Travels in Syria and the Holy LandBurckhardt, John Lewis
History
Travels in Syria and the Holy Land
Burckhardt, John Lewis
Palestine -- Description and travel; Syria -- Description and travel
November 14th.--The principal building of Kafer el Loehha is
RIMA EL LOEHF.
[p.68]a church, whose roof is supported by three arches, which, like
those in the private dwellings, spring from the floor of the building.
Upon a stone lying near it I read [Greek]. Not far from the church, on
its west side, is another large edifice, with a rotunda, and a paved
terrace before it. Over the gateway, which is half buried, is the
following inscription:
[Greek]
From Kafer el Loehha we rode N. forty minutes, to a village called Rima
el Loehf, [Arabic] inhabited by only three or four Druse families. At
the entrance of the village stands a building eight feet square and
about twenty feet high, with a flat roof, and three receptacles for the
dead; it has no windows; at its four corners are pilasters. Over the
door is this inscription:
[Greek]
The walls of this apartment are hollow, as appears by several
DOUBBA.
[p.69] holes which have been made in them, in search of hidden treasure.
Beneath it is a subterraneous apartment, in which is a double row of
receptacles for the dead, three in each row, one above the other; each
receptacle is two feet high, and five feet and a half long. The door is
so low as hardly to allow a person to creep in.
I copied the following from a stone in an adjoining wall:
[Greek]
This village has two Birkets, or reservoirs for water, which are filled
in winter time by a branch of the Wady Kanouat; they were completely
dried up this summer, a circumstance which rarely happens. Near both the
Birkets are remains of strong walls. Upon an insulated hill three
quarters of an hour S.E. from Rima, is Deir el Leben [Aarabic], i.e.
Monastery of Milk; Rima is on the limits of the Ledja; Deir in the plain
between it and the mountain Haouran. The Deir consists of the ruins of a
square building seventy paces long, with small cells, each of which has
a door; it contained also several larger apartments, of which the arches
only remain. The roof of the whole building has fallen in. Over the door
of one of the cells I read the following inscription:
[Greek] [Hence it appears that Rima has preserved its ancient name. Ed.]
Half an hour E. of Deir el Leben lies a ruined, uninhabited village upon
a Tel, called Doubba [Arabic] it has a Birket and a
SHOHBA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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