Bettir
Bettir is a small village in the north-west of Syria in the area of the Dead Cities , whose field of ruins from the early Byzantine period contains the remains of one of the earliest wide arcade basilicas .
Bettir is almost 700 meters above sea level in the Idlib governorate on the high elevation of the Jebel il-Ala, a remote hill region in the western central part of the northern Syrian limestone massif, a few kilometers from the Turkish border. The place is two kilometers north of Qalb Loze and close to the early Byzantine settlement of Qirqbize on the same karst ridge that is also home to the ancient ruins of Behyo and Benebil. In the neighboring village of Berriš Nord , the last church on Jebel il-Ala was consecrated at the end of the 6th century.
The history of the place goes back to the Roman times of the 3rd century AD, most of the houses were built between the 4th and 6th centuries. The only church recognizable in the ruins was a three-aisled wide arcade basilica, the inscribed date of completion in 471 being used to date the more famous basilica of Qalb Loze. The small church of Bettir with two columns per central nave high wall mimicked the larger basilica, for which a construction period up to 470 is assumed. Qalb Loze also served as a model for the Qal'at Sim'an that was created a little later .
The church of Bettir follows the usual construction plan of the early Syrian churches: a semicircular apse in the east was closed on the outside by a straight wall. On both sides of the apse there was a rectangular side room, the southern of the two served as a martyrion (reliquary chamber) as in Qalb Loze.
The ruins of the place are poorly preserved. The middle part of the east wall extends from the church to the beginning of the gable, the outer walls in the area of the martyrion up to the eastern door of the south wall with small arched windows and part of the adjoining wall of the Temenos in front of the south wall .
The site was first roughly surveyed by Howard Crosby Butler in 1899, and Georges Tchalenko made a detailed construction survey in 1939 and 1970. Peter Großmann added the plans in 1973. In 1984, Jean Luc Biscop and Jean-Pierre Sodini succeeded in proving that the church had a single-nave predecessor.
literature
- Christine Strube : Building decoration in the northern Syrian limestone massif. Vol. I. Forms of capitals, doors and cornices in the churches of the 4th and 5th centuries AD. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1993, pp. 116–121
- E. Baccache: Églises de village de la Syrie du Nord. Documents photographiques des archives de'l Institut Francais d'Archeologie due Proche-Orient. Paul Geuthner, Paris 1980, p. 166 f. (Black and white photographs)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christine Strube: The "Dead Cities". Town and country in northern Syria during late antiquity. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1996, p. 63, ISBN 3805318405
- ↑ Strube 1993, p. 116
- ↑ Strube 1993, p. 115
Coordinates: 36 ° 12 ′ 8 ″ N , 36 ° 33 ′ 37 ″ E