DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45605#0013
266
Division II Section B Part 6
for the accommodation of clerical persons, as I suppose, among the pilgrims. There
are few structures here which can be definitely distinguished as private residences.
There is a sort of bazaar on one side of one of the principal streets, made up of little
shops where no doubt the pilgrims could purchase food and objects of religion, but
the major part of the town was devoted to hostelries of various kinds and classes.
None of the great inns connected with the monasteries, nor the great independent inn
on the hill-side below the great shrine, was denominated as such by an inscription,
presumably it was not necessary; but one of the smaller and less pretentious hostels
is described as a pandocheion in an inscription 1 above its portal. There are vast
numbers of similar structures to be seen in the ruins, not named as inns in writing,
but unmistakably for that purpose, in every part of the ruined town. A small city of
Ill. 281. View of Part of the Ruins of Der Simcan, looking S. W. One Pier of the Triumphal Arch.
monasteries and inns then, with a few shops, was D£r Sim'an in the days of its glory,
when it was called 7'elanissus, and was visited by all the great and powerful of the world.
The main body of the ruins covers a space about half a mile long, east and west,
and a third of a mile wide. (See plan.) The town was intersected by well marked
streets, and a broad avenue led out of the eastern side, mounting up the slope and
passing under a triumphal arch (Ill. 281) to reach the plateau above, and ended at
the gate of the sacred precinct. This we have called the Via Sacra. Each of the
four angles of the town, which is roughly rectangular, is marked by a building of
1 III. B. 6. insc. 1154.
Division II Section B Part 6
for the accommodation of clerical persons, as I suppose, among the pilgrims. There
are few structures here which can be definitely distinguished as private residences.
There is a sort of bazaar on one side of one of the principal streets, made up of little
shops where no doubt the pilgrims could purchase food and objects of religion, but
the major part of the town was devoted to hostelries of various kinds and classes.
None of the great inns connected with the monasteries, nor the great independent inn
on the hill-side below the great shrine, was denominated as such by an inscription,
presumably it was not necessary; but one of the smaller and less pretentious hostels
is described as a pandocheion in an inscription 1 above its portal. There are vast
numbers of similar structures to be seen in the ruins, not named as inns in writing,
but unmistakably for that purpose, in every part of the ruined town. A small city of
Ill. 281. View of Part of the Ruins of Der Simcan, looking S. W. One Pier of the Triumphal Arch.
monasteries and inns then, with a few shops, was D£r Sim'an in the days of its glory,
when it was called 7'elanissus, and was visited by all the great and powerful of the world.
The main body of the ruins covers a space about half a mile long, east and west,
and a third of a mile wide. (See plan.) The town was intersected by well marked
streets, and a broad avenue led out of the eastern side, mounting up the slope and
passing under a triumphal arch (Ill. 281) to reach the plateau above, and ended at
the gate of the sacred precinct. This we have called the Via Sacra. Each of the
four angles of the town, which is roughly rectangular, is marked by a building of
1 III. B. 6. insc. 1154.