Princeton Expeditions to Syria (1899, 1904-1905, 1909)

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If we enter the apodyterium and turn to the left we find a wall of double thickness with a narrow doorway - this opens into a chamber (20 x 10ft.) which we may call the sudatorium or sweat bath.

Outside the outer wall of this room is a large platform and remains of a pumping aparatus just above the great underground cistern. Along the outside of this outer wall on a level with the window sills is a projecting course cut with a groove, in its upper surface, to carry water probably in pipes of lead. At the end of the double wall this groove slopes gently in either direction carrying water westward, only a short distance to an aperture in the wall of the apodyterium and in the other direction, the whole length of the building with apertures for letting water into each chamber. The double wall was constructed to support a reservoir into which water was pumped and drawn off for the various rooms

Passing through the above apartment we came to a smaller room (8ft. x 10) which was the calidarium or tepidarium. East of this are two small rooms

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in the angle of the building. The southernmost connecting with the last room. This has a small niche to the south with a window ^ with ^ aperture for water in its sill. The niche is roofed with a single stone cut to half dome below. To the east is a small closet with window in east wall.

The chamber opens to the north into another small apartment, with an apsidal east end and a broad arch resting on columns, opening into the main hall of the bath.

{The water conduit is carried past the window of closet and terminates at the window of the apse- like exedia where is the last of the apertures.}

All of the apartments described above are of one story while the main hall extended the height of a whole story above the surrounding roofs.

East of the main hall runs an oblong apartment ^ of one story ^ with a door to the east near the S.E. angle and two well spaced round arched windows in the long east wall. At the N. end of this a small doorway opens into a little room (7 x 11) with an outside entrance to the east.

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in the N.W. angle an hyena, in the S.W. a bear. Between the hyena and the bear - W of the circle - are two large birds - one a stork, the other some sort of water fowl. The figures are executed in black outline and shaded with bits of pink brown and blue. The leaves of the tree are in solid black, the fruit in red.

About the whole design is a deep border, next the wall, consisting of scrolls and shaded curves with figures of birds and fruit interspersed.

The fact that the inscription reads from the west would seem to establish the theory that the main entrance was from that end.

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"Cafè " At the southeast of the bath is a small but elegant building which the natives call the cafè its proximity to that centre of public life and plan and general form would make it seem not unlikely that this was also a public building.

It is two storied with a two storied colonnade There is but one room in each story. The rear portion of the lower room being provided with stalls for horses. The colonnade are high and imposing with caps of the corbelled Syrian order.

Domestic Architecture. The large houses are unusually fine and somewhat larger than those of Khirbet Ḥâṣṣ and are not of the double form. The same plan exists here - that of 2 rooms with transverse arches on the ground story, but some of the houses seem to have had a 3d story over at least one half of the house. Here were the large 2 story colonnade, the same large courtyards. The doorways and windows were provided with fine mouldings. The niches are large and moulded. Some have an ornamental lunette above them (see squeeze)

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There is greater ^ irregularity ^ of plan here than at Khirbet Ḥâṣṣ and many of the houses are entered directly by arched vestibules.

One of these vestibules is constructed at the end of a colonnade and has at one side a stone staircase leading up to the 2nd story of the colonnade. Below the stair is a little closet with a doorway about 3 feet high. This house is just below the W. end of the church.

Some of the streets of the town are still quite well-preserved. Some of them are lined by rows of small one room houses with party walls. The rooms have the transverse arch and some of them are fitted as stables and oil presses or mills - each doorway has its niches on either side as in the greater houses.

Painting. The soffit ^ and arch ^ of the large, well preserved house on the hill just East of the bath is decorated with a painted design of a circle and cross and bears a painted insc. (WKP. Blank) all executed in the usual dull red.

plan

Scale 1/10 in = 1ft.

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Baʿuda March 26, 1900

This is small town north of Khirbit Ḥâṣṣ and N .W. of Serdjilla, about half way between the latter place and il-Bârah. It stands conspicuously in a high plateau like Rbʿêa.

The place in interesting for its little pyramidal tomb and as being apparently older than the surrounding ruins.

We find here a certain resemblance to the megalithic style of construction prevalent in the north. The plain monolithithic jambs and lintels, the irregular courses, and many large blocks. The walls almost polygonal in appearance all give the town a more ancient look than most towns in the district.

There are two or three houses built in the later, more developed, style of Khirbit Ḥâṣṣ, one of these has interesting moulded windows in the ends - one round-topped, the other square.

The little church is aisleless with a curved apse - it is built in heavy and somewhat rough fashion.

elevation

Scale 1/10m = 1ft.

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Tomb - To the S. W. stands a well preserved tomb, with cubical structure entered by a doorway in the east, and roofed with a steep pyramidal roof.

This is interesting as being the southernmost of the preserved pyramidal tombs in the region. The angles of the structure are ornamented with pilasters and mouldings are carried around the base and below the roof.

In the vicinity of the town are a number of interesting sarcophagi with lighter lids than the common six horned type - with low blunt gables and small horns at the angles. The feature here is the use of heavy square monolithic piers to flank the sides.

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Bâra March 25, 1900 to April 1, 1900

This ruin has been sometimes called the Pompeii of the East. It was a very extensive city as may be seen from the ruins but most of the large buildings have been greatly destroyed. A number of well-defined streets remain that give it the resemblance to Pompeii.

Tombs. It is most famous for its pyramidal tombs which exist in a wonderful state of preservation and form landmarks of peculiar beauty among the ancient olive groves.

no I. The largest of these tombs - published and restored by de Vogüé - has lost its great pyramid but it is a monument of great beauty still. It was practically in three stories - one under the surface, and two in the cubical building. These stories are marked on the exterior by a moulding - the lower story is broken only by the doorway, the upper by two windows on each face.

The ornament is of great richness and is like a semiclassical treatment of Byzantine style The carving represents flowering acanthus leaves