The southern tip of Syria is a black basalt country. The eruptive rocks that litter the ground give the landscape a very special appearance: black are the stones, black the monuments, black also are the sculptures and the ornaments.
This rather gloomy color of the countryside is not very noticeable on either side of the international highway from Damascus through Daraa and Hamman, since the immense expanse of the Hauran Plateau, right up until July, is a sea of ears of corn swelled by the drying wind.
But for anyone who takes the old caravan road, the one that heads off to the south-east on leaving Damascus towards Bosra, the volcanic nature of the hills outlined against the horizon is soon plain to see. Approaching Chahba less than 90km from the capital, one can properly speak no longer of hills, but of small mountains with the characteristic shape of extinct volcanoes, together forming a range: the Jabal al Arab.
Although the summits rise between 1,500 and 1,700 meters (highest point Tal al Kin, 1,850m) the relief appears relatively even, for the land rises gradually and the places round about are all situated at over 1,000 meters. Westward the countryside is free of natural obstacles and a certain amount of humidity reaches the Jabal al Arab from the Mediterranean; the rainfall here is quite exceptional for Syria: 600 millimeters a year on the average, and there are a good number of springs.
In the middle of this sparsely populated country with so few villages, Soueida, the principal town, has the appearance of a city. The white-plastered houses and administrative buildings are almost a luxury in this land of lava. The thoroughfares are lined with trees and gardens.
Unfortunately, the developments that have occurred in the town over the last fifty years or so have been to the detriment of the ancient monuments. All that is left of a temple to Dusares, the Nabatean god (1st century), are four Corinthian columns; and of a great 6th century basilica, part of the apse and a few pillars.
To limit the damage, the Department of Antiquities is having inventories made and is doing strengthening work throughout the governorate where the need is most urgent, but the profusion of ruins so widely scattered and so difficult to reach make effective conservation a rather haphazard business.
The most positive initiative was the foundation of the Soueida Museum, which was created to avoid the dispersion and disappearance of the widely diverse type of ancient art remains found here. Some pieces are not works of art, but have also permitted the experts to reconstruct the economic, social and cultural life of this region over the different periods of its history. Furthermore, this region is quite unique in that it has one of the richest collection of well-conserved rural remains in the ancient world.
Village inscriptions, basalt flour grinders, ceramic bowls and domestic utensils of all kinds found in houses and agricultural buildings bear witness to life in this village region, a region that, judging by one of the boundary stones exhibited in the museum, appears to have been recorded in a census at the end of the 3rd century during boundary marking operations carried out under Diocletian’s orders.
In 1962, a collection of stunningly beautiful mosaics was also discovered, showing Artemis, the goddess of hunting, surrounded by nymphs, and surprised by a hunter while bathing, which is a Roman piece from the 3rd century done in most vibrant and rich colors; a birth of Venus, rather more heavy-handed; Neptune and the sea monsters; the wedding of Thetis and Peleus; Gaea, goddess of the Earth offering the fruits of the four seasons to Bacchus and Ariadne…
One can also see the harsher, but much stranger statues carved in the hard basalt: a representation of a Pantheon showing a mingling of Arab (Nabatean), Hellenistic (after the conquest of Alexander), Roman (Soueida was one of the chief towns of the Roman province of Arabia), and Byzantine (the two was the seat of a bishop in the 5th century) influences, Dusares rubs shoulders with Athena and Venus: Nabatean inscriptions are found close to slabs bearing the cross of Christ. An eagle, wings spread (Nabatean deity), and small but aggressive female busts take on an extraordinary force carved in the reddish rock.
Travelers may also like to visit the numerous little villages, most of which, and specially Shaqqa, Salim, Ateel, Sia and Al Mushannaf, are rich in ancient remains.
A trip down the small village tracks is certainly an experience not to be missed: villages can be seen perched on the slopes of volcanoes, springs run into real oases, there are cliffs of lava, not to mention the immensity of the oriental desert, al Hamad, where the golden sand mingles with the black slabs of volcanic debris.
With experienced and suitable vehicles a journey across al Hamad is conceivable between Soueida and Sabaa Biar on the Damascus-Baghdad road, after first crossing another volcanic range, the Jabal Siss, well known to archaeologists for the many rock graffiti drawn by generations of nomadic shepherds in the early centuries of the Christian era, the inscriptions being written in a dialect close to Arabic. The Omayyad palace of Jabal Siss right in the heart of the desert is another example of 18th century Arab architecture.