This red-roofed town, at 1050 meters above the see,
88 kilometers far from Beirut stands at the head
of a long fertile valley known as Kfar Hilda, is
proud of its ancient remnants. The town has been
inhabited since at least the time of the Romans
in the year 317 A.D.
The name is believed to be Phoenician since it was
used in the Hebrew with the same pronunciation Dumah
meaning "calm and rest". Dumah Al-Jendel
is from the same root and might mean "calm
and silence". "Al-Jendel" means "big
rock" and thus its translation may be the place
of rock worship, which was widespread with the Semites.
Father Kostantine Al-Mokhallissi thinks that the
name is Greek, meaning "the house", "the
building", or "the castle". The name
might be taken from a Latin root Domna which is
the name of one of the Byzantine queens who was
famous for her beauty, Julia Domna, born in Homs
in 170 AD. Her father was a priest of the Sun, worshiped
as a God by the people of Homs. She was married
to the Roman Augustus Septimos Sawyros.
The spring in Douma that is known as El-Ayn El-Tahta
has a water basin on one side of which a Greek engraving
is found which says: "Here rests Castor priest
of the Gods Esklipios and Egia, and I declare this
place should not be sold, and whoever dares to do
so, has to pay 200.000 dinars to the treasury so
it can stay to my inheritors".
This stone is believed to have been moved to the
spring from its original place near a building which
is thought to have been a temple of the God of medicine
and was later transformed into a church for St.
Doumit.
Near the roadside just above the town is the ancient
church of Mar Nohra built into the rock.
From the wooden door fashioned from tree trunks
to the yard shaded by a large Mediterranean oak,
this charming spot is definitely worth a visit.
