Sterling) and a few more in my pocket, together with a watch,
a compass, a journal book, a pencil, a knife, and a tobacco purse.
The
coffee I knew would be very acceptable in the houses where I might
alight; and throughout the journey I was enabled to treat all the
company present with coffee.
My companions intending to leave Damascus very early the next morning, I
quitted my lodgings in the evening, and went with them to sleep in a
small Khan in the suburb of Damascus, at which the Haouaerne, or people
of Haouran, generally alight.
November 9th.--We departed through this gate of the Meidhan, three hours
before sun-rise, and took the road by which the Hadj annually commences
its laborious journey; this gate is called Bab Ullah, the Gate of God,
but might, with more propriety be named Bab-el-Maut, the Gate of Death;
for scarcely a third ever
KESSOUE.
[p.53]returns of those whom a devout adherence to their religion, or the
hope of gain impel to this journey. The approach to Damascus on this
side is very grand: being formed by a road above one hundred and fifty
paces broad, which is bordered on each side by a grove of olive trees,
and continues in a straight line for upwards of an hour. A quarter of an
hour from Bab Ullah, to the left, stands a mosque with a Kiosk, called
Kubbet el Hadj, where the Pasha who conducts the Hadj passes the first
night of his journey, which is invariably the fifteenth of the month
Shauwal. On the other side of the road, and opposite to it, lies the
village El Kadem (the foot), where Mohammed is said to have stopped,
without entering Damascus, when coming from Mekka. Half an hour farther
is a bridge over a small rivulet: to the left are the villages Zebeine
and Zebeinat; to the right the village Deir raye. In another half hour
we came to a slight ascent, called Mefakhar; at its foot is a bridge
over the rivulet El Berde; to the right is the village El Sherafie: to
the left, parallel with the road, extends a stony district called War-
ed-djamous [Arabic] the Buffaloes War, War being an appellation given to
all stony soils whether upon plains or mountains. Here the ground is
very uneven; in traversing it we passed the Megharat el Haramie [Arabic]
or Thief's Cavern, the nightly refuge of disorderly persons. On the
other side of the War is a descent called Ard Shoket el Haik, which
leads into the plain, and in half an hour to the village El Kessoue;
distant from Damascus three hours and a quarter in a S.S.E. direction.
El Kessoue is a considerable village, situated on the river Aawadj
[Arabic], or the crooked, which flows from the neighbourhood of Hasbeya,
and waters the plain of Djolan; in front of the village a well paved
bridge crosses the river, on each side of which, to the W. and E.
appears a chain of low mountains; those to the east are called Djebel
Manai [Arabic], and contain large caverns; the
GHABARIB.
[p.54]summits of the two chains nearest the village are called by a
collective name Mettall el Kessoue [Arabic]. I stopped for half an hour
at Kessoue, at a coffee house by the road side. The village has a small
castle, or fortified building, over the bridge.
From Kessoue a slight ascent leads up to a vast plain, called Ard
Khiara, from a village named Khiara. In three quarters of an hour from
Kessoue we reached Khan Danoun, a ruined building. Here, or at Kessoue,
the pilgrim caravan passes the second night. Near Khan Danoun, a rivulet
flows to the left. This Khan, which is now in ruins, was built in the
usual style of all the large Khans in this country: consisting of an
open square, surrounded with arcades, beneath which are small apartments
for the accommodation of travellers; the beasts occupy the open square
in the centre. From Khan Danoun the road continues over the plain, where
few cultivated spots appear, for two hours and a quarter; we then
reached a Tel, or high hill, the highest summit of the Djebel Khiara, a
low mountain chain which commences here, and runs in a direction
parallel with the Djebel Manai for about twenty miles. The mountains
Khiara and Manai are sometimes comprised under the name of Djebel
Kessoue, and so I find them laid down in D'Anville's map. The summit of
Djebel Khiara is called Soubbet Faraoun. From thence begins a stony
district, which extends to the village Ghabarib [Arabic], one hour and a
quarter from the Soubbet. Upon a hill to the W. of the road, stands a
small building crowned with a cupola, to which the Turks resort, from a
persuasion that the prayers there offered up are peculiarly acceptable
to the deity. This building is called Meziar Eliasha [Arabic], or the
Meziar of Elisha. The Hadj route has been paved in several places for
the distance of a hundred yards or more, in order to facilitate the
passage of the pilgrims in years when the Hadj takes place during the
rainy season.
SZANAMEIN.
[p.55]Ghabarib has a ruined castle, and on the side of the road is a
Birket or reservoir, with a copious spring. These cisterns are met with
at every station on the Hadj route as far as Mekka; some of them are
filled by rain water; others by small streams, which if they were not
thus collected into one body would be absorbed in the earth, and could
not possibly afford water for the thousands of camels which pass, nor
for the filling of the water-skins.
At one hour beyond Ghabarib is the village Didy, to the left of the
road: one hour from Didy, Es-szanamein [Arabic], the Two Idols; the
bearing of the road from Kessoue is S.b.E.[The variation of the compass
is not computed in any of the bearings of this journal.] Szanamein is a
considerable village, with several ancientbuildings and towers; but as
my companions were unwilling to stop, I could not examine them closely.
I expected to revisit them on my return to Damascus, but I subsequently
preferred taking the route of the Loehf.
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