The Roman Temples of Atil

A village five kilometres north of Suwayda. Its ancient name was Atheila, and it appears as Athelenon in the corpus of Diocletianic boundary stones of about 300 AD. Inside the village stand two Roman temples, near enough identical, which have drawn surveyors since the 19th century. The village today is mostly Druze, and people live among the temples’ stones.

Getting there

Five kilometres north of Suwayda, on the west side of the road towards Qanawat, which lies four kilometres to the east. Minibuses run from Suwayda. With Qanawat and Shahba it makes a single day.

How long it takes

Forty minutes. The two temples stand close together inside the village and are walked.

What to see

The southern temple is the better preserved: most of its carved decoration is in place. It stands on a podium with a vaulted crypt inside it. The front is Corinthian and the cutting is dense. An inscription found here dates part of the superstructure to 151, in the reign of Antoninus Pius, though the architecture itself suggests some elements belong to an earlier phase. The northern temple has come down further, but the plan is the same.

What most people miss

The reused stone in the walls around you. In the 19th century William Waddington found an inscription of 211, naming the Greco-Syrian god Theandrios, built into the wall of a modern house in this village. The temples’ masonry is scattered through the settlement, and some of the blocks carry writing. Most visitors photograph the temple and leave; the thing to read is the house walls.