BSY_FB_29-16-b

16

Middle Gate. This was found to be parallel with
neither of the other gates and not on axis with either
of them. The plan is quite different from that
shown in deVogüés sketch plan in text. The opening
most nearly opposite gate of the Theatron, and the widest
of the extant portals, is 263m. in width, South of this
is a portal 1.88 wide, and south of this again a jamb,
indicating that there were 2 narrow gates in the
S. of the wide opening. On the N. of it the wall is
high and unbroken. To the east of this wall and
heaped up against of it - are extensive remains of
a Roman structure - 1/2 columns, richly carved bits
of architrave, frieze and cornice, as if the original
openings of the Nabataean gate on this side had been
closed by this building which opened upon the E. west.
Long walls, like deep buttresses project from the gate
westward. In front of the gate, in the E. about 3m.
from the jamb stands a column base with two rows
of lions (one circled). The narrower fragments of
moulding probably belonged to niches between the gates.