Pages
BSY_FB_05p50
50
District II. Djebel Berîsha
On leaving Kalb Lauzi we quitted the Djebel el A'la, crossed the narrow valley and began our work upon the towns of the Djebel Berîsha, making our first camp at Bashmishli the northernmost inhabited village of the mountain range.
En route we stopped at Bānaḳfûr a ruined town about half the way up the mountain, well placed on the western slope with a fine prospect to the N.W.
From this point we saw many of the towns on the opposite Djebel which we had visited and saw one which we had not heard of - This we shall visit before moving southward in the Djebel Barisha
At Bānaḳfûr we found much of interest the church? which de Vogüé noted and ruins of several large buildings and some interesting tombs.
BSY_FB_05_p.51
51
At the N.W. of the town, on rising ground stands a well-preserved building, of oblong form 46 x 24ft. It has a large doorway to the west and two doorways with ornamental lintels on the south. These seem to have opened upon a portico of columns.
Two irregular windows of small size open in the east wall. These may have been broken through in mediaeval times for they are roughly made.
The building was lighted by a row of small round-topped windows (not arches) just below the cornice.
The distinctive feature of the building is a spacious crypt cut entirely from the living rock and extending under the whole structure. This crypt is divided by two rows of tall monolithic piers with architraves upon which rest the massive paving stones of the room above. A small break is found
BSY_FB_05_p.52
52
at the middle of the north side of the pavement and a portion of the east side has fallen in. An examination of the ruins which have fallen into the break at this point revealed the structure of the east end of the building -
First the pavement ^ here ^ was raised about eighteen inches above that of the rest of the structure, for a distance of eight feet from the east wall, to form a platform. Upon the edge of this was erected a row of columns (two were found, there might have been four) supporting an architrave. At either end of the colonnade rectangular pilasters stood against the a wall - a moulded cap of one of these was found. Between the columns, with the exception of the central intercolumnation was a balustrade formed of an ornamental panel, a single stone to each intercolumnation.