- Collection: The Limestone Massif of North-Western Syria
63 Items
Sergilla
The town of Sergilla on Jebel Zawiyeh is one of the most famous settlements on the Limestone Massif due to the exceptional state of preservation of the buildings (in many cases only the roofs are missing) and because of the number of civic buildings, such as the bath house and andron, still extant.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Andron, Architecture, Bath, Jebel Zawiyeh, Limestone Massif, Sergilla, Syria
Sheikh Sulaiman C5th church
The C5th church remains in the heart of the village and it is perhaps for this reason that so little of it was still extant in 1997. The bema was still visible along with fragments of wall and several doorways, but the rest of the stone had been taken from the site.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Bema, C5th, Church, Jebel Seman, Limestone Massif, Sheikh Sulaiman, Syria
Sheikh Sulaiman C6th church
This church is very well preserved with the portico and a tower still extant. There is some speculation that the tower could once have been the dwelling of a hermit due to the stylite imagery on the portico and because the whole complex was constructed a short distance away from the village.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, C6th, Church, Jebel Seman, Limestone Massif, Sheikh Sulaiman, Stylite, Syria, Tower
Sheikh Sulaiman church dated 602
This church is located to the west of the village of Sheikh Sulaiman and an inscription dates its construction to 602, making it one of the youngest securely dated churches on the Limestone Massif
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, C7th, Church, Jebel Seman, Limestone Massif, Sheikh Sulaiman, Syria
Shinsharah
Shinsharah is near the modern settlement of Hass and has also been called Khirbet Hass in the past. The church dates back to the C4th, but is in an extremely damaged state with so much fallen masonry that it is difficult to discern the original floor plan.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, C4th, Church, Jebel Zawiyeh, Khirbet Hass, Limestone Massif, Shinsharah, Syria
Sinkhar
Sinkhar is located in a valley between Batuta and Sheikh Sulaiman and, at the time of the site visit, was only accessible by walking for some distance. The C4th church in the village was severely overgrown, meaning that only a well-preserved chapel to the south of the main church, that was added in the C6th, could be accessed and it was impossible to find any trace of the bema and other features recorded by Tchalenko in the 1950s.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Bema, C4th, C6th, Church, Jebel Seman, Limestone Massif, Sinkhar, Syria
Sitt er Rum
The small settlement of Sitt er Rum is west of Qalat Seman one the other side of the valley. Its most complete extant monument is the late antique tower beside the road to Zar Zita and Qatura.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Jebel Seman, Late Antique, Limestone Massif, Qalat Seman, Qatura, Sitt er Rum, Syria, Tower, Zar Zita
Suganeh
The C4th church of Suganeh is located in the centre of the village and, on a visit in 1998, was surrounded by modern dwellings and at risk of being destroyed. At that time it was being used as a village rubbish dump and the stone was being taken for modern building projects. Only the apse, bema and a group of sarcophagi south of the apse were still extant at the time of the visit.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Bema, C4th, Church, Jebel Seman, Limestone Massif, Suganeh, Syria
The Early Christian bema churches of Syria revisited
A brief note published in Antiquity 75 (2001): 509-10
Type: Text
Tags: Archaeology, Architecture, Bema, Limestone Massif, Liturgy, Syria
The Early Syriac Liturgical Drama and its Architectural Setting
This article was published in 1999 and summarises some of the ideas that were expanded in the later monograph The Architecture and Liturgy of the Bema in Fourth- to-Sixth-Century Syrian Churches.
Type: Text
Tags: Archaeology, Architecture, Bema, C4th-C6th, Limestone Massif, Liturgy, Syria