|
Afqa, or Afka is a village and municipality located in the Jbeil District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, northeast of Beirut in Lebanon. Known in ancient times as Apheca or Afeka, the word can be interpreted as "source",〔Describing the recently recovered ancient name for another source, issuing from a cave, which irrigated the Palmyrene oasis, Jean Starcky remarked on the Aramaean root ''nefaq'', "exit" and the Aramaean ''afqâ'', "canal" (Srarcky, "Récentes découvertes à Palmyre", ''Syria'' 25.3/4 (1946/48), p 335.〕 is located in the mountains of Lebanon, about 20 kilometres from the ancient city of Byblos, which still stands just east of the town of Qartaba.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=SpeleoPhilately.com )〕 It is the site of one of the finest waterfalls in the mountains of the Middle East,〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Travel Web Site ) 〕 which feeds into the Adonis River (known today as Abraham River or Nahr Ibrahim in Arabic), and forms Lake Yammoune, with which it is also associated by legend. In Greek mythology Adonis was born and died at the foot of the falls in Afqa. The ruins of the celebrated temple of Aphrodite Aphakitis— the Aphrodite particular to this site—〔The localized particularity of mountain sanctuaries in northern Lebanon was noted in Daniel Kercker and Willy Zschietzchmann, ''Römische Tempel in Syrien'' (Arch. institut des deutschen Reiches, Berlin/Leipzig) 1938; R.D., reviewing the work in ''Syria'' 21. 3/4 (1940) p.347 added further examples of localised Syrian divinities.〕 are located there.〔 Sir Richard Francis Burton and Sir James Frazer further attribute the temple at Afqa to the honouring of Astarte or Ishtar (Ashtaroth). Afqa is aligned centrally between Baalbek and Byblos, pointing to the summer solstice sunset over the Mediterranean. It is from Byblos that the a myth was told of a mystical ark that came ashore containing the bones of Osiris. The ark became stuck in a swamp until Isis found it and carried it back to Ancient Egypt. ==Physical description== The waterfall at Afqa is the source for the River Adonis and is located on a bluff that forms an immense natural amphitheatre.〔 The river emerges from a large limestone cave in the cliff wall which stores and channels water from the melted snow of the mountains before releasing it into springs and streams below.〔 At Afqa, several watery threads flow from the cave to form numerous cataracts, a scene of great beauty.〔 A great and ancient temple is located here, where ritual prostitution was practicised until the time of Constantine.〔Socrates of Constantinople, ''Eccles. Historia'', i. 18.〕 Sir James Frazer attributes its construction to the legendary forebear of King Cinyras, who was said to have founded a sanctuary for Aphrodite (i.e. Astarte).〔 Reconstructed on grander scale in Hellenistic times, then destroyed by the Emperor Constantine the Great in the fourth century,〔Eusebius, ''Vita Constantina'', iii. 55.〕 it was partially rebuilt by the later fourth-century emperor, Julian the Apostate.〔 The site was finally abandoned during the reign of Theodosius I.〔 Massive hewn blocks and a fine column of Syenite granite still mark the site, on a terrace facing the source of the river.〔 The remains of a Roman aqueduct that carried the waters of the River Adonis to the ancient inhabitants of Jebail are also located here.〔 Edward Robinson and Eli Smith camped at the site in 1852, merely remarking on its "shapeless ruins" and the difficulty of transport of two massive columns of Syenite granite. .〔Edward Robinson and Eli Smith, "Outlines of a Journey in Palestine in 1852" ''Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London'' 24 (1854:1-35) p. 35.〕 Sir James Frazer describes the village at Afqa in his 1922 book, ''The Golden Bough'' as "...the miserable village which still bears the name of Afqa at the head of the wild, romantic, wooded gorge of the Adonis. The hamlet stands among groves of noble walnut-trees on the brink of the lyn. A little way off the river rushes from a cavern at the foot of a mighty amphitheatre of towering cliffs to plunge in a series of cascades into the awful depths of the glen. The deeper it descends, the ranker and denser grows the vegetation, which, sprouting from the crannies and fissures of the rocks, spreads a green veil over the roaring or murmuring stream in the tremendous chasm below. There is something delicious, almost intoxicating, in the freshness of these tumbling waters, in the sweetness and purity of the mountain air, in the vivid green of the vegetation.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Afqa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|