Qanawat Off The Beaten Path Tips by MM212

About 5-10 minutes by car south of Qanawat is a small village known as Sia (sometimes spelt Si'a, Siah, Seeah or Si). It contains the ruins of a historically and architecturally important temple of Baal-Shamin. It was originally built by the Nabateans in the 1st century BC, and became an important pilgrimage site, but was expanded under the Romans, up to around 200 AD. For archaeologists, it is considered a unique example of Nabatean temple architecture, despite heavy Roman influence of the latter period. Around 1900, the temple had survived very much intact and supposedly had incredibly beautiful decorations, as was documented by some travellers in the 19th and early 20th century. Unfortunately, a few years later, the Ottomans dismantled the temple to use its stones in the construction of a barracks and most of the temple was thus lost forever. I did not visit Sia due to time limitations, but hope to do so on my next visit to the region. I wanted to include a tip on Sia to remind myself before the next visit and to suggest it to any reader.