Roman roads in Syria
Roman Syria was the empire's frontier with Parthia and later Persia, and its roads carried both armies and the caravan trade. The Strata Diocletiana ran along the desert edge from the Euphrates toward Damascus, a fortified road watching the steppe. Palmyra grew rich as the point where the desert crossing met the Roman road system.
What to see
Palmyra's colonnaded street, its tetrapylon and the temple of Bel made it the most spectacular Roman city in the Levant, though much was destroyed after 2015. Apamea keeps a colonnade nearly two kilometres long, and Bosra in the south has a Roman theatre preserved inside a later Arab citadel, which is why it survives almost complete.
- Mapped segments
- 226
- Surveyed length
- 6,050 km
- Named roads
- 2
Measured from the Itiner-e survey. Segments by certainty of line: conjectured 135, certain 62, hypothetical 29. A conjectured line is one inferred from evidence either side of it, not a road whose existence is doubted.
Named roads in Syria
Roads the survey identifies by name here, with the length mapped within Syria's modern borders. Most ran further.
- Strata Diocletiana 195 km
- Via Nova Traiana 13 km
What kind of roads
- Main Road 118 segments
- Secondary Road 108 segments