Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

CH. iv.] The Roman Fortress. 157
hidden below the earth. The level of the soil all
round the fortress has risen, as I have calculated,
at the rate of more than a foot a century since
Roman times.
Proceeding southward the wall throws out a sharp
shoulder at the dip of the road : this shoulder was
pierced with windows and formed an angular bastion.
Thence the wall runs at a slightly changed angle for
150 yards to the Greek convent. Halfway comes
the Coptic entrance of Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah a door
so low that one has to descend into a kind of pit to
reach it. The entrance has been cut in early Christian
times through the solid Roman masonry, which
here is 8 ft. in thickness. A new door has just been
made through the wall a little further on as an
entrance to the premises of the Greek convent,
the one ancient Melkite church now remaining.
Below the Greek convent the wall disappears
under plaster and whitewash and bends inward by
a sharp curve for about 10 ft. : after a gap of
about 90 ft. crossed by an Arab wall, one finds
again the Roman wall bent outwards in a corresponding
curve, and thence continuing straight. These
two curves were puzzling at first, but by good fortune
I found the key to their meaning. A view obtained
one day from the roof of Al Mu'allakah revealed
a mass of masonry, apparently Roman, lying just
sub-
behind and adjoining one of the curves : and
sequent research on the spot discovered the remains
of a large circular tower of Roman work, to which
the wall formed a tangent. Only half the tower
remained, showing a sort of vertical section ; but
there was enough to indicate the plan, which consisted
of two concentric circles with the space between