Saraain El Faouqa ( ar, سرعين الفوقا) is a village located northeast of

Rayak Rayaq - Haouch Hala ( ar, رياق), also romanized Rayak, is a Lebanese town in the Beqaa Governorate near the city of Zahlé. In the early 20th century and up to 1975 and the outbreak of the civil war, it was Lebanon's most important railway ...

Baalbek District Baalbek District ( ar, قضاء بعلبك) is an administrative district in the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate of the Republic of Lebanon, having the city Baalbek as its capital. It is by far the largest district in the country comprising a total of ...

Baalbek-Hermel Governorate french: Baalbek-Hermel , settlement_type = Governorate , image_skyline = Baalbek (4594513263).jpg , image_caption = Baalbek , image_flag = , image_seal = , image_shield = , image_ ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

. Most of its inhabitants

Shia Muslim Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

s and a minority are

Maronites The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larg ...

Archaeology

There is an archaeological site located on the right of the road from Rayak, immediately before the village. It was discovered by

Henri Fleisch Reverend Father Henri Fleisch (1 January 1904 – 10 February 1985) was a French archaeologist, missionary and Orientalist, known for his work on classical Arabic language and Lebanese dialect and prehistory in Lebanon. Fleisch spent years re ...

in 1946 and mentioned by L. Burkhalter in a list of prehistoric sites published in 1948.Burkhalter, L., Bibliographie préhistorique - Inventaire, Bulletin du Musée Beyrouth, Volume 8, 1948. Various small bifaces, flakes and cores were found that were originally assessed to be

Mousterian The Mousterian (or Mode III) is an archaeological industry of stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and to the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and West Asia. The Mousterian largely defines the ...

by Burkhalter. Fleisch was said to ''"deplore the lack of

typology Typology is the study of types or the systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics. Typology is the act of finding, counting and classification facts with the help of eyes, other senses and logic. Ty ...

"'' to distinguish the assemblage, but suggested some pieces were similar to Levalloiso-Mousterian and the

Shepherd Neolithic Shepherd Neolithic is a name given by archaeologists to a style (or industry) of small flint tools from the Hermel plains in the north Beqaa Valley, Lebanon.Fleisch, Henri., Les industries lithiques récentes de la Békaa, République L ...

tools found at Rayak North and Fleywe.

Roman Temple, quarry and tombs

The village of Sarain El Faouqa is suggested to have been built on the remains of a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

. There is a

Roman temple Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in Roman culture, and some of the richest buildings in Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Today they remain "the most obvious symbol of R ...

on the left within the village that is included in a group of

Temples of the Beqaa Valley The Temples of the Beqaa Valley are a number of shrines and Roman temples that are dispersed around the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. The most important and famous are those in Roman Heliopolis. A few temples are built on former buildings of the Phoeni ...

. There are also numerous rock-cut tombs visible nearby. Although the walls of the temple

cella A cella (from Latin for small chamber) or naos (from the Greek ναός, "temple") is the inner chamber of an ancient Greek or Roman temple in classical antiquity. Its enclosure within walls has given rise to extended meanings, of a hermit's or ...

have long since disappeared, the podium still remains. Further remains were found when a house that had been built on the temple was demolished, revealing part of a cast door frame, a block from the ceiling and parts of a column base and shaft.

References

External links

Serraaine El Faouqa
Localiban

{{Portal, Lebanon, History, Asia Populated places in Baalbek District Archaeological sites in Lebanon Roman sites in Lebanon Ancient Roman temples Great Rift Valley Beqaa Valley Shepherd Neolithic sites Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon Paleolithic