Burj Haidar
Coordinates: 36 ° 21 ′ 0 ″ N , 36 ° 54 ′ 0 ″ E
Burj Haidar , also Burǧ Ḥeidar, Borj Haidar, Burj Haydar, Kapropera in antiquity ; was an early Byzantine settlement in the Dead Cities area in northwest Syria . The ruins of several churches and residential buildings from the 4th to 7th centuries lie within today's village.
location
Burj Haidar is located in Aleppo Governorate , about 25 kilometers as the crow flies north-west of Aleppo at an altitude of 582 meters in the western area of Jebel Siman. The karst hilly area is part of the northern Syrian limestone massif. The place is on the on the main line from Aleppo to Afrin preferred Deir Seman achievable. From here a side road leads ten kilometers east into the mountains. Remains of other places inhabited in early Byzantine times have been preserved in the area: The ruins of a church are in Basufan , three kilometers to the west and in Kharab Shems in the north. In Kafr Nabu , 2.5 kilometers north, which has been in bloom since the 2nd century , there are temple ruins from Roman times. Fafertin with the earliest church of Western Syria is five kilometers south, Kalota with one of the latest churches is four kilometers east.
As in ancient times, mainly olive trees thrive in the vicinity of Burj Haidar ; Within the village, vegetables are planted on small plots between stone walls .
Townscape
The name Kapropera was first mentioned in 298 AD. Of some two-storey residential buildings (residences) made of limestone blocks, the outer walls up to the gable have been preserved. The ruins are partly modern and difficult to access. The rather small settlement had four church buildings, of which the western basilica from the 4th century in the center of today's town is the most important as one of the earliest church buildings.
On the eastern edge of the village, north of the street, there are ruins of a single-nave chapel from the 6th century with a rectangular protruding apse on the east wall, the outer walls of which have been almost completely preserved. The arched windows are connected to one another by a horizontal strip of cornice , which rolls up into volutes at the ends . The building belonged to a monastery ; only small remnants remained of an adjacent basilica and the living quarters of the monks. The east basilica from the 5th or 6th century had a horseshoe-shaped apse. There was also a single-nave church from the 6th century.
A square tower up to three or four stories high was preserved 100 meters north of the west basilica. Like the towers in other places in the region ( Refade ), it could have served as a retreat for hermits or monks. On the western edge of the village, a larger building served as an andron, or hostel. In the vicinity were two other single-nave churches, at least one of which belonged to a monastery.
West Basilica
The 4th century basilica was described by Howard Crosby Butler in 1905 and examined more thoroughly by George Tchalenko in 1941 and 1969. It was a three- aisled column arcade basilica with six bays each on the high walls of the central nave. The arcades of columns stand upright, as do the pillars on the east and west sides. All columns have simple Doric capitals. The church is sandwiched between village houses within a vegetable garden, its outer walls have almost completely disappeared. The semicircular apse within the straight east wall was surrounded by side rooms added later, the southern room served as a martyrion from the 5th century (reliquary chamber, also prothesis ).
There are two entrance doors that are still upright in the otherwise demolished southern longitudinal wall; the western and northern walls were closed. The side walls of the doors consist of one or two stone blocks that are unprofiled and unadorned. The lintel of the eastern door is divided at the bottom with a smooth frieze band , above it with a round bar and groove . There is an inscription on the lintel of the western door.
The narrow position of the pillars, the low height of the central nave walls and the archaic shape are signs that local craftsmen were responsible for the construction, who had little experience with the construction of arcades. The low depth of the apse and the closed outer walls except for the two southern entrances speak for the dating to the 4th century.
literature
- Hermann Wolfgang Beyer : The Syrian church building. Studies of late antique art history. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1925, pp. 79, 96, 107
- Howard Crosby Butler: Early Churches in Syria. Fourth to Seventh Centuries. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1929, p. 149 (Amsterdam 1969)
- Frank Rainer Scheck, Johannes Odenthal: Syria. High cultures between the Mediterranean and the Arabian desert. DuMont, Cologne 1998, p. 296, ISBN 3770113373
- 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, p. 28 f
Web links
- Michael Greenhalgh, Australian National University Extensive photo documentation
- Burj Haydar / Western Basilica / Row of arcades. Kiel image database Middle East, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
- Gertrude Bell Archive, Album (1905). Photographs by Gertrude Bell , 1905: west basilica (C 038), east chapel (C 039, C 040)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Burj Haydar, Syria Page. Fallingrain.com
- ↑ Scheck, Odenthal, p. 296
- ↑ Strube, 1993, p. 29