Roman street with porticoes in Damascus

The present city of Damascus is still marked by architectural elements dating from the Roman period. The most spectacular are the remains of the Temple of Jupiter and a gate, the only remaining vestige of an enclosure dating back to the Roman period whose seven gates were dedicated to the planets. Bab al-Sharqi, as it is known today, was the enclosure’s eastern gate and was dedicated to Mars. It partially survived and is made up of a large central opening and two side openings. It was described by Arab historian Ibn ‘Asākir in the twelfth century. The other gates were remodelled during the Middle Ages. Furthermore, up until the mid-twentieth century, a vestige of the back wall of the south portico of the Roman thoroughfare that will be discussed below had remained in place in the nook of a souk east of the western gate. But in a less evident way, the present plan of the city of Damascus, although it has seen many reconstructions and changes in parcel plan over the centuries, retains the traces of a regular layout established during antiquity.

In 111 BC, Damascus saw a Greek-Macedonian colony set up east of the ancient Aramaean city. A district with a regular plan made up of straight orthogonal streets was built at the time. Today it is still possible to see this development: the western part of the city has no regularity in its plan whereas the eastern part has conserved in its entirety the same spacing of streets, typical of the foundations of the Hellenistic period in Syria.

However, beginning in the fifth and sixth centuries, the classical urban layout began to change. During this period, new streets and squares appeared, giving the city a new look. Several churches were built, including one, no longer extant, that partially covered the ancient via recta. The Church of Mary, located by the main thoroughfare, is one of the rare present-day churches dating from this period. Successive demolitions and reconstructions from edifices built for the most part in light materials such as wood, brick or adobe modified the layout and width of several streets, while letting the ancient urban system remain.

The most spectacular transformations affected the wide Roman monumental roads, particularly the “Street Called Straight”, or via recta, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (9:11–13). It is now named Midhat Pasha Street; 1,500 m long, it connects the eastern gate to the western gate dedicated to Jupiter and now known as Bab al-Jabiya, and has gradually been invaded by shops. Alleyways snake between the side porticoes and the stretches of roadway left free. This is how the Souk al-Hamidiyeh, the largest and most famous of the souks of Damascus, partially reuses the layout of the monumental road. It crossed the old city lengthways. The souk is partially covered by a metallic vault that makes one forget that this space was once one of a wide thoroughfare. Despite the city’s long history and the transformations it has undergone, Damascus has kept the Roman via recta as its backbone.