Similar dimensions was laid close together at
right angles with the first. The rooms are seldom higher than nine or
ten feet, and have no other opening than a low door, with sometimes a
small window over it. In many places I saw two or three of these arched
chambers one above the other, forming so many stories. This substantial
mode of building prevails also in most of the ancient public edifices
remaining in the Haouran, except that in the latter the arch, instead of
springing from the walls or floor, rests upon two short columns. During
the whole of my tour, I saw but one or two arches, whose curve was
lofty; the generality of them, including those in the public buildings,
are oppressively low. To complete the durability of these structures,
most of the doors were anciently of stone, and of these many are still
remaining; sometimes they are of one piece and sometimes they are
folding doors; they turn upon hinges worked out of the stone, and are
about four [p.59]inches thick, and seldom higher than about four feet,
though I met with some upwards of nine feet in height.
I remained at Ezra, in the priest's house, this and the following day,
occupied in examining the antiquities of the village. The most
considerable ruins stand to the S.E. of the present habitations; but few
of the buildings on that side have resisted the destructive hand of
time. The walls, however, of most of them yet remain, and there are the
remains of a range of houses which, to judge from their size and
solidity, seem to have been palaces. The Ezra people have given them the
appellation of Seraye Malek el Aszfar, or the Palace of the Yellow King,
a term given over all Syria, as I have observed in another place, to the
Emperor of Russia. The aspect of these ruins, and of the surrounding
rocky country of the Ledja, is far from being pleasing: the Ledja
presents a level tract covered with heaps of black stones, and small
irregular shaped rocks, without a single agreeable object for the eye to
repose upon. On the west and north sides of the village are several
public edifices, temples, churches, &c. The church of St. Elias
[Arabic], in which the Greeks celebrate divine service, is a round
building, of which the roof is fallen in, and only the outer wall
standing. On its S. side is a vestibule supported by three arches, the
entrance to which is through a short arched dark passage. Over the
entrance is the following inscription:
[Greek]
Over a small side gate I observed the following words:
[Greek]
[p.60] On the arch of the entrance alley,
[Greek]
On the outer wall, on the north side of the rotunda;
[Greek]
On the south side of the village stands an edifice, dedicated to St.
Georgius, or El Khouder [Arabic], as the Mohammedans, and sometimes the
Christians, call that Saint. It is a square building of about eighty-
five feet the side, with a semicircular projection on the E. side; the
roof is vaulted, and is supported by eight square columns, which stand
in a circle in the centre of the square, and are united to one another
by arches. They are about two feet thick, and sixteen high, with a
single groove on each side. Between the columns and the nearest part of
the wall is a space of twelve feet. The niche on the east side contains
the altar. The vaulted roof is of modern construction. The building had
two entrances; of which the southern is entirely walled up; the western
also is closed at the top, leaving a space below for a stone door of six
feet high, over which is a broad stone with the following inscription
upon it:
[Greek]
[p.61] [Greek] [A.D. 410. This was the third year of the Emperor
Theodosius the younger, in whose reign the final decrees were issued
against the Pagan worship. It appears from the inscription that the
building upon which it is written was an ancient temple, converted into
a church of St. George. Editor.]
Before the temple is a small paved yard, now used as the exclusive
burial ground of the Greek priests of Ezra.
In the midst of the present inhabited part of the village stand the
ruins of another large edifice; it was formerly applied to Christian
worship, and subsequently converted into a mosque: but it has long since
been abandoned. It consists of a quadrangle, with two vaulted colonnades
at the northern and southern ends, each consisting of a double row of
five columns. In the middle of the area stood a parallel double range of
columns of a larger size, forming a colonnade across the middle of the
building; the columns are of the Doric order, and about sixteen feet
high. The side arcades are still standing to half their height; those of
the middle area are lying about in fragments; the E. and W. walls of the
building are also in ruins. Over the entrance gate are three inscribed
tablets, only one of which, built upside down in the wall, is legible;
it is as follows:
[Greek]
Over an inner gate I saw an inscription, much defaced, which seemed to
be in Syrian characters.
Adjoining this building stands a square tower, about fifty feet high;
its base is somewhat broader than its top. I frequently saw
[p.62]similar structures in the Druse villages; and in Szannamein are
two of the same form as the above: they all have windows near the
summit; in some, there is one window on each side, in others there are
two, as in this at Ezra. They have generally several stories of vaulted
chambers, with a staircase to ascend into them.
