The Columns Are Very Small In Proportion To The Arches
Which They Support, And I Did Not See Any Above Eighteen Or Twenty Feet
High.
The perishable nature of the stone has not left a single
inscription visible, if there ever were any, with the exception of some
names of Frenchmen from Aleppo, who visited the place eighty years ago.
The sign of the cross is visible in several places.
If these buildings
were constructed in pious commemoration of the devout sufferings of St.
Simon Stylites, who passed thirty-five years of his life upon a column,
they are probably of the sixth century. St. Simon died towards the end
of the fifth century, and in the seventh century Syria was conquered and
converted to Islamism by the successors of Mohammed. The structures are
certainly not of the date of the Crusades. On the eastern side of the
building are the remains of an aqueduct, the continuation of which is
again met with on the opposite hill. The Kurdine inhabitants of these
ruins collect at present the rain water in cisterns.
Descending from the top of the hill on the western side, the remains of
a broad paved causeway lead to an arch, which stands about ten minutes
walk from the castle, and faces the ruins of a city, built at the foot
of the hill, of which a number of buildings are still extant. These
ruins, called Bokatur, are uninhabited, their circumference may be
estimated at about one mile and a half.
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