THE GREAT COLONNADE

The decumanus of ancient Palmyra offers this singular (compared to that of Apamea for example) that it is not straight. Three sections mark, from east to west, the main axis of the Roman city and correspond to different periods and functions.

The first section links the shrine of Bêl with the monumental bow. This part, the most recent (beginning of the third century). I.C.), is unfortunately the most in ruins. Only the four columns that precede the nymphée have been restated.

The monumental Arc. The magnificent monumental arch marks the transition between the first section, with religious function, and the second that serves the official buildings.

To mask the decumanus splitting, the arc is composed of two interlocking arcs, one looking at the temple of Bêl, the other inside the inner axis of the city. The effect is remarkable, especially as the base of acorns and oak leaves, rosettes, bordeaux rinceaux is striking. The view over the colonnade and beyond the Arab castle through its central arch makes it the symbol of the city.

The path lined with porticos that opens then was not paved to allow the camels to borrow it. It dates back to the end of the th century.

The temple of Nebô. The first monument to the left is the sanctuary of Nebô, whose main entrance is to the south. The temple itself was in the centre of a trapezoidal enclosure lined with columns. A very visible altar faces the stairs leading to cella. A eldest son and interpreter of the great Mardouk of Babylon, Nebô is traditionally attached to Apollo.

The Diocletian's Baths. Back on the decumanus, we find four columns of granite from Egypt and marking the entrance of the Diocletian's baths. On the ground, there is the location of several parts surrounding a central basin. Restored by Diocletian at the end of the th century, the thermal baths actually date from the era of the Sévères.

The commercial function of the street is clearly marked right and left by the location of shops, opening under the porticos.

Theatre. Visit from 9 am to 18 pm. Left the theatre, deeply restored. Its modest size is certainly what is striking today. Only twelve rows of stands are found and there is nothing to say that there have been others. The stage wall, rebuilt at the end of the th century, was raised up to the first floor, which further accentuates the intimate character of this place.

The agora. In the west of the theatre, several administrative buildings were identified. The most important is agora. Its large rectangular open courtyard was surrounded by a portico whose base of the drums is still visible; this portico was lined with a wall wall with richly decorated openings. A centre of public life, the agora gave the east on an appendix where, in the 5 th century, the tariff of Palmyra was discovered, a stele of nearly 400 m wide containing more than engraved lines on order of the Senate. This stele set the amount of fees to be paid by caravans entering Palmyra. Much of the city's income came from this right of grant. The stele is now preserved at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

In the appendix, the theatre runs to the main street. In doing so, there are several vestiges of uncertain identification: Senate, Cesareum and Banquet Room.

. The tétrapyle then reaches the centre of an oval square. A major crossroads of the city, the tétrapyle gives access to a column in columns that cut the decumanus to the south. It is easy to recognize the only red granite column imported from Aswan, Egypt. The third segment segment leaves slightly right in the direction of Diocletian's Camp. This portion, the longest of the street (500 m), is also the oldest and serves, on both sides, poorly excavated residential areas. The part is, in the graph plan, revealed several ancient houses and basilicas. The very ground of the track shows in several points the remains of the pipes. A funeral temple welcomes the visitor at the end of the street.

Diocletian's camp. On the left, a new cross-sectional colonnade opens which serves to the right a neighbourhood called Diocletian's camp. This neighbourhood was built thirty years after the bag of Palmyra, at a time when the Roman Empire was threatened by sasanians attacks. A military complex, it included a temple at the signs that were reached by a fly of stairs. It celebrated the ceremonies of the warrior cult. In the face of the temple, a forum and various utility buildings complete the camp.

The. temple. The Mothers temple, founded before our age and located east of the camp, only remains the issuing and the six columns that give on the main via. Before it was ransacked at the end of pagan times, the temple was associated with the cult of the Greek goddess Athena.