Baptistery of the West Church (three-ailsed basilica) Complete

ID: 98

Building type: baptistery

Context:

village; monastery; monastic

Site:

Inscriptions:

116

Description:

The baptistery takes the shape of a square with an apse at its east end. It is directly annexed to a three-aisled church. The complex also features a squarish room with a sarcophagus adjacent to the south wall of the baptistery. According to Enno Littmann, the baptistery is dated to 441/442 CE through a Syriac inscription. If so, this is the earliest attested baptistery in the Limestone Massif. Plan from: H. C. Butler (ed.) Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1905–5 and 1909. Division II: Architecture, Section B: Northern Syria (Leiden: Brill, 1920), 207.