engineering

Tower of Elahbel

Tower of Elahbel is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tower of Elahbel rather than just read about it. In short: The Tower of Elahbel (also known as Tower 13 or Kubbet el 'Arus) was a four-storey sandstone tower tomb near the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria. The tower was one of several built outside the city walls of Palmyra, in an area known as the Valley of the Tombs.

Key takeaways

Tower of Elahbel belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tower of Elahbel to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tower of Elahbel from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Tower of Elahbel (also known as Tower 13 or Kubbet el 'Arus) was a four-storey sandstone tower tomb near the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria. The tower was one of several built outside the city walls of Palmyra, in an area known as the Valley of the Tombs. The tower was important in the history of textiles: fragments of very early Chinese silk yarns, dated to the 1st century AD, were discovered in the tombs at the tower. The tower was demolished using explosives by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in August 2015.

Description

The tower was one of several multiple-storey stone funerary buildings in a necropolis a few hundred metres outside the city walls of Palmyra, in an area in the hills to the south and west that became known as the Valley of the Tombs. It lies below the Umm al-Bilqis hill, about 500 metres (1,600 ft) west of the similar Towers of Iamblichus (or Iamlichu, or Yemliko) from AD83. The tower was completed in AD103 by a Palmyrene aristocrat Marcus Ulpius Elahbelus and his three brothers, Manai, Shakaiei, and Malku; they were all sons of Wahballat, son of Manai Elahbel. It is thought that Marcus Ulpius Elahbelus became a Roman citizen in the reign of the Emperor Trajan, which is why he shares elements of Emperor's birth name (Marcus Ulpius Traianus). Elahbel was known from an inscription at the Temple of Nabu in Palmyra. The Tower of Elahbel was a tower of four storeys, with an approximately square plan, constructed from large sandstone blocks. The ground storey was slightly larger, and stepped back to the upper floors. A single door in the south face of the ground floor led to the interior, with an inscription plaque and round headed niche (like a window or balcony) decorating the otherwise blank wall above. The chambers inside were decorated inside with Corinthian pilasters and a painted coffered ceiling. The tower was partially reconstructed after it was visited by Gertrude Bell in 1900, and visitors could climb an internal staircase to the upper tomb chamber, and then the roof. Inside, the tower was divided into loculi, separate compartments like pigeonholes or a columbarium used to store the sarcophagi of deceased wealthy Palmyrenes, with each cell sealed with a carved and painted image of the occupant.

Destruction The site containing the ruins of the ancient Palmyra, including the tower, was captured by ISIL in May 2015. Some portable carvings from the tombs had previously been removed to safety. Others were already held by museums. After ISIL/ISIS destroyed parts of the temples of Baalshamin and Bel later in 2015, the Tower of Elahbel and several other less well preserved tower tombs were reportedly blown up in August 2015, including the Tower of Iamblichus.

Gallery

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tower of Elahbel

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tower of Elahbel claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tower of Elahbel before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tower of Elahbel ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tower of Elahbel

In research: Tower of Elahbel appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tower of Elahbel in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tower of Elahbel is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Buildings and structures demolished in 2015, Buildings and structures destroyed by the Islamic State, Buildings and structures in Palmyra, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tower of Elahbel outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tower of Elahbel in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tower of Elahbel means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tower of Elahbel out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tower of Elahbel in simple terms?

Why does Tower of Elahbel matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tower of Elahbel?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tower of Elahbel.