On the Astronomical Orientation of Apamea and Gerasa

Abstract

The ruins of several ancient towns of the East are showing impressing long colonnaded streets. These streets, named with the Roman terms of decumani and cardines, crossing each other at right angles, are cutting the towns in four main parts. Of such towns with colonnaded streets, here we are discussing Apamea and Gerasa, founded under the rule of the Macedonian Empire. Planned having a regular layout, they seem oriented along a direction which had been established according to an astronomical orientation. Apamea is aligned along the cardinal direction of the true North and Gerasa along the direction of the sunrise on winter solstice.