The Colonnade of Bacchus in Latakia

Four granite Roman columns, 8 metres tall, in the Saliba quarter of Latakia. They are said to come from a Roman temple traditionally attributed to Bacchus, though which god it served is not documented. After the Roman arch, they are one of the few classical pieces of ancient Laodicea still standing.

Getting there

The columns stand about 200 metres north-east of the Roman Arch of Latakia, where the Saliba and Ashrafiyeh quarters meet. It is a few minutes’ walk from the arch. The Qubba Mosque is just to the west. The columns rise from a small green plot with a low stone wall and railings, between apartment blocks.

What to see

Three of the four columns stand in a row; the fourth, on the left, meets them at a right angle. That is how you can read the corner of a temple. The capitals are Corinthian of the imperial type, with deeply cut acanthus leaves. Pieces of the stone beam still sit on top of the columns, and architectural carving is visible on its sides. Specialists think the building was a peripteral temple, one ringed by columns on every side.

How it reached today

In the middle of the 14th century the gaps between the columns were walled up and the site became part of a building used as a mosque. An engraving by Luigi Mayer, published in 1810, shows them in that state, as part of a mosque. A colour photograph taken in 1921 by the French photographer Frédéric Gadmer still shows them among stone walls and rooftops. A lithograph by Camille Rogier shows people strolling around them. When Saliba and Ashrafiyeh were redeveloped, a new road was cut through the site. The surrounding buildings and the walls between the columns were pulled down, and the columns stood free again.

How long it takes

Fifteen minutes. Walking round the plot to see the columns from all four sides is enough. Allow half an hour with the Qubba Mosque.

What most people miss

The underside of the beam. Look closely at the lower face of the stone blocks resting on the columns. The carving reads best from below, not from the side. The join between the Corinthian capitals and the beam is the clearest sign that this was a temple.