File:Cistern, Qanawat, NW Syria.jpg

Located just outside the ruins of the Temple of Zeus, south-west of the Seraya, are the ruins of an Roman-period underground water cistern. For a city named after the aqueducts and canals that transported water to the farms nearby (Qanawat in Arabic means canals), the sight of a water cistern is no surprise. This cistern is thought to be one of many around town and is in an incredible state of preservation, if missing its entire roof. The pillars and arches which supported the roof are all intact. Qanawat is the ancient Roman city of Canatha, Syria, located 7 km north-east of As Suwayda. It stands at a height of about 1,200 m, near a river and surrounded by woods. History Temple of Rabbos The town is mentioned for the first time in the reign of Herod the Great (1st century BC), when Nabatean Arab forces defeated a Jewish army. It remained an issue of contention between the two powers. From the Pompey's time until Trajan's it was a city of the Decapolis, a loose federation of cities allowed by the Romans to enjoy a degree of autonomy. In the 1st century AD it was annexed to the Roman province of Syria, and in the 2nd century it was rechristened Septimia Canatha by Septimius Severus, and transferred to the province of Arabia. A center of Christianism propagation in the area, Canatha was captured by the Muslim Arabs in 637, declining in importance until, in the 9th century, it was reduced to a poor village. The city's extensive ancient ruins are 1500 m in length and 750 m in breadth. Among them are a Roman bridge and a rock-hewn theatre, with nine tiers of seats and an orchestra nineteen meters in diameter, also a nymphaeum, an aqueduct, and a large prostyle temple with portico and colonnades. North-west of the town is a late 2nd or early 3rd century peripteral temple, built on a high platform surrounded by a colonnade. For years, this temple was believed to honour Helios, but an inscription discovered in 2002 shows that it was dedicated to a local god, Rabbos.