SYRIA: Temple discovered in Sweida city is ready for tourists

Record ID: 279268

  • Title: SYRIA: Temple discovered in Sweida city is ready for tourists
  • Date: 28th July 2010
  • Summary: QENATHA, SYRIA (JULY 22, 2010) (REUTERS): VARIOUS OF RUINS AT THE SIAH TEMPLE SITE PART OF A ROCK SCULPTURE AT THE SITE MORE REMAINS OF THE TEMPLE, SHOWING SLABS OF ROCK ON GROUND VARIOUS OF CARVED ROCKS FROM THE TEMPLE SITE HUSSEIN ZEIN AL-DIN, DIRECTOR OF THE SYRIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MISSION, WALKING IN SITE STONE ENGRAVED WITH GREEK WRITING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HUS
  • Embargoed: 12th August 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Religion,Travel / Tourism
  • Reuters ID: LVAEV3H1JUMH5KLSGS0A626HLWC7
  • Story Text: An ancient temple which has been unearthed on the outskirts of the town of Qenatha near Syria's southwestern city of Sweida has been prepared to welcome tourists, officials say.
    Excavation work has been ongoing at the Siah temple since the 1980s, and was finally opened to visitors this month.
    Experts believer the temple was built between the year 1 and 32 B.C during the late Hellenistic period.
    Archaeologists say the artefacts at the site are the product of a blend of ancient local civilisations and the Hellenistic civilisation. This makes the site unique, as most of the neighbouring archaeological treasures that dot the area surrounding Sweida are Nabataean or Roman.
    One of the most important archaeological finds from the Siah site is an artefact unearthed this month.
    It is a five centimetre bronze statue of the Greek god of silence Harpocrates, who is a variation on the Egyptian child god Horus. It is kept at a museum in Sweida and represents a marriage of cultural influences, Hussein Zein al-Din, the director of the Syrian Archaeological Mission, told Reuters.
    "It is a marriage of the Egyptian and Hellenistic civilisations and it represents the god Harpocrates and the god Horus. Horus is the god of the sky for the Egyptians and is the son of Isis and his father was Osiris. The god Harpocrates as a young boy was sometimes called Horus," Zein al-Din said.
    Sweida is one of the most important archaeological cities in Syria, where many joint missions are working in order to find more historical artefacts and sites.
    Waseem al-Shaarani, director of the Sweida Department of Antiquities, said it was important for national experts to work with other countries to improve their skills.
    "This contact is very useful, especially while working on sites and for promoting our locations and making them known internationally," al-Shaarani said.
    Syria's rich archaeological finds attract tourists from all over the world.
    The country earned $5.2 billion from international tourism in 2009, and $1.5 billion from domestic tourism. The tourism earnings were 12 percent higher than in the previous year, despite a global recession which saw world-wide tourism receipts shrink four percent, Syrian tourism minister Saadallah Agha al-Qalaa said.
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