DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45604#0008
The Djebel Halakah
213
buildings otherwise new; but I think this would be hard to prove. The earliest pri-
vate house with a definitely dated inscription in all this country is constructed almost
entirely in polygonal style. Its date is 207 A.D. : the inscription appears upon the
lintel of a doorway in the upper storey, with polygonal masonry on both sides of it.
This is of course only prima facie evidence that the walls were built in the early
years of the third century; but it seems almost incontestable. There is another form
of polygonal work, to be seen in a great number of houses, which has the look of
being more primitive than that of the dated houses, and, though this work may be
only coarser and poorer examples of wall building of the same period, I am inclined
to believe that it is more ancient, and may not impossibly represent the civilization of
from two to four hundred years earlier.
What has been said of the ruined towns and the monuments of the Djebel Ba-
risha1 is equally true of those in the Djebel Halakah, the same people, following the
the same pursuits, inhabited both regions, and left similar records of their civilization.
There are only a few features here that would be unfamiliar to a traveller coming
from the hills which lie immediately to the westward. The rock sculptures of the
valley of tombs at Katura are unique in Central Syria, and they represent an un-
doubtedly early epoch in the history of art for this part of the world; for, while
there are rock sculptures of religious character, and rock-hewn tombs with sculptured
figures, in the Djebel Riha, the funeral sculptures which fill this valley of tombs
exist as the only examples of their kind known thus far in the region. Among
the monuments of later periods the great monasteries of the Djebel Halakah stand
out as peculiar to the country that bordered upon the greatest of Christian monastic
institutions and the most revered of Christian shrines in Northern Syria, and it is worthy
of particular remark that most of these monasteries, with their large dormitories and
spacious inns for pilgrims, lie on, or near, the roads which led toward the shrine of
St. Simeon Stylites at Kal'at Sim an.
It will not be necessary to discuss again the subjects of architecture ecclesiastical,
civil, domestic and funerary, under separate general heads; for these topics have been
considered at some length in the introductory paragraphs in Part 4. The churches
here present the same general types, both in plan and construction, they are of about
the same dates, and afford only minor features that are to be taken as individual
characteristics. The bazaars or shops, and the inns, which are the only civil build-
ings represented, are precisely similar to those of the Djebel Barisha. The majority
of private houses too are of the same general types; though the private residences of
Refadeh were built on an unusually sumptuous scale which reminds one of the villa
towns of the Djebel Riha, and the tower-house, a residence of four to five storeys, of
which there are numerous examples in ruins and one remarkable example in an almost
perfect state of preservation, gives the Djebel Halakah a type of domestic architecture
that is not elsewhere represented in Northern Syria. Again, the paucity of monumental
tombs, and the rarity of built tombs or rock-hewn tombs of any kind, draws attention
to the contrast in this particular between the monuments of these groups of northern
hills and those of the Djebel Riha.
1 II, B, A. pp. I5O-I57-
213
buildings otherwise new; but I think this would be hard to prove. The earliest pri-
vate house with a definitely dated inscription in all this country is constructed almost
entirely in polygonal style. Its date is 207 A.D. : the inscription appears upon the
lintel of a doorway in the upper storey, with polygonal masonry on both sides of it.
This is of course only prima facie evidence that the walls were built in the early
years of the third century; but it seems almost incontestable. There is another form
of polygonal work, to be seen in a great number of houses, which has the look of
being more primitive than that of the dated houses, and, though this work may be
only coarser and poorer examples of wall building of the same period, I am inclined
to believe that it is more ancient, and may not impossibly represent the civilization of
from two to four hundred years earlier.
What has been said of the ruined towns and the monuments of the Djebel Ba-
risha1 is equally true of those in the Djebel Halakah, the same people, following the
the same pursuits, inhabited both regions, and left similar records of their civilization.
There are only a few features here that would be unfamiliar to a traveller coming
from the hills which lie immediately to the westward. The rock sculptures of the
valley of tombs at Katura are unique in Central Syria, and they represent an un-
doubtedly early epoch in the history of art for this part of the world; for, while
there are rock sculptures of religious character, and rock-hewn tombs with sculptured
figures, in the Djebel Riha, the funeral sculptures which fill this valley of tombs
exist as the only examples of their kind known thus far in the region. Among
the monuments of later periods the great monasteries of the Djebel Halakah stand
out as peculiar to the country that bordered upon the greatest of Christian monastic
institutions and the most revered of Christian shrines in Northern Syria, and it is worthy
of particular remark that most of these monasteries, with their large dormitories and
spacious inns for pilgrims, lie on, or near, the roads which led toward the shrine of
St. Simeon Stylites at Kal'at Sim an.
It will not be necessary to discuss again the subjects of architecture ecclesiastical,
civil, domestic and funerary, under separate general heads; for these topics have been
considered at some length in the introductory paragraphs in Part 4. The churches
here present the same general types, both in plan and construction, they are of about
the same dates, and afford only minor features that are to be taken as individual
characteristics. The bazaars or shops, and the inns, which are the only civil build-
ings represented, are precisely similar to those of the Djebel Barisha. The majority
of private houses too are of the same general types; though the private residences of
Refadeh were built on an unusually sumptuous scale which reminds one of the villa
towns of the Djebel Riha, and the tower-house, a residence of four to five storeys, of
which there are numerous examples in ruins and one remarkable example in an almost
perfect state of preservation, gives the Djebel Halakah a type of domestic architecture
that is not elsewhere represented in Northern Syria. Again, the paucity of monumental
tombs, and the rarity of built tombs or rock-hewn tombs of any kind, draws attention
to the contrast in this particular between the monuments of these groups of northern
hills and those of the Djebel Riha.
1 II, B, A. pp. I5O-I57-