BSY_FB_17-48

48

Large temple

The monumental centre of the city - focused
about il Mâḳa'id was filled with fine buildings
many of which exist only in heaps of ruins -
Here we still find two temples, the theatre
and a great structure of exedra form now
called the Serâya - the larger temple has
been almost completely demolished, fine
columns of the great hexastyle portico, which
could not be made to serve for modern building,
mark the site. These faced directly upon
the nothern side of the E. & W. avenue. The
walls have completely disappeared but for
a mass of masonry at the rear - showing a
single niche on the interior and the lines of
an hexagonal wall at the north. The plan of
the building, as it can now be traced, seems
to have been nearly a square - The columns
of the pronaos are elevated upon a pedestal.
They are of Roman corinthian order without
[chamferings] - the capitals - in two pieces - are well
executed in the black basalt. The missing
capital is found in a modern structure in
the western part of the town.