I Left Hasbeya On The Same Day, And Continued To Descend The Valley On
The Side Of The River.
Half an hour from the bridge, I arrived at Souk
el Khan.
In the hills to the right is the village Kankabe. Souk el Khan
is a large ruined Khan, where the inhabitants, to the distance of one
day's journey round, assemble every Tuesday to hold a market. In the
summer they exhibit their merchandize in the open air; but in the winter
they make use of some large rooms, still remaining within the Khan. The
road to Banias leads along the valley, parallel with the course of the
river; but as I had heard of some ruins in the mountain, at a village
called Hereibe, to the east of the route, I turned in that direction,
and reached the
HEREIBE.
[p.35] village in two hours after quitting Hasbeya. Between Souk el Khan
and Hereibe lies the village Ferdous. Hereibe is considerably higher
than the river. All this neighbourhood is planted with olive-trees; and
olives, from hence to Damascus, are the most common food of the
inhabitants, who put them into salt, but they do not thereby entirely
remove the bitter taste. At Aleppo and Damascus, olives destined for the
table are immersed for a fortnight in water, in which are dissolved one
proportion of chalk and two proportions of alkali; this takes away all
bitterness, but the fruit is at the same time deprived of a part of its
flavour.
On the west side of the village of Hereibe stands a ruined temple, quite
insulated; it is twenty paces in length, and thirteen in breadth; the
entrance is towards the west, and it had a vestibule in front with two
columns. On each side of the entrance are two niches one above the
other, the upper one has small pilasters, the lower one is ornamented on
the top by a shell, like the niches in the temple at Baalbec. The door-
way, which has no decoration whatever, opens into a room ten paces
square, in which no columns, sculpture, or Ornaments of any kind are
visible; three of the walls only are standing. At the back of this
chamber is a smaller, four paces and a half in breadth, by ten in
length, in one corner of which is a half-ruined staircase, leading to
the top of the building; in this smaller room are four pilasters in the
four angles; under the large room are two spacious vaults. On the
outside of the temple, at the east corners, are badly wrought pilasters
of the Ionic order. The roof has fallen in, and fills up the interior.
The stone employed is of the same quality as that used at Heusn Nieha
and Baalbec.
From Hereibe I came to the spring Ain Ferkhan in one hour; and from
thence, in three quarters of an hour, to the village
BANIAS.
[p.36]Rasheyat-el-Fukhar, over mountainous ground. The village stands on
a mountain which commands a beautiful view of the lake Houle, its plain,
and the interjacent country. It contains about one hundred houses,
three-fourths of which are inhabited by Turks and the remainder by
Greeks. The inhabitants live by the manufacture of earthen pots, which
they sell to the distance of four or five days journey around,
especially in the Haouran and Djolan; they mould them in very elegant
shapes, and paint them with a red-earth: almost every house has its
pottery, and the ovens in which the pots are baked are common to all.
The Houle bears from Rasheyat-el-Fukhar, between S. by E. and S.E. by S.
Kalaat el Shkif, on the top of the mountain, towards Acre, E. by N. and
Banias, though not visible, S.
October 13th.--We set out in a rainy morning from Rasheyat-el-Fukhar. I
was told that in the mountain to the E. one hour and a half, were
considerable ruins. The mountains of Hasbeya, or the chain of the Djebel
Essheikh, divide, at five hours N. from the lake, into two branches. The
western, a little farther to the south, takes the name of Djebel Safat,
the eastern joins the Djebel Heish and its continuations, towards
Banias. Between the two lie the lake of the Houle and the Ard el Houle,
the latter from three to four hours in breadth. We descended from
Rasheyat-el-Fukhar into the plain, in which we continued till we reached
Banias, at the end of four hours, thoroughly drenched by a heavy shower
of rain. We alighted at the Menzel or Medhaafe; this is a sort of Khan
found in almost every village through which there is a frequented route.
Strangers sleep in the Medhaafe, and the Sheikh of the village generally
sends them their dinner or supper; for this he does not accept of any
present, at least not of such as common travellers can offer; but it is
custmary to give something to the servant or watchman (Natur) who brings
the meal, and takes care that
CASTLE OF BANAIS.
[p.37]nothing is stolen from the strangers' baggage. The district of
Banias is classic ground; it is the ancient Caesarea Philippi; the lake
Houle is the Lacus Samachonitis.
My money being almost expended, I had no time to lose in gratifying my
curiosity in the invirons of Banias. Immediately after my arrival I took
a man of the village to shew me the way to the ruined castle of Banias,
which bears E. by S. from it. It stands on the top of a mountain, which
forms part of the mountain of Heish, at an hour and a quarter from
Banias; it is now in complete ruins, but was once a very strong
fortress. Its whole circumference is twenty-five minutes. It is
surrounded by a wall ten feet thick, flanked with numerous round towers,
built with equal blocks of stone, each about two feet square.
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