Shahba

Philip the Arab, briefly emperor of Rome, rebuilt his home village as a miniature imperial city named Philippopolis, and Shahba still lives inside it: black basalt gates, straight streets on the Roman grid, a theatre, baths, and a hexastyle temple facade, all threaded through a working Druze town. The museum keeps a set of superb fourth-century mosaics - Orpheus, the Seasons, the marriage of Ariadne - among the finest in Syria. The mix of daily life and imperial scenery is the charm.

Background

Shahba lies 87 km south of Damascus, and in Roman times it belonged to the province of Arabia Petraea. Philip became emperor in 244 and set about rebuilding the small settlement as a colonia. Work seems to have stopped suddenly after his death in 249, so the city was never finished. In Late Antiquity, as Philippopolis, it was the seat of a bishopric, which survives as a Latin titular see. Ottoman tax registers of 1596 list it as Sahba, with 8 households and 3 bachelors. A figurative mosaic called The Glory of the Earth, found in 1952 in the house known as Maison Aoua, is now kept in the museum of Damascus. The 2004 census counted 13,660 people.

Source: Wikipedia, "Shahba"

What's there

• The mosaics - the museum's celebrated mythological floors.
• The theatre - the compact basalt cavea.
• The philippeion - the temple front honouring the emperor's family.
• The Roman streets - the grid and gates threading the town.

When to go

March to May and September to November are mild; the Jebel is cooler than the plain. Spring greens the volcanic country. Summer light is harsh at midday.

Before you go

Museum hours are irregular and the mosaics are the thing you most want open. Monuments stand amid traffic and shops - atmospheric, not curated. Regional access should be checked locally.

Nearby

Qanawat is south, and Bosra is southwest.

Key facts