"Roman era city in ruins" a Busra ash Sham Travel Page by atufft

The ruins of Busra provide a complete look at life in the ancient world. Residences, shops, temples, baths, and a great theater, it's all here. Moreover, because the Nabatean and Roman era buildings are in such good basic condition, largely due to the hard black basalt rock used, the villagers still live here, providing something of a living history as they live pretty much as the ancients did. Naturally, overtime the rocks have been moved around as successive generations have built and rebuilt to suit their needs. Despite this, each generation's contributions are clearly evident throughout the village.

The theater, which is still actively used, has a history of its own. It's not built into a hillside, but rather from the ground up, and combines a foundation of durable black basalt with the beauty of limestone in the theater stage and facade. The large walls once served as a medieval fortress so well, that a moat was dug and a second surrounding wall of fortifications added to enlarge the structure. This is a complex that in itself that may take a hour or more wandering through darked walled passageways, and when one finally opens upon a view of the central theatre and stage, another hour can easily be spent watching a local performance. In an upper floor behind the stage is a mall of fragments that includes stella with a number of different alphabets and languages.

The people friendly enough and don't harass the visitor. As said, close examination of the architecture reveals considerable modification over the years, but basically all the epochs--Nabatanean, Roman, early Christian, and early Muslim are well represented here and the layout of the city resembles the original layout. Don't be surprised to see goats grazing among the ruins.