The Only Building Of Any Size Is A Ruined Mosque, Which Seems To
Have Been A Church.
In coming from Feik the soil of the plain is black,
or gray; at Tseil it begins to be of the same red colour as the Haouran
earth.
After dinner we continued our route. In half an hour from Tseil we
passed on our left Tel Djemoua [Arabic]. The greater part of the plain
was covered with a fine crop of wheat and barley. During the years 1810
and 1811, the crops were very bad all over Syria; the rains of last
winter, however, having been very abundant, the peasants are every where
consoled with the hopes of a good harvest. It was expected that the
Haouran and Djolan would yield twenty-five times the quantity of the
seed sown, which is reckoned an excellent crop. Half an hour north of
Tel Djemoua lies Tel Djabye [Arabic], with a village. At one hour and
three quarters from Tseil is the village Nowa [Arabic], where we slept.
This is the principal village in the Djolan, and was formerly a town of
half an hour in circumference. Its situation corresponds with that in
D'Anville's map of Neve. There are a number of ruined private dwellings,
and the remains of some public edifices. A temple, of which one column
with its entablature remains, has been converted into a mosque. At the
S. end of the village is a small square solid building, probably a
mausoleum; it has no other opening than the door. Beyond the precincts
of the village, on the N. side, are the ruins of a large square
building, of which the sculptured entrance only remains, with heaps of
broken columns before it. The village
EL KESSOUE.
[p.284]has several springs, as well as cisterns. The Turks revere the
tomb of a Santon buried here, called Mehy eddyn el Nowawy [Arabic].
May 8th.--Our route lay N.E. At two hours from Nowa is the village Kasem
[Arabic], which forms the southern limits of the district of Djedour,
and the northern frontier of Djolan; some people, however, reckon Djolan
the limits of Nowa. One hour E.b.S. of Kasem stands the village Om el
Mezabel [Arabic]; one hour and a half E.N.E. of Kasem. the great village
Onhol [Arabic]. In two hours and a half from Nowa we passed, to the
left, distant about half an hour, the Tel el Hara [Arabic], with the
village of the same name at its foot; this is the highest Tel in the
plains of Haouran and Djolan. Three hours and a quarter is the village
Semnein [Arabic]; and three hours and three quarters, the village Djedye
[Arabic]. The plain was badly cultivated in these parts. From hence our
road turned N.N.E. At five hours is Kefer Shams [Arabic], with some
ancient buildings; all these villages have large Birkets. At five hours
and three quarters is Deir e Aades [Arabic], a ruined village in a stony
district, intersected by several Wadys.
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