Temples of Mount Hermon

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Summit of Mount Hermon
Roman temple at Niha, Lebanon
Statue at the Roman temple at Niha, Lebanon
Small lower temple at Niha, Lebanon
Roman temple of Qasr el Banat, Lebanon
Roman temple of Qasr el Banat, Lebanon
Roman temple of Hosn Niha, Lebanon
Roman temple of Hosn Niha, Lebanon
Roman temple of Hosn Niha, Lebanon

The Temples of Mount Hermon are around thirty[1] Roman shrines and Roman temples that are dispersed around the slopes of Mount Hermon in Lebanon, Israel and Syria.[2][3] A few temples are built on former buildings of the Phoenician & Hellenistic era, but nearly all are considered to be of Roman construction and were largely abandoned during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire.

Surveys

Discovery of the Hermonian temples in rural

epigraphic surveys in 2002 and 2003.[8] Some of the sites have been connected with the high places used for the worship of Baal in the Books of Kings.[9]

The

Jawlan.[12][13]

Although the sites may have been built on previous layers of architecture, the current temples are predominantly considered to be of Roman construction and were largely abandoned after the fourth century AD during the

Byzantine era.[3]

The temples were often connected with ancient occupational sites. Olivier Callot and Pierre-Louis Gatier argued that several of the temple sites might have been mistaken for monumental

Henry Seyrig, when reviewing Krencker and Zscheitzmann's "Romische Tempel in Syrien" highlighted that "the clue to an important social and economic change that would deserve to be one day the focus of a study". There is still a deplorable lack of a comprehensive study into the history, archaeology, architecture of these buildings and ancient sites, or the religious life of the people who used them.[3]

Summit site of Qasr Antar

Recently have been additionally discovered in 2003 the Qasr Chbib complex, made of two small Roman temples situated just a few hundred meters from the summit of Mount Hermon. Both of the sanctuaries have northern walls that were carved out of solid bedrock.[15]

There is a sacred building made of hewn blocks of stone on the summit of Mount Hermon. Known as Qasr Antar, it was the highest temple of the ancient world, sitting at 2,814 metres (9,232 ft) above sea level. It was documented by

Sir Charles Warren in 1869. Warren described the temple as a rectangular building, sitting on an oval, stone plateau without roof. He removed a limestone stele from the northwest of the oval, broke it into two pieces and carried it down the mountain and back to the British Museum
, where it currently resides.

A Greek inscription on the stele was translated by George Nickelsburg to read "According to the command of the greatest a(nd) Holy God, those who take an oath (proceed) from here." Nickelsburg connected the inscription with oath taken by the

Enoch as "The Great Holy One".[16] Eusebius recognized the religious importance of Hermon in his work "Onomasticon", saying "Until today, the mount in front of Panias and Lebanon is known as Hermon and it is respected by nations as a sanctuary". It has been related to the Arabic term al-haram, which means "sacred enclosure".[17]

Deities

Apart from the supreme god of the lofty sanctuary, other gods were evidenced to have been worshipped in the area. The god

Kfar Zabad, Inkhil, Tel Jezreel, Tyre and Segeria as evidenced by an inscription found at Ayn al-Burj.[3]

The

Gods of Kiboreia are known from a Greek inscription taken from a large temple at Deir El Aachayer on the northern slopes of Mount Hermon in Lebanon.[18][19][20][21]

The inscription was found noting that a bench was installed "in the year 242, under Beeliabos, also called Diototos, son of Abedanos, high priest of the gods of Kiboreia".[22] The era of the gods of Kiboreia is not certain, as is their location which is not conclusively to be identified with Deir El Aachayer, but was possibly the Roman sanctuary or the name of a settlement in the area.[23] It has been suggested that the name Kiboreia was formed from the Aramaic word kbr, meaning a "place of great abundance".[22]

Sites in Lebanon

George Taylor divided up the

Korsei el-Debb and Qasr Chbib whilst possible identification was made requiring further investigation at the sites of Qatana, Kafr Dura, Qalaat al-Almond, Haouch Hafoufa and Mazraat el-Faqaa.[18]

The recently found Qasr Chbib is a complex of two Roman temples situated a few hundred meters from the summit of Mount Hermon.[24] Both of the sanctuaries have northern walls that were carved out of solid bedrock of the mountain.

Sites in Israel

A sacred site at

Medieval and Ottoman period.[25][26]

Sites in Syria

Of the Syrian Hermonian temples, the easiest to reach from

Rakleh.[1] At the temple in Rakleh, there is an engraved god on one wall, surrounded by a wreath and facing towards Mount Hermon.[27]

Two other sanctuaries that have been the subject of study by Israelis in the

Qalaat Bustra and Har Senaim.[18]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-415-27105-9
    . Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  2. ISBN 9780860547563
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-90-04-16735-3
    . Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  4. ^ Edward Robinson (1856). Biblical researches in Palestine and the adjacent regions: a journal of travels in the years 1838 and 1852. J. Murray. pp. 433–. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  5. ^ Sir Charles William Wilson (1881). Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt. D. Appleton. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  6. ^ Daniel M. Krencker; Willy Zschietzschmann (1938). Römische Tempel in Syrien: nach Aufnahmen und Untersuchungen von Mitgliedern der Deutschen Baalbekexpedition 1901-1904, Otto Puchstein, Bruno Schulz, Daniel Krencker. W. de Gruyter & Co. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  7. ^ Tallon, Maurice., “Sanctuaires et itinéraires romains du. Chouf et du sud de la Béqa,” Mélanges de l'université Saint Joseph 43, pp. 233-50, 1967.
  8. ^ a b c George Taylor (1971). The Roman temples of Lebanon: a pictorial guide. Les temples romains au Liban; guide illustré. Dar el-Machreq Publishers. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  9. ISBN 978-1-4179-7535-8
    . Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  10. ^ Kalos, M., Un sanctuaire d'epoque hellenistique en Syrie du sud: Khirbet Massakeb. Topoi, 9/2, pp. 777-794, 1999.
  11. ^ Hartal, M., "Khirbet Zemel: Northern Golan: an Iturean Settlement" in Zvi Gal (ed.), Eretz Zafon: Studies in Galilean Archaeology, pp. 75-117, Jerusalem:IAA, 2002.
  12. ^ Kropp, Andreas., Limits of Hellenisation: Pre-Roman basalt temples in the Hauran, Bollettino di Archaeologia On Line, Special Volume for the International congress of classical archaeology meetings between cultures in the ancient mediterranean, Rome, 2008.
  13. ^ Kropp, Andreas., Limits of Hellenisation: Pre-Roman basalt temples in the Hauran, Bollettino di Archaeologia On Line, Special Volume for the International congress of classical archaeology meetings between cultures in the ancient mediterranean, Rome, 2008.[permanent dead link]
  14. ^ Callot, Olivier, and Pierre-Louis Gatier. "Le reseau des sanctuaires en Syrie du Nord." Topoi 9, pp. 665-688, 1999.
  15. ^ E. A. Myers. The Ituraeans and the Roman Near East: Reassessing the Sources.
  16. ^ Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, 1–36; 81–108, Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001.
  17. ISBN 978-0-521-51887-1
    . Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  18. ^
    ISBN 978-90-04-16735-3
    . Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  19. ^ Jalabert, L., "Inscriptions grecques et latines de Syrie (deuxième série)" in Mélanges de la Faculté Orientale de Beyrouth 2, p.265-320, 1907.
  20. ^ Brown, J., E. Meyers, R. Talbert, T. Elliott, S. Gillies (20 October 2012). "Places: 678253 (Kiboreia)". Pleiades. Retrieved September 18, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  21. ISBN 978-0-19-826948-9
    . Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  22. ^
    ISBN 978-3-515-09265-4
    . Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  23. ISBN 978-0-674-77886-3
    . Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  24. ISBN 978-0-521-51887-1
    .
  25. ^ "Archaeologists Excavate Legendary City of Dan, Popular Archaeology, Vol. 5, December 2011". Archived from the original on 2012-07-15. Retrieved 2012-09-18.
  26. ^ Pottery Neolithic Levels at Tel Dan. Mitekufat Haeven, Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society 20:91-113. Bar-Yosef, O., Gopher, A., and Nadel, D. 1987.
  27. ^ Albert Leighton Rawson (1870). The Bible Handbook: For Sunday-schools and Bible Readers. With 150 Engravings and 25 Maps and Plans. R.B. Thompson. pp. 87–. Retrieved 18 September 2012.

External links

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