Letters from Palestine / Written during a residence there in the years 1836, 7 and 8

by J. D. Paxton

We soon found ourselves passing over the highest part of the plain, and beginning to descend. In short, we found that this little plain was at the separating point of the head waters of the Bareda which flows to Damascus, and those of the El-Kanne, which flows into the Bokar through the Anti-Lebanon east of Zahle. We soon came to the head branches of this last stream, which is formed of a set of most noble springs, rising in the middle of the plain. There is quite a cluster of them rising near each other, and throwing off enough water to turn a mill; fine, pure, cool water. As is usual, it is carried in channels through different parts of the plain. There is a little cluster of trees, and the whole district over which the water can be thrown is cultivated, and rich in verdure. A small village stands just below, and we found some females at the spring engaged in washing. For a small present they allowed us the use of their fire to prepare our food; and again a good deal of interest was excited to see the Franks eat.

The mountains continued very bare of trees, and shrubbery of every kind. In the few places where water rose, there were a few trees, all else was a barren, sunburnt surface. After passing the village, which was poor in its appearance, the plain became more barren and rough, and the cultivated district more and more narrow. At the end of half an hour it terminated at a rough, narrow pass, nearly due west, and directly through the Anti-Lebanon. We followed the waters through this pass. The sides were steep and high, and the rock thrown about in wild confusion. The dip of the rock was very variable at different places. Along the stream were a few trees, and we saw several large flocks of sheep and goats, under the care of shepherds and their dogs.

After following the pass for an hour and a half, it bore to the south-west; we left it, crossed a pretty high ridge to the north-west, and entered the Bokar. On reaching the top, the plain opened to view, and we had been led to expect that we should find Baalbec at the point where we entered the plain. But no Baalbec was to be seen. We found, to our no little discomfort, that we had about two hours' ride northward, along a dry plain, under a burning sun, before we could reach this far-famed ruin.

We passed several most extensive threshing-floors. Their threshing instruments and mode of cleaning the grain, were the same as has been already described. I might add, that in bringing their grain to the floor, and in carrying away the straw, they use mules and donkeys, and at times the camel. I saw, in no instance, the use of a wheel-carriage. The only wheeled-carriages that I have seen in Syria were those for cannon at Zahle, and ten or fifteen carts which I saw at one time passing a street in Damascus. These carts were of a coarse, strong kind, belonging to the Pasha, and were then employed in carrying materials for the castle which he was repairing.

Our road lay over the ridges, at the foot of the mountains, along the eastern side of the plain. The soil over which we passed was thin. There was much rock on the surface, and in many places there were wide-spread masses of a very coarse puddingstone, that appeared to have once formed a huge bed of water-worn rock, bowlders, and pebbles, and owing to some cementing matter which had come over it, had become a solid rock. As we approached Baalbec this rock discontinued, and gave place to a very thick stratum of massy limestone of a peculiar kind, which is mainly used in the walls of Baalbec.

Baalbec stands near the foot of the Anti-Lebanon, a little above the general level of the plain. The ridges of the mountain lower down gradually, and spreading out, form a general level, which merges insensibly into that of the plain. It is on this elevated level that the ruins stand; about a mile from them, on the side of a hill, is the quarry that has furnished the stone for these stupendous buildings. A little to the east arises the finest set of springs that I have seen in Syria. They boil up over a considerable surface, and send off a stream of water sufficient to set in operation various kinds of machinery, if applied to that purpose.

The ground on which the ruins stand is nearly a dead level; a large district has been surrounded by walls, traces of them remain. The space covered by the ruins of the temple, or set of temples, and possibly theatre and other buildings, is about nine hundred feet long, and six hundred broad. The area is not, however, a regular parallelogram, there are off-sets at some of the towers—towers having apparently been added when the place was fortified, and converted into a fort. A foundation or platform of great thickness, I should say not less than ten feet, seems to have been laid over this large space, and upon this foundation the temples have been reared.

The stones in this foundation and wall, as in the walls still higher, are many of them of a most enormous size; at the west and south-west corner especially, they are almost incredibly large. Where all were so large, we did not think it worth while to measure very many. In one row, and that one at some distance from the ground, are three stones which we measured, and made them about seventy feet long each, and about fifteen feet wide. The thickness we could not certainly tell, but we inferred it to be about fourteen feet. These stones are much of the same shape and appearance, they are precisely like one which lies nearly cut out in the quarry, which we were, from its position, enabled to measure accurately. It was seventy feet six inches long, fourteen feet two inches thick, and seventeen feet nine inches wide at one end, and thirteen feet eight inches at the other. We were at once struck with its perfect likeness to the three stones in the wall; all of them were wider at one end than the other. I suppose that these four large stones, the three in the wall and the one in the quarry, were originally intended, either for obelisks, pillars, images, or some such thing; that their being now in the wall, is owing to a subsequent arrangement, when the place was converted into a fortress, and those stupendous outside walls put up, which now fill us with wonder.

Under these three immense stones are seven others, which almost equal those above them in width; their thickness also, judging from what is seen at the corner of the building, does not much fall short of a due proportion. In truth, they are upon a most gigantic scale. This row extends along the south-west side nearly one hundred yards, forming a most solid foundation, ten or twelve feet high, which, however, on this side, is not built upon out to the edge, the wall going up about twenty feet inward. The above-mentioned are the largest stones I saw in these ruins; but many others are enormous, and, as a general thing, they are very large. As a sample, I measured one of a large row of stones at the south-east corner of the most perfect building now standing, (it was a corner stone, which enabled me to ascertain the thickness,) and found it to be twenty-eight feet long, six feet six inches wide, and four feet six inches thick. I was not at all certain that I might not, on measuring, have found many still larger.

The most perfect temple, now standing, is on the south-east side of the above wide foundation. It is one hundred and fifty-seven feet long, seventy-eight wide, and the walls now may be sixty-six feet high. We inferred its height from the length of one of the fallen pillars, with a row of which it was, and still is in part, surrounded. The pillar is forty-nine feet eight inches; the capital, six feet two inches; the entablature and the pediment may be ten; making—say sixty-six feet. These pillars formed a portico all round it—a covered way; the pillars being connected with the temple by enormously large stones resting one end on the pillars, and the other on the walls. The lower faces of these stones were most richly wrought with various devices. The pillars are six feet four inches in diameter at the bottom, and five feet eight inches at the top; most of them are in three pieces. The door of the temple is at the east; the pillars there are fluted; the porch before the door was wider than at the sides—a noble arch was sprung over it, and in the centre, and on the lower face of what is called the keystone, (a stone of most gigantic size,) was carved a majestic wide-spread eagle. This stone has sunk out of its place, and threatens to fall from the arch. A modern wall has been put up, about ten feet east of the door, and at the end of the walls, no doubt for the purpose of defence.