ʿAin Rīs - ʿAin Rīs

'Ain Ris (also Ain / Ayn Rees, Arabic:عين ريس‎, ʿAin Rīs) is a hamlet in the egyptian Sink el-Ḥeiz South of el-Baḥrīya. ʿAin Rīs is considered the most beautiful village of el--eiz.

background

The hamlet is east of the trunk road to el-Farafra. In 1980 around 150 people lived there in 35 farmsteads. About 3,000 palm trees, 100 olive trees and numerous apricot trees grew on the 150 feddān (63 hectares) of land. The water was drawn from (at least) three "Roman", i.e. old, and six private springs. In 1982 a state deep well was drilled due to water scarcity.^[1]

It is reported that there was a king named Munāf here, his land Riāsata Munāf, Kingdom of Munāf, from the first part of which the current name is derived.^[2]

About 1 kilometer northwest of ʿAin Rīs are the most important monuments of the El-Ḥeiz depression, the Coptic church from the 7th / 8th centuries. Century, the so-called Roman fortress and settlement remains. About a kilometer southwest of the hamlet is the archaeological site of Qaṣr Masʿūda, a palatial building.

Already at the beginning of the 19th century the sites of Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778–1823)^[3], Frédéric Cailliaud (1787–1869)^[4] and John Gardner Wilkinson (1797–1875)^[5] visited and documented. However, a more comprehensive study only comes from Ahmed Fakhry (1905–1973), which has remained the most extensive to this day, even if there are new interpretations today.

For many this is true church as the most important archaeological evidence, certainly also because there is no such well-preserved church in the Western Desert again. Fakhry said the church was dedicated to St. George. He also relied on observations by Belzoni and Cailliaud, who identified remains of the representation of a horse, and on the report by Abū el-Makārim in tradition Abū Ṣāliḥ the Armenian, who at the beginning of the 13th century knew how to tell about the El-Baḥrīya valley, that there was a church for St. Georg gave without indicating where she was. There are several churches in the valley that could have been named after the saint.

Abū el-Makārim stated as follows:^[6]

“In the oasis of al-Bahnasā^[7] there is a church named after St. Georg was named; and his pure body was reported to be contained in her [the church], but without the head.^[8] On the occasion of the feast of his martyrdom, the body was removed from the shrine and a new veil was placed over it; and he was carried in procession through the whole city with candles, crosses and hymns; and then he was carried back to church. People used to fear that the Romans would steal it and take it to their church; and so, with great caution, he was carried away into the mountains and placed in a cave, which was blocked with stones and hidden. But a reliable man who has a devotion to St. Georg owned, saw him in a dream, and he said: 'Why did you lock my body in? Take me away from this place. ‘Then the bishop and the people didn't stop looking until they found the body, and they brought it out and put it back in the church.

Ibn al-Chafīr, the governor of the oasis, came here at the time of the caliphate from al-Haafiẓ [1130–1149]; and he sent some men to take care of the body of St. Georg carried away and brought him to the governor's house; and he [the governor] said, 'I will not bring him back to the Christians until they have paid me a large sum of money.' So the bishop and the most important men among Christians brought him money from time to time, but it did not satisfy him, and he did not want to give the body back to them. Then God sent a cloud and a mighty storm, rain, lightning and a loud thunder in the course of successive days, so strong as it has never been attested in this country; and they said to the governor: 'This misfortune probably only happened because you kept this body.' Then the governor had the bishop fetched and gave him the body; and immediately the disaster stopped. ...

It was reported that the limbs of his [George's] body were not severed from him and that he was found completely without any alteration. It is commonly reported among the people that the body of this martyr is in the city of Lydda, Syria. However, some say that the head is there while the body was brought to its land [Egypt] because the governor of Egypt and the governor of Syria were two brothers; and while Syria was being invaded by soldiers and looters, and the governor of that country feared that violence might be inflicted on the body; and so the hull without the head was brought into the oasis, because it was free from the attacks of the troops and looters; and the proof of this is that the pilgrims who went to Syria to visit Lydda to receive the blessing from the body of St. George the martyr said they saw the head without the body; and this happened during Lent in 890 of the Righteous Martyrs [1174 AD]. "

The veneration of a saint, perhaps with reference to the apostle Bartholomäus, to whom legends ascribed the spreading of the Gospel in Egypt and Armenia, and the peaceful coexistence between Copts and Muslims was already mentioned in the 11th century by the Arab-Spanish historian el-Bakrī (1014-1094) addresses:^[9]

“Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al-Azdī…, who came from the city of Sfax [in Tunisia], visited the oasis of el-Bahnasā. He found a population that included Arab Muslims and Coptic Christians. At one of their feasts, he saw a cart roaming the streets of the city with a coffin on it containing the body of a man named Ibn Qarma, whom they claimed was an apostle of Jesus. In making the funeral procession, they believed they would attract all kinds of luck and gain God's favor. The cart was pulled by oxen. The places where these animals unintentionally lost their way were viewed as unclean. "

Fakhry dated the church to the 4th – 5th centuries. Century. This cannot be true, as an architectural detail is used in the church that has only been used since the second half of the 7th century or the beginning of the 8th century: the Churus (Cross hall in front of the altar rooms).^[10]

The ruins of the monastery of Rīs have been found 500 meters south of the church.

Across the street are massive remains of a building commonly used as a roman fortress is seen. But this is by no means certain, especially if you are a military Use connects. In the neighboring settlement there were production facilities, e.g. of wine, which served to supply the Roman population in the valley.

To the south of the church, in the area of ​​the so-called Roman fortress, Fakhry already found a group of buildings with Roman houses. One of the buildings, kind of palacehe described in more detail. The adobe building was about 23.5 meters long, 18 meters wide and stood up to 1.5 meters. It probably came from the 2nd century AD. The entrance to the south led to a courtyard with 15 columns. In the east was the private area. The walls were plastered, provided with a layer of stucco and partially decorated with geometric patterns. In the area of ​​the palace, fakhry found a church that is even older than the Georgskirche. The Greek inscriptions found here date to the late Byzantine period (5th / 6th centuries).^[11]

In the meantime the houses are all silted up again. Nevertheless, some structures of the settlement were exposed again around 2000. This included a Roman palace that was built from adobe bricks and plastered. Hunting scenes and plant ornaments were painted on the plaster. There was also a long row of columns with painted scenes.^[12] In the vicinity of the palace there are still large pools that were probably used for wine production.

getting there

The village can be reached via trunk road 10 from Bāwīṭī to el-Farafraby at 28.02828328.685818Branch to Ain Ris1 28 ° 1 '42 "N.28 ° 41 ′ 9 ″ E branches off to the south. After about two-thirds of the way you can see the so-called Roman fortress and the so-called Georgskirche from the street.

mobility

The road to the village of ʿAin Rīs is paved, but in the village itself there are only deadlocked slopes. The archaeological sites are only accessible on foot, but are located near the road to the village.

Tourist Attractions

The sights associated with ʿAin Rīs are all outside the hamlet. You are guarded by a guard. It is advisable to visit the local sites in advance with the Antiquities Service in el-Bāwīṭī to vote.

North of the road to ʿAin Rīs is probably the dem 28.0117628.698781 St. George consecrated church(28 ° 0 ′ 42 "N.28 ° 41 ′ 56 "E)which dates from the second half of the 7th or the beginning of the 8th century. The 19 meter long and 8 meter wide basilica was built from adobe bricks, plastered with mud and whitewashed. The church, surrounded by a high wall, has two entrances, one on the south side and the other on the north side near the northwest corner.

The church consists of a narthex (the full width of the vestibule) with a staircase in the southwest corner to the gallery, the three-aisled naos (community room), the Churus (Transverse hall in front of the altar rooms) and the three-room sanctuary. The side aisles are subdivided by wide pillars, which are bordered by half-columns, and wide arches, and are also connected to one another by the western aisle. In the middle of the narrow aisles there is an apse (conche). The galleries, which were probably intended for women, are located above the side aisles. The walls of the aisles were decorated with sunken columns. From the side aisles you can also get into the Churus.

The altar rooms are not arranged symmetrically and in the middle because there was a second staircase to the gallery and the roof in the south-east. The (middle) chancel is square. From this room a door leads to the southern room. In 1819 Cailliaud found depictions of a horse's head, Greek crosses and text fragments in red in the chancel.

Around 2000 a new mud brick roof was to be built on the church. But this collapsed, which is why you are hardly allowed to visit the church today. It is possible that the church never had a brick-built barrel vault ceiling for structural reasons. Fakhry stated that by his time in the 1930s and 1940s, the upper part of the upper floor had already been destroyed. There was no longer any evidence of a barrel ceiling such as a gable or brick rubble or supports for a wooden beam ceiling.

There is a fountain a few meters east of the church.

South of the street is the so-called. 28.0073528.697292 roman fortress(28 ° 0 ′ 27 ″ N.28 ° 41 ′ 50 ″ E). The fortress occupies an area of ​​670 square meters and is still several meters away. The adobe building was probably part of a production facility for the Roman armed forces. The building was also made of adobe bricks and plastered. Square holes can be seen in the walls, which may have served as supports for a wooden beam or palm trunk ceiling, i.e. the building was at least two-story.

There is one south of the Roman fortress settlementwhich is largely silted up. A mud brick palace and the basins of the winery can still be seen. There are also suggestions that this could have been a bathroom. The fact that numerous broken pieces of wine jugs and numerous grape seeds have been found here speaks in favor of the wine factory. The basins have a sandstone foundation, the walls were made of adobe bricks and plastered with gypsum mortar. Wine has been made in the oases in the oases of el-Chārga, ed-Dāchla and el-Baḥrīya since the New Kingdom, but especially during the Roman period.^[13]

Qaṣr Masʿūda (Arabic:قصر مسعودة‎, „Castle [of] the lucky ones“), About 1 kilometer southwest of the village, denotes an ancient mud brick house. It is square with about 18 meters side length and has 14 rooms.

kitchen

Restaurants can be found in el-Bāwīṭī.

accommodation

Accommodation is usually chosen in el-Bāwīṭī.

trips

A visit to the hamlet can be combined with that of the other hamlets in el-Ḥeiz or by visiting the Black desert connect.

literature

• Fakhry, Ahmed: Baḥria Oasis, vol. II. Cairo: Government Press, 1950, Pp. 52-65 (English).
• Fakhry, Ahmed: The oases of Egypt. Vol. II: Bahrīyah and Farafra Oases. Cairo: The American Univ. in Cairo Pr., 1974, ISBN 978-977-424-732-3 , Pp. 112-124 (English).
• Hawass, Zahi: The Valley of the Golden Mummies: the newest and greatest archaeological discovery of our days. Bern; Munich; Vienna: joke, 2000, ISBN 978-3-502-15300-9 , Pp. 148-167.

Individual evidence