Amrah: an Ancient Basalt Village near Shahba

A Druze village about five and a half kilometres north-east of Shahba, at 1008 metres, with an old basalt settlement at its core. The old village covers an area of 230 by 220 metres. What sets Amrah apart is its inscriptions: the stones themselves date the buildings, from an offering at a pagan temple to the years after the Arab conquest. Add to that a towered house whose plan and section were drawn in the 19th century.

What is in the old village

Two water pools, known as birkas, lie to the west and north-east of the old village. At least ten large old houses can be made out on the plan. In the south-east are the remains of a temple to Athena, known locally as Allat. There is also a church with Greek Christian inscriptions from the 5th and 6th centuries. According to Arabic Wikipedia, parts of the north church’s facade still stand: carved crosses, a decorated lintel with a long inscription, arches and the remains of a tower on each side.

What the stones say

• 165: a Greek inscription dedicating a propylon, a monumental gateway, and a column to the ancestral god
• 295: a three-line offering to Athena-Allat on a small altar
• 473: the dedication of a church
• 550: the building of a church, naming the priests Elias and Kayonos
• 555: an inscription naming the abbot Antipatros, in a building thought to have housed monks
• 633: a place of worship built by the Christians of Amrah; in 667, after the Arab conquest, an entrance court was added

Some inscriptions carry no date: one records the founding of a chapel to the martyr Saint Sergius, another a church of Saint George naming the archimandrite Theodoros and the abbot Antipatros.

The towered house

In the large east-facing house, a three-storey tower rises to the right of the main door, and you enter the courtyard through it. Facing the door, the main hall is roofed on a single wide arch and rises two storeys. The house has two-room apartments, guest rooms and a stone stair to the upper floor. Behind lie a long corridor, a small open court, feeding troughs and a horse stable with its own door on the north side; an outside stair leads up to the servants’ rooms. Locally, the other large houses are called Bayt al-Malik, Bayt al-Tut and Bayt al-Awamid.

Who came here

The Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt came in 1810, and William John Bankes in 1816 and 1818; Bankes copied the inscriptions and sketched the church’s west front and the house. Shortly after the middle of the 19th century Guillaume Rey found the village inhabited. In 1863–1864 Melchior de Vogüé and the architect Edmond Duthoit drew the plan and section of the house, and on the same expedition William Waddington copied about ten inscriptions. The Ottoman register of 1596 lists the village as empty, though 2700 akçe were paid as a lump sum for its land. In 1838 Eli Smith recorded it as a Druze village.

Current situation and access

Amrah lies on the eastern edge of the Lajat, just east of Umm al-Zaytoun. Suwayda governorate has been caught up in armed conflict since July 2025, and the present condition of the remains could not be confirmed by an independent source. On 23 August 2026 the newspaper Al-Watan reported that the Damascus–Suwayda road had been cut at the Umm al-Zaytoun checkpoint, in this very neighbouring village. Snack Syrian reported on 2 and 10 September 2026 that entry to and exit from the governorate were effectively restricted. This page describes what Amrah is; it does not say the site can be visited today. Anyone thinking of going should first check the current situation with official sources.