Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: JOURNAL TOUR FROM ALEPPO TO DAMASCUS, THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE ORONTES AND MOUNT LIBANUS, IN FEBRUARY AND MARCH, 1812. February 14/A.—JL Left Aleppo at mid-day ; and in half an hour came to the miserable village Sheikh Anszary ( fs)? where I took leave of my worthy friends Messieurs Barker and Van Masseyk, the English and Dutch Consuls, two men who do honour to their respective countries. I passed the two large cisterns called Djob Mehawad (jjU? i-), and Djob Emballat (LL ---), and reached, at the end of two hours and a half, the Khan called Touman (uly cjU),near a village of the same name, situated on the Koeyk,or river of Aleppo. The Khan is in a bad state ; Pashas no longer think of repairing public edifices. February 15th.—After a march of ten hours and a half, I arrived at Sermein, having had some difficulty in crossing the muddy plain. The neighbourhood of Sermein is remarkable for great numbers of cisterns and wells hewn in the rock : in the town every house has a similar cistern ; those in the plain serve to water the peasants' cattle in the summer, for there are no springs in these parts. On the S. E. side of Sermein is a large subterraneous vault, cut in the solid rock, divided into several apartments, and supported in various places by round pillars with coarsely wrought capitals ; near this are several other excavations, all inhabited by the poor peasants. Sermein belongs to the family of Khodsy Ef- fendy of Aleppo. February 16M.—Half an hour to the left, near our road, is an insulated hill, with the tomb of a saint, called Kubbet Denneit (iJj); the plain is here well cultivated, but nothing is sown at present between Khan Touman and Sermein. To the right of the road, on a similar hill, stands Mezar Kubbet Menebya (L Jj ; and one hour to the right, ...