DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45588#0029
424
Division II Section A Part 7
have had some permanent records of these Christian Arabic buildings, dated in the
year 568 a. d. and sufficiently cosmopolitan in character to require an inscription in both
Arabic and Greek.
Among the modern houses are fragments of ancient ones which show excellent
workmanship and interesting details, such as windows with shade-stones carried upon
carved corbels, arched entrances, ornamental niches, and ingeniously planned latrinae;
but all of these are in places where it would be difficult to take measurements or photo-
graphs of them. Altogether, Harran is now a very disappointing ruin.
140. MSEKEH.
Near the southwestern extremity of the Ledja, not far from the large villages of
Zorcah and Busr il-Hariri on the rim, is this extensive deserted ruin which had not
been reached by explorers before the time of our visit. Though comparatively near
two large settlements, the ruin is separated from both by such impassible fields of lava
111. 366.
that it has not been plundered of its building-stones, and it contains a number of ancient
buildings intact and many interesting unpublished inscriptions. If the place had not been
inhabited by Moslems in the Middle Ages, it would be to-day a very perfect specimen
of an ancient town of the Ledja. As it is, it contains many houses of the early Christian
period and several buildings which may be of earlier date. There is a fairly large
mosque, in quite a good state of preservation, standing as a monument of Mediaeval
times. The ruins cover a comparatively extensive area. In the midst is a large open
space, like a common, near the middle of which stands a tower which is dated by an
inscription 1 set up between the years 247 and 249 a. d.
In the southwestern quarter of the ancient town there is an unusual type of building
(Ill. 366) which, for various reasons, I hesitate to call a church, and which, in plan
and structure, resembles the long hall of the Kaisariyeh at Shakka 3 more closely than
it does any other building. The building is roughly oriented. It consists of a long-
hall spanned by four transverse arches which are spaced at varying widths. There is
1 Div. III. inscr. 795*.
2 5. C. Pl. 8, A. A. E. S. II, p. 370.
Division II Section A Part 7
have had some permanent records of these Christian Arabic buildings, dated in the
year 568 a. d. and sufficiently cosmopolitan in character to require an inscription in both
Arabic and Greek.
Among the modern houses are fragments of ancient ones which show excellent
workmanship and interesting details, such as windows with shade-stones carried upon
carved corbels, arched entrances, ornamental niches, and ingeniously planned latrinae;
but all of these are in places where it would be difficult to take measurements or photo-
graphs of them. Altogether, Harran is now a very disappointing ruin.
140. MSEKEH.
Near the southwestern extremity of the Ledja, not far from the large villages of
Zorcah and Busr il-Hariri on the rim, is this extensive deserted ruin which had not
been reached by explorers before the time of our visit. Though comparatively near
two large settlements, the ruin is separated from both by such impassible fields of lava
111. 366.
that it has not been plundered of its building-stones, and it contains a number of ancient
buildings intact and many interesting unpublished inscriptions. If the place had not been
inhabited by Moslems in the Middle Ages, it would be to-day a very perfect specimen
of an ancient town of the Ledja. As it is, it contains many houses of the early Christian
period and several buildings which may be of earlier date. There is a fairly large
mosque, in quite a good state of preservation, standing as a monument of Mediaeval
times. The ruins cover a comparatively extensive area. In the midst is a large open
space, like a common, near the middle of which stands a tower which is dated by an
inscription 1 set up between the years 247 and 249 a. d.
In the southwestern quarter of the ancient town there is an unusual type of building
(Ill. 366) which, for various reasons, I hesitate to call a church, and which, in plan
and structure, resembles the long hall of the Kaisariyeh at Shakka 3 more closely than
it does any other building. The building is roughly oriented. It consists of a long-
hall spanned by four transverse arches which are spaced at varying widths. There is
1 Div. III. inscr. 795*.
2 5. C. Pl. 8, A. A. E. S. II, p. 370.