Western Complex
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The western complex, including twenty rooms, seems to follow the whole evolution of the temple to which it is structurally connected through a doorway opened into the back wall of the temple itself. In fact, its construction is contemporary to the first phase of the religious building (late 1st b. C.-early 1st century a. D.) and its final setting (late 1st-early 2nd century a. D.). The exact function of the complex has not yet been definitely ascertained although recent sondages indicate the presence of domestic activities benefitting of the water flowing through rock cut channels from the ‘Ain Abu-Rmeīleh Spring.
Figure 11. Plan of the Western Complex (Tholbecq 1998, p. 248, fig. 10). 1st .3rd centuries a. D.
Figure 12. The Western Complex behind the temple seen from the ‘Ain Abu-Rmeīleh Spring. 1st-3rd centuries a. D.
The western complex was supplied with water by a specific aqueduct coming from the near ‘Ain Abu-Rmeīleh at the foot of Jebel Ramm.
Figure 13. One of the sandstone elements of the aqueduct flowing from ‘Ain Abu-Rmeīleh (TU1) down to the Western Complex. 1st-2nd centuries a. D.
Figure 14. One of the tribal marks near the ‘Ain Abu-Rmeīleh Spring (TU1). Late Islamic?
Half a way between the Western Complex and the ‘Ain Abu-Rmeīleh Spring is located a sandstone quarry probably used for the building yard and/or maintenance works of the temple and the complex. The bedrock shows straight vertical cuts to obtain rectangular ashlars.
Figure 15. North view and orthophoto plan of the sandstone quarry (TU6) near the Western Complex showing traces of its cultivation. It probably supplied the building up and maintenance of the temple and/or the Western Complex. 1st -2nd century a. D.
Some tenth of meters further South form the preceding, a vertical sandstone rock collapsed from the eastern slope of Jebel Ram has been maybe used as a quarry or as a natural support for a built-up structure. The ground surface in front of it shows a number of well-dressed sandstone ashlars and a quantity of pottery sherds mostly dating to a Nabataean-Roman horizon. Among them it is worth mentioning a particularly accurately finished ashlars bearing a Nabataean inscription on its main face.
Figure 16. The collapsed rock used as a quarry or as a support for a construction (TU11). Note the tool marks on the top and the cut producing a horizontal channel for rainwater drainage and the finished ashlars on the right.
Figure 17. TU11. Pottery sherds from surface collection.
Figure 18. TU11. The sandstone ashlar with the Nabataean inscription.
Last update
02.11.2026