Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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Damascus, SANA_ In Damascus, the oldest inhabited capital in the world, every spot tells some aspects of civilization and visitors can find historic monuments which date back to thousands of years.
Visiting its famous Umayyad Mosque, you will see a number of columns and arches that are the remains of the Temple of Jupiter of the Roman Period.
These columns are the remains of an ancient temple built by the Arameans to worship Hadad-Romman , the god of fertility, thunderstorms and rain at the beginning of the first millennium BC, Assistant director of exploration and documentation at the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums Hammam Saad said.
In the Roman era, Saad added , the temple was reconfigured and expanded under the direction of Damascus-born architect Apollodorus and was named the Temple of Jupiter in relation to the god Jupiter.
At the beginning of the fourth century AD the temple was separated from the city by two sets of walls, Saad said, adding that the walls of the second group surrounded the sanctuary of the original Temple of Jupiter, the largest Roman temple in Syria which remains are still located to the west of the Umayyad Mosque where the Roman columns with the corinthian crowns and the front part of the main arch appear.
Gh. A. Hassoun
