DAMASCUS TO BEYROOT.—THE RUINS OF BAALBEC.—FAREWELL.
From Damascus to Beyroot there is the only good wagon road in all Syria; it was built by a French company under a concession from the Turkish Government, and is a fine specimen of engineering skill. Twice a day a diligence or stage-coach runs each way; the distance is nearly a hundred miles, and the journey is made in about thirteen hours. The company has its own freight-wagons, and sends a train out every day to carry merchandise at certain fixed rates. A heavy toll is levied on all parties using the road, whether for passengers or freight, or even for saddle-animals, and it is an odd sight to see trains of camels and horses plodding through the rocks and mud of the old bridle-path side by side with the macadamized road.
A CARAVAN NEAR DAMASCUS.
Frank and Fred wanted to travel by this modern road, but their enthusiasm was a trifle dampened by the suggestion of the Doctor.
"We are going from here to Baalbec," said the Doctor, "where we will see the ruins of the Temple of the Sun. The place is about twenty miles from the carriage-road, and will require an outfit of saddle-horses and a dragoman from Shtora, the nearest point on the road. I have thought it best to arrange with Ali to accompany us to Baalbec, and from there to Shtora, where he can leave us, and we can then have a ride on the company's route to the sea-coast. This will give you an experience of carriage travelling in Syria, and put us to less trouble than any other plan we could adopt."
Of course there was no dissenting voice when the scheme of the good Doctor was propounded, and the whole party announced its readiness to move whenever he gave the word.
THE RIVER AMONG THE ROCKS.
They started in the afternoon for a ride of about four hours to the Fountain of Fijeh, one of the sources of the Abana. For an hour they followed the road of the French company, and then turned away to the right among chalky hills so rugged and bare as to have in places the appearance of snow. Sometimes they looked down upon little valleys rich with orchards of olive and fig trees, and a moment later there was hardly a green thing to be seen. In many places the river wound among rocks so steep that a safe passage to the edge of the water was impossible to find. One of the villages that they passed was perched on a hill-side so abrupt that it was only to be reached by a winding path. The scenery was of the wildest character, and the boys were glad that the Doctor had determined upon this route instead of the more prosaic one of the French company's road.
The antiquity of Damascus was shown by an engineering work between two of the villages near the Barada; it is an ancient aqueduct which was evidently made to carry water from the Fijeh Fountain to Damascus. The name of its builder is unknown, but tradition says it was made by Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, about the middle of the third century. It was never completed, and from the excellence of the water-supply of Damascus it was evidently not needed.
Beyond this aqueduct they wound up a narrow valley or glen, and the greater part of the way were compelled to follow a path cut in the sloping rock. The guide pointed out a spot where the season before a traveller fell from his horse, and was so severely injured against the rocks that he lived only a few hours. The place was favorable to accidents, and it seemed to the boys a remarkable circumstance that a single week should pass in the season of travel without loss of life.
The valley widened a little, but still retained its precipitous or sharply sloping sides; the widenings gave opportunities for fig and olive orchards to find a footing, and by-and-by they came to a small village, where the guide called a halt and the party dismounted.
THE FIJEH SOURCE OF THE ABANA.
They were at Ain Fijeh, or the Fountain of Fijeh, one of the sources of the Abana. It has a right to be called the principal source, as it is much larger than any other, though at a lower elevation. Frank and Fred pronounced it one of the finest springs they had seen in the country, and recalled their visit to the source of the Jordan at Dan.
The spring comes from a cave in a limestone rock, and pours out with a force which suggests a great pressure of water behind it. Directly above the mouth of the cave are the remains of a temple, with portions of the walls standing, and there is a similar building, not quite so badly injured, a little way to the right. The fountain is large enough to form at once a stream three or four feet deep and twenty-five or thirty in width, which goes dashing over the rocks as though it had been flowing for miles down the side of a mountain. The banks of the stream are lined with bushes, and it is impossible to get a view of any distance through them owing to their density.
The camp had been formed on the bank of the stream where there was an open space, and our friends slept through the night lulled by the murmurs of the waters, and the sighing of the wind among the trees that encircled their camping-ground. An early start was made in the morning for another ride among the cliffs of Anti-Lebanon. The route was much like that of the day before, and carried them to a higher elevation, where they often enjoyed views of great extent.
They passed the ruins of Abila, a Roman city of considerable importance at the beginning of the Christian era, and then they wound up and up till the ridge of the mountain was passed, and the descent began to the plain where Baalbec stands. It was a long ride, and in some places a dreary one, and when they reached the famous Temple of the Sun the night had fallen, and the stars were out in the sky.
We will call upon Fred for a description of Baalbec and its wonderful ruins:
"We were very tired when we got to Baalbec, and did not care much for ruins or anything else. But a good sleep refreshed us, and when we started out for our day's work you would not have suspected we were the worn-out travellers of the night before. That shows the effect of a good sleep in the pure air of the mountains of Syria.
"The pillars and columns of the temple that are still in position can be seen a long way off, and nobody needs the words of the guide to know what they are. Our camp was right in the centre of the ruins, and so we had a view of them by night as we rode in among them. They seemed enormously large then, and, strange to say, they didn't appear much smaller when we had daylight for looking at them. The fact is they are immense, and the most stupendous thing we have seen since we left Egypt.
THE RUINS OF BAALBEC.
"Nobody knows when these temples were built; but it is generally believed that the city to which they belonged was the Heliopolis of the Greeks and Romans. There is no authentic history of the place earlier than the fourth century, but coins of Heliopolis have been found of the second century, which show it was then a Roman city. There are three temples here, and they bear the names of 'The Great Temple,' 'The Temple of the Sun,'and 'The Circular Temple.' We have been through them, or, rather, of what remains of them, and to say we have been impressed by their grandeur is to convey a very faint idea of our feelings. We have seen nothing in the country to compare with them, and our admiration for their builders is as great as it can possibly be.
"It would take many pages for me to describe the courts, and porticos, and portals, and other parts or accessories of these temples at Baalbec, and I should turn your head into an ant-hill of figures long before I could get through. You would be constantly reminded of what we told you of the temples of Karnak and Thebes, in Egypt, and perhaps you might grow impatient before I reached the end. Rather than run the risk of anything of the kind I'll jump all that, and come at once to what kept us in a string of exclamation points all the time we were walking among the ruins.
"The great wonder of Baalbec was the size of the stones used in the work of construction. Wherever you go, whether in the vaulted arches beneath the platform, through the subterranean passages that were used as stables in the Middle Ages, or among the walls and the rows of columns in court and portico, the immensity of the stones takes away your breath. Hewn stones twelve, fifteen, or twenty feet long, and proportionally wide and high, are in the walls, and as regularly laid up as though they were common bricks.
"When you have become accustomed to these, the guide takes you to where there are blocks, not a few but many, varying from twenty-four to thirty feet long, and proportionally wide and deep. Some of them are way up in the air at the tops of columns sixty or seventy feet high, and you can't help wondering what kind of machinery must have been used to get them there.
"You get tired of saying 'Here's another,' 'Look at this,' 'See this one,' and similar expressions, and then you tell the guide as much. You are tired of seeing so many of these great blocks.
"Then he takes you round to the western wall, and points to a section of it. Your eyes follow the direction of his hand.
"In that wall, twenty feet above the ground, are three stones, lying end to end. They are thirteen feet square at the ends, and their respective lengths are sixty-three, sixty-three and three-quarters, and sixty-four feet.
"Stop and think how large one of the stones is. Measure off sixty-four feet in the garden, and then look thirteen feet up the side of the house, and another thirteen feet along the ground; then you'll have some idea of these immense stones. Mark Twain says, in 'The Innocents Abroad,' that each of these stones is about as large as three street-cars placed end to end, but a third higher and wider than a street-car; or it might be better represented by two railway freight-cars of the largest pattern coupled together.
"In the quarries whence these stones were taken, a mile from the temples, is another stone considerably larger, but it has never been moved or even detached from the bed-rock, and, therefore, Doctor Bronson says it doesn't count.
"You ask how these stones were moved and laid into the walls and platforms. We'll tell you as soon as we find out.
"The people that built these temples knew some things we don't know, just as the ancient Egyptians did. But we can console ourselves with the reflection that we have many things of which they were ignorant. We have steamships and railways, the telephone and telegraph, glass in our windows, umbrellas, oysters on the half shell, ice-cream, ready-made-clothing stores, pug-dogs, and I don't know what else. We are far more comfortable than they were, and if we could only satisfy our curiosity about their modes of moving these enormous blocks of stone there would be nothing to envy them for.
"So much for Baalbec. We spent the forenoon there, and made a thorough examination of the ruins; then we had a substantial lunch and started for Shtora, twenty miles away. Our route was along the Plain of Buka, which lies between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and is a fertile strip of land from two to five miles wide. There are few trees on the plain, in spite of the fertility of the soil. Rain had fallen the night before, and the soil was sticky, like that of some of our Western prairies, so that lumps were continually forming on our horses' feet. We passed several villages, and also a good-sized town called Zahleh; it lies at the foot of the slope of the Lebanon mountain, and is surrounded with orchards and vineyards.
"The guide said that Zahleh was the most important wine-producing place in the Lebanon district; he pointed out a wine-press close by the side of our road, and as we wanted to rest the horses a few moments, to say nothing of ourselves, we stopped long enough to look at it.
MODERN WINE-PRESS.
"It didn't take long for us to examine the machinery used for making wine. There was a wooden box, about ten feet square and four feet deep, standing on short posts, and having a ladder against the side. The box is filled with grapes, which are brought in baskets, and then half a dozen men climb up the ladder, steady themselves by means of cords hanging from the ceiling, and tread out the juice with their naked feet. The juice runs from a spout in one side-end of the box, and is caught in a tub, whence it is put into casks or jars and left to ferment. The ancient Egyptians used almost identically the same sort of press, and the mode of preparing the wine has not been varied at all since the days of the Bible.
BRIDGE OVER THE LITANY.
"Our route was quite near the river Litany, and once we crossed it on a bridge of a single arch, which was said to have been built long ago—how long ago we could not ascertain. The last three or four miles of our ride was along a carriage-road, and just at dusk we reached Shtora, where we were to pass the night.
"The hotel at Shtora was kept by a Greek with an Italian wife, and they made us quite comfortable in a rough way. We had cots for beds and plenty of covering, and they gave us an excellent supper and an equally excellent breakfast. Doctor Bronson had arranged at Damascus for a special carriage to be ready at Shtora to carry us over the Lebanon to Beyroot; the carriage came while we were at supper, and the hotel-keeper, who was also agent of the road company, told us we could start at seven o'clock in the morning, and be in Beyroot by two in the afternoon.
"We were off at the hour named, and soon were climbing the eastern slope of the Lebanon. Up and up we went, the air growing colder as we ascended, and calling into use all the overcoats and wraps we could muster. From the zigzags of the road we looked down on the plain we had left: at times it seemed as though we could toss a pebble into the Litany, which was reduced to a winding thread in the green carpet of Buka. The mountain grew more and more desolate with every mile of our ascent, and when we stopped to change horses at the station we walked a long way in advance in an effort to get warm.
"We had said good-bye to Ali and his horses at Shtora, and our only guide now was the Arab driver, whose knowledge of French was confined to a few words. We tried in vain to learn the names of the places we were passing. We especially wanted to know if we were near the famous grove of the cedars of Lebanon, but our efforts were unrewarded.
THE CEDARS OF LEBANON.
"At the first station where we changed horses the manager, a Frenchman, said the cedars were several miles to the north, over a rough and difficult road which was inaccessible to carriages. He said the grove was less than half a mile square, and contained about four hundred trees of all sizes. Most of the trees are young, and not more than a dozen are of any great antiquity. The largest is about forty feet in circumference, and it is supposed to be the oldest; and there are thirty or forty which are each from three to five feet in diameter.
"This is the grove from which the timber for Solomon's Temple is supposed to have been taken. There were formerly many cedar groves in Syria, but the most of them have been cut down, or have disappeared from climatic causes. No care is taken of the few cedars that remain; visitors cut and hack them as much as they please. The Arabs take the branches for fuel, and the goats nibble the young shoots so that no new trees can grow. In a hundred years, or perhaps less, the famous cedars of Lebanon will have ceased to exist.
"Now we are on the summit of Lebanon, five thousand six hundred feet above the level of the Mediterranean! The sea is far below us, its dark-blue surface filling the western horizon, and between us and the water is the slope of Lebanon and the belt of coast. The driver gathers his reins, turns down the brake a little—just enough to steady the carriage, but not sufficient to impede the progress of the horses. Away they go at a rapid trot, and occasionally at a gallop. The ride was tedious as we slowly ascended the other side of Lebanon, and this exhilarating speed is an admirable contrast.
VIEW OF BEYROOT, LOOKING TOWARD THE HARBOR.
"Down, and down, and down! The air grows warmer, the clouds that were hovering about the mountain-top are breaking, and the sunlight comes pouring through the rifts, warming our shivering frames and gilding the rocks with a tint of gold. The spots of green on the ground below us grow every minute till they develop into villages and orchards, and one, clinging at the edge of the sea, is larger than any of the others. The driver waves his hand toward this spot and pronounces the word 'Beyroot.' There lies the city where our wanderings in Palestine and Syria will come to an end.
"The Mediterranean sparkled in the sunlight, its blue surface stippled with white sails or darkened by the trail of smoke from the funnels of a steamer. An irregular streak of foam marked where the waves broke along the beach and separated land from sea. In one hour of our descent the chill of winter was exchanged for the genial air of spring, and in another hour spring was turned to summer. Oranges and citrons were on the trees, olives and figs abounded, the fields were luxuriant, and it seemed a dream that we had come so quickly from one climate to another.
"We drove to the principal hotel, and our ride was at an end. After arranging our toilets, for which we found ample materials in the welcome trunks that had been sent from Jaffa, we went out for a view of Beyroot.
"We found the streets were not unlike those of Jaffa, Jerusalem, or Damascus in their general features, so far as the old part of the city is concerned. We had expected this, and therefore were not disappointed; but we had not expected to find the streets in the new part of Beyroot as wide and handsome as they are. The place has an appearance of prosperity and activity more than any other we have seen since leaving Alexandria; it has a large European population, and a good many factories, business houses of various kinds, and kindred establishments, all conducted by foreigners. The entire population is said to be more than eighty thousand, and some authorities declare it to be little, if any, short of one hundred thousand. About a third of the inhabitants are Moslems; the remaining two-thirds include native Christians, Jews, Druses, and a good many foreign nationalities.
"Beyroot is the ancient Berytus, and some authorities identify it with Berothah or Berothai of the Bible. It is a very old city, as we have no distinct record of the time when it was founded, and it is known to have been destroyed and rebuilt one hundred and forty years before the Christian era. It has always been a fairly prosperous city, but the period of its greatest advance has been within the past twenty years.
"We hired a carriage for a drive along the coast to Nahr el-Kelb—Dog River—passing the spot where St. George killed the dragon. If you have any doubt about the truth of the story, you can be convinced by borrowing an English twenty-shilling piece and studying the picture of the performance represented on one side of the coin. Dog River runs through a rocky ravine, and on its sides there are Greek, Roman, Assyrian, and Egyptian inscriptions. They are supposed to commemorate the occupation of the country by the armies of the various nations represented: the Assyrian sculptures are estimated to date back at least twenty-five centuries, while the Egyptian are of a period at least six hundred years older.
MISSION SCHOOL IN SYRIA.
"We returned from Dog River the way we came, and then drove to one of the mission schools of the city. Beyroot is an important field of missionary enterprise, and one result is that the proportion of persons who cannot read and write is smaller than in any other city of Syria. The American Protestant Mission has a fine array of buildings, and, in addition to the ordinary schools of instruction, it has a theological seminary and a literary and medical college; then it has a printing-office, where a great deal of useful matter is printed, including a weekly newspaper, and it has established schools in the villages of the Lebanon and through other parts of the country. Many famous men have been connected with this mission in the past fifty years, and their labors have been warmly appreciated by the supporters of the enterprise.
"Then there are the British Syrian schools, supported by English donations, and there is a school maintained by the Church of Scotland. The French have several schools, orphan asylums, convents, and churches; the Germans have a good representation in the same way; and the Russians, Italians, and Greeks have not been behind the other nationalities of Beyroot in providing educational advantages. It is probable that more money has been expended in Beyroot in missionary enterprises than in any other city of its size in the entire East.
FOUNTAIN AT BEYROOT.
"I must not forget the beautiful bay on which the city stands. It is a fine body of water of semicircular shape, opening to the north; as you look from the anchorage the city seems to rise in a series of terraces till it reaches the enclosing hills backed by lofty Lebanon. From any of the hills back of the town, or from the front of the old sea-wall, there is a splendid view over the water. Our hotel veranda fronts on the bay, and we have greatly enjoyed the charming panorama it affords.
"But here I must stop. Frank has just come in to say that the steamer is smoking furiously at her anchorage, and we must go on board in half an hour. So, good-bye for the present.
"And good-bye to Egypt and the Holy Land.
"We have enjoyed our journey ever and ever so much. We have seen many things of biblical, historical, and present interest, and we trust that the lessons they teach have not fallen on inattentive ears.
"And, so trusting and believing, it is sad for us to write
"The End."
LEBANON.