Butler: Diary of Third Expedition to Syria, 1909

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[Plan and elevation of the Odeum, Temple of Zeus, Ḳanawât.]

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[Photograph. Detail from stone carving at Temple of Zeus, Kanawât.]

Ḳanawât April 3-6, 1909

While our camp was pitched at Ḳanawât Magie copied a few inscriptions some of which may be new, Barnes made measured drawings of the Temple of Zeus, details especially, and discovered that the interior was divided by 2 rows of columns. I made some hasty measurements of the odeum which I may publish.

Dêr Smêdj

plan, Walled Temenos, Dêr Smêdj

il-Mef‘aleh, Dêr Smêdj, Slêm, Brêkeh April 6, 1909

The first of these places is a small village of little interest where an insc. said to have come from Dêr Smêdj, was copied.

The tell above the village is an extinct volcano with a perfect crater at the top. At one side of the crater is a strongly built tower which I believe to be very ancient, either Nabataean or Prehistoric. The lower parts of the tower are almost "Cyclopean." There is a buried arch within built of crude voussoirs. The place was almost inaccessible.

Dêr Smêdj is hardly more than 15 min from Ḳanawât. The ruins here are those of a walled temenos with interior colonnades and an arched building added to the N.E. corner.

The highly ornamented portals of the temenos, on the East side have been destroyed, and many of the highly finished stones have been taken away. The columns of the interior are all lying near their original places.