About fifty yards distant from the temple is a row of Corinthian pillars, very great and lofty, with a most stately architrave and cornice at top. This speaks itself to have been part of some very august pile; but what one now sees of it is but just enough to give a regret that there should be no more of it remaining.
Here is another curiosity of this place, which a man had need be well assured of his credit before he ventures to relate, lest he should be thought to strain the privilege of a traveller too far. That which I mean is a large piece of the old wall, or περίβολος, which encompassed all these structures last described. A wall made of such monstrous great stones, that the natives hereabouts (as it is usual in things of this strange nature) ascribe it to the architecture of the devil. Three of the stones, which were larger than the rest, we took the pains to measure, and found them to extend sixty-one yards in length; one twenty-one, the other two each twenty yards. In deepness they were four yards each, and in breadth of the same dimension. These three stones lay in one and the same row, end to end. The rest of the wall was made also of great stones, but none, I think, so great as these. That which added to the wonder was, that these stones were lifted up into the wall more than twenty feet from the ground.
In the side of a small ascent, on the east part of the town, stood an old single column, of the Tuscan order, about eighteen or nineteen yards high, and one yard and a half in diameter. It had a channel cut in its side from the bottom to the top, from which we judged it might have been erected for the sake of raising water.
At our return to our tents we were a little perplexed by the servants of the mosolem, about our caphar. We were contented at last to judge it at ten per Frank, and five per servant, rather than we would engage in a long dispute at such a place as this.
Near the place where we lodged was an old mosque, and (as I said before) a fine fountain. This latter had been anciently beautified with some handsome stone-work round it, which was now almost ruined; however, it afforded us this imperfect inscription.
ΤΩΝΧΕΙΜΕΡΕΙΩΝ Π..ΟΝΕΩΚΤΙϹΤΟϹΠΑΝΝ
ΒΛΕΠΕΙΝΔΕΔΩΚΕΝ ΩΡΡΕϹΤΕΚΛΙΝΕΟΝ
ΧΡΥϹΟΝΠΑΡΑϹΧϹ ... ϹΩϹΙΒΙΟϹΤΕΜΕΓΑϹ.
ΥΔΩΡΤΕΝΥΝ-ΡΕΚΤΙΠΗΓΑΙΟΝΠΟΛΥ
ΕΥΧΑΙϹΘΕΟΔΟΤΟΥΤΟΥ ΟϹΙΟΥΕΠΙϹΚΟΠΟΥ.
May 6.—Early this morning we departed from Balbec, directing our course straight across the valley. As we passed by the walls of the city, we observed many stones inscribed with Roman letters and names, but all confused, and some placed upside down, which demonstrates that the materials of the wall were the ruins of the ancient city. In one place we found these letters, RMIPTITVEPR; in others these, VARI–––; in another, NERIS; in others, LVCIL–––, and SEVERI, and CELNAE, and FIRMI; all which serve only to denote the resort which the Romans had to this place in ancient times.
In one hour we passed by a village called Ye-ad; and in an hour more went to see an old monumental pillar, a little on the right hand of the road. It was nineteen yards high, and five feet in diameter, of the Corinthian order. It had a table for an inscription on its north side, but the letters are now perfectly erased. In one hour more we reached the other side of the valley, at the foot of Mount Anti-Libanus.
We immediately ascended the mountain, and in two hours came to a large cavity between the hills, at the bottom of which was a lake called by its old Greek name, Limone. It is about three furlongs over, and derives its waters from the melting of the snow. By this lake our guides would have had us stay all night, assuring us that if we went up higher in the mountains we should be forced to lie amongst the snow; but we ventured that, preferring a cold lodging before an unwholesome one. Having ascended one hour, we arrived at the snow, and proceeding amongst it for one hour and a half more, we then chose out as warm a place as we could in so high a region; and there we lodged this night upon the very top of Libanus. Our whole stage this day was seven hours and a half.
Libanus is in this part free from rocks, and only rises and falls with small, easy unevennesses, for several hours' riding; but is perfectly barren and desolate. The ground, where not concealed by the snow, appeared to be covered with a sort of white slates, thin and smooth. The chief benefit it serves for is, that by its exceeding height it proves a conservatory for abundance of snow, which, thawing in the heat of summer, affords supplies of water to the rivers and fountains in the valleys below. We saw in the snow prints of the feet of several wild beasts, which are the sole proprietors of these upper parts of the mountains.