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Qalaat Siman (near Aleppo, Syria) is the site of the fifth-sixth-century Christian complex that honors the column on which St. Symeon (“the pillar-sitting” or “Styite” saint) resided. Vast crowds gathered to venerate him. Pillar or column-sitting was an ascetic devotional practice unique to late antique Christian Syria. The practice ceased after the Muslim conquest in the seventh century. St. Symeon the Elder was the most famous, but there were other notable Syrian pillar-sitting saints (Daniel the Stylite, St. Symeon the Younger, among others).

Underground Cistern Constructed Under East Roman Emperor Justinian I

Name: Qalaat Siman or St. Simeon Church

Material: Stone

Size: 5,000 sq. m. (16,000 sq. ft.) floor space

Date: 5th century CE

Place of Origin: Near Aleppo, Syria

Location: Near Aleppo, Syria

Source and Registration#: Wikimedia Commons. Link to resource
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Walter E. Kaegi

Professor of History, University of Chicago