It Appears From The Style Of Construction
That The Castle As It Now Stands, Is Of The Time Of The
Latter Califes;
the walls, towers, and turrets, which surround it on the N., W. and S.
sides, are evidently Saracen;
But it should seem, from the many remains
of Grecian architecture found in the castle, that a Greek town formerly
stood here. Fragments of columns and elegant Corinthian and Doric
capitals lie dispersed about it: amongst them is a coffin of fine
marble, nine feet long, but I could find no remains of any ancient
building. On the east side the river runs at the foot of a deep
precipice. In the south wall a strong well built tower is still in
perfect preservation; near it is a deep well, and a subterraneous
passage, which, we were informed, leads down to the river side. We
searched in vain for Greek inscriptions; on the above mentioned tower is
a fine Arabic inscription, but too high to be copied by such short-
sighted people as we both happened to be. On the gate of the castle,
which leads through an arched passage into the interior, I copied the
following, in which many foreign words are mixed with the Arabic:
[Arabic].
Part of the declivity of the hill upon which the castle is built is
paved with flat stones, like the castle hills of Aleppo, El Hossn,
PLAIN OF HAMAH.
[p.145]and Szalkhat. In the plain to the S. and S.W. of the castle are
the remains of ancient buildings, which indicate the site of a town;
several fragments of columns, wrought stones, and a great deal of
rubbish, are lying about. We dug up an altar about four feet and a half
high, and one foot and an half square; on one of its four sides was this
inscription:
[Greek].
To the S.W. of the bridge is the tomb of a saint named Sheikh Mahmoud,
which is to the W. of a small village called Haourein [Arabic]. The rock
of the hills, in the neighbourhood of Seidjar, is calcareous, of
considerable hardness, and of a reddish yellow colour; on the S. side of
the castle the rock seems to have been cut perpendicularly down almost
as low as the river, either for the purpose of adding to the defence of
the fortress on this side, or to facilitate the drawing up of water from
the river.
We now crossed the low hills to the south of Seidjar, and entered the
plain of Hamah, which is very little cultivated here. We proceeded in a
south-easterly direction. In one hour and a half from Seidjar we passed
a number of wells cut close to each other in the rocky ground. At one
hour and three quarters is a small bridge over a torrent called El
Saroudj [Arabic], which empties itself into the Orontes. In two hours we
saw to our left, about half an hour distant, the village Hedjam, on the
right bank of the river; in two hours and three quarters, a small
village
HAMAH.
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