Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/377

Rh The following is a fac-simile of the engraving on a reduced scale:



The next most prominent relic of antiquity is the debris of a large building, supposed to have been a church; besides which there are a number of foundations consisting of massive stones upon which several modern Saracenic structures have been raised, a few Grecian or Roman arches, fragments of columns, pillars, and friezes, but no accompanying inscription to fix their date. The only perfect edifice is a small mosque built by Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt during his occupation of the place in 1839 and 1840.

The view of the town from the citadel is extremely picturesque: immediately below is the pool of Sheikh Ibraheem, with its adjoining mosque embosomed in a thick and shady grove. The slender minaret of the mosque peers above the lofty cypress trees, and an ancient belfry has been permitted to remain as an index of the original Christian purpose to which the building was consecrated. The pond or pool deserves a particular description. It stands, as I have already stated, at the foot of the castle, and is supplied by several copious springs flowing from the south-west, and running beneath a pretty summer  situated at the western extremity of the basin. The basin