Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . add, that a Turkish estaminet is to be found on the spot. Fourmiles further on, the Orontes is crossed by a bridge called Gesr-el-Hadeed,or the Iron Bridge. On our way thither, the Turkish guide pointed out tous a rising ground, surmounted by the ruins of a medieval fortress. Underthat rising-ground you see yonder, he said, there is a lake with banks allglittering with diamonds and heaps of gold; there is a boat on the lake, andMuslims, Armenians, Greeks, and Jews may e
Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . add, that a Turkish estaminet is to be found on the spot. Fourmiles further on, the Orontes is crossed by a bridge called Gesr-el-Hadeed,or the Iron Bridge. On our way thither, the Turkish guide pointed out tous a rising ground, surmounted by the ruins of a medieval fortress. Underthat rising-ground you see yonder, he said, there is a lake with banks allglittering with diamonds and heaps of gold; there is a boat on the lake, andMuslims, Armenians, Greeks, and Jews may enter it, and row up and downthe lake, but if they attempted to reach the shore, in order to gather up thediamonds and the gold, the boat would stand motionless on the water : nonebut the Franks could succeed in laying hand on those treasures, for the Franksare demons, to whom all things are permitted by * From Bab Boulos to Gesr-el-Hadeed the road lies over uncultivatedplains, which are bounded to the north by mountains, with a view of AggiDengis, or the Lake of Antioch, at their foot. The last glimpse we had of. View of Antakiah from the Aleppo road. Antioch is represented in the annexed cut. Our days journey ended atBourkee, the site of a Roman town of considerable dimensions, the ancientsepulchral caves of which are cut in the side of the mountains, and serve thepresent natives for habitations. We took up our abode in the ruins of anold mill. There was nothing very cheering in the appearance of the Chalakahills, which we crossed next day: they are a barren shapeless range, fourteenor fifteen hours across; their height not more than 600 or 800 feet. Wepassed many sites of ancient towns, castles, tanks, temples, &c, all of theLower Empire, and very uninteresting. Beyond these hills lies the plain ofAlaks, supposed to be that in which Aurelian first defeated Zenobia. There * Corresp. 284 SYRIA AND THE HOLY LAND. are some villages in the eastern part of the pl
Size: 1853px × 1349px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, bookpublisherlondonchapmanandha
