Gemarrin Roman Bridge

A Roman bridge crosses the Wadi Zeidi at the northern edge of the village of Jemarrin, a few kilometres north of Bosra. It carried the road from Bostra to Soada Dionysias, today’s Suwayda. What stands now is the skeleton of the structure: three semicircular arches of local basalt, built with wedge-shaped voussoirs. The roadway and the fill between the arches are gone, leaving the tops of the vaults exposed.

Getting there

Take the road north from Bosra to Jemarrin. The bridge is north of the village, where the road crosses the wadi. The Kharaba bridge lies six kilometres to the west as the crow flies, on the same wadi, and half a day out of Bosra covers both.

How long it takes

Half an hour for the bridge. Allow an hour with the Roman villa in the middle of the village.

What to see

Three arches, side by side. With the fill stripped out, the curve of each one can be read from above as well. German sources suggest the stone was most likely reused in the village. Arabic sources place the bridge in the same period as the bridge at Tayyibeh, dated to 164, on the strength of its similar build and style.

Do not miss

The walls on both banks. They run diagonally down from the edges of the wadi towards the bridge, built to steer floodwater into the bed under the arches instead of letting it spread. Most visitors look at the arches and leave. The real idea behind the design is in these walls.

The Roman villa in the village

A Roman villa of the 2nd century stands in the centre of the village. Its northern wing survives with a façade 40 metres long, and two of its several storeys remain. In the middle are large rooms roofed with arches, with a room of the same size above them; on each side are rectangular rooms and a large square room. The whole building was a square plan with a courtyard and porticoes, enclosed by a high wall with sides of 60 to 80 metres. Only foundations are left of the southern part, and they have never been restored. Arabic sources also record a church dedicated to Saint Stephen, built in the village in 543 during the Byzantine period.

The site today

The cover photograph dates from 1995. It shows water pooled under the arches and stone-strewn fields all round. The present state of the bridge and the villa could not be verified. The village is in Daraa province and access varies; ask locally in Bosra before setting out.