Apamea is located on the right bank of the Orontes, about 55 km to the northwest of Hama. It overlooks the Ghaab plain. It was built by Saluqos Nikator, the first king of the Seleucids in Syria in 300 B.C. He named it after his wife, Afamia. The city flourished to an extent that its population numbered half a million. As an Eastern crossroads, it received many distinguished visitors: Cleopatra, Septimus Severus and the Emperor Caracalla. In the Christian era, Apamea became a centre of philosophy an thought, especially of Monophotism.
