Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . Tartous and Ruad. Tartous, the ancient Antaradus, perhaps also the ancient Orthosia,was formerly a bishops see, in the province of Tyre. It is frequentlymentioned in the history of the crusades as a place of great modern town, which seems little more than an agglomeration ofruins, is inclosed with-in a high wall, irregu-larly built of stone ormarble, protected by afoss, which, in someparts, is cut in the solidrock. Passing thetown wall, we lodgedfor the nig
Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . Tartous and Ruad. Tartous, the ancient Antaradus, perhaps also the ancient Orthosia,was formerly a bishops see, in the province of Tyre. It is frequentlymentioned in the history of the crusades as a place of great modern town, which seems little more than an agglomeration ofruins, is inclosed with-in a high wall, irregu-larly built of stone ormarble, protected by afoss, which, in someparts, is cut in the solidrock. Passing thetown wall, we lodgedfor the night upon apiece of turf beyondthe arch of an old gate-way, near to which arethe ruins of a chapel orrefectory of a convent,or perhaps those of achristian church, havingseveral lancet windows remaining. There are also some remains close tothe sea, on the north side of the town, where appeared to be the remainsof a gateway leading to the port. I left this place three hours after midnight, intending to reach Latakiah, ifpossible, that evening. The distance had been differently represented;. Ruins near Tortosa. ROUTE FROM TRIPOLI TO LATAKIAH. 129 some calling it twelve hours, some fifteen, others eighteen, while by some itwas stated at two days ; and, according to the Arab mode of travelling, the!ast account proved to be correct; but all agreed in describing the road asinfested by robbers, and very unsafe. The Anzeyry, who inhabit the lowrange of mountains parallel with the shore from the Nahr-el-Berd, north ofTripoli, to Latakiah, are held in the worst repute by all classes of men inSyria, as robbers and murderers. The myrtle grove near Tartous is parti-cularly ill-famed as a frequent scene of their villanous exploits. As the daydawned and discovered the wild scenery of the shore, it gave the semblanceof probability to the stories we had heard of the characters by whom it wasfrequented. Intersected by ravines, the sand produced different species ofthe erica, the arbutus, and the my
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