BOSTRA. [P.41]It Coincides With The Epoch Of The Crusades.

There are five or six granite columns built into the walls of the gateway.

I went to see the ruins of the ancient city of Bostra, of which the people spoke much, adding that Mousa (the name assumed by Mr. Seetzen) had offered thirty piastres to any one who would accompany him to the place, but that nobody had ventured, through fear of the Arabs. I found a good natured fellow, who for three piastres undertook to lead me to the spot. Bostra must not be confounded with Boszra, in the Haouran; both places are mentioned in the Books of Moses. The way to the ruins lies for an hour and a half in the road by which I came from Rasheyat- el-Fukhar, it then ascends for three quarters of an hour a steep mountain to the right, on the top of which is the city; it is divided into two parts, the largest being upon the very summit, the smaller at ten minutes walk lower down, and resembling a suburb to the upper part. Traces are still visible of a paved way that had connected the two divisions. There is scarcely any thing in the ruins worth notice; they consist of the foundations of private habitations, built of moderate sized square stones. The lower city is about twelve minutes walk in circumference; a part of the four walls of one building only remains entire; in the midst of the ruins was a well, at this time dried up. The circuit of the upper city may be about twenty minutes; in it are the remains of several buildings. In the highest part is a heap of wrought stones of larger dimensions than the rest, which seem to indicate that some public building had once stood on the spot. There are several fragments of columns of one foot and of one foot and a half in diameter. In two different places a short column was standing in the centre of a round paved area of about ten feet in diameter. There is likewise a deep well, walled in, but now dry.

The country around these ruins is very capable of cultivation.

SOURCES OF THE JORDAN

[p.42]Near the lower city are groups of olive trees. Pieces of feldspath of various colours are scattered about in great quantities upon the chalky rock of this mountain. I found in going up a species of locust with six very long legs, and a slender body of about four inches in length. My guide told me that this insect was called [This is the abbreviation of - [Arabic].] [Arabic] Salli al-nabi, i.e. "pray to the Prophet."

I descended the mountain in the direction towards the source of the Jordan, and passed, at the foot of it, the miserable village of Kerwaya. Behind the mountain of Bostra is another, still higher, called Djebel Meroura Djoubba. At one hour E. from Kerwaye, in the Houle, is the tomb of a Turkish Sheikh, with a few houses near it, called Kubbet el Arbai- in w-el-Ghadjar [Arabic].

The greater part of the fertile plain of the Houle is uncultivated; the Arabs El Faddel, El Naim, and the Turkmans pasture their cattle here.

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