Rakhlah (; also spelled Rakhleh or Rakhlé), previously known as Zenopolis, is a village situated west of

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. also known as "The town of Wine and Poetry". According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 368 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Rif Dimashq Governorate. Its inhabitants are predominantly from the

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

community. The presence of Druze around

Mount Hermon Mount Hermon ( / ALA-LC: ('Mountain of the Sheikh', ), , ) is a mountain, mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the Lebanon–Syria border, border between Syria and Lebanon a ...

is documented since the founding of the Druze religion in the beginning of the 11th century. Accordingly, the population is predominantly

. The main family is Abou Kheir.

Ancient history

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

, the city was known as Zenopolis (), in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

of Phoenice Paralia (or "Phoenicia Prima"). It became a city and a bishopric at the end of the 5th century. Rakhlah is a possible location of the bishopric of "Rachlea"The diocese of Rachlea is in the Province of Fenicia I and under Bishop of Tiro. It should not be confused with

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina () is a Roman Catholic archdiocese comprising the southern part of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, as far north as the 30th township, or about 51°30' lat. The metropolitan province includes the suff ...

. included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'', p. 957 In his account of this bishopric, which he calls that "of the Rachlenes" (Latin ''Rachlenorum'', Greek Ραχληνῶν), Le Quien says that, at a provincial synod held at Tyre in 518, Elias, spoken of in the acts as Bishop of the Rachlenes, signed as Ἠλίας ἐπίσκοπος Ζηνουπόλεως (Elias Bishop of Zenopolis); and that the acts of the

Second Council of Constantinople The Second Council of Constantinople is the fifth of the first seven ecumenical councils recognized by both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. It is also recognized by the Old Catholics and others. Protestant opinions and re ...

in 553 bear the signature of "Anastasius by the mercy of God Bishop of the Rachlenes in the province of the Tyrians".

Ancient temples

There are the ruins of two Roman-Phoenician temples in the village that are included in a group of

Temples of Mount Hermon The Temples of Mount Hermon are around thirty Roman shrines and temples that are dispersed around the slopes of Mount Hermon in Lebanon, Israel and Syria. A few temples are built on former buildings of the Phoenician & Hellenistic era, ...

. The smaller, apsidal temple was cut out of bedrock. The other, larger temple may have been used as a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

and is constructed of enormous blocks of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

; it measures by . It features two rows of ionic columns that run along the walls from the entrance to a semi-circular altar. One of the walls of the temple is adorned with a relief of the face of a sun god, possibly

Ba'al Baal (), or Baʻal, was a title and honorific meaning 'owner' or 'lord' in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods. Scholars previously associated the t ...

within a

wreath A wreath () is an assortment of flowers, leaves, fruits, twigs, or various materials that is constructed to form a ring shape. In English-speaking countries, wreaths are used typically as household ornaments, most commonly as an Advent and C ...

that is aligned to look at

and measures in diameter. Two stones close to the gate show depictions of a bird with outstretched wings that was suggested to have been part of the temple's

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

. The carving was described as ''"essentially

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

n in character"'' by Edward Robinson when visiting the site in 1852. He further suggested that the stone was brought to the site from a far distance. He considered the construction of the temples was likely to have taken place ''"many centuries before the

Christian era The terms (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used when designating years in the Gregorian and Julian calendars. The term is Medieval Latin and means "in the year of the Lord" but is often presented using "our Lord" instead of "the Lord", tak ...

"''. He noted several

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

inscriptions and took some copies. The

epigraphic Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

information derived from the inscriptions at Rakleh has supported the existence of a local settlement and given details of the names and positions of the temple officials. One of the texts starts with the invocation ''"to the Good Fortune"''. It is also known from the inscriptions that the Greek goddess of the sea,

Leucothea In Greek mythology, Leucothea (; ), sometimes also called Leucothoe (), was a Water deity, sea goddess. Myths surrounding Leucothea typically concern her original identity, either as Ino (Greek mythology), Ino or Halia of Rhodes, Halia, and her t ...

, was worshipped in the temple from 60 CE onwards. Two of the texts show that the officials exercised an unspecified authority. They detail the restoration of the temple using funds, implying they owned estates or assets earning interest. A building constructed in 253 CE was said to have been paid for ''"at the expense of the goddess taken from the interest"''. The treasurers of the temple also funded a new door in 379 CE. A few other rock cut

tomb A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...

s and caverns have been noted around the area.

References

External links

Photo of Rakhlah on panoramio.comJohn D. Miller, The Business of Baal, Premier community christian media, December 13, 2011Rakhlah on wikimapia.org
{{Rif Dimashq Governorate, qatana Populated places in Qatana District Archaeological sites in Rif Dimashq Governorate Ancient Roman temples Phoenician temples Roman sites in Syria Assyrian art and architecture Tourist attractions in Syria Druze communities in Syria

Ancient history

Ancient temples

See also

References

External links