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Butler Diary: Northern and Central Syria III, 1899
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in a conventional row and one or two are sizable seated figures in small niches. A spread eagle in high relief over the first of one of the tombs is especially interesting as showing a fine naturalistic treatment of animal figures and for its resemblance to the eagles carved on the walls of the tomb at Dêḥes.
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Meshabbak (en route) November 27, 1899
On the morning of our departure from Dêret ʿAzze for Habeb, after about an hour and a quarter's ride, we came to the ruins of a large church standing upon a high knoll, at the north west of a small ruined village. This is by all means the best preserved monument of considerable size that we have seen, almost every stone is in place and it requires only its wooden roofs and doors and window frames to make is a practicable house of worship. Here for the first time we found the interior rows of columns with their arches all in place and the clerestory wall with its line of large windows above it.
The church is a simple structure, three aisled, with semicircular, halfdomed apse consealed by the flat rear wall of the church, there are four portals, one on the western façade, one on the north side and two on the south.
The decorations within and without are very simple, the capitals, which are in several styles
BSY_FB_15-31a_0
Last edit 7 months ago by denise22334@gmail.com
BSY_FB_15-31a_insert1
Church wide 11.30 = 20cu} 3:2 (") long 18.65 = 30cu} 2:5 nave wide 6.70m = 12cu} intercols 2.75? = 5cu
Church wide 13.68m = 24cu} 3:4 (") long 17.76 = 32cu} nave wide 6.70 = 12cu
6 intercolumnations @ 2.84
Cols shaft 4.03
[assorted calculations]
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all very plain, and the arch moulding of the apse constitute the ornament of the interior.
On the exterior mouldings are few and the portals of the simplest moulded sort without inscriptions. The building seems to have been the church of the neighbouring village and not a monastic edifice for there are no remains of [conventual] buildings about it.
The dimensions of the church are given below - and on the opposite page.
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District V (Second Trip)
On the second trip as we moved north from the Djebel Rîhā on the way to Kinnisrin and the Djebel Ḥâṣṣ, we moved the camp for several days back to the northern end of the Djebel Bārîsha which we had reached in the autumn from Bashmishli. This made it more easy to study the before unknown ruins of this part of the Djebel, Dukîta, Bābisḳa, etc - and to reach the low western hills of the Djebel Ḥaluḳa which lie between the Djebel Bārîsha and Djebel Simʿān.
The line of demarcation between the Djebel Bārîsha and the Djebel Ḥaluḳa is a deep narrow valley, running east and west, through which passes the ancient Roman road, which connected Antioch with Kinnisrin , a portion of which we saw in the southern part of the circular Djebel Ḥaluḳa near Kefr Kermîn*
*see p. 1
BSY_FB_15-33a_insert1
width of ch = 20.m = 36cu} 3 length of ch = 26.64m = 48cu} 4
intercols = 3.63m 7 (")
767 180 ___ 947
390 390 180 _____ 960
168 115 146 ------- 429
220 123 _____ 423
80 1.23 2.20 3.90 1.80 3.90 1.30 4.40 ____ 19.53
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At this point, between the Djebel Bārîsha and Djebel Ḥaluḳa the road is not nearly so well preserved as at the point noted above, but it is easily traceable and in some places is cut in the natural rock.
Toward the western end of the pass, where the road turns toward Harîm are the remains of a large monastic instituion situated high above the road on the northern side.
The ruins consist of a much dilapidated church, a group of rather better preserved ecclesiastical residences and a splendid tower preserved to its full height.
Church. This is the largest church of all this western mountain district, excluding only that of Ḳalʿat Simʿān, but only the unroofed apse and the west front are standing - all the rest is a confused mass of shafts, capitals, lintels and other broken details. The apse is interesting being cut in the natural rock up to nearly six feet, it is of the type in which
