So Early the next morning off we go to Bosra in the south of Syria. An important dot on the map of three ancient civilizations: Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic. Who knew? Alright, so maybe I actually did read every line for line in the Lonely Planet, but where knowledge comes from is irrelevant, so long as its credible, right? If my knowledge is guidebook + wiki fusion I can still rest easy knowing that anyone who tries to contest my thoughts will utilize the same tools. Right now Bosra doesn't have much in the way of sights or (contemporary) culture. So that leaves a plethora of ruins from first the Nabateans, then by the Romans (who made it their capital of the province Arabia Petraea), then the Persians took it over, finally to be recaptured by the Byzantines. The city changed hands again the 7th Century and became an Islamic posession and remained (more or less) so. (never mind that there is no Islamic Empire anymore, depsite what they would have you believe) (I think Wikipedia disregards the coming of modernity, the Ottoman Empire, the French colonization and the modern Syria state, but that's a rant for another time)
To be succint for once, Bosra has a major historical footprint. Here are 16,000 words to make up for above.
RM Jeremie + mosiac before entering the fortified Roman theatre
Nice and cool despite 40+ deg. outside
Before the PC, Tablet had a different meaning
Scale is lost, but the Romans know how to make a big theatre. I promise.
from the theatre, as a spectator.
Welcoming Uncle Hafez
Around Bosra ruins. (outside the theatre)
I think that during this photoshoot in the more or less open ruins we pissed off the Gods. I guess if I were an eternal being and kids were running around on the unprotected ruins of my ancient cilization I'd be angry too. While wandering through Bosra we decided it would be a great photo-op to take a picture of us standing on adjacent columns. So we set up our cameras to self-timed shots, and all his the "shoot" button, but in transit I jumped from a Roman fence, lost my fickle Birkenstock and managed to stub my toe on some ruins enough to peel have my (big) toe's nail back. At the same time I hear a sickening thump as japenese plasticmetal + gravity comes in full contact with roman stone. Fortunately not my camera, and after an hour of fear and sadness technology prevailed. My toe also healed, though it took a few days.
This is the photo that caused so much pain. I'm to the bottom left, pulling my toenail back into place.
Bloodied, but attached.
Crazy man. Good thing the gods weren't mad at him.
(they love these pillars, eh?)
The population has decreased over the centuries and the small local village makes use of what they can for their own homes. Good for them, bad for archeologists.
Essential camel shot.
Then we hopped in a minibus and drove to another city in the south, perched atop Jebel Druze, called Shahba. What did we see there? More ruins!
en route landscape
moodsy, rugged-individual picture with mountain + moon
Old + New.
Bottom Line: civilizations come and go, but they're hard to kill. I just hope that when our civilization falls that the rust bucket automobilies and the wooden and brick homes we've constructed can withstand 1800 years. Something tells me that our evanescent society won't hold up against the cold eternal face of stone. Way to go guys.
E
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