RUINS OF DJERASH. These celebrated ruins are about three days' journey east, from the Lake of Tiberias and the River Jordan: the way is through the desert. The city was built on an elevated plain in the mountains of Moerad, on uneven ground, on both sides of a stream, which bears the name of the River of Djerash. The ruins are nearly an hour and a quarter in circumference; the walls, of which fragments only remain, were eight feet in thickness, and built of square hewn stones, of middling size. Djerash, till within the last ten years, was rarely visited by travellers, on account of their fear of the Bedouins: but recently many wanderers have gone there in safety and at leisure, some of whom were men who had retired from their business and manufactures, and were not likely to brave imminent peril. It may be performed at a third of the expense of the journey to Palmyra: yet a visit to this place, the ancient Gerasa, as is supposed, is not without risk from the Bedouins, who sometimes conceal themselves beneath the trees that overshade the river. The first object that arrests the attention, is a temple: the main body consists of an oblong square, the interior of which is about twenty-five paces in length, and eighteen in breadth: a double row, of six columns in each row, adorned the front of the temple; of the first row, five columns are yet standing; of the second, four. Their style of architecture seems to belong to the best period of the Corinthian order, their capitals being beautifully ornamented with the acanthus leaves. The shafts are composed of five or six pieces, and they are thirty-five to forty feet in height. The interior of the building is filled with the ruins of the roof: the temple stands within a large area, surrounded by a double row of columns. "The whole edifice," Burckhardt observes, "seems to have been superior in taste and magnificence, to every public building of this kind in Syria, the temple of the sun at Palmyra excepted." Of two hundred columns which originally adorned this temple and its area, some broken shafts, and three or four nearly entire, but without their capitals, are the only remains. Here also are numerous remains of private habitations; a street, still paved in some places, leads to a spot where several broken columns are yet standing, and another avenue is adorned with a colonnade on either side: about thirty broken shafts are now reckoned, and two entire columns, but without their capitals: on the other side of the street, and opposite to these, are five columns, with their capitals and entablatures: they are but fifteen feet high, and in an imperfect state. A little farther to the southeast, this street crosses the principal avenue of the town; on both sides of which are the remains of columns, which were much larger than the former. On the right side of this principal street are thirty-four columns yet standing: and in some places behind this colonnade are low apartments, which appear to have been shops: this vista terminates in a large open space, enclosed by a magnificent semicircle of pillars in a single row: fifty-seven remain. To the right, on entering this forum, or open space, are four, and then twenty-one, united by their entablatures: to the left, five, seven, and twenty, also with entablatures: the pillars near the entrance are fifteen feet in height, and are all of the Ionic order. From this spot the ground rises, and, on the top of a low but steep hill, are the remains of a beautiful temple, commanding a view over the greater part of the town. A side-door leads from this temple, at about sixty paces distant, towards a large theatre on the side of the hill: it fronts the town, so that the spectators might enjoy the prospect of all its principal buildings and quarters: there are twenty-eight rows of seats, two feet in breadth: in three different places are small narrow staircases opening into the rows, to facilitate the ingress or egress of the spectators; in front, the theatre is closed by a wall, forty paces in length, embellished within by five richly decorated niches, which are connected with each other by columns. The great street of Djerash is in several places almost impassable with fragments of pillars: its pavement is preserved in many parts; and it is peopled with groups of columns, that rise in its desolation like little groves of palm-trees in the desert. The aspect of this ruined city is less magnificent and perfect, than it is singular and solemn : streets, houses, theatres, in the heart of an extensive and unpeopled wilderness, which once rejoiced in the excitements of the drama, and was alive with the busy details of trade. The spectacles of Balbec and Palmyra, are of vast temples only; in Djerash the spectator feels as if he was in a nobler kind of Pompeii, where the shops, the cellars, the chambers, the foot-pavements, are mingled with the splendid remains of temples, buildings, and flights of columns, broken and entire, even as the trees of the forest. There is another quadrangle, of fine Corinthian pillars, in front of a second theatre: between every two boxes is a niche, forming a very elegant ornament. The plate shows the bold and romantic character of the ground on which the city was built. The bridge in front is fourteen feet wide, very ancient, and built with great solidity. The calcareous stone of which Djerash is built is the same as the rock of the neighbouring mountains : it is surprising that no granite columns should be found here, as they abound in ancient Syrian cities, of much less note and magnificence than Djerash. END OF THE THIRD SERIES. LONDON FISHER, SON, AND CO., PRINTERS. GENERAL INDEX. The NUMERAL letters indicate the volumes; the FIGURES point out the pages. ABBOT, Mr., his tomb at Eden, Vol. i. Page 14. Adana, Mount Taurus in the distance, i. 33; camp of Ain-el-Razee, ii. 70. Ain Fijji, iii. 14. Alaya, fortified cliffs at, i. 51; town of, ii. 22. Alexandria, description of, ii. 51. Amanus, Mount, castle on, iii. 56. American missionaries, ii. 10. Anamour, coast of, Asia Minor, i. 67. Ancient cedars in the forest of Lebanon, i. 46. Antioch, from the west, i. 19; on the approach from Antonio, St., convent of, near Eden, in Lebanon, ii. 5. Anzayra, hills of, ii. 57. Approach to Caipha, bay of Acre, ii. 31; to Antioch from Aleppo, ii. 70. Asia Minor, coast of, near Anamour, i. 67. Balbec, ruins of, i. 11; six detached pillars of the great Bazaar at Jaffa, ii. 20. Batroun, valley of, with gothic castle, i. 45. Beaufort, Captain, his account of Pompeiopolis, ii. 34. Beilan, pass of, looking towards the sea, i. 38; Mount Amanus, on the approach from Antioch, i. 55. Bethlehem, chapel at, iii. 83. Bethulia, or Safet, iii. 78. Brumhanna, village of, on Mount Lebanon, ii. 66. Cafés in Damascus, i. 69. Caipha, approach to, and bay of Acre, ii. 31. Caiaphas, his palace, iii. 88. Calvary, interior of, iii. 97. Canobin, convent of, &c. ii. 6, 7. Carmel, Mount, and St. Jean d'Acre, i. 29; account of, ii. 32; convent of, ii. 64; cave of the School of the 2 C Carmelites, order of, ii. 64. Casius, Mount, from the sea, i. 77; Casius, Mount, ii. 17, 28. Castle in Mount Amanus, iii. 56. Castle near Djouni, ii. 27. Castle near Pambouk, ii. 48. Castle near Tripoli, on the river Kadesha, ii. 59. Chapel at Bethlehem, iii. 83. Chelindreh, or Kalendria, i. 71. Cilician Gates, iil. 58. Cilicia, coast of, i. 71. Cleopatra, her voyage up the Cydnus, i. 9. Coast of Asia Minor, near Anamour, i. 67. Convent of Mount Carmel, ii. 61. Cydnus, fall of the river, i. 8. D Damascus, cafés in, 69; from above Salahyeh, i. 6; Dead Sea, iii. 91. Der-el-Kamar, town of, iii. 55. Der-el-Kamar, and the palaces of Beteddein, i. 59. Djebel Scheich, and Mount Hermon, from the top of Djerash, ruins of, iii. 99. Djouni, the residence of Lady Hester Stanhope, ii. 14; Druses, palace of the prince of, at Beteddein, i. 26. E Eden, village of, with the tomb of Mr. Abbott, i. 14. Encampment of pilgrims to Hadji or Mecca, on the banks Euphrates depth of the river, i. 79; expedition, iii. 45. F Fall of the river Cydnus, i. 8. Farren, Mr., the consul-general, ii. 13; his entry into Ferry over the Orontes, ii. 62. Forest of Lebanon, ancient cedars in the, i. 46. G Galilee, sea of, or Lake Tiberias, iii. 77. Girgius Adeeb, his house at Antioch, i. 56. H Hadji, or Mecca pilgrims, encamped near Antioch, on Halt of a caravan in the desert plain of Girgola, ii. 49. Holy Sepulchre, the church of, at Jerusalem, iii. 72; I—J Ibrahim Pasha, his encampment near Jaffa, ii. 30; camp Jaffa, bazaar at, ii. 20; encampment of Ibrahim Pasha, Jehoshaphat, valley of, iii. 88. Jerusalem, church of the Holy Sepulchre at, iii. 72; from Jordan, plains of the, looking towards the sea, iii. 69. Kadesha river, castle on, near Tripoli, ii. 59. Kalendria, coast of Cilicia, i. 71. Kedron, glen and river of, iii. 76; brook, iii. 88. Ladder of Tyre, ii. 54. Lake of Tiberias, or Sea of Galilee, from the northern Part of Rhodes, the channel, iii. 58. Part of the walls of Antioch, over a ravine, i. 63. Pass in a Cedar Forest, above Barouk, i. 74. Pass of Souk Barrada, iii. 13. Pass of Beilan, looking towards the sea, i. 38. Pass on the approach from Antioch, i. 55. Payass or Issus, plain of, iii. 37; ruined mosque at, Pharpar or Barrada river, i. 35. Plains of the Jordan, looking towards the Dead Sea, Pompeiopolis, or Soli, Asia Minor, ruins at, ii. 33. R Ras-el-Ain, near Balbec, encampment at, ii. 55. Casius in the distance, ii. 17. Remains of the Port of Tyre, ii. 43. Rhodes, from the heights near Sir Sidney Smith's villa, Ruad, island of, ii. 57; with a view of Tortosa, iii. 33. or Holy Valley, i. 43. Scene on the Orontes near Suadeah, i. 21. Scene at the village of Beit-y-Ass, near Suadeah, iii. 74. Scheich's house at Zebdané, iii. 42. School of the prophets, cave of, iii. 47. Seleucia, near Suadeah, port of, ii. 17; ruins of, ii. 18; Sepulchres at Seleucia, ii. 18, 73. Sidon, ii. 27, 45; on the approach from Beirout, iii. 6. Sion, Mount, iii. 89. Site of the ancient Daphne, i. 31. Six detached pillars of the great temple at Balbec, i. 37. Souk Barrada, the pass of, iii. 13. Souk, village of, iii. 16. Stanhope, Lady Hester, her residence at Djouni, ii. 14. St. George, the tomb of, bay of Kesrouan, iii. 33. St. Jean d'Acre, and Mount Carmel in the distance, i. 29. Smyth, Sir Sidney, his villa, i. 54. Syhoon, river, iii. 30. Synagogue of the Jews at Jerusalem, iii. 92. |