DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45604#0011
216
Division II Section B Part 5
building. Next to it, on the north, is a domestic, or residential, building three storeys
high, and having a three-storey portico on the court. The building contiguous to this
at its northeast angle, and closing the north side of the court, is another three-storey
inn or dormitory, and a structure of the same general type, but more than twice the
length of any of the others, bounds the east side of the close, extending from the
northern dormitory to the tower. This is connected with the church by a covered
portico. From this portico, just beside the long building, a flight of steps leads up
from a doorway on the level of the court, to a higher level which extends all along
the east side of the group of buildings. Indeed, the east end of the church and the
lower storey of the long building were partly hewn out of the solid rock, and the
greater part of the higher level was scarped out of the rock of the mountain side.
The steps just mentioned conduct one to a small enclosure the east side of which is
composed of a portico of three openings with two square piers which is the front of
a rock-hewn tomb chamber with six deep arcosolia, two on a side, with a ceiling and
an upper storey built in the ordinary manner. The plan outlined above is not difficult
to trace in the ruins ; for many of the buildings are exceptionally well preserved.
The church has suffered rather more than the other buildings; for, although its
east end is preserved to the height of several courses above the springing of the
half-dome of the apse, and the west end still boasts about half of its original height,
the whole columnar structure of the interior, owing to the more delicate construction
of its lofty arches, has collapsed, bringing the clearstorey with it, and crushing • the
side walls, excepting a small fragment containing a doorway, on the south side near
the east end. The tower has been rent asunder, its western half being preserved to
its full height of seven storeys, and its eastern half having been reduced to a single
storey. Both of these buildings are shown in Ill. 219, a photograph which was re-
produced in the Publications of the American Expedition.1 At the extreme left stand
the west wall of the nave, with its portal and two windows in the storey above it, its
two piers still carrying the springers of the arches of the arcades, and the bases ot
two colonettes on the top of the wall. In the foreground, on the same side of the
picture, is the one preserved side portal, — the easternmost on the south side. To the
right of the middle of the photograph stands the tower showing five of its seven
storeys on the broken side. Next to this, on the right, one can catch a glimpse
of the cap of the pier on the north side of the apse, with some vaulting stones
above it, and then comes the long flat east wall with its curious single buttresses,
and, on the extreme right, the ruins of the long building. The two buildings on
the west side of the close have two storeys almost intact, and both have sufficient
remains of their uppermost porticos or loggias to prove that they were three-storey
buildings. The northern building is almost perfectly preserved in its three storeys
(Ill. 220), and the long building on the west side of the close has one storey intact,
and parts of its walls and porticos three storeys high. The rock-hewn tomb-chamber
and the building above it, are in an almost complete state, but for the wooden
roof of the latter. With the sole exception of the convent at Rabat Sinfan there is
nowhere in Syria so complete a group of religious buildings.
The restorations herewith presented are naturally based upon measurements of
1 A.A.E.S. II, p. 156.
Division II Section B Part 5
building. Next to it, on the north, is a domestic, or residential, building three storeys
high, and having a three-storey portico on the court. The building contiguous to this
at its northeast angle, and closing the north side of the court, is another three-storey
inn or dormitory, and a structure of the same general type, but more than twice the
length of any of the others, bounds the east side of the close, extending from the
northern dormitory to the tower. This is connected with the church by a covered
portico. From this portico, just beside the long building, a flight of steps leads up
from a doorway on the level of the court, to a higher level which extends all along
the east side of the group of buildings. Indeed, the east end of the church and the
lower storey of the long building were partly hewn out of the solid rock, and the
greater part of the higher level was scarped out of the rock of the mountain side.
The steps just mentioned conduct one to a small enclosure the east side of which is
composed of a portico of three openings with two square piers which is the front of
a rock-hewn tomb chamber with six deep arcosolia, two on a side, with a ceiling and
an upper storey built in the ordinary manner. The plan outlined above is not difficult
to trace in the ruins ; for many of the buildings are exceptionally well preserved.
The church has suffered rather more than the other buildings; for, although its
east end is preserved to the height of several courses above the springing of the
half-dome of the apse, and the west end still boasts about half of its original height,
the whole columnar structure of the interior, owing to the more delicate construction
of its lofty arches, has collapsed, bringing the clearstorey with it, and crushing • the
side walls, excepting a small fragment containing a doorway, on the south side near
the east end. The tower has been rent asunder, its western half being preserved to
its full height of seven storeys, and its eastern half having been reduced to a single
storey. Both of these buildings are shown in Ill. 219, a photograph which was re-
produced in the Publications of the American Expedition.1 At the extreme left stand
the west wall of the nave, with its portal and two windows in the storey above it, its
two piers still carrying the springers of the arches of the arcades, and the bases ot
two colonettes on the top of the wall. In the foreground, on the same side of the
picture, is the one preserved side portal, — the easternmost on the south side. To the
right of the middle of the photograph stands the tower showing five of its seven
storeys on the broken side. Next to this, on the right, one can catch a glimpse
of the cap of the pier on the north side of the apse, with some vaulting stones
above it, and then comes the long flat east wall with its curious single buttresses,
and, on the extreme right, the ruins of the long building. The two buildings on
the west side of the close have two storeys almost intact, and both have sufficient
remains of their uppermost porticos or loggias to prove that they were three-storey
buildings. The northern building is almost perfectly preserved in its three storeys
(Ill. 220), and the long building on the west side of the close has one storey intact,
and parts of its walls and porticos three storeys high. The rock-hewn tomb-chamber
and the building above it, are in an almost complete state, but for the wooden
roof of the latter. With the sole exception of the convent at Rabat Sinfan there is
nowhere in Syria so complete a group of religious buildings.
The restorations herewith presented are naturally based upon measurements of
1 A.A.E.S. II, p. 156.