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This deserted ruined town is not more than half an hour N.W. of Bashmishli. It is on the very edge of the hill side that descends steeply toward the North ^ and East ^ above Khirbel el-Khaṭîb. The major part of the ruins are on the top of a rocky knoll. In a little valley west of the town are a number of residences and on the slope of the opposite hill a number more.
The prevailing style of architecture is megalithic, tho' a number of elegant portals show the influence here of richer styles. All the building stones are of uncommonly large size. On the crest of the knoll rises the large and well-reserved portal of a small building built of gigantic blocks, the walls being double faced, this portal has a deep cornice quite classic in character with brackets and heavy mouldings.
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North of this structure was the church, now completely ruined, only a portion of the east wall, pierced with small roundtopped windows and a plain doorway on the south wall are standing. Immediately south of the church stands a small rectangular building, possibly a baptistry with a doorway * of remarkable richness. A heavy moulding of a series of bizarre patterns is carried across the lintel, down the jambs and continued along the base moulding. These two doorways illustrate the juxtaposition of a pseudoclassic and native style which flourished with equal luxurience of detail in this region, as yet it is not possible to determine whether they represent an earlier and a later period or not. The remaining buildings on the main hill are all completely demolished. In the valley a single house attracts attention. It seems to have been a long
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rectangular structure with a two story colonnade in front. The supports above and below were columnar and suggestive of classic orders. The panels between the columns of the upper story are of unusual form, the outer face being carved with simple mouldings and symbols but the inside is carved to form a complete seat *, a sort of settee with back and arms which like the supports below the seat are carved in simple curves. This furniture of the upper verandah, for such we should call it, seems indicative of a degree of refinement and luxury which we had scarcely looked for in these towns before we had visited them, and before we had been daily brought face to face with similar signs of cultivated life in the manifold refinements of house plan and arrangement and the fragments of fine glass ware and pottery everywhere abundant.
* see photo.
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Khirbet el-Khaṭîb November 4, 1899
This small ruined town is situated in the valley between the northern end of the mountains of the Djebel Berîsha and the cluster of foothills which lie to the north. It is distant about an hour from Bashmishli and on the way to it one must pass through the extensive ruins of Burdj Baḳirhā and Bāḳirḥā itself.
The town presents few well preserved specimens of architecture, the houses being almost all in the plain quadrated style.
The church is small and much fallen; it was built in the simplest plan with sq. east end flanked by chapels. S.E. of the churches is a small square building which doubtless served as a baptistry, here are remains of a font-basin in a niche in the East wall. The fallen lintel bears a (536 A.D.) Semitic insc (Syriac) ^ (E.L. insc. 5) ^ with letters upside down showing a second use of the stone in the 12th century ? Col. with cubical plinth on hill.
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Church_Khirbet Tezîn
Date 584 A.D.
This date is corrected from the Sea of Antioch 49 B.C.
Scale .50cm = 1m.