Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/334

 304 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud.ka. here on purpose to make doubt impossible. One reads as follows : " This is the ' mesyedah,' raised by Seriih, son of Jukah, at Aûdâh or Aërâh of Bostra, great god. In the month of Nisan, 1st year of King Malchus." It may be noticed that the Se- mitic temple found here agrees in essentials with exemplars studied in other localities. The divan is the naos, the great court of the Ma'abid of Hamrath, likewise scooped out of the rock, the vast precincts of the Solomonian temple. The niches are cellas coinciding with the small Egyptian temple of Amrit, the debir of Solomon, whilst the menhir stands for the god Aûdah. We may take it for granted that a baetulus rather than a statue was placed in the tabernacle. Fragments of bas-reliefs and Aramaic inscriptions have been found at Teïma, a small town to the north-east of Medain-Salih. Their character shows the place to have been formerly an impor- tant religious centre, with a struc- tural temple,wherein pillars formed a conspicuous feature. The lower portions of many of these are still to be seen among the tombs of the Mohammedan cemetery. They rest upon a rectangular base of six stones, each with a circumference of 2 1 c. 1 But until inscriptions or fragments of ornament about cor- 1 Euting, Nabatdische Inschriften aus Arabien, p. 9, 10. ■me, 11^ v'mm. FIG. 206.— The Teima Stela. Height, 1 m. 10 c. ; width of edge, 12 c. Drawn by St. Elme Gautier.