Baqirha

Baqirha (also spelled Bāķirḥā) was an ancient settlement in the Dead Cities area in northwestern Syria. The ruins of a temple from the Roman period and the remains of two churches and some residences from the early Byzantine period have been preserved. Baqirha was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011 as part of the “Ancient Villages of Northern Syria” site.

Baqirha lies on a hill called Burj Baqirha (Burj: Arabic: برج, lit. 'Tower') in Idlib Governorate on the northern slope of the Harim Mountains in the central area of the northern Syrian limestone massif. Six kilometres to the north-east lies the ancient settlement of Ba'uda on the same karst and treeless rock hill, from which the Bab al-Hawa border crossing on the main road from Aleppo to Antakya in Turkey can be seen just under two kilometres away. A few hundred meters north below Baqirha, the road leads to the poorly preserved neighbouring village of Dar Qitapast. In a southerly direction it is two kilometres to a crossroads in the tiny village of Ras ibn Hosn and another four kilometres to the south to the extensive early Byzantine settlement of Barisha, whose ruined houses are hidden between trees and bushes, unlike Baqirha, which can be seen from afar. The large settlement of Dehes is just as far south-west of Baqirha. Above Baqirha only a few small olive trees thrive, otherwise grassland littered with boulders is predominant, which is used as pasture for sheep and horses. The ruins are uninhabited and there are several small villages in the vicinity.

The oldest building is a Roman prostyle temple, which stands at the upper, southern end away from the settlement near the street. It may have been built on the site of a much older sanctuary. The temple from the year 161 AD was dedicated to Zeus Bomos (" Zeus, the altar"), a local name for the main Syrian god Baal. Zeus' temples were often built on mountains; another was in close proximity on the summit of Jebel Sheikh Baraqat (south of Refade), and several around the summit of Hermon. It is not known which deity was worshipped in the temple of Babisqa, two kilometres to the east. Above the base of the temple, which is comparable to the Baal

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).