BSY_FB_29-39-b

39

Dêr in-Naṣrâni. is a ruined monestry, situated
on a high conical hill to the East of Mellaḥ,
overlooking the black stone desert to the East.

The ruins cover about half of the flat space
on the summit of the hill. The major part of
the ruin is of crude Christian workmanship, some
better some worse; but on the north side of the
complex of buildings and built into it on all sides
but the north, are the remains of a square tower,
built of unhewn blocks of basalt, which is far
older than the rest of the ruin. I found an inscr.
which is now an lintel of one of the doorways of the
convent and turned inwards, which is pagan (E.L.)
and mentions the building of a portal. This was
probably an ancient hill top shrine.

The convent is of irregular plan and much ruined.
The inscribed lintel of the entrance to the E. side of
the cloister was found by Dussaud and recopied by H.C.B.
The building is interesting only as an example
of the remote monastic building of the early Xtian
period.