ADRAA
ADRAA (
Ἀδράα, Euseb.
Ononmast.:
Ptol. 5.15.23: LXX.
Έδραείν,
Ἐδραῖν: Eng. Vers. EDREI: and probably the
Ἀδρασσός of Hierocles, p. 273 :
Draa), a town in Palestine, near the sources
[p. 1.25]of the river Hieromax, and deeply embayed in the spurs of the mountain chain of Hermon.
Before the conquest of Canaan by Joshua, it was one of the chief cities of Og, king of Bashan.
After his defeat and death it was assigned to the half tribe of Manasseh, which settled on the eastern side of Jordan.
It was the seat of a Christian bishop at an early time, and a bishop of Adraa sat in the council of Seleucia (A. D. 381), and of Chalcedon (A. D. 451).
By the Greeks it was called Adraa, and by the Crusaders Adratum. Its ruins cover a circuit of about 2 miles, of which the most important is a large rectangular building, surrounded by a double covered colonnade, and with a cistern in the middle. (Numbers, 21.33; Deuteron. 1.4, 3.10; Joshua 12.4, 13.12, 31;
J. AJ 4.5.42; Buckingham,
Travels, vol. ii. p. 146 ; Burckhardt,
id. p. 241.)
[
W.B.D]
