Personal travel impressions in stories and pictures from Bosra Amphitheatre, Bosra, Syria. Click on the pictures to enlarge, send as a free e-card, or download for personal use. You can locate Bosra Amphitheatre and navigate the world using Google Earth
Locate Bosra Amphitheatre on map
N 32° 31.060 E 36° 28.897
Book a hotel near Bosra Amphitheatre, Bosra, Syria with low prices for all kinds of hotels - without reservation fees
Book a budget room in one of the youth hostels in Syria
Order your free brochure with offers for travelling to Syria
Doura Europos
Mari
Syrian people
Serjilla
Apamea
Beehive houses
Omar Mosque
Krak des Chevaliers
Norias
Maloula
Aleppo Citadel
Aleppo
Saint Simeon
Omayyad Mosque
Damascus' old city
Palmyra
Tombs of Palmyra
Temple of Bel
Visited: September 2005
These pictures have been tagged with the following tags (clicking on the tag will take you to all pictures on this site with that tag)
Search pages at Traveladventures.org
You can travel the world using images - select your preferred language below:
If you want to be updated regularly about new stories and pictures:
Click your way around Syria with pictures (needs Google Earth software)
Explore Syria and the world through flags, maps, money, and images; compare Syria to any other and test your knowledge at Visual Geography Syria
It is possible to advertise on this travel site. Travel advertisers, ask for more information!
Will the current economic crisis affect your travel plans?
View Results If you have any travel related question which you would like to ask our public, please write to us!
When I arrived in Bosra that morning, I decided to leave the best for last and make a circle around the old city before entering the famous Roman amphitheatre. After a visit that exceeded my expectations, I was looking forward to entering the theatre. I had seen the impressive outside walls of the fortress built around it, and finally it was time to go inside. For some reason, entrance was free and before I knew it, I was walking in dark passage ways in the bowels of the fortification. I resisted the temptation to go in too early, and walked up the citadel. Eventually, I ended up walking on top of it, with views over part of Bosra. It was here that I first saw the arches of the theatre above the towers of the fortress.
When I could resist no longer, I walked through one of the openings leading inwards, and suddenly found myself looking down at an amphitheatre that was surprisingly intact. It was a sensational view, and behind the top of the theatre, I could see part of ancient Bosra, the ruins that I had been exploring earlier that day. I took one of the many available seats - apparently I was there out of season - and let the whole structure soak into me. So this was it. This was the amphitheatre built by the Romans in the second century CE, in the heydays of Bosra, when it was still the capital of the Roman province of Arabia. The fortress was built tightly around it in the course of centuries, and served as a fortification against the crusaders in the 11th and 12th centuries.
In those times, it could accomodate 15,000 people. The roof of the stage was made of wood, while the rest was covered by silk. Even more incredible, during performances the spectators were treated to a spray of perfumed water. How much I would have wished to attend such a performance, see the theatre as the Romans did, I whispered while walking the stone seats. Every now and then, I discovered a Roman game engraved into the seats, apparently there were long waits or people were bored by some performances. Little could they have known how their theatre would have looked some 2,000 years on, and how breathtaking just visiting the Bosra amphitheatre would be for us.
