3-053-590 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Giant Cities of Bashan - Suweldeh, 1873. 'Sweideh lies on the western declivity of the mountain, and is considered the metropolis of the Druses in the Hauran. It was formerly a large and important city, as the wide extent of its ruins and the magnificence of some of them, together with its large reservoirs, abundantly prove. Under the Romans it appears to have flourished in the time of Antoninus, one of Syria's greatest benefactors. It is reported here that the Druses of the Hauran came at first from the neighbourhood of Aleppo to Ezra, and thence to Sweideh, about one hundred years ago, and that, when they became powerful, they supplanted the Mohammedans and Christians who had before possessed Sweideh and the adjoining towns. A little to the west of Sweideh is a ruined tomb, which the Count de Vogué believes to be the oldest building to be seen in the Hauran. It is a short square tower, with thick walls, each of which is ornamented with six pilasters. There is no door or opening into the interior, except through the roof, which has fallen in. A Greek inscription on the north side states that "Odainatus, son of Annelus, built this monument to his wife, Chamrate".' From "Illustrated London News", 1873.