ʿAnab al-Kabir; Khirbat ʿAnab Complete

Description

Archaeologists discovered the remains of a large church complex at the site, measuring around 38 by 20 meters. The layout featured an open atrium leading to a narthex and the main prayer hall. An external apse marked the eastern end, while a northern section included both a chapel and a baptistery. Some parts of the church’s structure were later incorporated into the nearby mosque of Qasr ‘Unab el-Kabir, located roughly 500 meters east. The church appears to have been abandoned and destroyed by an earthquake sometime in the middle of the 8th century CE. Further reading: Magen, Y., Peleg, Y., and Sharukh, I. 2012. “A Byzantine Church at ‘Anab el-Kabir”, in: Christians and Christianity IV: Churches and Monasteries in Judea, edited by N. Carmin, Jerusalem, pp. 331–384.