We Descended The Zereigye By
Windings, And At The End Of Eight Hours Reached Its Lowest Extremity,
Where It Joins A Narrow Valley Extending Along The Foot Of Om Shomar,
The Almost Perpendicular Cliffs Of Which Now Stood Before Us.
The
country around is the wildest I had yet seen in these mountains; the
devastations of torrents are every
Where visible, the sides of the
mountains being rent by them in numberless directions; the surface of
the sharp rocks is blackened by the sun; all vegetation is dry and
withered; and the whole
[p.590] scene presents nothing but utter desolation and hopeless
barrenness.
We ascended S.E. in the valley of Shomar, winding round the foot of the
mountain for about an hour, till we reached the well of Romhan [Arabic],
at nine hours from the convent, where we rested. This is a fine spring;
high grass grows in the narrow pass near it, with several date-trees and
a gigantic fig-tree. Just above the well, on the side of the mountain,
are the ruins of a convent, called Deir Antous; it was inhabited in the
beginning of the last century, and according to the monks, it was the
last convent abandoned by them. I found it mentioned in records of the
fifteenth century in the convent; it was then one of the principal
settlements, and caravans of asses laden with corn and other provisions
passed by this place regularly from the convent to Tor, for this is the
nearest road to that harbour, though it is more difficult than the more
western route, which is now usually followed.
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