Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1096

 107 SYRIA. north of Apameia, where its impetuosity is curbed and its waters dissipated in the morasses, so that it flows ofl' in a diminished stream to Jisr ShoyJier, to be again replenished in its course through the plain of 'Umk by other affluents, until it reaches its nor- thernmost point at Jisr Hadid (the Iron Bridr/e), a, little below which it winds round to the west, and about 5 miles above Anlioch receives from Bahr-el- Ahiad (the While Sta) the Nahr-el-Kowshit, a navigable river, containing a greater volume of v/ater than Kl-Azij itself. It now flows to the north of Antioch and the infamous groves of Daphne, through an exceedingly picturesque valley, in a south-west course to the sea, which it enters a little to the south of Seleucia, after a circuitous coui-se of about 200 miles, between 34° and 36*^ 15' of north latitude, 36° and 37° of east longitude. 3. Antilibanus and the eastern range. — The mountain chain which confines Coelesyria on the east is properly designated Antilibanus, but it is further extended towards the noi'th and south by offsets, which confine the valley of the Orontes and the Jordan valley respectively. Antilibanus itself, now called Jebel-esh-Shurkeh (Eastern Mountain}, which is vastly inferior to Libanus both in majesty and fertility, has been already described, as has also its southern prolongation in Mount Hermon, now Jebel-esh-Sheikh, sometimes Jehel-et-Telye {the Snow Mountain'). [Antilibanus] The northern chain, on the east of the Orontes valley, has not been sufficiently surveyed to admit of an accurate de- scription, but there is nothing striking in the height or general aspect of the range, which throws out branches into the great desert, of which it forms the western boundary. 4. The eastern desert. — Although for the pur- poses of a geographical description the whole country east of the mountain chains above described may be regarded as one region, and the insufiieient materials for a minute and accurate survey make it convenient so to regard it, yet it is far from being an uniform flat, presenting throughout the same features of de- solation. On the contrary, so f:ir as it has yet been explored, particularly to the south of the parallel of Damascus, the country is diversified by successions of hills and valleys, which often present large fertile tracts of arable land, cultivated in many pirts by a hardy and industrious race of inhabitants. By far the richest of these is the plain of Damascus (^El- Ghutah), at the foot of the eastern declivity of Anti- libanus, the most excellent of the four earthly para- dises of the Arabian geographers. (Dr. Eli Smith, in Bib. lies. vol. iii. Append. B. p, 147.) It owes its beauty, not less than its fertility, to the abundance of water conveyed to it in the united streams of the Barada and the Phigeh, which, issuing together from the eastern roots of Antilibanus, and distributed into numerous rivulets, permeate the city and its thousands of gardens, and finally lose themselves in the Sea of the Plain, Bahr-el-Merj, which the ex- ploration of a recent traveller has found to consist of two lakes instead of one, as has been hitherto re- presented in all modern maps. (Porter, Five Years in Damascus, 1855, vol. i. pp. 377 — 382, and map.) Indeed, so much fresh light has been thrown on the south-west of Syria by Mr. Porter's careful surveys, that the geography of the whole country will have to be greatly modified in all future maps, as we are now, for the first time, in a position to define with some degree of accuracy the limits of several dis- tricts mentioned both by sacred and classical writers, SYPvIA. ' whose relative position even has hitherto been only matter of doubtful conjecture. The statements of Burckhardt, who has hitherto been the sole authority, require considerable correction. The Barada, the ancient Abana, from its rise in Antilibanus, near the plain of Zebdany to its termi- nation in the South and East Lakes, is computed to traverse a distance of 42 miles, and to water a tract equal to 31 1 square miles, inhabited by a population of 150,000 souls, or an average of 482 to every square mile, including Damascus and its suburbs. " Tho prevailing rock of the mountains through which it flows is limestone. In the higher regions it is hard and compact, but near Damascus soft and chalky, with large nodules of flint intermixed. Fos- sil shells and corals in great variety are found along the central chain of Antilibanus, through which the river first cuts. In the white hills near Damascus are large quantities of ammonites. At Suk Wady Barada (near its source) is a vast bed of organic remains, not less than a mile in length, and in some places exceeding 100 feet in thickness. Trunks of trees, branches of every size and form, and even the delicate tracery of the leaves may be seen scattered about in vast masses. There are in several places among the mountains traces of volcanic action. On a lofty summit, two hours' north-east of Siik, is what appears to be an extinct crater. The moun- tain has been rent, the limestone strata thrown back, and black porous trap-rock fills up the cavity. The plain of Damascus has a loamy soil intermixed with tine sand. The substratum is generally conglomerate, made up of rounded smooth pebbles, flint, and sand. The south-eastern portion of the plain is entirely volcanic." (Porter, Jotirnal of Sacred Literature, vol. iv. p. 262.) The plain of Damascus is bounded towards the south by a low range of hills called Jehel-el-Aswad (the Black Mountain'), the southern base of which is washed by a stream, which has lately been supposed by some travellers to represent the ancient I'harpar. It is now called Nahr-el- Awaj, which, rising in the roots of Hermon, runs in a course about north-east to a small lake named Bahret-el-Heijany, only about 4 miles south of the Bahret-el-Kibliyah, into which the Barada flows. It runs partly through a limestone and partly through a volcanic formation, which continues hence far to the south. (Porter, in Journal of Sac. Lit. vol. V. pp. 45—57, Travels, vol. i. pp. 297—322.) On the south side of the river, opposite to Jebel-el- Aswad, is another low mountain range called Jebel Mania, and a higher elevation connected with this range commands a view of those ancient divisions of Southern Syria, which have hitherto been only con- jecturally placed in modern maps. Their boundaries have notwithstanding been indehbly traced by the hand of nature, and the limits so clearly defined that they actually exist, mostly under their identical ancient names, as an evidence of the fidelity of classical and sacred geographers. But these will be more conveniently considered in connection with Trachonitis, round which they are grouped [Tka- ciiONiTis], particularly as this part of the countiy may be regarded as debateable ground between Syria, Arabia, and Palestine. Turning now to the north of Damascus and the east of the mountain range, the country between this city and Aleppo ofl'ers nothing worthy of par- ticular notice; indeed its geography is still a blank in the map of Syria, except its western side, which is traversed by the Uaj road, the most northern part-