Bosra

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For the town in Jordan, see Bozrah. For the town in Iraq see Basra.

**Ancient City of Bosra**¹
**UNESCO World Heritage Site**

State Party	Syria
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, iii, iv
Identification	#22
Region²	Arab States
Inscription History
Formal Inscription:	1980 4th WH Committee Session
WH link:	http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/22
1 Name as officially inscribed on the WH List 2 As classified officially by UNESCO

Bosra (Arabic: بصرى‎, also spelled Bostra, Busrana, Bozrah, Bozra, Busra Eski Sham, Busra ash-Sham, Nova Trajana Bostra) is an archaeological and UNESCO World Heritage Site in southern modern-day Syria.

The settlement was first mentioned in the documents of Tutmose III and Akhenaton (14th century BC). Bosra was the first Nabatean city in the 2nd century BC. The Nabatean Kingdom was destroyed by Cornelius Palma, a general of Trajan, in 106.

Under the Roman Empire, Bosra was renamed Nova Trajana Bostra, residence of the legion III Cyrenaica and capital of the Roman province Arabia Petraea. The city flourished and became a major metropolis at the juncture of several trade routes, including the Roman road to the Red Sea. The Muslim Arabs later conquered the city from the Romans in the Battle of Bosra in 634. In Islamic times, the settlement was noted as the birthplace of Ibn Kathir.

Today, Bosra is a major archaeological site, containing ruins from Roman, Byzantine, and Muslim times. The city features what is thought to be the best-preserved Roman theatre in the world. Every year there is a national music festival hosted in the theatre.

[edit] External links

The website www.bosracity.com describes both past and present of Bosra. The old city of Bosra, successively the capital of the Roman province of Arabia and an important religious metropolis of Byzantine Empire and a caravan centre and stopping-off point on the pilgrim route to Mecca. Bosra is included in the World Heritage List for more than one reason, most notably that it is a site of extreme rarity and of unique aesthetic value which may be associated with an important event in the history of beliefs.