Most
of the interior apartments of the castle are in complete ruins; in
several of them are deep wells. On entering I observed over the gate a
well sculptured eagle with expanded wings; hard by, on the left of the
entrance, are two capitals of columns, placed one upon the other, each
adorned with four busts in relief projecting from a cluster of palm
leaves. The heads of the busts are wanting; the sculpture is
indifferent. A covered way leads from the inside of the gateway into the
interior; of this I took a very cursory view, as the day was near
closing, and my companions pressed me very much to depart, that we might
reach a village three hours distant; there being no water here for my
horse, I the more readily complied with their wishes. Over the entrance
of a tower in the interior I read these two lines:
[Arabic].
"In the name of God, the merciful and the munificent. During the reign
of the equitable king Saad-eddin Abou-takmar, the Emir--- ordered the
building of this castle;" which makes it probable that it was erected
for the defence
ABD MAAZ.
[p.102]of the country against the Crusaders. In one of the apartments I
found, just appearing above the earth, the upper part of a door built of
calcareous stone, a material which I have not met with in any part of
the Haouran: over it is the following inscription, in well engraved
characters:
[Greek].
Upon the architrave of the door, on both sides of the inscription, are
masques in bas-relief.
In an apartment where I saw several small entrances to sepulchres, and
where there are several columns lying about, is this:
[Greek].
And, on a stone in the wall of the same apartment:
[Greek].
The hill upon which the castle stands consists of alternate layers of
the common black tufwacke of the country, and of a very porous deep red,
and often rose-cloured, pumice-stone: in some caverns formed in the
latter, salt-petre collects in great quantities. I met with the same
substance at Shohba.
S.W. of Szalkhat one hour and a half, stands the high Tel Abd Maaz, with
a ruined city of the same name; there still remain large plantations of
vines and figs, the fruit of which is
KEREYE.
[p.103]collected by the Arabs in autumn. Near Abd Maaz is another ruin
called Deffen. S. one hour is Tel Mashkouk [Arabic], towards which are
the ruins Tehhoule [Arabic], Kfer ezzeit [Arabic], and Khererribe
[Arabic].
We left Szalkhat towards sunset, on a rainy evening, in order to reach
Kereye, a village three good hours distant. In one hour we passed the
ruined village Meneidhere [Arabic], with a copious spring near it. Our
route lay through a stony plain, and the night now becoming very dark,
with incessant rain, my guides lost their way, and we continued for
three hours uncertain whether we should not be obliged to take up our
night's quarters in the open plain. At length, however, we came to the
bed of a Wady called Hameka, which we ascended for a short distance, and
in half an hour after crossing it reached Kereye, about ten at night;
here we found a comfortable Fellah's house, and a copious dish of
Bourgul.
November 23d.--Kereye is a city containing about five hundred houses, of
which four only were at this time inhabited. It has several ancient
towers, and public buildings; of the latter the principal has a portico
consisting of a triple row of six columns in each, supporting a flat
roof; seven steps, extending the whole breadth of the portico, lead from
the first row up to the third; the capitals of the columns are of the
annexed form; their base is like the capital inverted. Behind the
colonnade is a Birket surrounded with a strong wall. Upon a stone lying
upon the upper step, in the midst of which is an excavation, is this
inscription:
[Greek].
HOUSHHOUSH.
[p.104]To the S. and E. of Kereye are the ruins called Ai-in [Arabic],
Barade [Arabic], Nimri [Arabic], Bakke [Arabic], Hout [Arabic], Souhab
[Arabic], Rumman [Arabic], Szemad [Arabic], and Rafka [Arabic]. Kelab
Haouran bears from Kereye N.&.E. Kereye is three hours distance from
Boszra [Arabic], the principal town in the Haouran, remarkable for the
antiquity of its castle, and the ancient ruins and inscriptions to be
found there. I wished very much to visit it, and might have done so in
perfect safety, and without expense; but I knew that there was a
garrison of between three and four hundred Moggrebyns in the town; a
class of men which, from the circumstance of their passing from one
service to another, I was particularly desirous of avoiding. It was very
probable that I might afterwards meet with some of the individuals of
this garrison in Egypt, where they would not have failed to recognize my
person, in consequence of the remarkable circumstance of my visit to
Boszra; but as I did not think proper to state these reasons to my
guides, who of course expected me to examine the greatest curiosity in
the Haouran, I told them that I had had a dream, which made it advisable
for me not to visit this place. They greatly applauded my prudent
determination, accustomed as they had been to look upon me as a person
who had a secret to insure his safety, when travelling about in such
dangerous places. We therefore left Kereye in the morning, and
proceeding N.E. reached in three quarters of an hour Houshhoush
[Arabic], after having crossed the Wady Djaar [Arabic], which descends
from the mountain.
