Dayr al-Asmar Tell

In Suwayda province, about 1500 metres east of the village of Najran, a tell and the ruins of a monastery stand at a bend on the edge of the Leja, the rugged lava plateau of the Hauran. The site covers roughly 15000 square metres at 780 metres above sea level, on a plateau above the Wadi Abu Dahab. Surveys show use from the Bronze and Iron Ages through the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods. This page concentrates on the tell because that is where the information is; the sources say very little about the monastery.

Getting there

Head east from Najran to the edge of the Leja. The site is not marked on online maps. Its coordinates come from a single source, so this page carries no map; ask the way in Najran.

How long it takes

Forty-five minutes. The top of the tell, the houses at its foot and the monastery ruins to the east are all within walking distance.

What to see

The western tell is enclosed by a stone rampart. The main entrance was probably on the south-east, where a ramp climbs inside. Remains of large buildings on the summit point to a fortified structure; Bedouin graves cover part of the summit and the rampart. The lower settlement at the foot of the tell consists of rectangular houses, storerooms and livestock pens inside walled compounds. Buildings set in rows along the western edge may mark the outer limit of the settlement. A small oval structure excavated in the eastern part may belong to the Bronze Age. A large hollow to the east is thought to be a reservoir, and an open level area to the north-east a threshing floor.

Do not miss

The four-room house on the lower terrace. In this well-preserved building a central courtyard is divided by rows of pillars, with long rooms on either side. The plan is regarded as typical of Iron Age houses in the southern Levant.

What was found on the surface

Mortars, grinding stones, cylindrical pestles, basalt vessels, a piece that may be a loom weight, and two basalt rings whose purpose is unknown.

Research and damage

Howard Crosby Butler of the Princeton expedition first recorded the eastern site and linked it to the mills in the Wadi Abu Dahab. The French archaeologist Braemer identified the western tell during field surveys in the late 20th century. Between 2005 and 2008 a road and a pipeline destroyed part of the western edge of the tell. The architecture they exposed was recorded with a theodolite in 2008. The damaged areas were partly reconstructed from satellite images taken before the works.

The site today

The southern edge of the Leja is close to the line of the 2025 fighting. The present state of the site and access could not be verified; this page describes what the place is and does not say it can be visited today.