The main Roman site in Syria is, of course, Palmyra, where we go when we leave Hama. But an easy hour's travel from Hama (change in Suqeilibiya no less) is Apamea, a site about which our guide book merely tells us that it has the longest colonnaded main street in the region.

The whole street is 2km long and some of the columns feature diagonal fluting, a design unique to Apamea.

A Belgian team have been slowly excavating and 'reconstructing' here since the 1930s.

The entire colonnade was in bits when they started and is now a very impressive site, as they have pieced together and re-erected most of the columns – and there are hundreds in total.

The fluting can be see on the photo above.