They Consist Of A Few Walls Of Dwelling Houses,
Heaps Of Stones, The Foundations Of Some Public Edifices, And A Few
Cisterns Now Filled Up; There Is Nothing Entire, But It Appears That The
Mode Of Building Was Very Solid, All The Remains Being Formed Of Large
Stones.
It is evident also, that the whole of the country must have been
extremely well cultivated, in order to have afforded subsistence to the
inhabitants of so many towns.
At the end of three hours and a half we
entered a broad valley, which brought us in half an hour to the ruins of
Amman, which lies about nineteen English miles to the S.E. by E. of
Szalt. The annexed plan [not included] will give an idea of the
situation and ruins of Amman, one of the most ancient of the cities
recorded in Jewish history. The town lies along the banks of a river
called Moiet Amman, which has its source in a pond (a), at a few hundred
paces from the south-western end of the town; I was informed that this
river is
[p.358] lost in the earth one hour below the pond, that it issues again,
and takes the name of Ain Ghazale (Arabic); then disappears a second
time and rises again near a ruined place called Reszeyfa (Arabic);
beyond which it is said to be lost for a third time, till it reappears
about an hour to the west of Kalaat Zerka, otherwise called Kaszr
Shebeib (Arabic), near the river Zerka, into which it empties itself.
Ain Ghazale is about one hour and a half distant from Amman, Kalaat
Zerka is four hours distant.
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