DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45581#0107
148 II. A. 2. — Southern Hauran
narrow space), ten men could sleep; which is to say that a thousand men could pos-
sibly sleep in these barracks; and as a certain number would naturally be detailed
for guard and sentry duty, a thousand could be provided for here with very little
crowding. There is room for sixty horses without the long narrow compartment in
the southeast angle. It is doubtful if so many as a thousand men were ever kept at
Der il-Kahf as a regular garrison; but, if troops were being moved to the East or
South, that number could have been housed here for a time. The chapel, which or-
iginally had been a temple, and which is probably as early as Valentinian’s time at
least, was of the oblong undivided plan, with transverse arches, which I believe to be
one of the earliest plans for churches in the Hauran. An apse protrudes at the east
end; it is deep and approaches a semi-circle within, and is enclosed in a trapezoid
outside; there are three transverse arches, and the entrance is on the south side. The
west end is divided off for two rooms, which may have been the chaplain’s residence.
The reservoir (λάκκος), near the west end of the south wall, is reached from the interior
of the quadrangle by a narrow passage and a small doorway in the thick outer wall.
The reservoir itself measures 6 m. by 7.70 m.; its walls are high and thick. On the
side toward the fortress is a platform,. 2.85 m. wide, extending across the entire end.
In the west wall is an aperture which marks the end of the aqueduct (αγωγός) which
brought water to the reservoir, all other traces of it are lost. This cistern was per-
haps the chief water supply of the fortress; but the fact that one of the rooms on the
ground floor connects with the passage, and thus with the cistern, making a sort of
suite, suggested the theory that the reservoir was possibly the swimming pool of a
bath, while the connecting room might have been a caldarium, or a sudatorium, though
the condition of the ruins prevents the securing of data that could throw light upon
this last point. Baths were sometimes, if not frequently, connected with Roman camps,
and, in Syria, a bath was found by M. de Vogue near the fort at Djebel Ses, and
one was found by our expedition beside the barracks at il-Anderin. 1 The word λάκκος,
used in the inscription, I understand was applied to a cistern, a tank, a vat or a pool,
but I know of no case in which it was applied to the frigidarium of a bath; yet Greek
words were often loosely used in Syria, and the use of the word in this case is no
serious bar to the theory that this pool was a part of a bath rather than a storage
reservoir. There are traces of other cisterns within the quadrangle, cisterns that were
entirely below the surface and covered over; but these have fallen in and have been
filled with debris. It is not possible to discover if they were fed by the aqueduct.
The ancient name of D6r il-Kahf seems to have been Spelunca, as Professor Briinnow
has suggested; for in Arabic kahf means cavern. It was one of the fortresses which
guarded the southeastern border of the thickly settled district of the Hauran, and, with the
fortresses of Koser il-Hallabat to the southwest, and id-Diyatheh and in-Nemarah to the
northeast, was part of a chain of fortifications that extended out toward Palmyra and perhaps
beyond to the Euphrates. Between Der il-Kahf and id-Diyatheh are the small military
station of Umm Koser and other places with high towers. It may have been possible
by means of these watch-towers on the eastern and southeastern borders of the Hauran
to have signalled from one end of the chain of fortresses to the other. D6r il-Kahf
was also a protection to the highway that led from Salkhad toward central Arabia.
1 Div. II, Sect. B, Pt. 2.
narrow space), ten men could sleep; which is to say that a thousand men could pos-
sibly sleep in these barracks; and as a certain number would naturally be detailed
for guard and sentry duty, a thousand could be provided for here with very little
crowding. There is room for sixty horses without the long narrow compartment in
the southeast angle. It is doubtful if so many as a thousand men were ever kept at
Der il-Kahf as a regular garrison; but, if troops were being moved to the East or
South, that number could have been housed here for a time. The chapel, which or-
iginally had been a temple, and which is probably as early as Valentinian’s time at
least, was of the oblong undivided plan, with transverse arches, which I believe to be
one of the earliest plans for churches in the Hauran. An apse protrudes at the east
end; it is deep and approaches a semi-circle within, and is enclosed in a trapezoid
outside; there are three transverse arches, and the entrance is on the south side. The
west end is divided off for two rooms, which may have been the chaplain’s residence.
The reservoir (λάκκος), near the west end of the south wall, is reached from the interior
of the quadrangle by a narrow passage and a small doorway in the thick outer wall.
The reservoir itself measures 6 m. by 7.70 m.; its walls are high and thick. On the
side toward the fortress is a platform,. 2.85 m. wide, extending across the entire end.
In the west wall is an aperture which marks the end of the aqueduct (αγωγός) which
brought water to the reservoir, all other traces of it are lost. This cistern was per-
haps the chief water supply of the fortress; but the fact that one of the rooms on the
ground floor connects with the passage, and thus with the cistern, making a sort of
suite, suggested the theory that the reservoir was possibly the swimming pool of a
bath, while the connecting room might have been a caldarium, or a sudatorium, though
the condition of the ruins prevents the securing of data that could throw light upon
this last point. Baths were sometimes, if not frequently, connected with Roman camps,
and, in Syria, a bath was found by M. de Vogue near the fort at Djebel Ses, and
one was found by our expedition beside the barracks at il-Anderin. 1 The word λάκκος,
used in the inscription, I understand was applied to a cistern, a tank, a vat or a pool,
but I know of no case in which it was applied to the frigidarium of a bath; yet Greek
words were often loosely used in Syria, and the use of the word in this case is no
serious bar to the theory that this pool was a part of a bath rather than a storage
reservoir. There are traces of other cisterns within the quadrangle, cisterns that were
entirely below the surface and covered over; but these have fallen in and have been
filled with debris. It is not possible to discover if they were fed by the aqueduct.
The ancient name of D6r il-Kahf seems to have been Spelunca, as Professor Briinnow
has suggested; for in Arabic kahf means cavern. It was one of the fortresses which
guarded the southeastern border of the thickly settled district of the Hauran, and, with the
fortresses of Koser il-Hallabat to the southwest, and id-Diyatheh and in-Nemarah to the
northeast, was part of a chain of fortifications that extended out toward Palmyra and perhaps
beyond to the Euphrates. Between Der il-Kahf and id-Diyatheh are the small military
station of Umm Koser and other places with high towers. It may have been possible
by means of these watch-towers on the eastern and southeastern borders of the Hauran
to have signalled from one end of the chain of fortresses to the other. D6r il-Kahf
was also a protection to the highway that led from Salkhad toward central Arabia.
1 Div. II, Sect. B, Pt. 2.