over the sides and down the arches of this aqueduct, were visible in many parts; and these, with the grey mossy patches scattered here and there upon its surface, gave to the whole a very picturesque appearance. When beyond its centre we passed two ancient cisterns, now full of excellent water, nearer the sea; and continuing to follow the remains of this noble work, we arrived at its commencement at the fountains from which it led off, exactly at eight o'clock, or little more than an hour after leaving the gate of Soor. in We halted here at the small village of Ras-el-Ain, deriving its name from the fountains themselves *, and alighted to examine them. Going over every part of them with Maundrell's description my hand, I was gratified at the confirmation which their perfect correspondence with his account of them gave me of his general accuracy, and felt a pleasure at having it thus in my power to do justice to the fidelity of his details, after the objections which I had felt toward his more hasty conclusions respecting the utter desolation of Tyre. Nothing remains to be added to the description given of these fountains by the worthy divine, since it applies as accurately to their present state as to that of the day on which it was written ; and his refutation of the tradition which assigns their construction to Solomon as a recompence to Hiram king of Tyre appears to me quite satisfactory. † If I were asked, therefore, for a description of these cisterns, I could not do better than transcribe that of this accurate traveller, adding merely a conjecture that both the fountain and the aqueduct were the work of the same lofty and magnificent genius who connected the island of Tyre, like that of Clazomenæ, in the gulf of Smyrna, to the continent, and whose works of grandeur, made subservient to public utility, soften in some degree the darker shades of his all-conquering character.‡ العين , literally, the head of the fountain. This place is mentioned under its present name by Reland, cap. 3., de urbibus et vicis Palæstinæ, l. iii. p. 1049. + See Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, 8vo. 1810, p. 67. See the vignette at the head of this chapter. We quitted the village of Ras-el-Ain at nine o'clock, and keeping close by the sea-side, came in half an hour to the bed of a river now dry, but over which had once been thrown a stone bridge, the broken fragments of which still remained. At half past ten, we passed through a considerable space covered with the ruins of former buildings, whose foundations only were apparent. It was close to the sea, and seemed to mark the site of some ancient settlement, from the appearance of the materials there; but whether these were what had been thought by some to be the remains of the Palatyrus of the continent or not, we could not determine. On the summit of the hill to the eastward of us was the small village of Shimmah, with a minaret rising from its centre. Though the hills themselves were in general steep and barren, the narrow plain between their base and the sea was, for the most part, cultivated. * At Ras-el-Ain, where water was always to be commanded in abundance, we had seen sugar-canes already from two to three feet above ground; but here, where they were solely dependant on rain, they were ploughing the ground for corn. Oxen were yoked in pairs for this purpose, and the plough was small and of simple construction, so that it appeared necessary for two to follow each other in the same furrow, as they invariably did so. The husbandman, holding the plough with one hand by a handle like that of a walking-crutch, bore in the other a goad of seven or eight feet in length, armed with a sharp point of iron at one end, and at the other with a plate of the same metal shaped like a calking-chisel. One attendant only was necessary for each plough, as he who guided it with one hand spurred the oxen with the point of the goad, and cleared the earth from the ploughshare by its spaded heel with the other. The ground was every where In Syria, they had anciently small ploughs for making shallow furrows and light work, which are contrasted by Pliny with the heavy ones of Italy. Nat. Hist. 1. xviii. c. 18. extremely stony, and there were no inclosures or divisions to mark the boundaries of possessed or rented property. The dress of the peasantry resembled that of Turkey more than of Egypt; as, instead of the long blue shirt of the fellahs on the Nile, the men here wore coarse cloth-jackets, ample cotton trowsers, and coloured and tasselled turbans. The women whom we met were generally carrying burdens on their heads, and were clad with long trowsers drawn in at the ancle and tied over the chemise at the waist, with an outer robe open before and tucked up behind for the convenience of walking. They had their faces but partially covered by a handkerchief over the chin, their bosoms generally exposed, and their complexions fairer than the southern Arabs; and though invariably bare-footed, they were never destitute of silver ornaments of some kind or other on their persons. A scene entirely new to me was that of two of these female peasants, both well advanced in years, halting to perform their devotions on the public road, as I had never yet, either in Turkey, Egypt, or Arabia, once seen a woman thus employed. At eleven o'clock, continuing still along by the sea-side, we came to the foot of Ras-el-Abiad *, a promontory which derives its name from its lofty white cliffs, visible at a considerable distance, and forming one of the prominent features of the coast, as we had observed on making the Syrian shore. Here we ascended by an excellent road cut up on the north side of this cape through a white chalky soil, with flints imbedded in it, the ascent being in some places so steep as to render steps necessary. It then goes along the summit of the precipice, being in general from twelve to fifteen feet in breadth, and walled in toward the sea, where necessary, so as to render it perfectly safe. † •-literally, the White Cape, and the Cape Album of the ancients, on this coast. + "Album Promontorium ubi inter prominentes ad æstuosum mare aretus et periculosus transitus est. Tyr. 7. Bel. Sac. 22. Bonavent. Mercat. Stell." Adrichosnius. Theatrum Terræ Sanctæ, p. 2. folio. The roar of the sea below, the whitened foam of which dashes against the base of the cliffs with a violence almost felt above, and the height from whence one looks down, have something of grandeur in them, though the labour and utility of the work itself strikes one still more forcibly. Near the point of this promontory is a small square building, looking like a watchtower from afar off, but probably once a house of toll. Descending from hence to the southern foot of the hill, we entered on the remains of an ancient paved way, over which we continued to ride for half an hour, until it brought us about noon to a fountain called Ain-el-Scanderoni. * This is a modern work, the charitable gift, perhaps, of some pious Mussulman; being well built with a cistern beneath an arch, whence issue two streams, and over which is an Arabic inscription of several lines. It has, besides, a square platform walled in for prayers, shelter, or refreshment, and a flight of steps ascending to it with a dome of a sepulchre now partly buried by the falling-in of adjacent ruins. This fountain derives its name from the remains of a square fort here, now a shapeless heap of rubbish, with only a few masses of masonry remaining to identify its site; and this fort, with the road over the brow of Ras-el-Abiad, and the paved way leading from thence, are all attributed to Alexander. This place may, probably, be the Alexandroschæne of the Jerusalem Itinerary, which was situated twelve miles from Tyre, and to which this nearly agrees in distance; as well as the Scandalium of the writers on the holy wars, who admit of its being founded by Alexander, but afterwards repaired by Baldwin king of Jerusalem when he was about to undertake the siege of Tyre. I should think both of these likely to be the same place, as Pococke has supposed, but should fix them rather on the south than on the north side of the cape, and at this place of Ain-el-Scande The fountain of Alexander. roni, which would then reconcile the distance, otherwise too short, as he himself observes. * After drinking at this fountain, and watering our mules, we quitted it at twelve, and continued still along the remains of the paved way by the sea-side, observing masses of cement and gravel scattered about, and upright stones of about two feet high, with arched heads placed at short and stated distances along the edge of the road. At a quarter before one, we turned off to the left to scale a steep hill, on which stood erect a column that had attracted our attention. On reaching its summit we found a number of shafts and some Ionic capitals fallen to the ground, with vestiges of an extensive building once occupying this commanding position. From its ascending by stages of masonry, marking square enclosures, it seemed to have been a fortified station, but the pillars must have belonged to some interior buildings of convenience or elegance thus encompassed. On the sides of the hill, and behind it to the eastward, were also scattered vestiges of strong masonry, occupying altogether a considerable space of ground, sufficient to justify a presumption of its being the site of some early settlement or important military station. The name of this place at present is Om-el-Hamid, as we learnt from the peasants and from our guide; and it is probably the same that Pococke describes, where he found the remains of an ancient temple of the Ionic order in a less ruined state than it now is, to judge by his description. † We descended from hence to fall into the main road, which still continues along the fragments of the paved way, until we arrived, at half past one, at the coffee-house and farrier's shed of Nakhora. Close by this station, and still nearer the sea, is a high square tower, called Bourje-el-Nakhora, apparently an ancient structure, * See Pococke's Description of the East, in folio, 1745, vol. ii. p. 80. |