Huwwarin (Ancient Evaria) Ruins near Homs

Huwwarin is a small village on the edge of the Syrian Desert, about 80 km southeast of Homs. In Byzantine times it was Evaria: a bishop’s seat, a garrison town and, from 573, a city. The Umayyad caliph Yazid I died here. Among its stone and mud-brick houses, the walls of two churches still stand, along with a building the villagers call Huwwarin Fort.

Getting there

The village lies east of the Homs–Damascus motorway, between Sadad and al-Qaryatayn. Mahin, just to the south, was once part of Huwwarin; it is now a separate town and the district centre, and the railway runs between the two. There is no regular public transport, so you need a car. Sadad to the west and al-Qaryatayn to the east fit into the same day.

What to see

Most of the ancient town lies under village houses and has never been excavated. Three buildings can be seen.

• The Ja’ara Church. It stands apart from the houses, 500 metres north of the village. The limestone building covers about 600 square metres, with a nave, two aisles, an apse to the east and a room on each side of the apse. Bases and capitals 120 cm across were used on the east side, and the walls rise 4-5 metres. It is thought to have been a Roman temple before it became a church.
• The Monks’ Church. A large church of big rectangular blocks, with a wide courtyard in the middle and entrances on the west, south and north. Aisles flank the nave, the apse is to the east, and carved capitals were used inside.
• Huwwarin Fort. The building was turned into a palace under the Umayyads, the first Islamic dynasty to rule from Damascus. Behind its north-facing entrance, a rectangular hall has a roof carried on two rows of arches, each row resting on three columns.

Two Roman irrigation channels, the Barak and the Mazraa, are still known in the village. The Homs antiquities department has registered both churches and put them on its restoration plan; the national excavation team’s work has stopped.

History

In 451 Huwwarin was a bishopric, and Byzantine army units were stationed here. Most people were Ghassanids, Christian Arabs allied to Byzantium, and the first official Ghassanid bishop, John of Evaria, came from the town. In the late 6th century Magnus, one of the most powerful men in Byzantine Syria, built a new church and a town wall. In 581 he invited the Ghassanid king al-Mundhir III to the church’s consecration and arrested him on the emperor’s behalf. Al-Mundhir was sent to Constantinople with his family and later exiled to Sicily. His son al-Nu’man’s forces then sacked the town.

In the summer of 634 the army of Khalid ibn al-Walid reached Huwwarin after al-Qaryatayn. Reinforcements from Baalbek and Bosra were scattered in a short fight, and the town surrendered. Under the Umayyads Huwwarin was the favourite retreat of Yazid I, who stayed here often and died and was buried here on 11 November 683. The geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi passed through in 1226 and recorded it as a fortress near Homs.

The village today

In 1812 the Aleppine traveller Fathallah al-Sayigh described Mahin and Huwwarin as two small villages of about 20 houses each. In the 19th century the Irish missionary William Wright wrote that the village was known locally for its seven churches. He measured the largest as a rectangle of 46 by 38 metres, more than 9 metres high, with fragments carrying Greek inscriptions. Two of the seven churches still stand. The site was excavated in 2003 and 2004. Some families still live in traditional houses of stone, mud and reed, cool in summer and warm in winter.

Do not miss

The east face of the Ja’ara Church. The 120 cm bases and capitals on either side of the apse are the clearest sign that this building began as something larger than a village church.