Great Colonnade at Palmyra The western colonnade was the first section to be built. Inscriptions found on some columns confirm that works started before 158 CE. The straight avenue ran in northwest-southeast direction and stretched for , the longest of the three sectors. The main avenue's width was while the side streets were in width. The colonnade's western terminus, the West Gate, was built in the late second-century CE. The avenue also connected in a right angle to the Transverse Colonnade which stretched to the Damascus Gate in the south. The eastern sector of the Great Colonnade started at the Monumental Arch and stretched
Perrault's Colonnade French classical architecture, it is shown in nearly every project and early drawing of the east facade, and its reexcavation revealed the original "soubassement", or podium (see the engraving from Blondel's book). The moat may have been filled in around 1674 to facilitate construction (see the engraving by Sébastien Leclerc) and not restored due to lack of funds to build the "contrescarpe" after Louis XIV's attention shifted to the Palace of Versailles. However, in 1981 Germain Bazin argued that the reconstruction of the moat was misguided, since for aesthetic reasons Louis XIV had never wanted it. For centuries, Perrault’s Colonnade