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GABALA (Ancient city) SYRIA
A small coastal town 20 km S of Laodicea ad Mare. Gabala was a Phoenician
city of the confederation of Arados and became independent in the 1st c. B.C.
Pausanias mentions one of its sanctuaries, dedicated to a Nereid, and in the 5th
c. A.D. Theodoretos of Cyrrhos declared it to be a charming little town.
The town was built on a grid plan, probably dating from the Seleucid
period. Its main monument is a theater, erected in the center of the town during
Roman times. It was still well preserved in the 19th c. and has now been partially
cleared. It was built on flat ground and oriented N-NE. The hemicycle has a diameter
of 90 m, and its three tiers of seats are entirely supported by vaults. There
are no vomitoria, but a series of outside entryways under the arcades of the facade
and two interior corridors leading to the parodoi guaranteed easy circulation.
The elegant profile of the tiers of seats, the delicacy of the sculptured decoration
of the scaenae frons, the polychromy of the imported marbles and granites, all
indicate Hellenistic influence. The ramparts are of Roman date. The port is of
a type frequent in Phoenicia: a beach behind an opening in the sandstone barrier
which forms the coast, with an outer harbor.
J. P. Rey-Coquais, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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