The Roman Hippodrome

Site description: It dates back to the second century AD, when in 1941, some parts of the Hippodrome were uncovered, and in 1980 all aspects were discovered. The Hippodrome was the typical long rectangular shape with curved ends. There are several entrances; each entrance was designated for a horse pulling the racing chariot led by one of the knights, and these entrances lead to the track and are divided into two parts longitudinally, a section for the home round and the opposite section for the return round. The ends of the trail are U-shaped or similar to a horseshoe; to facilitate the turning of chariots and horses, a layer of kurkar has been added to the race track to facilitate the passage of chariots. The track is surrounded on its three sides by high stone staircases. And to enable the audience to watch the race and to achieve this height, cabinets were built along the sides of the track, where those rooms carried the stairs that took a slanted shape towards the trail. The rooms were used to house animals and horses, storage rooms, and multi-use rooms. The front of the square where the entrances are located was topped by arches decorated with beautiful stone friezes. The number of stairs is estimated at approximately 15 rows, and the audience reaches the rows by climbing stone staircases.The length of the track was about 400 x 91 m, it had seven entrances, where the contestants' chariots stood, and the foundations of the audience's seats were revealed on both sides of the corridor, and it was estimated that it had a capacity of eight thousand people. The building was abandoned at the end of the second century AD, and the circular theater was built on its ruins from the eastern side. The reason for this is likely due to the cessation of the popularity of horse racing and the emergence of a new sport of a purely Roman character, wrestling. In the Byzantine era, some rooms were reused as random dwellings, animals, Barnes, and livestock.