BSY_FB_B-UmmIdjDjimalp064-a

64

Dâmit il 'Alayā

The rest of the town is chiefly Christian period
though there may be houses of greater antiquity,
of Roman or even Nabataean date. Many of the
houses are well preserved and all still inhabited.
The largest and best preserved of the houses in
the S.W. part of the town is a large square structure
about a court. The outer walls are of rough
quadrated work in even courses of considerable width,
the walls on the court are well finished and there
are stairs still in situ. Insc. in situ over outer portal
of entrance to courtyard.

Church. Near the centre of the town are the ruins of a
small church built entirely of porous basalt in
roughly hewn blocks. The N. wall is in ruins, the
interior arches have been taken out but the rest of the
church is standing. Across the W. façade, and
running in an arch over the portal, is a moulding
of right-lined profile, arranged like the arched cornice
of the façade of the Kaisarîyeh at Shaḳḳā. i.e. in
an upright ellipse instead of a semi-circle.