Athena Review Image Archive ™
Qasr Deir el Kahaf: Aerial photo and plan of Roman fort
Qasr Deir el Kahaf: aerial photo & plan of fort (Poidebard 1934 pl.45; Kennedy & Riley 1990 fg.125)
The Roman fort at Qasr Deir el Kahaf lay beside a major Roman road probably dating from the Severan period of AD 208–10. Latin inscriptions date construction of the fort at Qasr Deir el Kahaf to AD 306, with a repairs made in the period 367–75. Given the Severan date of the nearby road, however, Kennedy and Riley (1990) note the possibility of an initial occupation of the site at least a century earlier.
The fort is 60 x 60 m in area, with walls 1.5 m. thick, still rising 7.5 meters in places. The square corner towers are three storeys high, with intermediate towers on two adjacent walls. Inside, two-storey rooms 4.5 x 6 m in area surround the courtyard. The double storeys permitted a substantial garrison. The ground floors of the three northern towers at least are said to have been stables. With adequate space in rooms for 8 or 10 men, Kennedy and Riley propose that the fort held accommodation for 400–500 infantry plus some horses.
Water
was stored in several cisterns, one inside and another (B) just outside
the southwest corner. According to an undated Greek inscription this
was the work of a prefect called Agrippa.
Structure A is a later church.
[Source: Kennedy and Riley 1990, Rome's Desert Frontier from the Air.]
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