Half An Hour From Deir Ali Is Meshdie [Arabic], A Small Village, In The Valley Between Djebel Mane And Djebel Khiara, Which Is About Three Hours In Breadth.

The ground is here for the greater part cultivated.

Our route was N.N.W. from Deir Ali, from whence, in two hours, we reached El Kessoue, and towards sunset we entered Damascus.

[p.121]

JOURNAL

OF A

TOUR FROM ALEPPO TO DAMASCUS,

THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE ORONTES AND MOUNT LIBANUS,

IN FEBRUARY AND MARCH, 1812.

February 14th.--I LEFT Aleppo at mid-day; and in half an hour came to the miserable village Sheikh Anszary [Arabic], where I took leave of my Worthy friends Messieurs Barker and Van Masseyk, the English and Dutch Consuls, two men who do honour to their respective countries. I passed the two large cisterns called Djob Mehawad [Arabic], and Djob Emballat [Arabic], and reached, at the end of two hours and a half, the Khan called Touman [Arabic], near a village of the same name, situated on the Koeyk, or river of Aleppo. The Khan is in a bad state; Pashas no longer think of repairing public edifices.

February 15th--After a march of ten hours and a half, I arrived at Sermein, having had some difficulty in crossing the muddy plain. The neighbourhood of Sermein is remarkable for great numbers of cisterns and wells hewn in the rock: in the town every house has a similar cistern; those in the plain serve to water the peasants' cattle in the summer, for there are no springs in these parts.

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