DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45604#0029
Kefr Hauwar
231
storey bouse, because it must have been lived in by a family or other group of persons.
I have not attempted to restore the roof; it is impossible to say whether this was
flat or pyramidal; though the great overhang of its cornice would suggest the latter.
If this were the case, the usefulness of the building as a watchtower would be some-
what diminished. But if it was a watchtower it was inhabited either by a public,
official, watchman who lived in the building with his family, like a light-house keeper,
or by a detachment of soldiers, constabulary let us say, who had the same domestic
arrangements that a family would have. In either case it was more than the ordinary
watchtower, and should be classed with residential' buildings. It is altogether to be
considered as one of the most interesting buildings in Northern Syria.
66. KEFR HAUWAR.
Situated about half an hour’s ride to the east of Serdjibleh, on the crest of a
hill rising steeply from a deep cultivated valley, are the ruins of this small town which
can never have been a place of great importance. The site is absolutely deserted
though it looks down upon a road much frequented by natives, as a direct route from
the plain of Sermeda to the villages on the shores of the lake of Antioch. The
Ill. 233. Kefr Hauwar, Ruins of Church and Tower. View from the West.
site is an imposing one (Ill. 233) with a glorious view of the Djebel Shekh Berekat
directly to the east, and of the wide expanse of barren, rocky, rolling country to the
southeast and south; but the ruins are few and almost completely overthrown, the only
buildings which are distinguishable among the ruined houses being a small church of
which the chancel piers of a rectangular sanctuary are standing, and four small towers,
one of the latter in a fair state of preservation. We found the church too much
destroyed to measure its plan when we visited the place in 1900, and I only noted
231
storey bouse, because it must have been lived in by a family or other group of persons.
I have not attempted to restore the roof; it is impossible to say whether this was
flat or pyramidal; though the great overhang of its cornice would suggest the latter.
If this were the case, the usefulness of the building as a watchtower would be some-
what diminished. But if it was a watchtower it was inhabited either by a public,
official, watchman who lived in the building with his family, like a light-house keeper,
or by a detachment of soldiers, constabulary let us say, who had the same domestic
arrangements that a family would have. In either case it was more than the ordinary
watchtower, and should be classed with residential' buildings. It is altogether to be
considered as one of the most interesting buildings in Northern Syria.
66. KEFR HAUWAR.
Situated about half an hour’s ride to the east of Serdjibleh, on the crest of a
hill rising steeply from a deep cultivated valley, are the ruins of this small town which
can never have been a place of great importance. The site is absolutely deserted
though it looks down upon a road much frequented by natives, as a direct route from
the plain of Sermeda to the villages on the shores of the lake of Antioch. The
Ill. 233. Kefr Hauwar, Ruins of Church and Tower. View from the West.
site is an imposing one (Ill. 233) with a glorious view of the Djebel Shekh Berekat
directly to the east, and of the wide expanse of barren, rocky, rolling country to the
southeast and south; but the ruins are few and almost completely overthrown, the only
buildings which are distinguishable among the ruined houses being a small church of
which the chancel piers of a rectangular sanctuary are standing, and four small towers,
one of the latter in a fair state of preservation. We found the church too much
destroyed to measure its plan when we visited the place in 1900, and I only noted