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Bosra ash-sham was an ancient Nabatean city, later taken over by the Romans. It has one of the largest and best-preserved Roman amphitheaters in the world.
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The amphitheater. |
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Our guide. Khalid was positively reticent by the standards of tour guides --- I must have been in and out of the room where he was loitering for ten minutes before he offered to take us around the site. Fairly early on he announced that he wanted to have four wives some day, but he couldn't afford them. I don't know if he was trying to increase his allure or merely set a boundary on the transaction. It is a conundrum of long standing, how to present heterosexuality in a society from which actual women have been systematically excluded, such as Islam, VMI, or the fifth grade boy's bathroom. Or Skull and Bones. You end up developing an elaborate gesture language, involving handshakes and wars and the like. It developed later that Khalid was a Christian and he couldn't have had four wives anyway. About this time he noticed that I was taking as many pictures of him as of the ruins. Well, what would you do, if your mother asked you? |
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Statues in a courtyard of the ampthitheater. Khalid recommended this pose. |
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A tunnel under the amphitheater. The design of stadia has changed very little in two thousand years --- they all have places for t-shirt stands and food concessionaires and everything. |
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The entrance to the amphitheater, featuring a portrait of the president of Syria, Bashar Assad (who Ray called "W." to distinguish him from the earlier president of Syria, Hafez Assad). |
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Another Nabatean city a few miles from Bosra. Khalid took us out here because I had an interest in seeing what ruins look like when you don't fix them, stack the blocks back on top of each other and charge admission. This outcropping held a Roman fort after the Nabateans went into Chapter 11, and now holds a Syrian army base, so you aren't supposed to take pictures. |
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The octagonal tower holds Syrian soldiers. I assumed they could tell we weren't SEALs. |
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Basalt. |
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Back in Bosra for the sunset. Here is the Roman colonnade. |
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A Corinthian capital at sunset. I have always wondered, why acanthus? You don't see it growing around town, it needs a bit more water. |
