DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45604#0018
Kasr il-Benat
221
sprang from piers which were bonded in with the walls, and were carried down to
the middle of the storey below, where they rested bn huge corbels. These arches
probably carried a roof of stone, and there is little doubt that the other rooms in the
top of the tower were stone roofed ; but it is unusual to find so small a space spanned
by two transverse arches, and one cannot but wonder if these two arches had not
some other purpose beside that of carrying the roof of stone slabs. It seems worth*
while to suggest, at least, that each of these arches was intented to have a log suspended
from it, which, with some simple mechanism for swinging the logs until they struck
eachother, made a semanterium in the top of this lofty tower, anticipating the use
of bells. The tower would have been unsatisfactory as a watchtower, for the reason
that the hills about it are so high that an increased elevation of 23 m. above the
ground adds little to the view, and the top of the tower is visible from few points in
SECTIONH-G-
Ill. 224.
the surrounding hills from which the other buildings are not equally plain to view.
The large floor space in each storey, and the division into separate rooms suggest
other possible uses for the tall structure; but they are not easy to determine. The
interior of the walls of the smaller chambers, wherever they are preserved and well
protected, shows a lining of plaster and remains of painted wall decorations, such as
intricate discs and crosses, in green and red, on a ground of buff. The building appears
to have been used for other purposes than those of a lookout and a bell tower.
It seems hardly necessary to discuss in detail the architecture of the domestic
buildings of the convent; for they are of a style already familiar to us in a large
number of buildings discussed in Part 4. It is quite evident that they were used as
dormitories for the inmates of the convent, and as inns for pilgrims on the road to
the shrine of St. Simeon at Kalat Sim an. The photograph given herewith (Ill. 220)
will serve for one as well as another of these structures, and illustrates the massive,
lithic, simplicity of buildings of this class. It may be of interest to call attention to
221
sprang from piers which were bonded in with the walls, and were carried down to
the middle of the storey below, where they rested bn huge corbels. These arches
probably carried a roof of stone, and there is little doubt that the other rooms in the
top of the tower were stone roofed ; but it is unusual to find so small a space spanned
by two transverse arches, and one cannot but wonder if these two arches had not
some other purpose beside that of carrying the roof of stone slabs. It seems worth*
while to suggest, at least, that each of these arches was intented to have a log suspended
from it, which, with some simple mechanism for swinging the logs until they struck
eachother, made a semanterium in the top of this lofty tower, anticipating the use
of bells. The tower would have been unsatisfactory as a watchtower, for the reason
that the hills about it are so high that an increased elevation of 23 m. above the
ground adds little to the view, and the top of the tower is visible from few points in
SECTIONH-G-
Ill. 224.
the surrounding hills from which the other buildings are not equally plain to view.
The large floor space in each storey, and the division into separate rooms suggest
other possible uses for the tall structure; but they are not easy to determine. The
interior of the walls of the smaller chambers, wherever they are preserved and well
protected, shows a lining of plaster and remains of painted wall decorations, such as
intricate discs and crosses, in green and red, on a ground of buff. The building appears
to have been used for other purposes than those of a lookout and a bell tower.
It seems hardly necessary to discuss in detail the architecture of the domestic
buildings of the convent; for they are of a style already familiar to us in a large
number of buildings discussed in Part 4. It is quite evident that they were used as
dormitories for the inmates of the convent, and as inns for pilgrims on the road to
the shrine of St. Simeon at Kalat Sim an. The photograph given herewith (Ill. 220)
will serve for one as well as another of these structures, and illustrates the massive,
lithic, simplicity of buildings of this class. It may be of interest to call attention to