The Well Of Emshash
Affords A Seasonable Supply Of Water To Robbers, Who Lay In Wait In The
Rocky Country Of Montala, Where One Of Them Stationed On The Top Of A
Hill Gives Notice Of The Approach Of Any Enemy Or Object Of Plunder.
The
castle was undoubtedly intended as a look-out post against the Arabs.
The French once had a garrison
In it, and its walls have been repaired
by Mohammed Ali Pasha, but the interior is in a very ruinous state, and
few provisions are kept in the extensive store-houses within it.
On proceeding to Cairo, the caravan took, for the first stage from
Adjeroud, a route somewhat to the southward of that by which I had gone
to Sinai, and joined the latter at Dar el Hamra. Six hours and a half
from Adjeroud we passed Wady Khoeyfera [Arabic], the bed of a torrent,
with trees growing in it, a very little below the level of the
surrounding plain. Here I saw the ruins of a small stone reservoir, and
to a considerable distance round it, ruins of walls, and several wells,
some built with brick and others with stone. They appear to have been
surrounded by a wall, which now forms a circular enclosure of mounds
almost wholly covered with sands. The existence of these ruins, which I
do not remember to have seen mentioned by any traveller, confirms my
belief, that in the most ancient times regular stations
CAIRO
[p.630] were established on this road, to which we must also attribute
the date trees now found in a petrified state.
A road, called Derb el Ban [Arabic], leads from Adjeroud to Birket el
Hadj, by the north side of the mountain El Oweybe; it is the most
northern of all the routes to Suez, and is little frequented.
On the 13th of June, early in the morning, I entered Cairo; the plague
had ceased, and had been less destructive, than it was last year.
[p.631] APPENDIX.
[p.633] APPENDIX. No. I.
An Account of the Ryhanlu Turkmans.
Aleppo, May 12, 1810.
THE district inhabited by the Ryhanlu Turkmans begins at about seven
hours distance from Aleppo, to the north-westward. The intermediate
plain is stony and almost deserted, but it is in many parts susceptible
of culture, and contains a great number of villages in ruins. At five
hours march from Aleppo to the W.N.W. upon the ridge of a low hill are
some plantations of olive and fig trees; on the other side of the hill
lies a valley of an oval shape about eighteen miles in circuit, called
Khalaka [Arabic]; at the foot of the low hills which surround it, are
the following villages: Termine, Tellade, Hoesre, Tellekberoun, Bab,
Dana, and some others. The Fellahs or inhabitants of these villages live
in half ruined houses, which indicate the opulence of their ancient
possessors. The soil of the plain is a fine red mould, almost without a
stone.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 416 of 453
Words from 216822 to 217322
of 236498
