Butler Diary: Northern and Central Syria V, 1900

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ornament and has rendered almost illegible the long Greek inscription upon the lintel of the western portal.

However there is an inscription high up on the Eastern wall, between the two pilasters on the northside, which seems to repeat the reading of the other. This has been published but was recopied by Mr. Prentice. It indicates that the edifice was constructed in honor of the Roman Emperor Philip and gives the date 245 A.D.

The building is almost concealed in its lower parts by the native houses which are built against its walls and the outlines of the roof are disfigured by crenellated battlements added in the middle ages when it was converted into a castle.

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Ḥarrân il-ʿArrāmîd May 14, 1900

Moving south from Ḍumêr across the marshes of Bahret il 'Ateibe, we passed through the above town which takes its name from the columns of a classic temple which tower above the surrounding houses. The fact that the mud dwellings stand incorporated with the ruin makes it rather difficult to study the remains in fact we could obtain no idea of the extent or plan of the building.

But the bases of the columns themselves being on a level with the roofs of the houses makes it pretty certain that the temple (if such it was) stood upon a high sub-basement. The columns themselves, of which there are three, constitute ^ an ^ angle of the building. They are finely executed in black basalt and are of the Roman Ionic order with plain shafts (entasis) and beautifully cut bases and capitals.

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The columns are remarkable for their fineness of execution and their grace of proportion. It is interesting to find this particular order of Roman classic in this remote place.

The town abounds in fragments of architectural sculpture of the highest order, executed in rich foliate designs and in high relief upon the hard black basalt. P. aud L. took some small photographs for use of these bits.

Continuing our journey we came to Il-Hedjâni where the camp had been pitched for the night. Here is a small tower of late construction and a great deal of broken building material leading to the supposition that there was a town here in comparatively ancient times

Beyond Il-Hedjâni we found traces of an ancient road leading eastward.

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The Haouran

il-Haiyâth. May 15, 1900

We entered the Haouran district from the north and, after spending the night at Sawara il-Kebîreh where there were some unimportant ancient remains, passed along the Eastern edge of the Ledjā toward Shaḳḳā - on the way we passed an ancient town in complete ruins rebuilt for modern use. To the south east of this is a large ruined structure which we stopped to examine. This is called il-Haiyât. The building differs from those of the ancient walls in the neighboring town in its construction which is of a much better class being built of large well-fitted blocks with tooled edges. It is a long two-story structure well preserved and different in plan and design from any of the buildings we have seen. It faces north the longer axis running east and west.

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