Talk:Abila (Decapolis)

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The picture in the above
The picture in the above of the page is not of Abila of decapolis, which is located in the north of Jordan, but it is another Abila in Syria. So please correct the situation. هارون الرشيد العربي (talk) 07:55, 25 October 2018 (UTC)


 * Yes, the image's title (taken from the Library of Congress) says "Suk-Wady-Barada", which apparently refers to Souq Wadi Barada, which is the village on the site Abila Lysaniou, not Abila in the Decapolis (despite the fact that the LOC title also says "Holy Land, (i.e., Jordan)". Also from satellite images the image looks more similar to the location of Abila Lysaniou. could you confirm? Tokenzero (talk) 14:24, 1 November 2018 (UTC)


 * I can understand your concern. Believe me, I spent at least a few hours researching this. First of all, if you open the link to the Library of Congress given in the details of the picture you will see that it clearly says "Jordan" and not Syria. Second, a black and white representation of this picture is given on page 190 of Bennet & Rathjen, the current first source in the list. It is touted as Abila of the Decapolis by the then student authors of the paper, which was checked and supported by the academic departments publishing the paper. Also if you start researching Internet hits on Abila Jordan, format pdf, you are going to find this picture repeatedly specified as the Jordan Abila. And last, but not least, I brought up every satellite map I could find, looked at it in 3_D, and studied the stills made from it in the sources. This picture marches the site in every way. If you zoom the picture up you will see that those structures are not the houses of the living, they are the tombs of the dead. There are about 1000. There are more in the escarpment behind this location. This angled view taken from the site matches in every way the overhead views in the satellite pictures. In short the only way I would even consider the picture to be of some other Wadi would be if you give me references to photographs of the Syrian one that are consistent with this picture. In general, the ancients would not place a settlement down into a wadi. Why would they do that? What if a flash flood came along? How also would you defend it? As for the name, well, this is a mixed culture situation. Names get misrepresented, places get mistaken, place named get duplicated. In short this is not a Syrian vilage stuffed inconveniently and dangerously down into a wadi, it is a view from a tell, Tell el-Abila. Ciao. Thanks for checking with me. There is a lot more of the article to come as I gradually get it together.Botteville (talk) 01:29, 2 November 2018 (UTC)


 * Ok, I'll take your word (I'm still a bit puzzled but I have zero knowledge on the topic). Thanks for checking! Tokenzero (talk) 11:33, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Thanks, User:Botteville, for this detailed description. I'll change the description on commons, then, Huldra (talk) 23:31, 6 July 2022 (UTC)