DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45601#0006
THE DJEBEL RIHA.
INTRODUCTORY.
This mountainous district, lying directly to the west of the region described in
the preceding Part of this Division of these Publications (Div. II. Sect. B., Pt. 2), is
not taken up here for the purpose of an exhaustive study; it was carefully explored
by M. de Vogue, and many of his most striking illustrations of architecture were drawn
from its ruins. The district was visited also by the American Expedition of 1899-1900;
it was carefully mapped at that time, and a considerable number of photographic illustra-
tions and measured ground plans of the buildings found there appear in the publications
of that expedition. The purpose of the Princeton Expedition, in visiting the Djebel
Riha, was to choose a ruin as a typical example of the ruined and deserted sites of
the district, to make a plan of the town, and present detailed drawings of all its more
interesting buildings, and, beyond this, to publish photographs, plans, and detailed
drawings of important buildings in two or three places not visited by M. de Vogue,
or by the American Expedition, and of buildings of more than ordinary interest
seen by M. de Vogue or the American Expedition, but omitted from their publi-
cations. The Djebel Riha, it should be recalled, is a strip of hilly, semi-desert,
limestone country that lies between the Orontes and the great highroad that leads
southward from Aleppo, through Hama, to Damascus. At the southern extremity of
the district is the ancient city of Apamea, now KaPat il-Mudik, and north of it is a
plain, that we may call the Plain of Idlib, which separates this particular mountain
group from the cluster of hills that make up the Djebel il-Acla and the Djebel Barisha,
the latter of which is taken up for a more detailed study in the Part which follows
this. The Djebel Riha is sometimes called the Djebel iz-Zawiyeh, and still more in-
frequently the Djebel il-Barah.
The site chosen as a typical example, to represent the little deserted mountain
cities of the Djebel Riha, is Serdjilla, which is not one of the larger places of the
district, like il-Barah and Ruw&ha, nor yet among the smaller ruins, such as Kefr Ambil
or Djeradeh, which, let it be understood, are small towns consisting of a church and
groups of private houses, and are not isolated monasteries. Serdjilla is now a deserted ruin
of medium size; it was, in ancient times, a town of medium importance in the region.
It boasts but a single church, and this of rather small size; its public bath, however,
increases its architectural importance; for not more than two or three towns in the
Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expedition to Syria, Div. II, Sect. B, Pt. 3. 14
INTRODUCTORY.
This mountainous district, lying directly to the west of the region described in
the preceding Part of this Division of these Publications (Div. II. Sect. B., Pt. 2), is
not taken up here for the purpose of an exhaustive study; it was carefully explored
by M. de Vogue, and many of his most striking illustrations of architecture were drawn
from its ruins. The district was visited also by the American Expedition of 1899-1900;
it was carefully mapped at that time, and a considerable number of photographic illustra-
tions and measured ground plans of the buildings found there appear in the publications
of that expedition. The purpose of the Princeton Expedition, in visiting the Djebel
Riha, was to choose a ruin as a typical example of the ruined and deserted sites of
the district, to make a plan of the town, and present detailed drawings of all its more
interesting buildings, and, beyond this, to publish photographs, plans, and detailed
drawings of important buildings in two or three places not visited by M. de Vogue,
or by the American Expedition, and of buildings of more than ordinary interest
seen by M. de Vogue or the American Expedition, but omitted from their publi-
cations. The Djebel Riha, it should be recalled, is a strip of hilly, semi-desert,
limestone country that lies between the Orontes and the great highroad that leads
southward from Aleppo, through Hama, to Damascus. At the southern extremity of
the district is the ancient city of Apamea, now KaPat il-Mudik, and north of it is a
plain, that we may call the Plain of Idlib, which separates this particular mountain
group from the cluster of hills that make up the Djebel il-Acla and the Djebel Barisha,
the latter of which is taken up for a more detailed study in the Part which follows
this. The Djebel Riha is sometimes called the Djebel iz-Zawiyeh, and still more in-
frequently the Djebel il-Barah.
The site chosen as a typical example, to represent the little deserted mountain
cities of the Djebel Riha, is Serdjilla, which is not one of the larger places of the
district, like il-Barah and Ruw&ha, nor yet among the smaller ruins, such as Kefr Ambil
or Djeradeh, which, let it be understood, are small towns consisting of a church and
groups of private houses, and are not isolated monasteries. Serdjilla is now a deserted ruin
of medium size; it was, in ancient times, a town of medium importance in the region.
It boasts but a single church, and this of rather small size; its public bath, however,
increases its architectural importance; for not more than two or three towns in the
Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expedition to Syria, Div. II, Sect. B, Pt. 3. 14