In Front Was A Colonnade, Of Which Eight
Corinthian Columns Yet Remain, Besides Four Fragments Of Shafts; They
Are About Fifteen Feet High, Surmounted By An Entablature Still Entire.
This Colonnade Must Have Had At Least Fifty Columns; The Workmanship Is
Not Of The Best Roman Times.
Near this theatre is a building (h), the
details of which I was not able to make out exactly; its front is built
irregularly, without columns, or ornaments of any kind.
On entering I
found a semi-circular area, enclosed by a high wall in which narrow
steps were formed, running all round from bottom to top. The inside of
the front wall, as well as the round wall of the area, is richly
ornamented with sculptured ornaments. The roof, which once covered the
whole building, has fallen down, and choaks up the interior in such a
way as to render it difficult to determine whether the edifice has been
a palace, or destined for public amusements. Nearly opposite the
theatre, to the northward of the river, are the remains of a temple (k),
the posterior wall of which only remains, having an entablature, and
several niches highly adorned with sculpture. Before this building stand
the shafts of several columns three feet in diameter. Its date appears
to be anterior to that of all the other buildings of Amman, and its
style of architecture is much superior. At some distance farther down
the Wady, stand a few small columns (i), probably the remains of a
temple. The plain between the river and the northern hills is covered
with ruins of private buildings, extending from the church (c) down to
the columns (i); but nothing of them remains, except the foundations and
some of the door posts. On the top of the highest of the northern hills
stands the castle of Amman, a very extensive
[p.360] building; it was an oblong square, filled with buildings, of
which, about as much remains as there does of the private dwellings in
the lower town. The castle walls are thick, and denote a remote
antiquity: large blocks of stone are piled up without cement, and still
hold together as well as if they had been recently placed; the greater
part of the wall is entire, it is placed a little below the crest of the
hill, and appears not to have risen much above the level of its summit.
Within the castle are several deep cisterns. At (m) is a square
building, in complete preservation, constructed in the same manner as
the castle wall; it is without ornaments, and the only opening into it
is a low door, over which was an inscription now defaced. Near this
building are the traces of a large temple (n); several of its broken
columns are lying on the ground; they are the largest I saw at Amman,
some of them being three feet and a half in diameter; their capitals are
of the Corinthian order. On the north side of the castle is a ditch cut
in the rock, for the better defence of this side of the hill, which is
less steep than the others.
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