Travels in Syria and the Holy Land Part 7

[p.69] holes which have been made in them, in search of hidden treasure.

Beneath it is a subterraneous apartment, in which is a double row of receptacles for the dead, three in each row, one above the other; each receptacle is two feet high, and five feet and a half long. The door is so low as hardly to allow a person to creep in.

I copied the following from a stone in an adjoining wall:

[Greek]

This village has two Birkets, or reservoirs for water, which are filled in winter time by a branch of the Wady Kanouat; they were completely dried up this summer, a circ.u.mstance which rarely happens. Near both the Birkets are remains of strong walls. Upon an insulated hill three quarters of an hour S.E. from Rima, is Deir el Leben [Aarabic], i.e.

Monastery of Milk; Rima is on the limits of the Ledja; Deir in the plain between it and the mountain Haouran. The Deir consists of the ruins of a square building seventy paces long, with small cells, each of which has a door; it contained also several larger apartments, of which the arches only remain. The roof of the whole building has fallen in. Over the door of one of the cells I read the following inscription:

[Greek] [Hence it appears that Rima has preserved its ancient name. Ed.]

Half an hour E. of Deir el Leben lies a ruined, uninhabited village upon a Tel, called Doubba [Arabic] it has a Birket and a

s...o...b...

[p.70]spring. To the N.E. of it is the inhabited Druse village Bereike [Arabic]. We advanced half an hour E. to the village Mourdouk [Arabic]

on the declivity of the Djebel Haouran; it has a spring, from whence the Druses of Rima and Bereike obtain their daily supply of water. From the spring we proceeded to the eastward on the side of the mountain. At our feet extended the Ledja from between N.E.b.N. where it terminates, near Tel Beidhan, to N.W. by N. its furthest western point, on the Haouran side. Between the mountain and the Ledja is an intermediate plain of about one hour in breadth, and for the greater part uncultivated. Before us lay three insulated hills, called Tel s.h.i.+ehhan, Tel Ess...o...b.. which is the highest, and Tel s...o...b..; they are distant from each other half an hour, the second in the middle. One hour and a half to the S.E. of Tel s...o...b.. is one of the projecting summits of the mountain called Tel Abou Tomeir.

From Mourdouk our road lay for an hour and a half over stony ground, to s...o...b.. [Arabic] the seat of the princ.i.p.al Druse Sheikhs, and containing also some Turkish and Christian families. It lies near the foot of Tel s...o...b.., between the latter and the mountain; it was formerly one of the chief cities in these districts, as is attested by its remaining town walls, and the loftiness of its public edifices. The walls may be traced all round the city, and are perfect in many places; there are eight gates, with a paved causeway leading from each into the town. Each gate is formed of two arches, with a post in the centre. The eastern gate seems to have been the princ.i.p.al one, and the street into which it opens leads in a straight line through the town; like the other streets facing the gates, it is paved with oblong flat stones, laid obliquely across it with great regularity. Following this street through a heap of ruined habitations on each side of it, where are many fragments of columns, I came to a place where four ma.s.sy cubical structures

[p.71]formed a sort of square, through which the street runs; they are built with square stones, are twelve feet long by nine high, and, as appears by one of them, which is partly broken down, are quite solid, the centre being filled up with stones. Farther on to the right, upon a terrace, stand five Corinthian columns, two feet and a quarter in diameter, all quite entire. After pa.s.sing these columns I came to the princ.i.p.al building in this part of the town; it is in the form of a crescent, fronting towards the east, without any exterior ornaments, but with several niches in the front. I did not venture to enter it, as I had a bad opinion of its present possessor, the chief of s...o...b.., who some years ago compelled M. Seetzen to turn back from hence towards Soueida. I remained unknown to the Druses during my stay at s...o...b...

Before the above mentioned building is a deep and large reservoir, lined with small stones. To the right of it stands another large edifice of a square shape, built of ma.s.sy stones, with a s.p.a.cious gate; its interior consists of a double range of vaults, one above the other, of which the lower one is choaked up as high as the capitals of the columns which support the arches. I found the following inscription upon an arch in the upper story:

[Greek].

Beyond and to the left of this last mentioned building, in the same street, is a vaulted pa.s.sage with several niches on both sides of it, and dark apartments, destined probably for the reception of the bodies of the governors of the city. Farther on are the remaining walls of a large building. Upon two stones, close to each other, and projecting from the wall, I read the following inscriptions:

[p.72] On the first,

[Greek].

On the second,

[Greek].

To the west of the five Corinthian columns stands a small building, which has been converted into a mosque; it contains two columns about ten inches in diameter, and eight feet in height, of the same kind of fine grained gray granite, of which I had seen several columns at Banias in the Syrian mountains.

To the south of the crescent formed building, and its adjoining edifice, stands the princ.i.p.al curiosity of s...o...b.., a theatre, in good preservation. It is built on a sloping site, and the semicircle is enclosed by a wall nearly ten feet in thickness, in which are nine vaulted entrances into the interior. Between the wall and the seats runs a double row of vaulted chambers one over the other. Of these the upper chambers are boxes, opening towards the seats, and communicating behind with a pa.s.sage which separates them from the outer wall. The lower chambers open into each other, those at the extremities of the semi- circle excepted, which have openings towards the area of the theatre.

The entrance into the area is by three gates, one larger, with a smaller on either side;

[p.73] on each side of the two latter are niches for statues. The diameter of the area, near the entrance, is thirty paces; the circle round the upper row of seats is sixty-four paces; there are ten rows of seats. Outside the princ.i.p.al entrance is a wall, running parallel with it, close to which are several small apartments.

To the S.E. of s...o...b.. are the remains of an aqueduct, which conveyed water into the town from a spring in the neighbouring mountain, now filled up. About six arches are left, some of which are at least forty feet in height. At the termination of this aqueduct, near the town, is a s.p.a.cious building divided into several apartments, of which that nearest to the aqueduct is enclosed by a wall twelve feet thick, and about twenty-five feet high; with a vaulted roof, which has fallen in. It has two high vaulted entrances opposite to each other, with niches on each side. In the walls are several channels from the roof to the floor, down which the water from the aqueduct probably flowed. On one side of this room is an entrance into a circular chamber fourteen feet in diameter; and on the other is a similar apartment but of smaller dimensions, also with channels in its walls; adjoining to this is a room without any other opening than a very small door; its roof, which is still entire, is formed of small stones cemented together with mortar; all the walls are built of large square stones. The building seems evidently to have been a bath.

On a stone built in the wall over the door of a private dwelling in the town, I copied the following:

[Greek].

[p.74]

SHAKKA.

[Greek] [Legionis Decimae Flavianae Fortis. Ed.]

To the margin of the third line the following letters are annexed:

[Greek].

The inhabitants of s...o...b.. fabricate cotton cloth for s.h.i.+rts and gowns.

They grow cotton, but it is not reckoned of good quality. There are only three Christian families in the village. There are three large Birkets or wells, in two of which there was still some water. There is no spring near. Most of the doors of the houses, are formed of a single slab of stone, with stone hinges.

November 15th.--Our way lay over the fertile and cultivated plain at the foot of the Jebel Haouran, in a north-easterly direction. At a quarter of an hour from the town we pa.s.sed the Wady Nimri w-el Heif [Arabic], a torrent coming from the mountain to the S.E. In the winter it furnishes water to a great part of the Ledja, where it is collected in cisterns.

There is a great number of ruined mills higher up the Wady. Three or four hours distant, we saw a high hill in the Djebel, called Um Zebeib [Arabic]. Three quarters of an hour from s...o...b.. we pa.s.sed the village Asalie [Arabic], inhabited by a few families; near it is a small Birket.

In one hour and three quarters we came to the village Shakka [Arabic]; on its eastern side stands an insulated building, consisting of a tower with two wings: it contains throughout a double row of arches and the tower has two stories, each of which forms a single chamber, without any opening but the door. Upon the capital of a column is:

[Greek].

[p.75]Adjoining the village, on the eastern side, are the ruins of a handsome edifice; it consists of an apartment fourteen paces square opening into an arcade, which leads into another apartment similar to the first. In the first, whose roof has fallen down, there are pedestals for statues all round the walls. On one side are three dark apartments, of which that in the centre is the largest; on the opposite side is a niche. The entrance is towards the east. To the south of these ruins stood another building, of which the front wall only is standing; upon a stone, lying on the ground before the wall, and which was probably the architrave of the door, I found the following inscription:

[Greek].

Opposite to these ruins I copied the following from a stone built in the wall of one of the private dwellings:

[Greek]

and this from a stone in the court-yard of a peasant's house:

[Greek].

[p.76]On the north side of the village are the ruins also of what was once an elegant structure; but nothing now remains except a part of the front, and some arches in the interior. It is thirty paces in length, with a flight of steps, of the whole length of the building, leading up to it. The entrance is through a large door whose sides and architrave are richly sculptured. On each side is a smaller door, between which and the great door are two niches supported by Ionic pilasters, the whole finely worked. Within are three aisles or rows of arches, of which the central is much the largest; they rest upon short thick columns of the worst taste.

At some distance to the north of the village stands a small insulated tower; over its entrance are three inscriptions, of which I copied the two following; the third I was unable to read, as the sun was setting before I had finished the others:

1. [Greek].

[p.77]

2. [Greek]

EL HAIT

There are several similar towers in the village, but without inscriptions.

The inhabitants of Shakka grow cotton; they are all Druses, except a single Greek family. To the S.E. of the village is the spring Aebenni [Arabic] with the ruined village Tefkha, about three quarters of an hour distant from Shakka. E.b.N. from Shakka one hour lies Djeneine [Arabic], the last inhabited village on this side towards the desert. Its inhabitants are the shepherds of the people of El Hait. Half an hour to the north of Djeneine is Tel-Maaz [Arabic], a hill on which is a ruined village. This is the N.E. limit of the mountain, which here turns off towards the S. behind Djeneine. At three quarters of an hour from Shakka, N.N.W. is El Hait, inhabited entirely by Catholic Christians.

Here we slept. I copied the following inscriptions at El Hait:

From a stone in one of the streets of the village: