{"id":60228,"date":"2025-06-01T09:29:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T23:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=60228"},"modified":"2025-06-01T09:29:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T23:29:53","slug":"the-great-colonnade-of-apamea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=60228","title":{"rendered":"The Great Colonnade of Apamea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-60229\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/The_Great_Colonnade_of_Apamea.jpg\" alt=\"The Great Colonnade of Apamea\" width=\"754\" height=\"930\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/The_Great_Colonnade_of_Apamea.jpg 519w, https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/The_Great_Colonnade_of_Apamea-243x300.jpg 243w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 706px) 89vw, (max-width: 767px) 82vw, 740px\" \/><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Imagine walking down the most magnificent street ever built &#8211; welcome to the Great Colonnade of Apamea. This wasn&#8217;t just any ancient walkway; it was a stunning 2-kilometer parade of massive columns that would make modern skyscrapers seem modest in comparison. Each column reached as high as a three-story building, thick as a small car, and lined a street longer than 20 football fields!<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Built during the height of the Seleucid Empire, this wasn&#8217;t simply architecture &#8211; it was a show of power carved in stone. When a devastating earthquake shook the region in 115 AD, the people of Apamea didn&#8217;t just rebuild; they created something even more spectacular. Imagine yourself there: massive columns rising on both sides, their carefully carved spiral patterns catching the sunlight, their shadows dancing across the wide avenue as merchants, nobles, and travelers passed beneath.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Each column stood like a stone giant, 9 meters tall, with bases so perfectly squared they&#8217;ve survived nearly two millennia of time&#8217;s endless march. The fluted patterns spiraling up their sides weren&#8217;t just decoration &#8211; they were a statement: &#8220;This is Apamea, where even our street corners rival the grandest temples of other cities.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Today, we build impressive shopping malls and broad avenues, but none quite capture the sheer audacity of Apamea&#8217;s Great Colonnade &#8211; a street that didn&#8217;t just connect two points, but proclaimed to the ancient world: &#8220;This is what power looks like when it&#8217;s carved in stone.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Read more:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Great_Colonnade_at_Apamea\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Great_Colonnade_at_Apamea<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine walking down the most magnificent street ever built &#8211; welcome to the Great Colonnade of Apamea. This wasn&#8217;t just any ancient walkway; it was a stunning 2-kilometer parade of massive columns that would make modern skyscrapers seem modest in comparison. Each column reached as high as a three-story building, thick as a small car, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=60228\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Great Colonnade of Apamea&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60230,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60228\/revisions\/60230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}