Apamea was founded by Seleucus I Nicator at the beginning of the third century BC.

The town was named Apamea after the Persian princess who married Seleucus.

Apamea was encircled by seven kilometers of ramparts. The theater with a façade of 139 meters was one of the largest in antiquity. Its city’s water tanks were fed by an aqueduct 120 kilometers long.

Apamea received many distinguished visitors among whom was Cleopatra on her return from a visit to the Euphrates with Anthony.

In the forth century, Apamea was still conscious of a pagan past and the glory that her philosophers had brought to the city. Thus, despite the vigor of her bishops, the city became a center of Monophysisum; the doctrine denying the duality of the nature of Christ which led to the establishment of the Syrian speaking Jacobite Church.

At the beginning of the fifth century Apamea was the capital of Syria secunda while Antioch was the capital of Syria prima. It was the home of an archbishopric. However, due to a series of Persian raids during the sixth century the city’s peace and prosperity were destroyed. In 638, Apamea returned to Arab rule.

The Byzantine occupied Apamea from 975 to 993. Then in 1106, it was conquered by the crusaders. After 43 years, it returned to Arab rule under Nur al Din Ibn Zinki in 1149.

Apamea is laid out like many other imperial cities. The central avenue is lined with shops; the various quarters of the city were determined in relation to the central axis. The avenue was originally lined with 1200 columns. Resting upon these lofty columns were porticoes. Subtle differences in the colonnade vary its perspective. All the capitals were in the elegant Corinthian style.

This great colonnade was erected in the second century AD. and fell in the earthquakes of 1157 and 1170. However, a series of columns with twisted fluting have been re-erected to suggest the city’s former glory.