. The land of Gilead, with excursions in the Lebanon . he most ancient and interest-ing monuments in Syria—the only one, in fact, so far as I amaware, in existence, which we can still trace as a record, intheir own country or its vicinity, of the worship of the Phoeni-cians. It is about seven miles from Sheik Saad to Tel road is over a fertile plain, and crosses first the Wady elLebweh, and then the Wady Yabis. Both these contain afflu-ents of the Yarmuk, but they are occasionally dry in after quitting Sheik Saad, we leave on the right,about two miles distant, the vi
. The land of Gilead, with excursions in the Lebanon . he most ancient and interest-ing monuments in Syria—the only one, in fact, so far as I amaware, in existence, which we can still trace as a record, intheir own country or its vicinity, of the worship of the Phoeni-cians. It is about seven miles from Sheik Saad to Tel road is over a fertile plain, and crosses first the Wady elLebweh, and then the Wady Yabis. Both these contain afflu-ents of the Yarmuk, but they are occasionally dry in after quitting Sheik Saad, we leave on the right,about two miles distant, the village of Ashtereh, standing outon the plain. Just before arriving at Tel Asherah we cross theprincipal source of the Yarmuk, by the old Eoman bridge ofnine arches, one of which has fallen in, and has not been re-paired—now called the bridge of Sira. The Yarmuk at thispoint is just sinking below the level of the plain through whichit has been meandering, and in the course of the next mileplunges down a series of cascades into the stupendous gorges. X < C/5< oa: a::< lJX LU cco VILLAGE OF ASHERAH. 95 through which it winds, -until it ultimately falls into the Jor-dan below Gadara. This river was called Yarmuk by theHebrews, Hieromax by the Eomans, and is now called theSheriat el Mandhur, from a tribe of Arabs who pasture in itsvalley. Below the bridge are some ruins—probably, from theshape of the foundations, those of a temple; but only a fewtrunks of prostrate columns and carved entablatures are visibleamong the large square blocks of dolerite of which it was had two Kurdish zaptiehs with us, whom the Mutessarif atSheik Saad had insisted upon our taking as guides andprotectors; but they could not tell us whether this ruinhad a name, nor was there a creature in sight whom we couldask. About a mile beyond, on the right, is situated the villageof Asherah, crowning a mound or tel about seventy feet situation is strikingly picturesque. On the one side
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectsyriade, bookyear1881
