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Augustan temple: *
The temple, originally dedicated to the goddess Roma and Emperor Augustus, is a typical temple structure erected between years 2 BC and 14 AD. A simple square edifice consists of a cella, a closed room and an antechamber facing the square, bordered by four columns from the front and the one from its lateral sides. Columns are made from marble with Corinthian capitals. Above the columns and the cella walls is a three-part architrave with a lavishly decorated central part of the wreath above it. On its front side facing the square, the architrave reads ROMAE ET AVGUSTO CAESARI DIVI FILIO PATRI PATRIAE (to Romans and Augustus, the son of divine Caesar, the father of the homeland), used for dating the temple. Above it is a triangle gable with a round medallion. The Temple of Augustus is a wonderful example of the Roman building during the early ages of the Empire. Its decoration reflects the Late Hellenistic influence.
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Sun temple of Baalbek (great forecourt): *
The present Temple of Jupiter presumably replaced an earlier one using the same foundation; constructed mid-1st century, completed 60 AD; its idol was a beardless golden god in the pose of a charioteer, with a whip raised in his right hand and a thunderbolt and stalks of grain in his left; it appeared on local coinage and it was borne through the streets during several festivals throughout the year. Macrobius compared its rituals to those for Diva Fortuna at Antium and says the bearers were the principal citizens of the town, who prepared for their role with abstinence, chastity, and shaved heads. In bronze statuary attested from Byblos in Phoenicia and Tortosa in Spain, he was encased in a pillarlike term and surrounded (like the Greco-Persian Mithras) by busts representing the sun, moon, and five known planets. Heliopolis was a noted oracle and pilgrimage site, whence the cult spread far afield, with inscriptions to the Heliopolitan god discovered in Athens, Rome, Pannonia, Venetia, Gaul, and near the Wall in Britain. The temple complex grew up from the early part of the reign of Augustus in the late 1st century BC until the rise of Christianity in the 4th century. The 6th-century chronicles of John Malalas of Antioch claimed Baalbek as a "wonder of the world"; it housed 3: one to Jupiter Heliopolitanus (Baʿal), one to Venus Heliopolitana & a 3rd to Bacchus Ultimately, the site vied with Praeneste in Italy as the two largest sanctuaries in the Western world.
Baalbek possesses some of the best-preserved Roman ruins in Lebanon, including one of the largest temples of the empire, the Temple of Jupiter, all of which is almost completely in ruins, with only six Corinthian columns
still standing on the south wall of the temple.
3. entrance or propylaea
4. hexagonal court (north)
5 ditto (south)
6. ditto (west)
7. alter & statue
8. large court
9. large forcourt
10. side rooms
11. basins
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nave, porch, choir, apse:
Cathedrals share a common floor plan. The entrance or main front door of the cathedral, the West Door; you enter into the narthex, a congregating space, often separated from the main worship area by another set of doors, in some cases almost non-existent, & sometimes massive. Past the narthex you enter the cathedral proper. Generally, this main part has three central aisles. The middle aisle is the nave. The side aisles were historically used for people passing through the church to get to one of the chapels, the nave was used for processionals. The front of the nave is intercepted by a long perpendicular section called the transept which often contain chapels, areas for private worship. The porch describes a room located in front of the entrance of a building forming a low front, and placed in front of the facade of the building it commands. In a church in which part of the body of the church extends beyond the transept, this extension is architecturally termed the "chancel"; it includes the choir and the sanctuary with the high altar and sometimes refers to the whole eastern arm beyond the crossing. This architectural form is common in Norman and Gothic architecture. The choir, where it exists, normally contains the choir stalls, and the "sanctuary" and the "cathedra" (bishop's throne). In the Roman basilica we find a projecting exedra, or apse, a semi-circular space roofed with a half-dome. This was where the magistrates sat to hold court. It passed into the church architecture of the Roman world and was adapted in different ways as a feature of cathedral architecture
Hauran: *
The village of Qanawat (S Syria) is at the eastern edge of Hauran; it enjoyed a period of great prosperity following annexation by the Roman Empire (under Trajan in 106 AD). Called Canatha, it was an important town. Centuries later local inhabitants impressed with the ruins which they mistook for a palace (naming it Seraya or palace). Seraya was actually two 5th century churches which incorporated walls & porticoes of previous buildings, one of which was the residence of the military commander of the region.
The residence of the military commander was preceded by a portico with columns with consoles which supported small statues. The western basilica has an east-west orientation, the eastern one has a north-south orientation; it was obtained by closing the southern half of a large porticoed courtyard; the elaborate decoration of the entrances belongs to previous buildings; the lintel of the main portal was partly erased to eliminate an existing relief (replaced by a small cross).
The design of the interior of the basilica was influenced by the pre-existing courtyard and the main nave was surrounded by an ambulatory (covered passage) which was obtained from the porticoes of the courtyard.
The western basilica façade used frames for its 3 entrances taken from earlier buildings.
Kalybe temple- first identified in Bosra, unique to Hauran region, without counterpart in Roman architecture; (superficially they resemble the nymphaeum, from which it may have evolved). A simple public facade or stage setting solely for the display of statuary (no fountain), the statue of the god was not housed in a cella, but was placed in the front of the temple; it was most likely a local, although Hellenized, deity. The examples below are from Bosra Syria.
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St Paul (Rome)
one of Rome's 4 ancient, Papal, major basilicas (with the Basilicas of St. John in the Lateran, St. Peter's & St. Mary Major)
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temple of Aphrodisias Caria (Christian re-construction): *
In the late 5th century the temple was turned into a Christian basilica-church. In effect it was turned inside out. The interior space was wholly demolished. Columns on the E & W sides were dismantled & were used to extend the length of the north & south colonnades. The cella walls of the temple were removed & re-erected outside of the peristyle, so that the temple's lateral columns became the interior colonnades of the basilica's nave. The entrance of the building was shifted from east to west; a semi-domed apse was built into the eastern end near the alter. Blocks from the temenos were used to create a .narthex and a forecourt on the western end of the church, which remained in use until the Middle Byzantine period
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synagogues of Mesopotamia: *
The synagogue is architecturally very modest with a small single meeting room (enlarged at some point); within this room was a special repository for the various sacred books valued by the Jews. Eventually the religious community was able to provide a paved courtyard & a surrounding colonnaded portico, just off the main area of worship.
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Temple of Athtar (Nashshan), mid 1st millennium BC, 15.5 x 11 meters
