BSY_FB_16-100

100

after the completion of the temple - a portion
of the ornament with which it was
embellished was cut in the temple walls, but
an incision was made for sitting in
a triangular pediment.

In later times this little niche, which
faced the South, seems to have been in
closed with a wall and to have been
pressed into service by the Mohammedeans
as a mihrab for a little mosque. The
temple was doubtless at the same time
the stronghold of some Arab potentate.

This little temple from the style of
its design and the material of which it
is made (a pure white limestone yellowing
with age) is a foretaste of Palmyra -
between this point and Palmyra it is a
continuous stretch of desert without signs
of ancient occupation.