Two Hours
And Three Quarters, Is The Village Halbe, On The Declivity Of The
Mountain.
Three hours and a half, an old mosque upon the mountain above
the road, with a village called El Djamaa ([Arabic] the mosque).
Near to
it, and where the mountains runs out in a point towards the north, is a
hill called Tel Arka, which appears by its regularly flattened conical
form and smooth sides to be artificial. I was told that on its top are
some ruins of habitations, and walls. Upon an elevation on its E. and S.
sides, which commands a beautiful view over the plain, the sea, and the
Anzeyry mountains, are large and extensive heaps of rubbish, traces of
ancient dwellings, blocks of hewn stone, remains of walls, and fragments
of granite columns; of the latter I counted eight, six of which were of
gray, and the other two of fine red granite. Here then must have stood
the ancient town of Arca, where Alexander Severus was born: the hill was
probably the citadel, or a temple may have stood on its top. On the west
side of the hill runs the deep valley Wady Akka, with a torrent of the
same name, which we passed, over a bridge near a mill. From thence the
direction of our road continued W.S.W. From an elevated spot, at four
TRIPOLI.
[p.163]hours and a half, Sheikh Ayash bore N.E. b. N. In five hours we
reached the sea-shore; the sea here forms a bay extending from the point
of Tartous as far as Tripoli.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 215 of 870
Words from 58061 to 58327
of 236498
