Sweida-Sana
The archaeological sites near the town of Al-Ghariya, located in the far southern countryside of the As-Suwayda governorate, constitute a cultural extension of the ancient monuments and buildings contained in this town that inhabited the ancient man in the middle and modern Stone Age between 2000 and 1200 BC and left traces of his drawings and inscriptions on the walls of the caves located in their hills.
The researcher in the area's antiquities, Tawfiq al-Safadi, said in a statement to SANA's correspondent that the most prominent of those sites are the "Dafiana", whose monuments date back to the second century AD and contain a high palace and walls ending with beautiful and carved crowns, and Deir al-Mayas, which is located to the south of Al-Ghariya, and was named in many archaeological yearbooks of Jebel Al-Arab The ruins of his Nabataean palaces are still visible, and a rectangular pool was restored at the time of Izz al-Din Aybak.
Among the archaeological sites surrounding the ghariya as well, which contain archaeological stock, according to Safadi, the hill of “Abd Mar,” which represents a plateau above which there are still traces of a small church, of which only a room remains, the ceiling of which is based on stone arches and has a stone door to the north, where its foundations indicate the existence of a Roman temple. Or Nabati and his stones bear many inscriptions and arbors of the vine, pointing out that due to the sanctity of the place, in later years, it became a monastery for the ascetics, knowing that passing in Syriac means the master or the saint.
Al-Ghariya also surrounds the sites of Nadaiba, Rashida, Shabih, the eastern hill, and Tell Barakat, which is located to the west of the town of Al Ghariya, which was the home of the ancient man, and the discoveries in it indicate the succession of civilizations that have passed through this area, as the relics made of flint stone that were found on the site indicate that this area inhabited since thousands of years.
Al-Safadi added: The Ghariya is one of the three Ghariya in the Hawran area, and it is likely that its name was taken from the depth of its valley or the blowing of its cave, and its proximity to the famous Shabih water prevailed over it, so it was called a Shabih cave, indicating that the most important archaeological sites in the town are the remains of the Byzantine Church and the Nabati temple, which indicates Many of the Nabataean writings discovered, many archaeological ruins, statues bearing writing in Greek language, a square-angled altar bearing an inscription in Greek and an archaeological cemetery located to the northeast of it and containing nine tombs that were discovered years ago in addition to a number of archaeological treasures and finds dating back to the Byzantine and Roman periods and Safavid inscriptions and writings on A giraffe and a camel, discovered in 1997.
It is worth noting that the town of Al-Ghariya is located about 45 kilometers south of the city of As-Suwayda.
Suhail Hatoum