Bosra, Syria

Bostra was the northern capital of the Nabataeans, located in southern Syria at the northern end of the Via Nova Traiana roadway.

When the Romans annexed the Nabataean Empire, Bostra became the capital of the new province of Arabia. Some historians have wondered why this city gained notoriety at this time. Some have suggested that it’s location may have aided and abetted the smugglers trying to avoid the tax men by crossing the lava beds. Should the local authorities come on inspection, the smugglers could dissolve into the crevices of the forbidding lava. (see comment under Southern Forts)

From the 1st century BC and continuing for several centuries, this region saw unprecedented intensive settlement and development. At the end of the 1st century AD, Bostra constituted a ‘second royal seat’ of the Nabataean kingdom, after Petra and remained the capital of the province of Arabia until the Islamic conquests.

Bostra contains many fine public buildings including a bathhouse, theater, forum and temples. There is a religious precinct consisting of three adjacent temples with connecting enclosures approached from the east by a paved road 300 meters long that ran under a monumental arch and pasted several structures. One temple is dedicated to Ba’al-Shamin, the second is a temple of Dushares, and the third is a temple to the image of Si’. Other monuments include a Nabataean arch, a circular colonnade, a vast tripartite hall, and numerous other public buildings. Archeologists have also discovered a great deal of thin Nabataean pottery in and around Bostra.