September 26.--On The Night Of The 25th To The 26th, Was The Aid
Essalib, Or Feast Of The Cross,
The approach of which was celebrated by
repeated discharges of musquets and the lighting of numerous fires,
which illuminated all
The mountains around the town and the most
conspicuous parts of the town itself.
I rode to Andjar [Arabic], on the eastern side of the Bekaa, in a
direction south-east by south, two hours and a half good walking from
Zahle. I found several encampments of the Arabs Naim and Faddel in the
plain. In one hour and a quarter, passed the Liettani, near an ancient
arched bridge; it had very little water: not the sixth part of the plain
is cultivated here. The place called Andjar lies near the Anti-Libanus,
and consists of a ruined town-wall, inclosing an oblong square of half
an hour in circumference; the greater part of the wall is in ruins. It
was originally about twelve feet thick, and constructed with small
unhewn stones, loosely cemented and covered by larger square stones,
equally ill cemented. In the enclosed space are the ruins of
habitations, of which the foundations alone remain. In one of these
buildings are seen the remains of two columns of white marble, one foot
and a quarter in diameter. The whole seems to have been constructed in
modern times. Following the Mountain to the southward of these ruins,
for twenty minutes, I came to the place where the Moiet Andjar, or river
of Andjar, has its source in several springs.
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