The Ridge Church is one of several churches in the

ruined Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

city of Petra,

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

. The Ridge Church is thought to be the oldest church building in Petra, built on the ridge overlooking the city in the 3rd or 4th century built of

Nabatean The Nabataeans or Nabateans (; Nabataean Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; Arabic: , , singular , ; compare grc, Ναβαταῖος, translit=Nabataîos; la, Nabataeus) were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Lev ...

and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

material. It was a square structure with two rows of pillars running down the middle of the church building which supported the roof and was built over two separate family tomb chambers. The relationship between the church and tombs is unknown. A semi circular sanctuary was built at the end of the main chamber. Picture of the Ridge Church
flickr.com. The church also included a small building with a fountain. This building, with a greek inscription dated to the 4th or 5th centuries, indicated the fountain was built to honor a figure from a prominent military background. The Ridge Church was excavated as the first phase of the

North Ridge Project North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

. Over the course of excavations, the north ridge was discovered to have likely used by the military and also as a burial ground. The Ridge Church is located across a central piazza from the

Blue Chapel The Monastery of the Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary, known as the Blue Chapel, is a former monastery in Union City, Hudson County, New Jersey, in the United States. The cloister takes its name from the blue tinted windows that were pa ...

. The Ridge Church shows evidence of activity following the earthquake that devastated the area in 363 CE. The first evidence of activity following the quake was the building of the north wall of the church and the conversion of the church into a single apse with two lateral

pastophoria Pastophorion ( el, παστοφόριον, translit=pastophorium) is one of two chambers within an early Christian and Eastern Christian church building used as sacristies—the diakonikon and the prothesis. Originally, in the Greek Old Testament ...

. Evidence for the date of this conversion comes from the opening of a tomb in the church that was then looted and resealed for the construction of the north wall. Later additions to the building involved raising the chancel and installing a mosaic near the altar. Little remains of a 6th-century installation of wall mosaics.

References

External links

Petra Roman sites in Jordan Byzantine church buildings 4th-century churches
Photos of the Ridge Church
at the

Manar al-Athar Manar al-Athar is a photo archive based at the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford which aims to provide high-quality open-access images of archaeological sites and buildings. The archive's collection focuses on areas of the Roman Em ...

photo archive. {{Jordan-struct-stub

See also

References

External links