186. Kabū / Qabū | القبو

Irbid Governorate

Maqām / Weli (anonymous)

JADIS no. 221 3027

MEGA no. 5701

Coordinates: 32°38'53.0"N 35°42'38.0"E

32.648056, 35.710556

Plan: unknown.

Measurements: unknown.

Exterior: unknown.

Interior: unknown.

Building Materials: local limestone.

Construction details: unknown.

Preservation: The terebinth tree (buṭm) was located until the late 1990s at the NE foot of the hill, right beside the asphalt road leading from Umm Qēs to al-Manṣūra. The tree stood at the entrance of a natural cave at the S border of the street. It overshadowed the destroyed N part of an artificially constructed semicircular extension of the cave. In the SE rock-cut walls four spouts of small water tunnels opened in radial arrangement. A larger tunnel ran northbound under the street down to Wādī ‘Assal. This installation served as a water distributor (castellum aquarum) for the underground aqueduct of ancient Gadara (al-qanaṭīr al-Fira’ūn). S of the entrance to the cave, underneath the tree, an ancient cist tomb was hewn in the virgin bedrock, closed by a monolithic basalt slab. This tomb had been reused for a Muslim burial which at his time G. Schumacher recognized by the surface stone markers. The entire water installation including the tomb with the tree has been destroyed by bulldozing around 1998 when the asphalt road has been broadened.

Inscription(s): none known.

Date(s): unknown.

Traveler Reports: “Eine prächtige Terebinthe, die schönste der ganzen Umgegend beschattet ein muhammedanisches Grab; doch ist der Name des hier Bestatteten vergessen” (Steuernagel 1927),

Bibliography: Steuernagel 1927, A. 501; Rawadiyah 2007, II 226.