Colonnaded Street is located in downtown Beirut, Lebanon. it was an important street of Roman-era Berytus.
Colonnaded Street is located in downtown Beirut, Lebanon. it was an important street of Roman-era Berytus.
A commercial street with numbered shops, dating to the Byzantine period, was unearthed during the mid-1990s excavations. In 1996 was made the discovery of 700 sqm of Byzantine mosaics in the Souks area of Beirut, most dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries AD. They were recovered from five large villas and a colonnaded street with its shops. The colonnades had mosaic pavements with Greek letters marking the address of each shop. Most mosaics displayed geometric patterns, although a few incorporated figurative designs. [1]
Beirut prospered during Roman and Byzantine times, until the earthquake of 551 AD destroyed the Roman city of Berytus. One of its most important streets was brought to light during the archaeological investigations of the souks site in the mid-1990s: a colonnaded shopping street with sidewalks, which connected the center to the Hippodrome of Berytus in Wadi Abu Jamil.
The 400-meter-long Colonnaded street was paved with successive layers of mosaics, displaying various geometric patterns and natural motifs. More than ten shops were discovered during the excavations, each one identified by a Greek letter marked on the mosaic floor.
Berytus (Roman Beirut) greatly prospered during Roman and Byzantine times. One of its most important streets was brought to light during the archaeological investigations of the Beirut Souks site in the mid-1990s: a colonnaded shopping street with sidewalks, which connected the center to the Hippodrome or race-track in Wadi Abu Jamil. The 400-meter-long colonnaded street was paved with successive layers of mosaics, displaying various geometric patterns and natural motifs.
More than ten shops of a colonnaded "Portico" were discovered during the excavations, each one identified by a Greek letter (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta…) marked on the mosaic floor. These were written from right to left because the street ran from east to west. A reproduction of the salvaged mosaics, with the Greek letters Beta, Gamma and Delta, is integrated into Souk al-Franj near its original location. The mosaic panel is in alignment with the ancient colonnaded street.
It is likely however, that the Portico discovered on the Souks excavation was colonnaded. The road surface excavated in December 1995 seems to end along the Souk Tawileh line where it turns at an angle of 100 degrees to the north. The Souks excavations clearly demonstrate that no colonnaded street continued to the east along the line of that excavated to the west. [2]
A group of five columns found on the left of the Maronite Cathedral of Saint George, were once part of a grand colonnade of Berytus: they were found in 1963.
A cardo was a north–south street in Ancient Roman cities and military camps as an integral component of city planning. The cardo maximus, or most often the cardo, was the main or central north–south-oriented street.
Kourion was an important ancient Greek city-state on the southwestern coast of Cyprus. In the twelfth century BCE, after the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces, Greek settlers from Argos arrived on this site.
Berytus, briefly known as Laodicea in Phoenicia or Laodicea in Canaan from the 2nd century to 64 BCE, was the ancient city of Beirut from the Roman Republic through the Roman Empire and Early Byzantine period/late antiquity. Berytus became a Roman colonia that would be the center of Roman presence in the eastern Mediterranean shores south of Anatolia. The veterans of two Roman legions under Augustus were established in the city, that afterward quickly became Romanized and was the only fully Latin-speaking city in the Syria-Phoenicia region until the fourth century. Although Berytus was still an important city after earthquakes, around 400 CE Tyre was made the capital of the Roman province of Phoenicia. "Of the great law schools of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus", the law school of Berytus stood "pre-eminent". The Code of Justinian was mostly created in this school.
Arycanda or Arykanda is an Ancient Lycian city, former bishopric and present Catholic titular see in Antalya Province in the Mediterranean Region of Turkey.
The Beirut Central District is the historical and geographical core of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. Also called downtown Beirut, it has been described the “vibrant financial, commercial, and administrative hub of the country.” It is thousands of years old, traditionally a focus of business, finance, culture and leisure.
Laodicea was a port city and important colonia of the Roman Empire in ancient Syria, near the modern city of Latakia. It was also called Laodicea in Syria or Laodicea ad mare. Under Septimius Severus, it was the capital of Roman Syria, and of the Eastern Roman province of Theodorias from 528 to 637 AD.
Early Byzantine mosaics in the Middle East are a group of Christian mosaics created between the 4th and the 8th centuries in ancient Syria, Palestine and Egypt when the area belonged to the Byzantine Empire. The eastern provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire and its continuation, the Byzantine Empire, inherited a strong artistic tradition from pagan Late Antiquity. The tradition of making mosaics was carried on in the Umayyad era until the end of the 8th century. The great majority of these works of art were later destroyed but archeological excavations unearthed many surviving examples.
Phoenicia under Roman rule describes the Phoenician city states ruled by Rome from 64 BCE to the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. The area around Berytus was the only Latin speaking and Romanized part of Aramaic-speaking Phoenicia.
Beirut Souks is a major commercial district in Beirut Central District. With over 200 shops, 25 restaurants and cafes, an entertainment center, a 14 cinema complex, periodic street markets and an upcoming department store, it is Beirut's largest and most diverse shopping and leisure area. Beirut Souks also features piazzas and public space. Designed in five separate commissions by international and Lebanese architects, Beirut Souks offer 128,000 sq. m of built-up area interspersed with landscaped pedestrian zones.
Rue Weygand is a street in Beirut's Central Business District. Originally, the street was named Rue Nouvelle as it was a new thoroughfare constructed as part of a modernization plan in 1915. Upon its completion, the street was renamed after Maxime Weygand, the High Commissioner of French-mandated Syria and Lebanon who served from 19 April 1923 to 29 November 1924.
The Great Colonnade at Apamea was the main colonnaded avenue of the ancient city of Apamea in the Orontes River valley in northwestern Syria. It was built in the second century CE after Apamea's devastation in the 115 earthquake. The avenue, which runs for nearly 2 kilometres (1.2 mi), made up the city's north-south axis, or the cardo maximus. The monumental colonnade is among the longest and most famous in the Roman world.
Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral is the seat of the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan bishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Beirut and its dependencies. It is the city's oldest extant church: it has been built over the disappeared Anastasi Romano-Byzantine Cathedral.
Bab Idriss Square is a square in downtown Beirut, Lebanon.
Cardo Decumanus Crossing was in the heart of Roman Berytus.
Cisterns of the Roman Baths are archaeological remains built during Roman times and are located in downtown Beirut, Lebanon. The cisterns were built in order to store and supply water to Roman Berytus.
The Roman Berytus are located in the middle of downtown Beirut, Lebanon between Banks Street and Capuchin Street. The remains of a Roman bath of Berytus now surrounded by government buildings were found and conserved for posterity.
Souk al-Tawileh is a street located in the heart of downtown Beirut, Lebanon.
The Roman Forum is located in Beirut, Lebanon.
The Beirut Heritage Trail is a project undertaken by Solidere with the support of the Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Beirut. Marked out by bronze medallions grouted into the sidewalk, the trail will link archeological sites, historic public spaces and heritage buildings over a 2.5 km walking circuit in the historic core of Beirut.
The hippodrome of Berytus was a circus in the Roman colony of Berytus. It is one of two hippodromes in Beirut.
