El Feheis Is A Ruined City, With A Spring Near It; Here Are The Remains
Of An Arched Building, In Which The Christians Sometimes Perform Divine
Service.
Below Feheis, upon the top of a lower mountain, is the ruined
place called El Khandok (Arabic), which appears to have been a fort; it
is surrounded with a wall of large stones, and the remains of several
bastions are visible.
From a point near Khandok, the Dead sea, which I
saw for the first time, bears S.W. b. W.
At Feheis I was so fortunate as to find a guide who five years ago had
served in the same capacity to Mousa, the name assumed by M. Seetzen. As
he was well acquainted with all the Bedouins, and on friendly terms with
them, he engaged to take me to Amman, in company with another horseman.
July 7th.—We set off before sunrise. On leaving Feheis we crossed a
mountainous country, passed through a thick forest of oak trees, and in
three quarters of an hour reached the Ardh el Hemar, which is the name
of a district extending north and south for about two hours. Here are a
number of springs, which have rendered it a
AMMAN
[p.357] favourite place of resort of the Bedouins: the valley was
covered with a fine coat of verdant pasture. From hence the road
ascended through oak woods and pleasant hills, over flinty ground, till
we reached, after a march of two hours and a half, an elevated plain,
from whence we had an extensive view towards the east. The plain, which
in this part is called El Ahma (Arabic), is a fertile tract,
interspersed with low hills; these are for the greater part crowned with
ruins, but they are of irregular forms, unlike the Tels or artificial
heights of the Haouran, and of northern Syria. Just by the road, at the
end of three hours, are the ruins called El Kholda (Arabic). To the left
are the ruins of Kherbet Karakagheish (Arabic); and to the right, at
half an hour’s distance, the ruins of Sar (Arabic), and Fokhara
(Arabic). At about one hour south of Sar begins the district called
Kattar (Arabic) or Marka (Arabic). The ruins which we passed here, as
well as all those before mentioned in the mountains of Belka, present no
objects of any interest. They consist of a few walls of dwelling houses,
heaps of stones, the foundations of some public edifices, and a few
cisterns now filled up; there is nothing entire, but it appears that the
mode of building was very solid, all the remains being formed of large
stones. It is evident also, that the whole of the country must have been
extremely well cultivated, in order to have afforded subsistence to the
inhabitants of so many towns. At the end of three hours and a half we
entered a broad valley, which brought us in half an hour to the ruins of
Amman, which lies about nineteen English miles to the S.E. by E. of
Szalt.
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