DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45605#0064
302
Division II Section B Part 6
doorway leads into an oblong chamber (P) with an apse which has one huge arched
window to the south and a square-headed window in its east wall. To the west of this
is a narrower oblong chamber (R), longer than (P) and its apse combined. Chambers
(O), (P), and (R) are all covered with tunnel vaults and half domes. The mass of
masonry to the west of chambers (N) and (O) appears to be solid (the space at (E)
having been left white in the plan for convenience in lettering), but it is not improbable
that the mass was penetrated by flues for heating, and by water pipes. Grooves for
pipes appear in the walls of chamber (N) beside the western apse. The construction
of all this part of the bath is massive but excellent of its kind. The walls are highly
finished on the inside, the vaults, the dome, and the half domes, were constructed with
the utmost precision in the jointing and fitting of the stone work. These features are
as perfect to-day as they were when first finished, and present examples of the best
type of masonry to be found in Syria. The windows in the eastern apses are all round
topped, yet they are not arched, nor have they the arcuated lintel so common in
Northern Syria. Each is composed, as the photograph (Ill. 330) shows, of two pieces
f stone each cut to a quadrant thus making the joint in the crown of the semicircle.
Between windows a single block is cut with two quadrants, one at each end. The
other half of the building is now a heap of ruins. It appears to have been composed
in part of broad arches carried upon columns, and to have had wooden roofs. For
this reason the structure was lighter than in the vaulted portions, and has more readily
fallen prey to earthquakes. Directly west of the southern part of the vaulted building
described above, a large apartment (S) is marked off in the ruins by an angle-pier
standing at its northwest corner, and by the foundations of a similar angle-pier at the
southeast. The former angle-pier shows the spring stones of arches, and similar springers
are to be seen in piers opposite this, attached to walls which project from the vaulted
part of the building. These spring stones show that the arches to which they belonged
were not sufficiently wide to have spanned the space from one pier to another, and,
since there are columns lying in the ruins, I have placed two columns within the space,
dividing it into three arches, and have repeated this arrangement on three sides of the
apartment. It is plain that there was a room (T) north of the large apartment (S),
but the ruins here render impossible the tracing of its walls except at the east end
where there is a doorway. This opens out upon a narrow entrance (C) which was
apparently not a room since there is no north wall visible-, it seems to have been a
deep recess between the two main parts of the bath. Here one sees traces of steps
leading downward to a doorway, now almost buried, under the mass of masonry built
up between the apses of rooms (N) and (O). These steps and the doorway probably
led into a hypocaust beneath those two rooms. I was unable to determine if there
were rooms, or recesses, corresponding to (T), on the other sides of apartment (S), but
it is hardly probable that the arches on these sides opened out of doors. It is not
possible to determine with any exactness the uses of the various rooms in this bath.
It is probable that excavations would reveal depressions for pools in some of them.
One would naturally assume that the room (N) with its dome, which has grooves for
pipes in its walls, was the caldarium ; although this is farthest removed from room (S)
which must have been the main hall, or vestiarium, of the bath. There is no similarity,
either of plan or of arrangement, between this bath and the one at Serdjilla,1 with
1 II, B, 3. pp. 118-123.
Division II Section B Part 6
doorway leads into an oblong chamber (P) with an apse which has one huge arched
window to the south and a square-headed window in its east wall. To the west of this
is a narrower oblong chamber (R), longer than (P) and its apse combined. Chambers
(O), (P), and (R) are all covered with tunnel vaults and half domes. The mass of
masonry to the west of chambers (N) and (O) appears to be solid (the space at (E)
having been left white in the plan for convenience in lettering), but it is not improbable
that the mass was penetrated by flues for heating, and by water pipes. Grooves for
pipes appear in the walls of chamber (N) beside the western apse. The construction
of all this part of the bath is massive but excellent of its kind. The walls are highly
finished on the inside, the vaults, the dome, and the half domes, were constructed with
the utmost precision in the jointing and fitting of the stone work. These features are
as perfect to-day as they were when first finished, and present examples of the best
type of masonry to be found in Syria. The windows in the eastern apses are all round
topped, yet they are not arched, nor have they the arcuated lintel so common in
Northern Syria. Each is composed, as the photograph (Ill. 330) shows, of two pieces
f stone each cut to a quadrant thus making the joint in the crown of the semicircle.
Between windows a single block is cut with two quadrants, one at each end. The
other half of the building is now a heap of ruins. It appears to have been composed
in part of broad arches carried upon columns, and to have had wooden roofs. For
this reason the structure was lighter than in the vaulted portions, and has more readily
fallen prey to earthquakes. Directly west of the southern part of the vaulted building
described above, a large apartment (S) is marked off in the ruins by an angle-pier
standing at its northwest corner, and by the foundations of a similar angle-pier at the
southeast. The former angle-pier shows the spring stones of arches, and similar springers
are to be seen in piers opposite this, attached to walls which project from the vaulted
part of the building. These spring stones show that the arches to which they belonged
were not sufficiently wide to have spanned the space from one pier to another, and,
since there are columns lying in the ruins, I have placed two columns within the space,
dividing it into three arches, and have repeated this arrangement on three sides of the
apartment. It is plain that there was a room (T) north of the large apartment (S),
but the ruins here render impossible the tracing of its walls except at the east end
where there is a doorway. This opens out upon a narrow entrance (C) which was
apparently not a room since there is no north wall visible-, it seems to have been a
deep recess between the two main parts of the bath. Here one sees traces of steps
leading downward to a doorway, now almost buried, under the mass of masonry built
up between the apses of rooms (N) and (O). These steps and the doorway probably
led into a hypocaust beneath those two rooms. I was unable to determine if there
were rooms, or recesses, corresponding to (T), on the other sides of apartment (S), but
it is hardly probable that the arches on these sides opened out of doors. It is not
possible to determine with any exactness the uses of the various rooms in this bath.
It is probable that excavations would reveal depressions for pools in some of them.
One would naturally assume that the room (N) with its dome, which has grooves for
pipes in its walls, was the caldarium ; although this is farthest removed from room (S)
which must have been the main hall, or vestiarium, of the bath. There is no similarity,
either of plan or of arrangement, between this bath and the one at Serdjilla,1 with
1 II, B, 3. pp. 118-123.