ROUTE 38. BA’ALBEK TO BEYROUT DIRECT.
Ba’albek to Mu’allakah.. 6 OU
Junction of Damascus road .. 2 0
Beyrout (see Rte. 36) 7 50
Total (fast) .. .. 15 50
This road has little to recommend it except its shortness. Rte. 40 will, of course, be selected instead so soon as the snow on Lebanon will permit us to pass over to the Cedars; and should the traveller be obliged to abandon the Cedars, then I recommend Rte. 39.
On leaving Ba’albek we pass close to a little white-domed wely, with a large cypress-tree in its court, which appears to have been as large a centy. ago as it is now. Farther on the quarries are on our l. at the foot of the hill. Here we turn more into the plain, and, in 1/2 h. from Ba’albek, reach a patchwork ruin, composed of fragments of granite shafts rifled from the old temples, set up on their ends in a circle; and a rude prayer-niche towards the S. It was probably intended for a wely. We now ride along the undulating plain. The soil, at first stony, gradually improves until it becomes a rich loam. Cultivation improves also, though we are astonished that there are so few inhabitants. We found them swarming along the wild glen of the Barada, and amid the uplands of Antilebanon ; but here the rich plain seems well nigh deserted. It is the old story— insecurity and oppression. There is there a wide field for improvement. If the English government were only alive to their own interest, they would take steps to encourage the growth of cotton in this splendid plain. The whole extent of it from Ba’albek southward, containing nearly 200 square m., appears adapted to that plant. Why do not Manchester merchants turn their attention to the resources of Syria? It is surely more accessible than Central Africa. The vast plains of Esdraelon, of ’Akka, of Sharon, of Haurân, of Damascus, of Bukâ’a, of Hums and Hamah, of Ladikîyeh, of Suweidîyeh, and of Antioch, might be made to yield a large supply of cotton to the English market. The people would be tractable and industrious, if only saved from the rapacity of local sheikhs and Turkish pashas. The climate, too, is salurious ; and English residents, if officially protected, would have nothing to fear from Bedawîn or outlaws. And while the plains would thus be converted into vast cotton-fields, every upland vale and every hill-side might be filled with mulberry plantations for the production of silk. Independent of the immense advantages that would accrue to themselves, philanthropy might prompt the merchant princes of England to use their influence for the regeneration of Syria. By advancing agriculture and commerce they would advance the welfare of the people, both morally and intellectually. Oppressed as they are by tyrannical rulers, and at the same time compelled to defend with the sword their scanty crops, almost raised by stealth, against licensed plunderers —it is impossible that enlightenment or civilization could make progress. Foreign influence, judiciously exercised, would set up a barrier between the industrious peasant and those who now prey upon him; it would enable him to lay aside his sword and his musket; and it would give him time to cultivate his fields and improve his mind.
Our road crosses the plain diagonally, and in less than 5 h. smart riding we reach the base of Lebanon. To the rt. on the hill-side, about a mile from the road, is seen Kusurneba, with the ruins of a temple beside it. Some 2 m. farther S., in a deep glen, is Nîha, where there is another old temple, now almost completely prostrate. 1/2 h. above it, on the side of a little upland plain, is another and more beautiful temple called Husn Nîha. About 1 h. farther we pass through Kerak Nûh, famous as containing the tomb of Noah, whence its name. This tomb is a wonder in its way, far surpassing even those of Abel and Seth. It measures about 70 yds. in length! It is probably an old aqueduct. In 5 min. more we enter the large village of Mu‘allakah, finely situated at the entrance of a sublime glen, through which rushes the Berdûny, a foaming torrent, and one of the principal tributaries of the Litâny. Below the village are orchards, and groves of poplar; and beyond these stretches out one of the richest and best cultivated sections of the Buka’a.
Zahleh is situated in the glen 1 m. above Mu'allakah. It is the largest village in Lebanon, containing a population of nearly 10,000 souls, all Christians, except a few families. The approach to it is splendid. The glen, at first narrow, opens out into.a basin, round the steep sides of which the houses are ranged in terraces; and being well built, and whitewashed, they have a gay and picturesque look. Through the midst the river flows, between borders of tall poplars, issuing from a dark cleft in the mountain side beyond. The whole acclivities above the village are carefully terraced and covered with vineyards. Here the traveller can see what Syria might become if it were only blessed with a government. The inhabitants of Zahleh are notorious for their pride, insolence, and turbulence. Priests are their advisers in peace, and sometimes their leaders in war. The whole place is swarming with monks and friars, and crowded with churches, convents, and ecclesiastical establishments, The effects of priestly rule here, as elsewhere, are not very encouraging. Family broils are incessant, and scarce a month passes without bloodshed.
At 1 1/4 h. from Mu’allakah, about 1/4 m. to the rt. of the road, is the village of el-Jeditheh, with a ruin in its centre. On a large stone, perhaps an altar, is a Latin inscription recording the dedication of something to Juno for the health of the Emperor Antoninus Pius. Here we begin to ascend Lebanon, and in some 20 min. more we join the Damascus road above the village of Mekseh. For the remainder of the road see Rte. 36.
Another and much more interesting path leads over Lebanon direct from Zahleh; but it is little known to muleteers and dragomen. It is in places rough and rugged; still it is not much worse than the caravan road, and the scenery is far grander. I shall give an itinerary.
Passing through Zahleh, we wind up the mountain-side among rich vineyards, and in 1 3/4 h. reach the summit. The view is truly sublime, whether we look back into the Bukâ’a, or forward to the Mediterranean. Jebel Sunnîn, the second peak of Lebanon in altitude, rises up on our rt., ribbed with snow; and on our L., at about an equal distance, is the rounded summit of Kenîseh, or Kuneiyiseh. A deep glen, called Wady Tarshish, commences at our feet, and winds down westward like a rent in the mountain-side. Our road winds for a time along its rt. bank, and then along the summit of a narrow pine-clothed ridge, which divides it from Wady Biskinta on the N. The scenery around us is among the grandest in Syria—the bottoms and sides of the giens terraced for the vine and the mulberry ; and the steeper cliffs and hill-tops covered with pine forests, and having here and there a rich shrubbery of rhododendron mingled with the bracken. In 3 ¼ h. from the watershed we reach the hamlet of Merûj, so called from its plat of green “meadow.” Another 1/2 h. brings us to the top of a beautiful glen winding away down on the rt. to the upper part of Nahr el-Kelb. On its side, embowered in mulberry groves, is the large village of Shuweir; and on a | projecting cliff to the W. is perched the Greek convent of Mar Elias.
Bukfeiya, 1 h. more, is one of the most picturesque villages in Lebanon, ‘The houses are not huddled together like those in the plains, but scattered | about with pleasing irregularity among terraced gardens. In the centre stands the palace of the late Emîr Hyder, governor of Lebanon. Frowning cliffs, to whose sides the dwarf oak clings, tower over the village; while below the mountajn-side descends, now in terraced slopes, now in precipices of rock, to the glen of Nahr el-Kelb.
From Bukfeiya we can reach the sculptured cliffs at the mouth of the Dog River in 2 h., and Beyrout in 2 more. See ‘ Rides round Beyrout.,’