This project aimed to produce new, meaningful results on southern Syrian urban planning using the example of the imperial residence city of Shahba-Philippopolis in the north of the Gabal al-‘Arab. In collaboration with the Department of Architecture-Urban Planning, the German Archaeological Institute, Damascus Branch, and the “Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées de la Syrie”, the first step was to create a comprehensive inventory, chronological classification, and functional determination of the various ancient architectural complexes of Shahba. On this basis, on the one hand, the previously completely uncertain early settlement of Shahba could be proven, the previous settlement could be located, and monumental basalt architecture could be documented as early as the 1st century AD and the middle of the 2nd century AD. On the other hand, this created a more diverse picture of the relationship between urban and residential building forms with regard to the development of late antique imperial residences.