CHAPTER XXVIII.

Departure.-Storms.-Plains of Colo-Syria.-Temple of Baalbec.-Quarries.

ON March 22nd we left Damascus on our way north toward the coast of Syria, Baalbec being the next and last stopping-place of interest on our Syrian tour. Leaving Damascus our path led up a steep hill, where we took a parting view of the city, which spread out beneath us like mosaicwork in a frame of green and blossoming fruit-trees, with the rapid river Abana flowing swiftly by. Our encampment that night was close to an Arab village. Soon after our tents were pitched, a furious storm of wind and hail assailed us, threatening at every interval to unroof the tent, which is no uncommon occurrence in tent life. Through the night the Arabs were

hammering pins and tightening the weather-ropes, for we had a hurricane to contend against. The wind whistled through our frail dwelling, flapping the canvas door as if it was made of paper. Every precaution had to be employed to secure a firm footing for the pins, while extra storm-ropes were necessary to keep us on terra-firma, and gladly we welcomed the dawn.

23rd March.—Skirting the bank of the Abana, we traversed the beautiful plains of Colo-Syria, crossing a spur of the AntiLebanon. The plains of Colo-Syria lie between the ranges of the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon. It was too early in the season to visit the 'cedars,' once 'their glory,' for the snows had rendered the road dangerous and impracticable.

BAALBEC.

'Sunlight broke into the valley,
Filling with an instant glow

All its basin, from the streamlet

To the dark edge touched with snow.'

TUCKERMAN.

March 24th.-Late in the afternoon, as

while descending a long steep hill, the wondrous ruins of Baalbec's great temple, were outlined on a cloudless horizon. We stopped our horses to enjoy the first glimpse. The sun was setting behind the purple hills, and throwing its yellow light upon the lovely valley below. The pillars of the great temple stood in bold relief, contrasting with the brown shadows of its dusky interior, and its still perfect frieze was covered with golden beads of light, which completely fringed the cornice. In the distance the snow-capped mountains of the Lebanon reared their lofty summits.

We urged on our tired horses, and descending into the valley, found our tents pitched in full view of the temple. Modern Baalbec, like other Arab towns, is poor and dirty, and contains a population subsisting chiefly by beggary, theft, and similar equivocal occupations. The traces of the once splendid city are only discernible in the ruins of the temple. A fascinating mystery wraps the history of Baalbec. Neither historians nor antiquarians agree

BAALBEC.

261

in their opinions as to these ruins. It
seems reasonable to believe that this was
one of Solomon's cities, for we are told of
a house built by him for his Egyptian
wife,' in the forest of the house of Leba-
non,' mention being made of the foun-
dation and the 'stones' of 'eight and ten
cubits.' The blocks of stone of the old
foundation of the temple are of marvel-
lous size, one corner stone alone mea-
suring sixty-three feet, another nine feet
in breadth and twelve feet in depth. Dr.
Richardson remarks that the soil of
6
ages
with which these stones are covered, com-
pared with other parts of the building,
which are decidedly Roman, would warrant
our referring them to the remote period of
eight and twenty hundred years since, the
era of Solomon king of Israel, who “built
Hamath and Tadmor in the desert."'

We also read in the Scriptures of 'Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon, under Mount Hermon,' and (in the Canticles) that 'Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhaven.' Much of the interest in contemplating Baalbec

is enhanced if we view it at a still earlier period, before the Greeks changed its name to Heliopolis, for then it was a great and important city, when Tyre, Sidon and Nineveh were alike in their glory. The Saracens have appropriated to themselves a part of the building for a fortification, much disfiguring it. The stranger, however, can enjoy unmolested these ruins, which cannot be said of all the objects of interest in the East. No crowd of Arab children cry importunately for backsheesh here; so that one can wander up and down musing to one's heart's content amid a stillness unbroken, except perhaps, by the fluttering wing of some startled falcon, or by the bleating of the flocks that graze amid broken cornices and prostrate pillars.

We visited by moonlight the quarries of Baalbec, from which the stones of the temple were taken. Centuries have swept over these quarries and softened though not effaced all the marks of hammer and chisel. Mighty blocks of stone remain just as they were left by the work