DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45604#0019
222
Division II Section B Part 5
the fact that the main walls of these buildings are neither of fine coursed masonry,
like the tower and the wall shown at the end of the porticos in Ill. 220, nor of crude
rubble, like the walls of most inns and shops in this country; but are made up of
narrow, irregular, courses fitted around monolithic door and window frames, a sort of
compromise between the two extremes of wall building in Northern Syria.
Only one feature more remains to be discussed; that is the tomb adjoining the
convent. A long narrow lane, scarped out of the natural rock, as I have said above,
extends all along the eastern side of the group of convent buildings, under the steep
side of the mountain. This passage is interrupted by the two parallel walls which
form a little court before the tomb. The side walls of the tomb itself are cut out
of the rock on both sides (See plan, Ill. 218), so that they stand free, projecting to
meet the built walls of the little court. Three sides of the rock-hewn chamber have
two arcosolia each (Ill. 224 Sect. E-F), and every arcosolium embraces a sarcophagus
also hewn out of the rock. The front, or west, side of the chamber has three broad
openings between square piers which carry an architrave. The upper storey, carried
on the rock-hewn walls and the piers, is a plain building of one storey, with gable
ends to the north and south. It was approached from the outside on the south.
Not the least interesting piece of information that we have about this convent is
the fact that the architect Kyrios built the church here in fullfilment of a vow, and
was given burial within its walls — as a reward perhaps for his labours as designer,
and probably builder, of this and a number of other important religious edifices in the
neighbourhood. I have discussed this architect, and the various forms in which his
name is written in the inscriptions of the churches which he built, in an earlier pu-
blication \ and have referred to the subject again in Part 4* 3; I have nothing to add
to the subject here, and would only reiterate my conviction that one man, whatever
variants in the spelling of his name appear in the five different inscriptions,3 built at
least four of the churches in which these inscriptions appear, and probably one other.
The dates given in four of these inscriptions range from 390 to 418 A.D., a space of
twenty-eight years. The names Markianos Kyris and M. Kyris at Babiska, Kyros at
Dar Kita, Kyrillas at Ks&djbeh, and Kyrios here at Kasr il-Benat, are all admitted
by Mr. Prentice and other epigraphists to be possible variants of the same name; two of
the three forms, Kyris, Kyros and Kyrios, must be mistakes in spelling for one form
which was correct; but which that one was we cannot know. But this discussion of
the inscriptions is not within my province; I wish to confine myself to the material
evidence, of which there is so much, and, in this final reference to Markianos Kyris,
Kyros or Kyrios, to assemble that material. Passing over the resemblances in ground
plan among the four churches,4 resemblances which might be due to the fact that all
were built within seventeen years, and in the same locality, I desire to call attention
to the more important resemblances which exist in the minor details; for these details
are unique in Northern Syria.
One has only to compare the capital (x) in Ill. 222 with capital (b) Ill. 170, at
Ksedjbeh, and the capital shown in Ill. 186, at Dar Kita, or to place the drawing of
capital (d) beside that of the capital shown in Ill. 177, to appreciate their similarity;
1 A.A.E.S. II pp. 133-7, i36-7, 138, 142.
3 A.A.E.S. Ill, inscs. 57, 67, 73, 76. Ill, B, 4, insc. 1096.
2 II, B, 4 pp. 160, 169, 178-9.
4 Ills. 170, 177 and 186.
Division II Section B Part 5
the fact that the main walls of these buildings are neither of fine coursed masonry,
like the tower and the wall shown at the end of the porticos in Ill. 220, nor of crude
rubble, like the walls of most inns and shops in this country; but are made up of
narrow, irregular, courses fitted around monolithic door and window frames, a sort of
compromise between the two extremes of wall building in Northern Syria.
Only one feature more remains to be discussed; that is the tomb adjoining the
convent. A long narrow lane, scarped out of the natural rock, as I have said above,
extends all along the eastern side of the group of convent buildings, under the steep
side of the mountain. This passage is interrupted by the two parallel walls which
form a little court before the tomb. The side walls of the tomb itself are cut out
of the rock on both sides (See plan, Ill. 218), so that they stand free, projecting to
meet the built walls of the little court. Three sides of the rock-hewn chamber have
two arcosolia each (Ill. 224 Sect. E-F), and every arcosolium embraces a sarcophagus
also hewn out of the rock. The front, or west, side of the chamber has three broad
openings between square piers which carry an architrave. The upper storey, carried
on the rock-hewn walls and the piers, is a plain building of one storey, with gable
ends to the north and south. It was approached from the outside on the south.
Not the least interesting piece of information that we have about this convent is
the fact that the architect Kyrios built the church here in fullfilment of a vow, and
was given burial within its walls — as a reward perhaps for his labours as designer,
and probably builder, of this and a number of other important religious edifices in the
neighbourhood. I have discussed this architect, and the various forms in which his
name is written in the inscriptions of the churches which he built, in an earlier pu-
blication \ and have referred to the subject again in Part 4* 3; I have nothing to add
to the subject here, and would only reiterate my conviction that one man, whatever
variants in the spelling of his name appear in the five different inscriptions,3 built at
least four of the churches in which these inscriptions appear, and probably one other.
The dates given in four of these inscriptions range from 390 to 418 A.D., a space of
twenty-eight years. The names Markianos Kyris and M. Kyris at Babiska, Kyros at
Dar Kita, Kyrillas at Ks&djbeh, and Kyrios here at Kasr il-Benat, are all admitted
by Mr. Prentice and other epigraphists to be possible variants of the same name; two of
the three forms, Kyris, Kyros and Kyrios, must be mistakes in spelling for one form
which was correct; but which that one was we cannot know. But this discussion of
the inscriptions is not within my province; I wish to confine myself to the material
evidence, of which there is so much, and, in this final reference to Markianos Kyris,
Kyros or Kyrios, to assemble that material. Passing over the resemblances in ground
plan among the four churches,4 resemblances which might be due to the fact that all
were built within seventeen years, and in the same locality, I desire to call attention
to the more important resemblances which exist in the minor details; for these details
are unique in Northern Syria.
One has only to compare the capital (x) in Ill. 222 with capital (b) Ill. 170, at
Ksedjbeh, and the capital shown in Ill. 186, at Dar Kita, or to place the drawing of
capital (d) beside that of the capital shown in Ill. 177, to appreciate their similarity;
1 A.A.E.S. II pp. 133-7, i36-7, 138, 142.
3 A.A.E.S. Ill, inscs. 57, 67, 73, 76. Ill, B, 4, insc. 1096.
2 II, B, 4 pp. 160, 169, 178-9.
4 Ills. 170, 177 and 186.