237 Items
View of Palmyra looking east from Qalat Ibn Maan
This is a panoramic view of the Roman era ruins at Palmyra taken from Qalat Ibn Maan, the castle to the west of the city.
Type: Landscape
Tags: Architecture, Landscape, Palmyra, Roman, Syria, Tadmor
View of the modern buildings at the east end of the cloister with the remains of the mud brick range still extant to the south. 
Only the tower and one room to its north survived when the original range of buildings along the east collapsed due to termite damage in the 1980s.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War, Tower
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
Dayr es Salib
The basilica at Dayr es Salib has an almost square floorplan and is believed to date to the C5th-C6th. The remains of a Greek-style ambon and a cruciform baptismal font are still in situ at the site.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Ambon, Architecture, Baptismal Font, Basilica, C5th-C6th, Church, Dayr es Salib, Syria
Qalat Ibn Maan
Qalat Ibn Maan is the medieval castle that sits on the hill to the west of the ancient city of Palmyra. It is thought to date to the C13th and, although occupying an impressive defensive position its construction of rough fieldstone means that the walls would not have been able to withstand a heavy bombardment.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, C13th, Castle, Citadel, Fortress, Palmyra, Qalat Ibn Maan, Syria, Tadmor
Hawwarin
Hawwarin was known as Evaria in late antiquity and is recorded as being the seat of two bishoprics. It appears to date from the Roman era as there is extensive evidence of Roman spolia in the Byzantine remains in the town. The local population talk of there having been seven basilicas in the settlement and evidence of three of these is still extant, although only one has been excavated thus far - by a Syrian team led by Wedad Khoury of the DGAM. The Roman dressed limestone blocks were carried to the site from some distance away as there are no quarries in the vicinity of the town and the modern dwellings are mud brick or cement. At the centre of the settlement is the mysterious "burj" or tower, which local people believe to have been part of an Umayyad hunting lodge, but which is built with Roman spoil and may well date from the Byzantine period as its nearest equivalent structure is the C6th stone tower at Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi. However, unlike the Qasr and neighbouring Khans/Caravanserai this tower has entrances to both the north and south rather than the single entrance that is the norm for such structures.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Architecture, Basilica, Byzantine, Castle, Church, Evaria, Hawwarin, Limestone, Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, Roman, Syria, Tower, Umayyad
Ghonthur
Ghonthur is a hamlet in the Syrian desert between Homs and Palmyra that still preserves some of the mud brick "beehive houses" that were historically the indigenous domestic architecture of the region.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Desert, Ghonthur, Syria
Hammam Abu Rabah
Hammam Abu Rabah gets its name because sulphurous steam rises from underground at the site and rooms have been built to harness this steam for use as a sauna. To the west of the "baths" is a substantial medieval ruin, possibly of a Khan/Caravanserai.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Bath, Caravanserai, Desert, Khan, Medieval, Syria
Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi
These views of the monastery are from the south, looking north. The western part of the monastery on this side is believed to date back to the Roman period and is now used as a kitchen and the south eastern part is a new addition to the monastic library and additional bathroom facilities. On the northern side of the monastery is the chapel, which dated back to the C6th although the roof was raised and it was altered in the C11th. The fortified section to the west has been attributed to the C14th-C15th.
Type: Architecture
Tags: An Nabk, Architecture, Church, Deir Mar Musa, Mar Musa al-Habashi, Monastery, Syria