Anjar, October 2015

Anjar is a small town on the Beirut-Damascus road, about 5km from the Syrian border. On the outskirts of Anjar are the most complete remains of an Umayyad city so far excavated. (The Umayyad dynasty, 661-750 AD, was the second Islamic caliphate after the death of Mohammed; during its rule, it extended the Arab Empire as far west as the Atlantic and as far east as what is now Pakistan.)

The Umayyads re-used pillars and stone from the Roman buildings in the areas which they conquered. The Corinthian capitals at the tops of these pillars were almost certainly "recycled" from Roman buildings.