Al-Mushannaf ( ar, المشنف also spelled ''Mushennef'') is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the

al-Suwayda Governorate As-Suwayda or Al-Suwayda Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة السويداء / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat as-Suwaydā’'') is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is the southernmost governorate and has an area of 5,550 km ...

, located northeast of

al-Suwayda As-Suwayda ( ar, ٱلسُّوَيْدَاء / ALA-LC romanization: ''as-Suwaydāʾ''), also spelled ''Sweida'' or ''Swaida'', is a mainly Druze city located in southwestern Syria, close to the border with Jordan. It is the capital of As-Suwayda ...

. Nearby localities include Tarba to the north, Shahba and Salkhad to the northwest,

Qanawat Qanawat ( ar, قَنَوَات, Qanawāt) is a village in Syria, located 7 km north-east of al-Suwayda. It stands at an elevation of about 1,200 m, near a river and surrounded by woods. Its inhabitants are entirely from the Druze comm ...

to the west and al-Kafr to the southwest. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), al-Mushannaf had a population of 2,581 in the 2004 census. The town is also the administrative center of the al-Mushannaf ''

nahiyah A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

'' of the

al-Suwayda District as-Suwayda District ( ar-at, منطقة السويداء, manṭiqat as-Suwaydā’) is a district of the as-Suwayda Governorate in southern Syria. The administrative centre is the city of as-Suwayda As-Suwayda ( ar, ٱلسُّوَيْدَاء ...

consisting of 14 villages with a combined population of 17,134.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Al-Suwayda Governorate.

History

Al-Mushannaf (ancient ''Nela'' or ''Nelkomia'') was a part of the province of Syria under the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

on the borders with the province of

Arabia Petraea Arabia Petraea or Petrea, also known as Rome's Arabian Province ( la, Provincia Arabia; ar, العربية البترائية; grc, Ἐπαρχία Πετραίας Ἀραβίας) or simply Arabia, was a frontier province of the Roman Emp ...

. Druze tribes settled in the village between 1856 and 1858.Firro, 1992, p
152
/ref>

Roman-period temple

The village has a well preserved Roman prostyle

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

dating to the first century BC that was dedicated to the gods

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...

and

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded ...

.Ball, 2002, p
242
/ref>Shahîd, 1995, p
498
/ref> The temple stands on a podium, measuring ,Ward, 1907, pp. 1-6. and faces a rectangular ''

temenos A ''temenos'' ( Greek: ; plural: , ''temenē''). is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, such as a sanctuary, holy gr ...

'' which is surrounded by four walls and looks out on an artificial pool from its south side and colonnades on the other ones. The temple's entrance is aligned to the north and the courtyard has steps that lead to the inner sanctuary. The whole temple is built from the local black basalt rocks. The walls are built without binding materials and display beautiful ornaments including capitals and entablature,Kaizer, 2008, pp
101
102 while the courtyard is paved with flat stones of various sizes. An inscription inside the temple states that it was built in celebration of the

Herodian Herodian or Herodianus ( el, Ἡρωδιανός) of Syria, sometimes referred to as "Herodian of Antioch" (c. 170 – c. 240), was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful history in Greek titled ''History of the Empire from the Death o ...

king Agrippa I. The temple was excavated in the early 1900s by

Howard Crosby Butler Howard Crosby Butler (March 7, 1872 Croton Falls, New York – August 13, 1922 Neuilly) was an American archaeologist. Butler graduated from Princeton University, and later pursued special studies at the Columbia School of Architecture and at the ...

and later by Clarence Ward, and was partially restored by the Syrian government.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

Map of the town
Google Maps {{DEFAULTSORT:Mushannaf Populated places in as-Suwayda District Archaeological sites in as-Suwayda Governorate Roman sites in Syria Towns in Syria Druze communities in Syria

History

Roman-period temple

See also

References

Bibliography

External links