From
These Two Theatres The Principal Part Of The Town Appears To Have
Extended Westwards, Over An Even Piece Of Ground At The Foot Of The
Hill; Its Length From The Hill Was At Least Half An Hour.
Nothing is at
present standing; but there are immense heaps of cut stones, columns,
&c. dispersed over the plain.
A long street, running westward, of which
the ancient pavement still exists in most parts, seems to have been the
principal street of the town. On both sides there are vast quantities of
shafts of columns. At a spot where a heap of large Corinthian pillars
lay, a temple appears to have stood. I here saw the base of a large
column of gray granite. The town terminates in a narrow point, where a
large solid building with many columns seems to have stood.
With the exception of the theatres, the buildings of the city were all
constructed of the calcareous stone which constitutes the rock of every
part of the country which I saw between Wady Zerka
SHERIAT EL MANDHOUR.
[p.273]and Wady Sheriat. In Djebel Adjeloun, Moerad, and Beni Obeid,
none of the basalt or black stone is met with; but in some parts of El
Kefarat, in our way from Hebras to Om Keis, I saw alternate layers of
calcareous and basaltic rock, with thin strata of flint. The habitations
of Om Keis are, for the greater part, caverns. There is no water but
what is collected in reservoirs during rains; these were quite dried up,
which was the occasion, perhaps, of the place having been abandoned, for
we found not a single inhabitant.
My guide being ignorant of the road to Feik, wished to return to Hebras;
and I was hesitating what to do, when we were met by some peasants of
Remtha, in the Haouran, who were in their way to the Ghor, to purchase
new barley, of which grain the harvest had already begun in the hot
climate of that valley. I joined their little caravan. We continued, for
about half an hour from Om Keis, upon the high plain, and then descended
the mountains, the western declivity of which is entirely basaltic. At
the end of two hours from Om Keis, we reached the banks of the Sheriat
el Mandhour, or Sheriat el Menadhere (Arabic] or Arabic) which we passed
at a ford. This river takes the additional name of the Arabs who live
upon its banks, to distinguish it from the Sheriat el Kebir (Great
Sheriat), by which the Jordan is known. The Sheriat el Menadhere is
formed by the united streams of the Nahr Rokad [Arabic], which flows
from near Ain Shakhab, through the eastern parts of Djolan; of the
Hereir, whose source is in the swampy ground near Tel Dilly, on the Hadj
route, between Shemskein and El Szannamein: of the Budje, which comes
from Mezareib, and after its junction with the Hereir, is called Aweired
[Arabic], and of the Wady Hamy Sakkar, besides several other smaller
Wadys.
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