BSY_FB_B-UmmIdjDjimalp091a

91

il-Andarîn (20)
This site is a ruin of vast extent -
over a mile square - but few of its ancient
buildings are standing. The whole city, with
the exception of its churches, the barracks and
a few public buildings was built of sundried
bricks, basalt being used for jambs, lintels
columns and architraves and other details; and
for this reason the plain is covered with a
network of low mounds which mark the lines of
the walls of houses and other buildings.

A stout wall of masonry seems to have surrounded
a smaller and earlier city. This is to be traced
in foundation courses on all sides, but the
present ruins and some of the churches extend far
beyond the border of this wall. Numberless
cisterns and a great birkeh were found.
Streets are plainly traced between the mounds
with many doorways still in place opening upon them.
A great necropolis was found to the East of the city.
Dated inscriptions ranging from 507 A.D. to 584 A.D.
show that the city flourished in the sixth century.