Hard by flows a rivulet, which irrigates the adjacent
grounds. We left Merdjan early in the morning. Twenty minutes north is
Ain Toby [Arabic], or the spring of the gazelle, consisting of several
wells, round one of which are the remains of a well built wall. At one
hour and a half is Soghba [Arabic], a few houses surrounded by a wall;
three quarters of an hour from thence is Deir Ali [Arabic], a village at
the western foot of Djebel Mane; before we came to the village we
crossed the Moiet Deir Ali, a rivulet whose source is in the
neighbourhood. Half an hour from Deir Ali is Meshdie [Arabic], a small
village, in the valley between Djebel Mane and Djebel Khiara, which is
about three hours in breadth. The ground is here for the greater part
cultivated. Our route was N.N.W. from Deir Ali, from whence, in two
hours, we reached El Kessoue, and towards sunset we entered Damascus.
[p.121]
JOURNAL
OF A
TOUR FROM ALEPPO TO DAMASCUS,
THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE ORONTES AND MOUNT LIBANUS,
IN FEBRUARY AND MARCH, 1812.
February 14th.--I LEFT Aleppo at mid-day; and in half an hour came to
the miserable village Sheikh Anszary [Arabic], where I took leave of my
Worthy friends Messieurs Barker and Van Masseyk, the English and Dutch
Consuls, two men who do honour to their respective countries. I passed
the two large cisterns called Djob Mehawad [Arabic], and Djob Emballat
[Arabic], and reached, at the end of two hours and a half, the Khan
called Touman [Arabic], near a village of the same name, situated on the
Koeyk, or river of Aleppo. The Khan is in a bad state; Pashas no longer
think of repairing public edifices.
February 15th--After a march of ten hours and a half, I arrived at
Sermein, having had some difficulty in crossing the muddy plain. The
neighbourhood of Sermein is remarkable for great numbers of cisterns and
wells hewn in the rock: in the town every house has a similar cistern;
those in the plain serve to water the peasants' cattle in the summer,
for there are no springs in these parts. On the S.E. side of Sermein is
a large subterraneous vault, cut in the solid rock, divided into several
apartments, and
EDLIP.
[p.122]supported in various places by round pillars with coarsely
wrought capitals; near this are several other excavations, all inhabited
by the poor peasants. Sermein belongs to the family of Khodsy Effendy of
Aleppo.
February 16th.--Half an hour to the left, near our road, is an insulated
hill, with the tomb of a saint, called Kubbet Denneit [Arabic]; the
plain is here well cultivated, but nothing is sown at present between
Khan Touman and Sermein. To the right of the road, on a similar hill,
stands Mezar Kubbet Menebya [Arabic]; and one hour to the right, also
upon a Tel, Mezar Tar [Arabic]. Half an hour S.E. from Denneit is the
village Gemanas.
In two hours and a half from Sermein we reached the town of Edlip
[Arabic], the approach to which is very picturesque; it lies round the
foot of a hill, which divides it into two parts; there is a smaller hill
on the N. side: the town is surrounded by olive plantations, and the
whole landscape put my companion, an English traveller, in mind of
Athens and its vicinity. Here again are many wells cut in the rocky soil
round the town. This place is called Little Edlip [Arabic]. Of Great
Edlip [Arabic], the name only remains: it stood at half an hour's
distance from the present town, which is of modern date, or about the
middle of the seventeenth century. I reckoned the number of its houses
at about one thousand. The inhabitants are for the most part Turks;
there are only eighty Greek Christian families, and three of Armenian
Greeks. They have a church, and three priests, and are under the
immediate jurisdiction of the Greek Patriarch of Damascus.
The principal trade of Edlip is in soap; there are some manufactories of
cotton stuffs, and a few dyeing-houses. The Bazars are well built, some
of them of stone. In the town are several Khans, two of which are
destined for the reception of strangers;
[p.123]but the best edifice is the soap manufactory (El Meszbane), a
large building. Edlip has no gardens, because there is no water but from
wells and cisterns; there are a few orchards of pomegranate and fig
trees, and some vine plantations. The place is supplied with vegetables
from Rieha, and from Aere, a village two hours distant, lying between
Darkoush and Djissr Shogher. There is a single spring in the town of
brackish water, which is never used but in seasons of great drought; a
man who had cleansed the bottom of the deep well in which the spring
issues, told me that he found two openings in the rock, near each other,
from the one of which flows sweet water, while that from the other is
brackish. I made the tour of the town in thirty-seven minutes; the rocky
ground is full of caverns, wells, and pits.
Edlip is held by the family of Kuperly Zaade of Constantinople; but a
part of its revenue is a Wakf to the Harameyn, that is to say, it
contributes to defray the expenses of the two holy cities Mekka and
Medina. The town pays annually to the above family, twenty purses for
themselves, and fifteen for the holy cities; the latter sum was formerly
sent to Mekka every year with the pilgrim caravan; but it is now paid
into the hands of the Kuperlys.
