ROUTE 36.(pages 552-554)
DAMASCUS TO BEYROUT DIRECT,
Damascus to Dummar .. .. 1 15
Dimas ….. 2 30
Mejdel’Anjar .. .. .. . 4 30
El-Merjy .. .. 1 20
Mekseh .. .. .. 1 20
Summit of Lebanon.. .. .. 1 20
Beyrout .. .. .. 6 30
| Total .. .. 18 45
Fast, without baggage.
This route passes only one spot of any interest, the site of Chalcis. The rest of it is dreary; the path none of the best; and except when pressed for time no traveller should think of following it.
The road as far as Khan Meithelûn has already been described in Rte. 32. From thence we cross a low ridge, and enter Wady el-Kurn, “ the valley of the horn,” one of the wildest passes in Antilebanon. It has a bad name, and it deserves it, for it has been the scene of many a bloody deed. When the Druzes become disaffected, they haunt this defile, and then woe betide the solitary passenger and heavy caravan, Franks, however, are seldom molested ; and I have more than once passed through when a squadron of Turkish horse would not have dared to venture. The road is usually as safe for travellers as an English turn-pike; and though postmen may be shot, and stray muleteers stripped, they have nothing to fear. The Druzes, who are the appointed guards of the road, generally resort to this method of intimating to the government that their long arrears must be paid up. Wady el-Kurn is nearly 3 m. long, and varies from 50 to 100 yds. in width. In the bottom is a rocky torrent-bed, along which the narrow path generally winds; and the sides are formed of jagged broken cliffs, the fissures and gorges being filled with thick copse, as if intended to shelter the lurking bandit.
To Wady el-Kurn succeeds a little dreary upland plain called Sahl Judeideh, crossing which, and a low ridge beyond it, we dive down into the long glen of Wady Harîr, which leads us, by many a picturesque winding, into the plain of Bukâ’a. On reaching its mouth Mejdel is before us on the opposite border of a little side plain, lying close to the base of a low line of tells. One of these tells, immediately above the village, is crowned by the ruins of a beautiful temple, which well deserves a visit. The walls of the cell are almost entire, and consist of a projecting basement of enormous stones, some of them measuring 24 ft. by 6; over this rises the superstructure of bevelled masonry. The portico is gone; but the columns lie about in huge fragments. One piece is 24 ft. long, and 4 1/2 in diameter. The doorway is much shattered, though the massive monolithic jambs have almost defied time and the destroyer. The interior was ornamented with fluted semi-columns of the Ionic order, supporting a deep cornice, and having intervening niches for statues. The style is simple, chaste, and massive ; and the building is evidently of earlier date than the temples of Ba’albek and Palmyra. The view it commands is magnificent, embracing nearly the whole plain of Bukâ’a, with the noble mountain-chains on each side—northward far as the eye can see, and southward to where the chains converge and form the gorge of the Litany. The plain is smooth as a lake; and the artificial mounds which here and there dot its surface might well pass for islands. The snowy summit of Hermon is seen on the S. rising high above the intervening hills.
Chalcis.—40 min. N.E. of Mejdel, near the base of the mountains, lie the ruins of this old city. They cover a rectangular space of about a square mile, surrounded by a prostrate wall, with flanking towers, In the interior are a few mounds of rubbish, out of which some fragments of columns here and there project; and 2 or 3 miserable hovels are now the only representatives of a royal city. Less than 1/4 m. N. is the great fountain of ’Anjar, from which the water was formerly conveyed in an aqueduct. Of the origin of the city nothing is known ; and there are no ruins from which we might form a conjecture as to the age of its erection. Ptolemy the son of Menneeus is mentioned by Strabo as ruler of a province of which Chalcis was capital. It appears to have included Heliopolis and Ituræa, with the mountain region lying between; but the proper territory of Chalcis was the rich plain of Marsyas, embracing the southern part of the Bukâ’a, and probably Wady et-Teim and Merj ‘Ayûn.
After Syria was “annexed” by the Romans, Ptolemy continued to hold his possessions. He was succeeded by his son Lysanias, who transferred the seat of government to Abila; and upon his murder by order of Mark Antony the province passed for a time into the hands of Zenodorus. The little territory of Chalcis was now detached from the other districts held by Ptolemy, but it does not appear who was its ruler until the Emperor Claudius gave it to Herod, grandson of Herod the Great (A.D. 41). On his death Chalcis fell to Herod Agrippa II., who held it for 4 yrs. He was succeeded by Aristobulus. This is the last notice of it as a separate principality ; it was united to the Roman province, and received the name of Flavia. It appears to have very soon fallen to ruin, and so it still remains.
The temple at Mejdel doubtless owes its origin to some of the princes of Chalcis. It was the usual policy pursued by members of the Herodian family to erect temples or found cities in honour of their imperial patrons. Perhaps Herod Agrippa II., whose taste for architecture is well. Known, constructed this building as a monument of his gratitude to Claudius.
From Chalcis we continue our route over the rich plain. It is badly cultivated and badly protected, yet the crops of wheat and barley are luxuriant. In 45 min. we reach the bridge over the Nahr ’Anjar, a broad and deep stream, winding away westward to join the Litany. 1/2 h. more brings us to el-Merj, a large village in the centre of the plain, with a khan near it. Past the latter flows the Litany itself with a lazy current, in a tortuous bed. Crossing it by a substantial modern bridge, we ride on towards Lebanon, which now rises steeply in front like a huge wall. We reach its base in 1 1/2 h., beside a half-ruined village called Mekseh. A mile to the l. is Kubb Elias, with pleasant gardens and groves of poplar. Adjoining it, on a spur of the mountain, stand the ruins of a castle,-said to have been erected by one of the Druze princes of Lebanon ; and in the side of a cliff a little to the S. are a few excavated tombs.
Before us is now a toilsome ascent, and the path is rugged and rocky, more resembling a goat-track than a caravan road from a great city to a flourishing seaport. We could have no better index to the spirit and enterprise of the Turkish government than the state of this road. We climb up, leaving our horses to pick their steps among the rocks, and scramble as they best can along shelving banks. There is nothing to attract attention but bare mountain scenery, and 2 rickety khans. On gaining the summit, however, a scene of singular grandeur suddenly bursts upon the view. We stand on the brow of a magnificent glen; the upper part is like a great basin 8 or 9 miles across, the bottom dotted with villages, and the rocky sides sprinkled with pines. Beyond this the glen contracts to a dark wild gorge, which tumbles down between lofty peaks to the promontory of Beyrout ; through it we get a peep at the beautiful city—a bright speck, surrounded by dark foliage, and having away beyond it the boundless sea. Wady Hummâna is the name of this glen; and the village of Hummâna, where Lamartine spent a few months during his eastern tour, lies in it at our feet, in the midst of mulberry plantations.
From hence we descend a breakneck path to a khan situated in a wild nook of the mountain, and aptly termed Khan el-Mudeirej, “the caravansary of the staircase.’ In passing down the mountain we obtain a succession of splendid views, as glen after glen opens up to the rt. and 1. In about 2 hrs. Bhamdûn is seen on the l. perched on the side of a steep hill, the terraced slopes above and below it covered with luxuriant vineyards. In another hour the romantic ravine of Shahrûr is on our l. ; its sides all terraced, with here and there a little hamlet clinging to them. After descending to the plain, an hour’s ride, first through mulberry groves sprinkled with palms, then through a pine forest, then through orchards and gardens fenced with prickly pear, brings us to Beyrout.
The route we have described is that taken by the Tartar post, which leaves Damascus and Beyrout every Monday and Thursday at sunset ; and reaches its destination, when the weather and the Druzes are propitious, in 20 to 22 hrs. During winter it is sometimes detained for a fortnight and more by snow on the mountain. The following elevations on this line, roughly taken by the aneroid, will give an idea of what the gradients must be in the road now projected by a French company. The watershed of Lebanon 5600 ft. ; distance from plain of Beyrout about 12 m. Bukâ’a at el-Merj 2573 ft.; distance from watershed about 7 m. Watershed of Antilebanon at the head of Wady Harîr, 3600 ft.; distance from el-Merj, 7m. Dimâs 3200 ft.; distance from watershed about 8 ½ m. Damascus 2200 ft.; distance from Dimas about 11 m. These distances are as the crow flies, and the miles geographical. The road, as I have stated, is projected; and it has been so for 20 yrs. or more ; and it is likely to remain so for 20 yrs. to come ; or at least until Syria is blessed with a new government. The Turks have a mortal antipathy to roads, as they have to everything else in the way of improvement.