Travels in Syria and the Holy LandBurckhardt, John Lewis
History
Travels in Syria and the Holy Land
Burckhardt, John Lewis
Palestine -- Description and travel; Syria -- Description and travel
The edifices which still remain to attest the former splendour of Amman
are the following: a spacious church (b), built with large stones, and
having a steeple of the shape of those which I saw in several ruined
towns in the Haouran. There are wide arches in the walls of the
church.A small building (c), with niches, probably a temple.A temple
(d), of which a part of the side walls, and a niche in the back wall are
remaining; there are no ornaments either on the walls, or about the
niche.A curved wall (e) along the water side, with many niches: before
it was a row of large columns, of which four remain, but without
capitals, I conjecture this to have been a kind of stoa, or public walk;
it does not communicate with any other edifice.A high arched bridge (f)
over the river; this appears to have been the only bridge in the town,
although the river is not fordable in the winter. The banks of the
river, as well as its bed, are paved, but the pavement has been in most
places carried away by the violence of the winter torrent. The stream is
full of small fish. On the south side of the river is a fine theatre,
the largest that I have seen in Syria. It has forty rows of seats;
between the tenth and eleventh from the bottom occurs a row of eight
boxes or small apartments, capable of holding about twelve spectators
each; fourteen rows higher, a similar row
[p.359] of boxes occupies the place of the middle seats, and at the top
of all there is a third tier of boxes excavated in the rocky side of the
hill, upon the declivity of which the theatre is built. On both wings of
the theatre are vaults. In front was a colonnade, of which eight
Corinthian columns yet remain, besides four fragments of shafts; they
are about fifteen feet high, surmounted by an entablature still entire.
This colonnade must have had at least fifty columns; the workmanship is
not of the best Roman times. Near this theatre is a building (h), the
details of which I was not able to make out exactly; its front is built
irregularly, without columns, or ornaments of any kind. On entering I
found a semi-circular area, enclosed by a high wall in which narrow
steps were formed, running all round from bottom to top. The inside of
the front wall, as well as the round wall of the area, is richly
ornamented with sculptured ornaments. The roof, which once covered the
whole building, has fallen down, and choaks up the interior in such a
way as to render it difficult to determine whether the edifice has been
a palace, or destined for public amusements. Nearly opposite the
theatre, to the northward of the river, are the remains of a temple (k),
the posterior wall of which only remains, having an entablature, and
several niches highly adorned with sculpture. Before this building stand
the shafts of several columns three feet in diameter. Its date appears
to be anterior to that of all the other buildings of Amman, and its
style of architecture is much superior. At some distance farther down
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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