The priests are the most
NAHR EL KELB.
[p.189]happy part of the population of Kesrouan; they are under no
anxiety for their own support; they are looked upon by the people
assuperior beings, and their repose is interrupted only by the intrigues
of the convents, and by the mutual hostilities of the bishops.
The principal villages in Kesrouan, beginning from the north, are
Ghadsir [Arabic], Djedeide [Arabic], Aar Amoun [Arabic], Shenanayr
[Arabic], Sahel Alma [Arabic], Haret Szakher [Arabic], Ghozta [Arabic],
Deir Aoun [Arabic], Ghadir [Arabic], Zouk Mikayl [Arabic], Djouni
[Arabic], Zouk Meszbah [Arabic], Zouk el Kherab [Arabic], and Kornet el
Khamra [Arabic].
March 18th--I left my amiable host, the Abate Gandolfi, and proceeded on
my road to Deir el Kammar, the residence of the Emir Beshir. One hour
from Antoura is Deir Lowyz [Arabic]. Between it and the village Zouk
Mikayl lies the village Zouk Meszbah, with Deir Mar Elias. South of Deir
Lowyz half an hour is the village Zouk el Kharab; half an hour E. of the
latter, Deir Tanneis [Arabic], and about the same distance S.E. the
village Kornet el Khamra. From Deir Lowyz I again descended into the
plain on the sea shore. The narrow plain which I mentioned as beginning
at Djissr Maammiltein, continues only as far as Djouni, where the
country rises, and continues hilly, across the southern promontoy of the
bay of Kesrouan, on the farther side of which the narrow plain again
begins, and continues as far as the banks of the Nahr el Kelb. I reached
this river in half an hour from Antoura, at the point of its junction
with the sea, about ten minutes above which it is crossed by a fine
stone bridge. From the bridge the road continues along the foot of the
steep rocks, except where they overhang the sea, and there it has been
cut through the rock for about a mile. This was a work, however, of no
great labour, and hardly deserved the
EL MELLAHA.
[p.190]following magnificent inscription, which is engraved upon the
rock, just over the sea, where the road turns southward:
IMP CAES M AVRELIVS ANTONINV S . PIVS . FELIX . AVGVSTVS PART . MAX .
BRIT . MAX . GERM . MAXIMVS PONTIFEX . MAXIMVS MONTIBVS INMINENTIBVS
LICO FLVMINI CAESIS VIAM DELATAVIT PER . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ANTONINIANAM SVAM
The last line but one has been purposely erazed. Below the frame in
which the above is engraved, is this figure.
Higher up in the road are several other places in the rock, where
inscriptions have been cut, but the following one only is legible:
INVICTIM ANTONIN FELIX AUG MV . . IS NISIM[In the year 1697 Maundrell
read this inscription as follows: Invicte Imp. Antonine P. Felix Aug.
multis annis impera. Ed.]
According to the opinion of M. Guys, the French consul at Tripoli, which
seems well founded, the Emperor mentioned in the above inscriptions is
not Antoninus Pius, but Caracalla; as the epithet Britannus cannot be
applied to the former, but very well to the latter. Opposite to the
bridge is an Arabic inscription, but for the greater part illegible.
The road continues for about half an hour through the rock over the sea,
above which it is no where higher than fifty feet. At the southern
extremity is a square basin hewn in the rock close by the sea, called El
Mellaha, in which the salt water is sometimes collected for the purpose
of obtaining salt by evaporation. On the summit of the mountain, to the
left of the rocky road, lies the Deir Youssef el Berdj [Arabic]; half an
PLAIN OF BEIROUT.
[p.191]hour south of it, in the mountain, is the village Dhobbye
[Arabic], and behind the latter the village Soleima [Arabic], with a
convent of the Terra Santa. The road from El Mellaha continues for an
hour and a half on the sandy beach; about three quarters of an hour from
the basin we passed the rivulet Nahr Antoun Elias, so called from a
village and convent of that name, to the left of the road. Near the
latter lies the village of Abou Romman [Arabic], in the narrow plain
between the mountain and the sea, and a little farther south, El
Zeleykat [Arabic]. The district of Kesrouan [Arabic], extends, to the
south, as far as a small Khan, which stands a little beyond the Mellaha;
farther south commences the Druse country of Shouf [Arabic]. At the
termination of the sandy beach are seen ruins of Saracen buildings, with
a few houses called Aamaret Selhoub [Arabic].
We now left the sea shore to our right, and rode across the riangular
point of land on the western extremity of which the town of Beirout is
situated. This point projects into the sea about four miles beyond the
line of the coast, and there is about the same distance in following
that line across the base of the triangle. The road we took was through
the fine cultivated plain called El Boudjerye [Arabic], in a direction
S. by W. Two hours and three quarters from El Mellaha is the village
Hadded [Arabic]. Before we came to it, we crossed the Nahr Beirout, at a
place where I saw, for the first time, a grove of date trees. Beyond the
river the country is called Ard el Beradjene, from a tower by the sea
side called Berdj el Beradjene [Arabic]; the surrounding country is all
planted with olive trees. In three hours and a quarter we crossed the
Wady Ghadiry [Arabic], on the other side of which lies the village Kefr
Shyna [Arabic]. Upon the hills about three quarters of an hour S.E. of
the place where the Ghadiry falls into the sea, stands the convent Mar
Hanna el Shoeyfat.
