Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . d the opening is barredby a rock 100 feet high, and 500 or 600 feet in circumference. This rock,whether shaped by nature or cut fromthe side of the adjoining mountain,is surmounted by a Gothic castle, ina high state of preservation, but nowthe abode of the jackal and the in the rock lead up, by suc-cessive ranges of terraces, to thehighest platform, on which standsthe donjon keep, with its ogeedwindows and loopholes. Vegeta-tion has fastened all over the cas
Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . d the opening is barredby a rock 100 feet high, and 500 or 600 feet in circumference. This rock,whether shaped by nature or cut fromthe side of the adjoining mountain,is surmounted by a Gothic castle, ina high state of preservation, but nowthe abode of the jackal and the in the rock lead up, by suc-cessive ranges of terraces, to thehighest platform, on which standsthe donjon keep, with its ogeedwindows and loopholes. Vegeta-tion has fastened all over the castle,its battlements and towers; largesycamores have taken root in thehalls, and spread their broad armsabove the ruined roof; creepingplants hanging in huge festoons, ivyclinging to the windows and doors,and lichens everywhere clothing thestones, give this fine monument ofthe middle ages the appearance ofa castle of moss and ivy. A beauti-ful spring gushes forth at the foot ofthe rock, overshadowed by three of the most splendid trees ever seen : * Buckingham. f Robinson, Travels in Palestine and Syria, London, 1837. g 2. Kalaat Meszabeh. 304 SYRIA AND THE HOLY LAND. they are a species of ilex; and one of them sufficed to cover with itsshade our tents, our thirty horses, and the scattered groups of castle was once in the possession of the Metuali, who frequentlyattacked the passengers in the valley. The following day, we ascended by a steep track along a white and slipperyhill, where the horses could scarcely keep their feet. From the summit wehad a boundless view of all the western seaboard of Syria, as far as the Gulfof Scanderoon and Mount Casius, and a little to the right of the plains ofAleppo and the hills of Antioch, with the course of the Orontes. Thispromontory, now called the Ras-el-Shakkah, admits of no passage round itsedge by the sea. It has a still steeper appearance from the north than fromthe south, rising almost perpendicularly from the sea, and being
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