BSY_FB_29-35-b

35

V
ụ-Ṣâfiyeh. This is a deserted ruined town south
of Mellah and also on the Hàdi Râdjil. There are
numerous here of widely separate epochs. Upon a
hill gracing the town on the West is a large tower like
structure with a high truncated pyramid for a
base. South and east of this there are extensive ruins
of houses upon a platform supported on the S
and E. by a retaining wall of huge blocks of stone.
The castle or tower, the houses and the retaining wall
are all built of unhewn stone, though, in the tower
these are laid in regular courses. All these things
appear to belong to a period far older than that
of the rest of the town which is chiefly Christian.
They are probably to be attributed to the Nabataean era
for the construction is in all respects similar to that
of Nabataean buildings at Sîʿ, though it may be
even older.

The classic period is represented by fragments of
Roman mouldings near a broad paved court (tesserae)
with 3 steps on its western side which may have been
the foundations of a temple.