Princeton Expeditions to Syria (1899, 1904-1905, 1909)

35

V ụ-Ṣâfiyeh. This is a deserted ruined town south of Mellah and also on the Hàdi Râdjil. There are numerous here of widely separate epochs. Upon a hill gracing the town on the West is a large tower like structure with a high truncated pyramid for a base. South and east of this there are extensive ruins of houses upon a platform supported on the S and E. by a retaining wall of huge blocks of stone. The castle or tower, the houses and the retaining wall are all built of unhewn stone, though, in the tower these are laid in regular courses. All these things appear to belong to a period far older than that of the rest of the town which is chiefly Christian. They are probably to be attributed to the Nabataean era for the construction is in all respects similar to that of Nabataean buildings at Sîʿ, though it may be even older.

The classic period is represented by fragments of Roman mouldings near a broad paved court (tesserae) with 3 steps on its western side which may have been the foundations of a temple.