Kifrin
The city
The official centre of the city, investigated only in part, was composed of buildings A and B. of the two, the most monumental was building A, whose function is still debated and may be either civilian/military or religious. Outside the enclosure of building A, next to its north corner, excavations brought to light building B, which may have served a religious purpose.
A third sector is the one near the northern corner of the city walls (Area D), where two main building phases were observed. An elongated building made up of lined-up rooms, believed to be a barracks by excavators, was built (perhaps when the citadel was built and when the walls were repaired or enlarged) on top of a first building, possibly characterized by a perystyle courtyard resting against the walls. This building’s close relationship to the walls supports this interpretation.
Building A
Building A was located at the end of a wide temenos that included rooms and devices built against the inner side and an aedicula at the centre of the open area. Building A was elevated above the courtyard’s level, resting on a stepped platform; its floor plan contemplated the lined-up juxtaposition of wider and narrower rooms, opening and two central grated windows.
The building’s façade was decorated with semicolumns with Ionic capitals (possibly Corinthian ones too, on a second level) and both the outside and the inside probably contemplated lavish stucco decorations, which were unfortunately found in too fragmented a condition to allow an accurate reconstruction. The stucco fragments include beautiful palmette-motif and astragal borders, as well as figured motifs that may have belonged to complex scenes.
Building B
Building B is a large iwan, flanked on the north side by two lined-up rooms and on the opposite side by a large open area. Here, the remains of basins, possibly having ritual functions, and steps built against the building that provided access to the upper level or to the roof, were brought to light. Iwan B, possibly the most exquisitely Parthian building in the entire Kifrin complex, brings to mind the solutions of Assur and Hatra, centres near the fortified outpost, and the hypothesis of their serving a religious purpose would agree not only with its planimetric characteristics but also with the obvious presence of Orientals among the troops stationed at the site.