Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/54

 38 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud/EA. whilst the returns for 1882 showed that merchandise to the value of ^1,280,000 was shipped from its small port.^ Here, railway- engineers place the terminus of the line which is to connect the coast with the Euphrates Valley, over the same route now taken by caravans. But instead of painfully climbing- the Amanus up the Beilan Pass, the supposed classic *' Syrian Gates," 700 m. high, a short tunnel will land passengers in a few minutes on the other East of Greenwich 56- 35-&0 Fig. 264. — The Defiles of the Amanus Range. From Reclus. side (Fig. 264). Other roads, traces of which were recently noticed by travellers, ran from the valley of the Orontes, over the moun- tains to the coast.^ If to the south the way is obstructed by the formidable escarpments of Cape Ras-el-Khanzir, or wild boar's tusk, no such difficulties are encountered on the north side, the pass called " Little Gates*' or Jonas's Pillars, affording easy access to the sea by a road which crosses the plain washed by the Pyramus and the Saros (Fig. 265). Cilicia is thus a natural dependency of Northern Syria ; its rich loamy soil, which only requires the hand ^ Reclus, loc. at. p. 759. ^ Marmier, "Les Routes de TAmanus" {Gazette Archeologique^ pp. 40, 50. 1884).