St. George Church in Izraa is a 1500 years old architectural masterpiece

Daraa (ST): More than 1,500 years have passed since its construction, and it is one of the world’s architectural masterpieces that still preserves its architectural texture in the city of Izraa, where the historic Church of St. George, built of basalt stone. It  is now surmounted by an iron dome, after it was stone for more than 1,400 years.

The head of the Izraa Antiquities Division, Milad Matroud, explains to news reporter that the church is considered one of the most important archaeological buildings in the world because it is one of the octagonal buildings that were built in 515 AD and bears the existing dome, which is wooden from the inside and iron from the outside.

Matroud indicated that the Church of St. George was contemporaneous with three churches built with the same architectural system in Italy and Turkey, but it is the only one that has preserved its original form without any significant change, which allowed this architectural masterpiece to be a unique model.

Matroud points out that 8 columns carry the dome and its walls are two staves with a thickness of one meter. The church building contains the altar from the eastern side and its floor is made of blue basalt stone worked in the elegant manner, pointing out that there is a founding text above the church door from the southwestern side written in Latin documents the history of building the church, which was an ancient pagan temple.

It is noteworthy that the city of Izraa, which houses the Church of St. George, is a Canaanite city mentioned in the Amarna letters and Greek inscriptions.

K.Q.