Homs-Sana
On its second virtual trip in Syria, Mada’s cultural team directed its audience with a visual presentation and a detailed explanation about (Sergila, the Pearl of the Forgotten Cities), hosted by the Syriac Catholic Archdiocese Hall in Old Homs.
The presentation was started by Father Dr. Michael Noaman of the Syriac Catholic Diocese with an explanation about the history of archaeological discoveries of forgotten cities in the mid-nineteenth century, and the characteristics of these cities and villages and their construction according to a single architectural style called (Syrian architecture), to distinguish it from the classical Greek and Roman architecture.
He pointed out that the most important characteristic of the construction of forgotten cities and villages is stones, the lack of wood, dependence on rainwater, the construction of tanks to preserve them and the use of mosaics in the floors, the development of building churches, from the church with one portico to the wide church with three corridors, the emergence of monastic life and the expansion of urbanization of monasteries. , in addition to the absence of building walls and fortifications, with the exception of some watchtowers, and the absence of city planning or straight streets.
Tourist guide Moussa Falih explained that the Sarjila site is one of the most beautiful archaeological sites and one of the forgotten cities scattered in the area called the limestone block, and its name is Syriac in origin and means the light of God.
He pointed out that the population began to settle there since the first centuries AD, when it reached the peak of its development and prosperity with the spread of the Christian religion between the fourth and sixth centuries AD, and witnessed a great urban movement that pervaded all regions and villages.
Falih pointed out that Sarjila’s antiquities, research and study of historical data in them provided a true picture of the rural situation in northern Syria in the Roman and Byzantine periods. He also found a close connection between all the cities and villages that formed an integrated unit of economic, social and religious importance.
Falih reviewed the types of buildings in Serjila, the most important of which are simple houses, villas, churches, mosques, bathrooms, public halls, olive presses, tanks, cemeteries and graves.
He pointed out that the bathrooms’ plan differed from that of the residential houses, as it consisted of a rectangle divided into two parts that include the parts of the bathroom and are linked by corridors and next to them a huge stone water tank and the two-storey square meeting room, preceded by corridors mounted on stone columns.
The areas and shapes of residential houses vary, most of which consist of two floors, the ground floor for living and storing materials, and the upper one for housing, and it is provided with corridors carried on columns.
Rasha made
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