Is a small Birket.
In one hour and three quarters we came to the village Shakka [Arabic];
on its eastern side stands an insulated building, consisting of a tower
with two wings: it contains throughout a double row of arches and the
tower has two stories, each of which forms a single chamber, without any
opening but the door. Upon the capital of a column is:
[Greek].
[p.75]Adjoining the village, on the eastern side, are the ruins of a
handsome edifice; it consists of an apartment fourteen paces square
opening into an arcade, which leads into another apartment similar to
the first. In the first, whose roof has fallen down, there are pedestals
for statues all round the walls. On one side are three dark apartments,
of which that in the centre is the largest; on the opposite side is a
niche. The entrance is towards the east. To the south of these ruins
stood another building, of which the front wall only is standing; upon a
stone, lying on the ground before the wall, and which was probably the
architrave of the door, I found the following inscription:
[Greek].
Opposite to these ruins I copied the following from a stone built in the
wall of one of the private dwellings:
[Greek]
and this from a stone in the court-yard of a peasant's house:
[Greek].
[p.76]On the north side of the village are the ruins also of what was
once an elegant structure; but nothing now remains except a part of the
front, and some arches in the interior. It is thirty paces in length,
with a flight of steps, of the whole length of the building, leading up
to it. The entrance is through a large door whose sides and architrave
are richly sculptured. On each side is a smaller door, between which and
the great door are two niches supported by Ionic pilasters, the whole
finely worked. Within are three aisles or rows of arches, of which the
central is much the largest; they rest upon short thick columns of the
worst taste.
At some distance to the north of the village stands a small insulated
tower; over its entrance are three inscriptions, of which I copied the
two following; the third I was unable to read, as the sun was setting
before I had finished the others:
1. [Greek].
[p.77]
2. [Greek]
EL HAIT
There are several similar towers in the village, but without
inscriptions.
The inhabitants of Shakka grow cotton; they are all Druses, except a
single Greek family. To the S.E. of the village is the spring Aebenni
[Arabic] with the ruined village Tefkha, about three quarters of an hour
distant from Shakka. E.b.N. from Shakka one hour lies Djeneine
[Arabic], the last inhabited village on this side towards the desert. Its
inhabitants are the shepherds of the people of El Hait. Half an hour to
the north of Djeneine is Tel-Maaz [Arabic], a hill on which is a ruined
village. This is the N.E. limit of the mountain, which here turns off
towards the S. behind Djeneine. At three quarters of an hour from
Shakka, N.N.W. is El Hait, inhabited entirely by Catholic Christians.
Here we slept. I copied the following inscriptions at El Hait:
From a stone in one of the streets of the village:
[Greek]
From a stone over the door of a private dwelling:
[Greek].
TEL SHOHBA.
[p.78]Upon a stone in the wall of another house, I found the figure of a
quadruped rudely sculptured in relief.
On the wall of a solid building are the two following inscriptions:
[Greek]
On the wall of another building:
[Greek]
East of El Hait three quarters of an hour lies the village Heitt
[Arabic].
November 16th.--We returned from Hait, directing our route towards Tel
Shiehhan. In one hour we passed the village of Ammera.
From Ammera our way lay direct towards Tel Shiehhan. The village Um
Ezzeitoun lay in the plain below, one hour distant, in the borders of
the Ledja. Upon the top of Tel Shiehhan is a Meziar. Tel Szomeit
[Arabic], a hill in the Ledja, was seen to the N.W. about three hours
distant; Tel Aahere [Arabic], also in the Ledja, to the west, about four
hours distant. The Tel Shiehhan is completely barren up to its top: near
its eastern foot we passed the Wady Nimri w-el Heif, close to a mill
which works in the winter
SOUEIDA.
[p.79]time. From hence we passed between the Tel Shiehhan and Tel Es-
Szoub; the ground is here covered with heaps of porous tufa and pumice
stone. The western side of the Tel Shohba seems to have been the crater
of a volcano, as well from the nature of the minerals which lie
collected on that side of the hill, as from the form of a part of the
hill itself, resembling a crater, while the neighbouring mountains have
rounded tops, without any sharp angles.
We repassed Ain Mourdouk, and continued our way on the sloping side of
the mountain to Saleim, a village one hour from the spring; it has been
abandoned by its former inhabitants, and is now occupied only by a few
poor Druses, who take refuge in such deserted places to avoid the
oppressive taxes; and thus sometimes escape the Miri for one year. They
here grow a little tobacco. In the village is a deep Birket. At the
entrance of Saleim are the ruins of a handsome oblong building, with a
rich entablature: its area is almost entirely filled up by its own
ruins. Just by is a range of subterraneous vaults. The Wady Kanouat
passes near the village. The day was now far gone, and as my priest was
afraid of travelling by night, we quickened our pace, in order to reach
Soueida before dark.
![Travels In Syria And The Holy Land By John Lewis Burckhardt
- Three or
four hours distant, we saw a high hill in the Djebel, called Um Zebeib
[Arabic]. Three quarters of - Page 32](../images/travel.jpg)
