Great Colonnade at Apamea columns display two main designs: a plain one, and the distinctive spiral-flutes. Archaeologist Jean Lassus argues that the former dates back to the Trajanic period, while the latter to that of Antoninus Pius. The colonnade's porticoes were paved with extensive mosaics along the full stretch of the colonnade. Under the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I, several parts of the colonnade were restored. The street was narrowed to by adding a sidewalk on either side. Several stretches of the street had their Roman pavement replaced with a new pavement made of squared blocks of limestone. The new pavement also covered a completely
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