1 the city and plain; and there is one at least having relation too with the Bible. Such places are Sâlihîyeh and the Wely upon the ridge beyond; both of which I visited. It was formerly, also, not unusual for travellers to make an excursion to Saidanaya and its famous convent of nuns; as also less often to Helbôn. I would gladly have done the same, but my time was too far spent. In the following October, however, Saidanâya and other places beyond were visited and examined by Messrs Robson, Porter, and Barnett; and a full account of the excursion and of the convents of that region has been published by Mr Porter. By him and Dr Paulding I was also furnished with copious notes respecting Helbôn.-Jôbar, the Jewish place of pilgrimage, half an hour northeast of Damascus, I did not visit.1 3 Salihiyeh. This is a long and very narrow village, stretching for a mile and a half along the foot of Jebel Kasyûn. From the Bâb es-Sâlihîyeh a strait road runs from Damascus N. W. to the southwestern part of the village. The distance is a quarter of an hour. This road is paved with hewn or flat stones, and has a ditch on each side with side walks beyond, next the garden walls, for foot passengers. It is probably the only road of the kind in Syria. On the southwest of it is the Merj. 5 Sâlihîyeh lies slightly above the cultivated plain; and is watered by the Yezid, the northernmost and highest of the canals taken out from the Barada. The village is regarded as a suburb of Damascus. Here are fine gardens and the summer residences of the wealthy Damascenes. The place is supposed to contain fifteen thousand inhabitants. In the mountain side above are several excavated grottos; some of them quite extensive. Jebel Kasyûn is here yellow and naked; almost like the mountains along the Nile, though somewhat less desert. Kubbet Seiyar.-Passing through the southwestern quarter of Sâlihîyeh, the road winds gradually up the part of the mountain next to the chasm of the Barada. It is a narrow and crooked pass, cut deeply in the limestone rock. On the summit of the ridge, just on the left of the road, is an open Wely, a dome like a small temple, called Kubbet Seiyâr. This spot commands the celebrated view of Damascus and its plain. The Comp. Pococke, IL. i. p. 126. Seetzen Reisen I. p. 133. So Maundrell under May 2nd; also Pococke, II. i. pp. 130–135. Brown's Trav. p. 405. The latter passed thence over the mountain to Ba'albek. * Pococke ibid. p. 135. He writes 'Helboue.' 3 Biblioth. Sac. July 1854, pp. 433-455. For Jôbar, see Lands of the Bible, II. p. 331 sq. VOL. III.-40 Pococke II. i. p. 126. 7 This is the current name, by which the Wely is known to the missionaries. Travellers usually speak of it as Kubbet enNusr; comp. Lands of the Bible, II. p. 370. view is indeed a glorious one; though it differs not greatly, in its main features, from that above described as presented from the mound near the eastern gate of the city. Yet as this point is so much higher, being seven hundred feet above the city, the whole prospect is far more map-like and magnificent. It is however less extensive than the other towards the north and northeast; a portion of that part of the plain being here shut out from view by the projecting shoulder of Jebel Kasyûn.2 Directly below the spectator is the Merj, with the river running through it; and beyond is the city lying also along the river, mostly on the south; while the great suburb Meidân (Race-course) stretches along the Haj route south for nearly a mile and a half. All is embosomed in trees; and the trees in the plain mark in general the extent of the irrigation. Towards the southwest the trees and gardens extend about two miles from the city; but towards the east they reach as far as the eye can distinguish them. The tract covered by them on that side of the city must be some twelve or fifteen miles in length from west to east along the river; with an average breadth of some six or seven miles. There are likewise many isolated villages in the southeast, south, and southwest, with extensive gardens and orchards around them. As the eye looks east and northeast, on the left of the city, the plain seems interminable. Across the city, between E. and S. E. are seen the distant Tellûl beyond the lakes. The latter we could not distinguish. Between S. E. and S. the plain stretches away to Haurân; the distant mountains of which are dimly seen. Then come the hills of Jebel Mâni'a beyond the A'waj; and the shorter and lower line of Jebel Aswad on this side. In the southwest these ranges are seen not to connect with the base of Jebel esh-Sheikh ; but to run out as low lines of hills from an elevated plain. Jebel Aswad ends near Kesweh; so that below that place the course of the A'waj is in the plain. Just back of the Wely one can also look down into the chasm of the Barada, as it issues upon the plain. It is very narrow, having very little soil at the bottom with trees along the water. Indeed the bed of the valley is every where full of trees. On this side of the river pass down the two great canals, the Yezid and the Taurah; while beyond the stream are the two smaller branches from above, and another is taken out just here. No road passes along the bottom of the chasm. The rocky sides are precipitous and about six hundred feet high. The strata are very much dislocated and broken. 2 1 See above, p. 458. Bearings from Kubbet Seiyâr: Jebel esh-Sheikh, W. by S. Middle of the city E. S. E. Chasm at Sûk Wady Barada, Helbon.-Parallel to the valley of the Barada, in the northeast, and about an hour and a half distant from it, is another smaller valley, which descends by a straighter course from above Helbôn; breaks through a wall of rock by a chasm to the village of Derij; and then crossing the Sahra to Maʼraba, finds a passage through the last ridge by the chasm which bounds Jebel Kasyûn on the northeast. Here, at its mouth, is situated the village of Burzeh, one hour distant from the east gate of the city, N. 14° E. Helbôn is nearly north of Damascus, three and a half hours distant from it. The general course of the valley from Helbôn to Burzeh is S. S. E. or S. by E. Just above Maʼraba a branch enters it coming from Menîn in the north. The upper part of the valley, which spreads out into a fertile tract, is called Wady Helbôn; below the first chasm it takes the name of Wady Derij; while the lower chasm is known as Wady Maʼraba. There are several fountains in this valley. The first is half an hour above Helbôn, sending forth a stream of pure water from a small cave. In the village itself is a fountain by the mosk. Three quarters of an hour further down, at the mouth of the chasm above Derîj, is 'Ain Sahib; its waters drive a mill. From 'Ain Sahib to Maʼraba is an hour and a quarter; the valley here cutting its way through the northern Sahra. At Ma'raba is another fountain; and a stream also comes down from Menîn. Between Ma'raba and Burzeh is a distance of about forty-five minutes. From 'Ain Sahib a path leads along the northwest border of the Sahra, S. W. by W. to the head of Wady Bessima; the distance being about an hour. The rocky walls of the chasm above 'Ain Sahib are almost perpendicular, and are several hundred feet high. A path has been hewn out in the rock along the chasm on the right side of the stream, Over it in one place is a niche, as for a statue ; and there are also sarcophagi or tombs excavated in the rock on both sides of the chasm. Wady Helbôn itself is an hour or more in length, and more open; though still shut in by high and rugged sides. The bottom is a strip of level ground, everywhere well cultivated. In the northern part are many walnut trees; as also apricot and other fruit trees. Throughout the whole extent of the valley there are well kept vineyards. Every available spot is carefully planted with vines. Even places so steep, that the vine dresser can approach them only with difficulty, are made to produce an abundance of grapes. The vine is the chief product of the place. In Damascus the grapes are greatly esteemed for their rich flavour; and from them is made the best and most highly prized wine of the country. The village of Helbôn is about half an hour below the upper fountain, or nearly midway of the valley. There are many ruins in and around it, but mostly dilapidated; and hewn stones, capitals, friezes, and broken columns, are built into the walls of the modern dwellings. On the west of the village is an extensive ruin, supposed to have been once a temple. On some of the blocks are fragments of Greek inscriptions no longer legible. The missionaries are probably right in regarding this place as the Helbon of Scripture; with the wine of which Tyre was furnished from Damascus. The "wine of Helbon" is still famous; and Damascus must always have been the natural channel for its export.-So far as the mere name is concerned, it is true that Aleppo, in Arabic Haleb, might also represent the biblical Helbon. But Aleppo produces no wine of any reputation ; nor is Damascus the natural channel of commerce between Aleppo and Tyre. Hureiry-From Helbôn a path leads across the mountains westwards, in two and a quarter hours, to the small village of Efry, an hour north of 'Ain Fijeh. From Efry there is a rugged and difficult path, still across the mountains, (some of them basaltic,) to the village of Hureiry, two and a half hours further west. It is situated on the west side of Wady Hureiry, a long valley which lies parallel to the plain of Zebedâny, and is separated from it by a high range of hills. It runs to the valley of the Barada just below the Sûk; from which the village of Hureiry is distant about an hour and a quarter. In the village there are some remains of antiquity, consisting of hewn stones and fragments of columns. Near by the public fountain is a stone with a long Greek inscription, now defaced and illegible. This region is traversed by no great road; and has rarely been visited except by the missionaries, for the purpose of exploring it. Pococke indeed seems to have been the only earlier traveller, whose route came at all in contact with it. He passed from Saidanâya westwards by Menîn and then between Helbôn and Derij to the Barada two miles below Fijeh, probably at Bessîma.1 Ez. 27, 18 "Damascus was thy merchant... in the wine of Helbon and white wool." * See Gesen. Thesaur. p. 473 sq. Heb. Lex. art. 11. Strabo also speaks of the wine of Chalybon in Syria, as among the luxuries of the Persian kings; 15. 3. 22. p. 735. Athenæus likewise assigns it to Damascus; I. p. 22. According to Dr Russell, very little wine is produced at Aleppo, and that of a poor quality. Russell's Aleppo, Lond. 1794. Vol. I. p. 80 sq. Pococke IL i P: 135. SECTION XI. FROM DAMASCUS TO BA'ALBEK. I WAS now about to enter upon the third and last division of my journey. My general plan was to visit 'Anjar, Ba'albek, and Ribleh, proceeding as far north as time and circumstances would permit; and then return through the northern parts of Lebanon to Beirut. The Rev. Mr Robson, senior missionary in Damascus, was henceforth to be my companion. He took along his intelligent head servant Jirjis (George), who acted as purveyor and cook; and we were well provided for. Beshârah continued with me, and the tent and general arrangements all remained the same. We hired anew the Druze muleteers, who had brought me from Hâsbeiya; and kept them to the end of our journey. Monday, June 7th. It took some time to get all things in readiness this morning; and it was 7.35 before we set off from Mr Robson's house. Mr Porter accompanied us for a time on our way. We were half an hour in passing through the city to the Bâb es-Sâlihîyeh; from which we issued at 8.05. Here we were surrounded by a swarm of custom house officers; the first I had seen since entering the country at Beirût. They were very good-natured, their object being merely a bakhshish. This my companions well understood; and, keeping on our way, we were at last beyond the reach of their importunities. After ten minutes we crossed the Taurah, the largest of all the canals, by a bridge; and at 8.20 entered the southwestern end of Salihiyeh. Here we crossed the Yezid, the other large canal, which waters the village and its gardens. We now climbed the steep and rocky ascent to the top of the ridge; and at 8.50 reached the Kubbet Seiyâr, elevated seven hundred feet above the city. Here we stopped to admire and enjoy the magnificent prospect of the city and plain spread out under our VCL. III.-40* |