A Channel Was Likewise Cut On Each
Side Of The Syk, On A Higher Level Than The River, To Convey
A constant
supply of water into the city in all seasons, and to prevent all the
water from being absorbed
In summer by the broad torrent bed, or by the
irrigation of the fields in the valley above the Syk.
About fifty paces below the entrance of the Syk a bridge of one arch
thrown over the top of the chasm is still entire; immediately below it,
on both sides, are large niches worked in the rock, with elegant
sculptures, destined probably for the reception of statues. Some remains
of antiquities might perhaps be found on the top of the rocks near the
bridge; but my guide assured me, that notwithstanding repeated
endeavours had been made, nobody had ever been able to climb up the
rocks to the bridge, which was therefore unanimously declared to be the
work of the Djan, or evil genii. In continuing along the winding passage
of the Syk, I saw in several places small niches cut in the rock, some
of which were single; in other places there were three or four together,
without any regularity; some are mere holes, others have short pilasters
on both sides; they vary in size from ten inches to four or five feet in
height; and in some of them the bases of statues are still visible. We
passed several collateral chasms between perpendicular
[p.424] rocks, by which some tributary torrents from the south side of
the Syk empty themselves into the river. I did not enter any of them,
but I saw that they were thickly overgrown with Defle trees. My guide
told me that no antiquities existed in these valleys, but the testimony
of these people on such subjects is little to be relied on. The bottom
of the Syk itself is at present covered with large stones, brought down
by the torrent, and it appears to be several feet higher than its
ancient level, at least towards its western extremity. After proceeding
for twenty-five minutes between the rocks, we came to a place where the
passage opens, and where the bed of another stream coming from the south
joins the Syk. On the side of the perpendicular rock, directly opposite
to the issue of the main valley, an excavated mausoleum came in view,
the situation and beauty of which are calculated to make an
extraordinary impression upon the traveller, after having traversed for
nearly half an hour such a gloomy and almost subterraneous passage as I
have described. It is one of the most elegant remains of antiquity
existing in Syria; its state of preservation resembles that of a
building recently finished, and on a closer examination I found it to be
a work of immense labour.
The principal part is a chamber sixteen paces square, and about twenty-
five feet high. There is not the smallest ornament on the walls, which
are quite smooth, as well as the roof, but the outside of the entrance
door is richly embellished with architectural decorations. Several broad
steps lead up to the entrance, and in front of all is a colonnade of
four columns, standing between two pilasters. On each of the three sides
of the great chamber is an apartment for the reception of the dead. A
similar excavation, but larger, opens into each end of the vestibule,
the length of which latter is not equal to
[p.425] that of the colonnade as it appears in front, but terminates at
either end between the pilaster and the neighbouring column. The doors
of the two apartments opening into the vestibule are covered with
carvings richer and more beautiful than those on the door of the
principal chamber. The colonnade is about thirty-five feet high, and the
columns are about three feet in diameter with Corinthian capitals. The
pilasters at the two extremities of the colonnade, and the two columns
nearest to them, are formed out of the solid rock, like all the rest of
the monument, but the two centre columns, one of which has fallen, were
constructed separately, and were composed of three pieces each. The
colonnade is crowned with a pediment, above which are other ornaments,
which, if I distinguished them correctly, consisted of an insulated
cylinder crowned with a vase, standing between two other structures in
the shape of small temples, supported by short pillars. The entire
front, from the base of the columns to the top of the ornaments, may be
sixty or sixty-five feet. The architrave of the colonnade is adorned
with vases, connected together with festoons. The exterior wall of the
chamber at each end of the vestibule, which presents itself to the front
between the pilaster and the neighbouring column, was ornamented with
colossal figures in bas-relief; but I could not make out what they
represented. One of them appears to have been a female mounted upon an
animal, which, from the tail and hind leg, appears to have been a camel.
All the other ornaments sculptured on the monument are in perfect
preservation.
The natives call this monument Kaszr Faraoun (Arabic), or Pharaoh’s
castle; and pretend that it was the residence of a prince. But it was
rather the sepulchre of a prince, and great must have been the opulence
of a city, which could dedicate such monuments to the memory of its
rulers.
[p.426] From this place, as I before observed, the Syk widens, and the
road continues for a few hundred paces lower down through a spacious
passage between the two cliffs. Several very large sepulchres are
excavated in the rocks on both sides; they consist generally of a single
lofty apartment with a flat roof; some of them are larger than the
principal chamber in the Kaszr Faraoun. Of those which I entered, the
walls were quite plain and unornamented; in some of them are small side
rooms, with excavations and recesses in the rock for the reception of
the dead; in others I found the floor itself irregularly excavated for
the same purpose, in compartments six to eight feet deep, and of the
shape of a coffin; in the floor of one sepulchre I counted as many as
twelve cavities of this kind, besides a deep niche in the wall, where
the bodies of the principal members of the family, to whom the sepulchre
belonged, were probably deposited.
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