Besides the one hundred and ninety columns, or thereabouts,
[p.264]which I have enumerated in the above description, there are
upwards of one hundred half columns also standing. I did not see any
marks of the frusta of the columns having been joined by iron hooks, as
at Palmyra. Of the private habitations of the city there is none in a
state of preservation, but the whole of the area within the walls is
covered with their ruins.
The stone with which Djerash is built is calcareous, of considerable
hardness, and the same as the rock of the neighbouring mountains; I did
not observe any other stone to have been employed, and it is matter of
surprise that no granite columns should be found here, as they abound in
Syrian cities of much less note and magnificence than Djerash.
It had been my intention to proceed from Djerash to the village of
Djezaze, in my way to the castle of Szalt in the mountains of Belka,
from whence I hoped to be able to visit Amman. After many fruitless
enquiries for a guide, a man of Souf at last offered to conduct me to
Szalt, and he had accompanied us as far as Djerash; but when, after
having surveyed the ruins, I rejoined my companions, he had changed his
mind, and insisted on returning immediately to Souf; this was occasioned
by his fear of the Arabs Beni Szakher, who had for sometime past been at
war with the Arabs of Djebel Belka and the government of Damascus, and
who were now extending their plundering incursions all over the
mountain. The name of the Beni Szakher is generally dreaded in these
parts; and the greater or less facility with which the traveller can
visit them, depends entirely upon the good or bad terms existing between
those Arabs and the Pasha; if they are friends, one of the tribe may
easily be found to serve as a guide; but when they are enemies, the
traveller is exposed to the danger of being stripped; and, if the
animosity of the two parties is very great, of even being murdered. The
Mutsellim of Damascus had given me letters to the chief of the
AATYL.
[p.265]Arabs El Belka, and to the commander of the Pasha's cavalry, who
had been sent to assist them against the Beni Szakher. The allies were
encamped in the neighbourhood of Kalaat el Zerka, while the Beni Szakher
had collected their forces at Amman itself, a place still famous for the
abundance of its waters. Under these circumstances, I determined to
proceed first to Szalt, hoping that I might from thence attain Amman
more easily, as the inhabitants of Szalt, who are always more or less
rebellious towards the government of Damascus, are generally on friendly
terms with the Bedouins. The fears of my guide, however, prevented me
from executing this plan, and I was most reluctantly obliged to return
to Souf, for it would have been madness to proceed alone.
We returned to Souf, not by the road over the mountain, but in following
the course of the rivulet in the valley El Deir, which we reascended up
to the village; we found the greater part of the narrow plain in the
valley sown with wheat and barley by the people of Souf. Half an hour
from the town, in the Wady, are the remains of a large reservoir for
water, with some ruined buildings near it. This is a most romantic spot;
large oak and walnut trees overshade the stream, which higher up flows
over a rocky bed; nearer the village are some olive plantations in the
Wady. We reached Souf in two hours from Djerash. I enquired in vain for
a guide to Szalt; the return of the man who had engaged to conduct me
made the others equally cautious, and nobody would accept of the fifteen
piastres which I offered. I thought in unnecessary, therefore, to stop
any longer at Souf, and left it the same evening, in order to visit
Djebel Adjeloun. Our road lay W.N.W. up a mountain, through a thick
forest of oak trees. In three quarters of an hour from Souf we reached
the summit of the mountain, which forms the frontier between the
district of Moerad and the Djebel Adjeloun. This is the thickest forest
I had yet seen in
RABBAD.
[p.266]Syria, where the term forest ([Arabic] or [Arabic]) is often
applied to places in which the trees grow at twenty paces from each
other. In an hour and a half we came to the village Ain Djenne [Arabic],
in a fertile valley called Wady Djenne, at the extremity of which
several springs issue from under the rock.
May 3d.--There are several christian families at Ain Djenne. In the
neighbouring mountain are numerous caverns; and distant half an hour, is
the ruined village of Mar Elias. When enquiring for ruins, which might
answer to those of Capitolias, I had been referred to this place, no
person in these mountains having knowledge of any other ruins. An olive
plantation furnishes the principal means of subsistence to the eighty
families who inhabit the village of Ain Djenne.
We set out early in the morning, and descended the valley towards
Adjeloun [Arabic], which has given its name to the district: it is built
in a narrow passage on both sides of the rivulet of Djenne, and contains
nothing remarkable except a fine ancient mosque. I left my horse here,
and took a man of the village to accompany me to the castle of Rabbad
[Arabic], which stands on the top of a mountain three quarters of an
hour distant from Adjeloun.
