted masonry of unusually good quality, such facing as was used in many of the
best government works in this part of Syria, with a core between them of rougher
stonework and broken stone. When the higher courses of the draughted blocks and
the quadrated blocks of the core were taken to build the Castle, the roughly hewn
blocks and the broken stone were left behind, and these create a mass of disordered
material which well nigh buries the better preserved portions of the wall, and in certain
quarters of the circuit, where the blocks of stone were all removed, is the only remnant
by which the walls are to be traced. These western and northwestern stretches of
1 II, A. 2. p. 100.
2 Ibid. p. no.