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After driving for a couple of hours we reached the impressive ancient city of Apamea which is notable for its exceptionally long Roman street lined with classical columns. It was founded in 300 BC by SeleucusNicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals and the first king of the Seleucids in Syria. He named it after his Bactrian wife, Apame. The beautiful new Hellenistic city soon flourished, becoming one of the three main cities of the Seleucid Empire (with Antioch on the Orontes and Seleucia on the Tigris). Its population numbered half a million. Pompey made Apamea part of the Roman Empire in 64 BC, and it was in the Roman period that much of what remains today was built.The street is 1.85 km long and 87 meters wide, running directly from north to south.We have to say that it was another fantastic ruin from civilisation's ancient past and it was wonderful just walking along the road taking in the sun.Since we did not have a guide (again) Maria made sure to earwig the Italian guide so that we at least had a vague idea of what we were looking at...besides lots of nice, big looking columns of course. So, why don't you just get a guide book we hear you ask?The fact is we do, but we left it in the UK confident in the fact that we would be provided with the most knowledgeable guides ever to graduate from guide school (no, not the girls wearing silly neck scarves and woggles)...yeah right!!!
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