DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45601#0007
io6
II. B. 3.
whole district, large or small, have buildings that can be certainly recognized as baths-,
its private dwellings, though not among the largest or most conspicuous in the country,
embrace residences of various classes, representing the houses of the poorer and the
wealthier citizens; and its tombs are not without the interest of variety.
The other sites, one or more buildings of which are to be published herewith,
are Kefr Ruma, a small inhabited village, on the edge of the district, near Maarrit
in-Nucman, where a columnar tomb-monument and an ancient bridge were found that
seemed worthy of record, Delloza, where the remains of an ancient church and one
of the most beautiful houses in Central Syria claimed attention, Kokaba, a newly dis-
covered site with an interesting house and tower, and Kasr il-Benat, near the lower
Dana, where there is a building of unique plan and structure unpublished heretofore.
Besides these monuments from unknown, or little known, sites in the region, I am pub-
lishing a tomb discovered near the famous pyramidal tomb at Dana, and republishing
the great church at Ruweha, being in possession of illustrations and measurements of
details unknown to M. de Vogue when he made the first publication of the building.
This Part of the present publications then, is to be considered as an extension of the
work of M. de Vogue in that region. The great interest and importance of the pioneer
work would be a sufficient reason for the publication of this Part, were any reason
required.
In passing westward, out of the basaltic country of Kerratin and its environs, into
the rocky limestone region of the Djebel Riha, one cannot fail to be impressed with
the important bearing of materials upon architectural forms. The effect of this influence
is probably stronger now, in the ruins of architecture, than it would have been when
the buildings were new; for the ruins of buildings in that basalt region are far from
beautiful; while those in the limestone hills are picturesque in the extreme. In the
former, one is obliged to search among confused masses of rough and broken black
stone for the lines of walls and for fragments of carved ornament; while in the latter
the buildings are, in the main, remarkably well preserved. The limestone, a soft creamy
white originally, has taken on soft tints of yellow, brown and grey. Towering walls
and slender columns, graceful arches and delicately adorned portals, stand up boldly
in the rocky wastes (Ill. 123) to display their rich decorations in well-wrought mouldings,
bands of conventional foliage, and discs of intricate design, the work of a thousand
ancient chisels. And yet, in their early state, when their rough walls were covered
with smooth stucco, their finely carved arches and portals all in place, and perhaps
with every detail picked out in colour, the buildings in the basalt belt may have had
a charm equal to that of the limestone buildings in these western hills.
We started for the Djebel Riha from Macrata, passing through Ma'arrit in-Nucman
with its khans and tall minaret and other monuments of its mediaeval Moslem history,
and again, as on the occasion of other visits to the place, I was impressed with the
paucity of remains of buildings older than the mediaeval period. At Homs and at
Hama one is conscious, at every turn, of the antiquity of the sites; sections of ancient
walls and fragments of architectural details of the Roman and Christian periods, appear
in building after building, even in the pavements, and especially in the cemeteries.
In Macarrit in-Nucman, on the contrary, comparatively few fragments of ancient archi-
tecture are to be seen, and it seemed to me that those which do appear are quite as
likely to have been brought from neighbouring deserted towns as to have belonged
II. B. 3.
whole district, large or small, have buildings that can be certainly recognized as baths-,
its private dwellings, though not among the largest or most conspicuous in the country,
embrace residences of various classes, representing the houses of the poorer and the
wealthier citizens; and its tombs are not without the interest of variety.
The other sites, one or more buildings of which are to be published herewith,
are Kefr Ruma, a small inhabited village, on the edge of the district, near Maarrit
in-Nucman, where a columnar tomb-monument and an ancient bridge were found that
seemed worthy of record, Delloza, where the remains of an ancient church and one
of the most beautiful houses in Central Syria claimed attention, Kokaba, a newly dis-
covered site with an interesting house and tower, and Kasr il-Benat, near the lower
Dana, where there is a building of unique plan and structure unpublished heretofore.
Besides these monuments from unknown, or little known, sites in the region, I am pub-
lishing a tomb discovered near the famous pyramidal tomb at Dana, and republishing
the great church at Ruweha, being in possession of illustrations and measurements of
details unknown to M. de Vogue when he made the first publication of the building.
This Part of the present publications then, is to be considered as an extension of the
work of M. de Vogue in that region. The great interest and importance of the pioneer
work would be a sufficient reason for the publication of this Part, were any reason
required.
In passing westward, out of the basaltic country of Kerratin and its environs, into
the rocky limestone region of the Djebel Riha, one cannot fail to be impressed with
the important bearing of materials upon architectural forms. The effect of this influence
is probably stronger now, in the ruins of architecture, than it would have been when
the buildings were new; for the ruins of buildings in that basalt region are far from
beautiful; while those in the limestone hills are picturesque in the extreme. In the
former, one is obliged to search among confused masses of rough and broken black
stone for the lines of walls and for fragments of carved ornament; while in the latter
the buildings are, in the main, remarkably well preserved. The limestone, a soft creamy
white originally, has taken on soft tints of yellow, brown and grey. Towering walls
and slender columns, graceful arches and delicately adorned portals, stand up boldly
in the rocky wastes (Ill. 123) to display their rich decorations in well-wrought mouldings,
bands of conventional foliage, and discs of intricate design, the work of a thousand
ancient chisels. And yet, in their early state, when their rough walls were covered
with smooth stucco, their finely carved arches and portals all in place, and perhaps
with every detail picked out in colour, the buildings in the basalt belt may have had
a charm equal to that of the limestone buildings in these western hills.
We started for the Djebel Riha from Macrata, passing through Ma'arrit in-Nucman
with its khans and tall minaret and other monuments of its mediaeval Moslem history,
and again, as on the occasion of other visits to the place, I was impressed with the
paucity of remains of buildings older than the mediaeval period. At Homs and at
Hama one is conscious, at every turn, of the antiquity of the sites; sections of ancient
walls and fragments of architectural details of the Roman and Christian periods, appear
in building after building, even in the pavements, and especially in the cemeteries.
In Macarrit in-Nucman, on the contrary, comparatively few fragments of ancient archi-
tecture are to be seen, and it seemed to me that those which do appear are quite as
likely to have been brought from neighbouring deserted towns as to have belonged