Butler Diary: Northern and Central Syria I, 1899

28

Beḥyō

The town consisted of a large collection of houses all built of large blocks of stone most of them carefully cut. A great variety of ornamental lintels and mouldings are found in the ruins.

The town is particularly noticeable for the great number of presses which are found in all parts, but chiefly on the western slope, showing that the olive grove to the north is a remnant of most extensive oil industry and that the countless ruined terraces in the district were once rich with olives.

29

Kefr Kîla October 28, 1899

Half an hour south of Beḥyō, a ruined town with a small fragment of a church built over in Saracenic times into an extensive castle.

Almost nothing remains of the ancient town, a few mutilated lintels and the north portal of the church are the only points of interest.

The site is now occupied by a small and squalid Mohammedan village.

To the east of the town are the extensive remains of rock cut tombs with arcosolia above excavated sarcophagi and a number of large roughly hewn free standing sarcophagi.

Among the ruins a number of Arabic inscriptions were found. These were of no great age but a squeeze was taken of one built into a modern house wall.

Kefr Kîla

illustration of decorative element

30

ed Dêr

On a high elevation quarter of a mile westward from Kefr Kîla stands a square tower still preserving its three stories of small openings -it is easily visible from a number of the surrounding ruined towers and is surrounded by the remains of a small building.

Both tower and ruins were built of large blocks of stone.

The name which is of ancient Aramaic origin signifies a convent but the remains are scarsely of sufficient extent to have been a convent of any importance while the site and solidity of the building are not unsuitable for a defended watch tower. On the other hand an elaborately carved symbolical tablet + and a number of curiously designed crosses seem to point to a religious purpose.

+see sketch

31

Ḳalb Lauzi

October 25,1899 to November 2, 1899

This town was made the center of our work in the Jebel el A'la but an examination of it ruins was left until the 29th and to odd moments.

The site of the ancient town is now inhabited by a settlement of about 150 Druses. The ancient town has almost completely disappeared; only the great church rises upon the hill top a conspicuous monument from miles around.

This church was so carefully measured and illustrated by de Vogüé that a detailed account of its structure here is unnecessary, only a few points need to be mentioned.

This edifice continues, in an interesting manner, the two characteristic modes