DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45603#0008
The Djebel Barisha
151
century after Christ, but fewer dated monuments of the third and fourth centuries; and there
are far more churches and buildings of all kinds in the Djebel Barisha with inscriptions
dating them definitely in the sixth century, than can be counted in the Djebel Riha.
The towns of the Djebel Riha, as we have seen in the preceding Part1 have, most
of them, a very special character; their residential quarters predominating largely over
their commercial quarters, and many towns consisting almost entirely of large and hand-
some villas. In the ruined towns of the Djebel Barisha, conditions are quite the re-
verse. Almost every town has its quarter where the buildings are crowded together
upon narrow streets, where there are many buildings that were certainly shops; and
there are several large towns in which the buildings for shops, or bazaars, largely pre-
dominate over the residential buildings. The average town of the Djebel Barisha
Ill. 168. View of the Ruins of Banakfur in the Djebel Barisha.
(Ill. 168) had its gardens, like a common, in the centre; it had two or three churches,
finer in most cases than those of the Djebel Riha, occasionally it had a bath, or public
building of some kind, and a watch tower. On all sides of the gardens are streets
with shops — called stoae3 in an inscription —, and small houses set in close ranks
upon them, and, farther out, larger houses, more like the villas of the Djebel Riha,
but in few cases so large. These outermost buildings are often connected by a wall,
and I have no doubt that each settlement was originally provided with a practicable
town wall by joining up the rear walls of the outermost houses. Outside were presses
and tombs, the latter, not forming a single nekropolis, but scattered on all sides of the
town, perhaps along the roads which led away to neighbouring towns.
The architecture of these two groups of hills also presents differences which I
have discussed under “Local Schools” in the publications of the American Expedition3,
and it is interesting to observe that, in all respects, the Djebel il-Acla, the Djebel
Barisha, the Djebel Halakah, and the Djebel Simcan, all of which are in close juxta-
1 n, L 3, p. 107.
2 A.A.E.S. IV, Syr., inscs. 14, 15.
2 A.A.E.S. II, p. 21.
151
century after Christ, but fewer dated monuments of the third and fourth centuries; and there
are far more churches and buildings of all kinds in the Djebel Barisha with inscriptions
dating them definitely in the sixth century, than can be counted in the Djebel Riha.
The towns of the Djebel Riha, as we have seen in the preceding Part1 have, most
of them, a very special character; their residential quarters predominating largely over
their commercial quarters, and many towns consisting almost entirely of large and hand-
some villas. In the ruined towns of the Djebel Barisha, conditions are quite the re-
verse. Almost every town has its quarter where the buildings are crowded together
upon narrow streets, where there are many buildings that were certainly shops; and
there are several large towns in which the buildings for shops, or bazaars, largely pre-
dominate over the residential buildings. The average town of the Djebel Barisha
Ill. 168. View of the Ruins of Banakfur in the Djebel Barisha.
(Ill. 168) had its gardens, like a common, in the centre; it had two or three churches,
finer in most cases than those of the Djebel Riha, occasionally it had a bath, or public
building of some kind, and a watch tower. On all sides of the gardens are streets
with shops — called stoae3 in an inscription —, and small houses set in close ranks
upon them, and, farther out, larger houses, more like the villas of the Djebel Riha,
but in few cases so large. These outermost buildings are often connected by a wall,
and I have no doubt that each settlement was originally provided with a practicable
town wall by joining up the rear walls of the outermost houses. Outside were presses
and tombs, the latter, not forming a single nekropolis, but scattered on all sides of the
town, perhaps along the roads which led away to neighbouring towns.
The architecture of these two groups of hills also presents differences which I
have discussed under “Local Schools” in the publications of the American Expedition3,
and it is interesting to observe that, in all respects, the Djebel il-Acla, the Djebel
Barisha, the Djebel Halakah, and the Djebel Simcan, all of which are in close juxta-
1 n, L 3, p. 107.
2 A.A.E.S. IV, Syr., inscs. 14, 15.
2 A.A.E.S. II, p. 21.