Selaa

Village in South Governorate, Lebanon
Selaa
سلع
Village
33°15′15″N 35°22′48″E / 33.25417°N 35.38000°E / 33.25417; 35.38000
Grid position185/295 PAL
Country Lebanon
GovernorateSouth Governorate
DistrictTyre
Elevation
1,440 ft (440 m)
Time zoneGMT +3

Selaa, Silảh, (Arabic: سلع) is a village in the Tyre District in Southern Lebanon.

Name

According to E. H. Palmer, Silảh comes from "the crevasse".[1]

History

In 1875, Victor Guérin found here 250 Metuali inhabitants.[2] He further noted: "Here I found an ancient press, the lid of a sarcophagus with acroteria, and a broken sarcophagus, at one of whose ends is a projection resembling an altar. Near it is a great grave with room for two bodies, with a partition wall left in the rock; and beside this an enormous detached block, hollowed out for two bodies, and resting on a surface purposely planed.'[3] Close to Silah, Guérin also found the ruins of a small village, completely destroyed, known as Kh. Fenian.[4]

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it as: "a village, built of stone and of good materials, containing about 200 [..] Metawileh, on hill, with figs, olives, and arable land. Water from cisterns and a spring near."[5] They further noted that it had a perennial spring, built up with masonry,[6] and that it was "an ancient site; there is a terraced hill; there are six sarcophagi and two olive-presses near the village."[4]

References

  1. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 33
  2. ^ Guérin, 1880, p. 263
  3. ^ Guérin, 1880, p. 263; as translated in Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 139
  4. ^ a b Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 139
  5. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 94
  6. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 105

Bibliography

External links

  • Selaa, Localiban
  • Survey of Western Palestine, Map 2: IAA, Wikimedia commons