With over a mile of columns lining its former Cardo Maximus, or Main Street, Apamea can fairly claim to be one of the jewels in Syria's crown of archaeological masterpieces, yet on a winter's day the ruins were almost empty.
Rising abruptly from the vast plain of the Orontes river, the citadel of Apamea in western Syria stands out dramatically against the purple-blue Alawi Mountains. The citadel has been inhabited since the fifth millennium BC, and its sides, strewn with present-day garbage from the current inhabitants, conceal layer upon layer of earlier habitation.
To the east of the citadel lies the town itself, which flourished under its founders, the Seleucids, followed by the Romans, who took it over in 64 BC. The city was named to commemorate Apameia, the Persian wife of its Seleucid founder.
It was surrounded by almost 7 km of wall, most of which has been excavated. But the highlight of Apamea is without doubt the reconstructed Cardo Maximus of the Roman city with its impressive rows of columns.
For 800 years, the splendour of Roman architecture at Apamea lay hidden from view, buried under earth, with fragments of columns protruding from the grass. Two powerful earthquakes, in 1157 and 1170, devastated the region, flattening nearby cities such as Antioch and Latakia.
The Syrian archaeologist who was responsible for the restoration of the columns of Apamea is Dr Abdurazzaq Zaqzuq. He is also director of the museum in Hama, 60 km south-east of Apamea. Dr Zaqzuq makes a unique guide on a tour of the rich archaeological area surrounding Hama.
The tour starts in his office at the Hama museum, which occupies a room of the beautiful Azem Palace, one of the finest examples of Ottoman architecture in Syria.
The museum's upper storey still shows damage inflicted in the notorious Hama uprising of 1982, when thousands died in an armed uprising of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was suppressed by the Syrian authorities under President Hafez el-Assad. No one knows exactly how many lost their lives, and Dr Zaqzuq refused to discuss the event.
He was much more eager to point out the norias, or giant wooden water wheels, which were used to irrigate the gardens of Hama with water from the deep-sided Orontes flowing through the city. The norias which Dr Zaqzuq helped to restore are no longer used for irrigation and are nowadays just a tourist attraction.
Leaving Hama and driving across the table-like landscape of the Orontes plain, Dr Zaqzuq pointed out the frequent steepsided mounds, or tells, indicating settlements from the Bronze Age and before. Tells appear every few kilometres as the Orontes plain, an expanse of rich farmland reclaimed from swamps, has attracted inhabitants from the earliest times.
"It is a land of civilisation, Syria," said Dr Zaqzuq. "Under every centimetre you can find something." He recalled how a sarcophagus containing several gold items was found by chance in a village north of Hama.
The land is evidently rich farmland, but the inhabitants are poor. Women in long dresses squat in the fields tending tomato and sugar-beet crops. Identical blue and orange tractors trundle by, reminiscent of a Soviet-inspired state production line. Villages consist of squalid one-room or two-room houses constructed from undressed concrete blocks with an unfinished look caused by metal rods sticking out of the corners.
A detour was made to drive by a particularly large grass-covered tell, which Dr Zaqzuq said a Canadian archaeologist was planning to excavate. Bedouin tents were pitched at the base of the ancient city walls, while their goats and sheep grazed along the top.
Until recently, most of the foreigners who came to this part of Syria have been explorers or archaeologists. Belgians have been involved in the excavations at Apamea since 1930. And a Danish female archaeologist is currently working in the Hama museum.
Arriving at Apamea, Dr Zaqzuq donned a red-and-white checkered keffiyeh head-dress. He clearly relished the task of guiding visitors along the nowvisible stones of the Cardo Maximus and pointing out the highlights. "Nobody came here before the restoration, but now you can walk along a real Roman road," he exclaimed proudly.