The Kalybe of Umm al-Zaytoun

A village north-west of Suwayda, on the south-eastern rim of the Lajat lava plateau. Its name comes from the olive, and its position ties two landscapes together: the broken black rock of the Lajat to the west, ploughed plain to the east. The old core of the village is built of basalt, its roofs made of stone slabs carried on arches.

Getting there

6 kilometres north of Shahba on the Damascus–Suwayda road. The village is visible straight from the road. The old quarter lies on the western side and can only be reached on foot.

What to see

Roman-period remains are scattered through the older part of the village. The one that stands out is a religious building with a broad stone facade and a room inside whose niches were made for statues. Rock-cut cisterns survive as well; in the Lajat, water has always been kept inside the stone.

What not to miss

The inscription found on the building. It is dated 282 and calls the structure a sacred kalybe. The kalybe is a building type particular to the Hauran: a ceremonial niche closed on three sides, open at the front, made to hold statuary. The known examples in Syria are here, at nearby Shaqqa and at Hayyat. All three can be seen in one trip, and the type only makes sense once you set them side by side.

The village’s own history

The settlement was abandoned at some point in the middle Ottoman period, then resettled by Druze before 1810, becoming one of the earliest Druze villages in the Lajat. In 1839 a conscription force of 100 cavalry sent by Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian governor, was destroyed here. The village also joined the Hauran Druze revolt of 1910.