DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5073#0167
156
TRIPOLI.
Saracenic doorway and the interior vaultings are good,
and worth seeing. Another castle is situated in the
pleasant valley of the Kadisha, a picturesque ruin; and
a third crowns the mountain spur ahove the town, from
whence there is a splendid view of the town and gardens,
and of the river foaming through the rocks and woods,
with the Mosque and Convent of the Derweeshes in a
fine ravine.
We amused ourselves drinking coffee and eating ice
in a cafe heside the river, listening to Arab story-tellers
declaiming romances to large groups of well-dressed
Tripolitans, seated in rows on stone divans along the
streets, smoking nargilehs, and eating the sweet, fresh
oranges which are plentiful here. The little town is a
flourishing one, with good bazaars; its best production
is, however, but little known : these are carpets made by
the peasant girls in some of the neighbouring villages.
They are very slowly made, as for each carpet the
girls, or the family, gather, prepare, spin, and dye the
wool themselves, which is then woven in patterns of
their own design — very tasteful they are, and the
colours rich and brilliant; they are very strong and
thick, as well as pretty, especially the finer sorts. They
cost from 100 to 500 piastres *, according to their
size.
The eighth morning found us outside Beyrout, where
the swell— which is ceaseless in that bay — made every
one so sick, that we were thankful to get out of the
ship, and to settle into the pleasant Hotel on the southern
headland below the town, at Eas Beyrout; this hotel is
simply, almost barely, furnished, —the open corridor is
the only general sitting-room, but the semi-naked
* From about It. to 4?.
TRIPOLI.
Saracenic doorway and the interior vaultings are good,
and worth seeing. Another castle is situated in the
pleasant valley of the Kadisha, a picturesque ruin; and
a third crowns the mountain spur ahove the town, from
whence there is a splendid view of the town and gardens,
and of the river foaming through the rocks and woods,
with the Mosque and Convent of the Derweeshes in a
fine ravine.
We amused ourselves drinking coffee and eating ice
in a cafe heside the river, listening to Arab story-tellers
declaiming romances to large groups of well-dressed
Tripolitans, seated in rows on stone divans along the
streets, smoking nargilehs, and eating the sweet, fresh
oranges which are plentiful here. The little town is a
flourishing one, with good bazaars; its best production
is, however, but little known : these are carpets made by
the peasant girls in some of the neighbouring villages.
They are very slowly made, as for each carpet the
girls, or the family, gather, prepare, spin, and dye the
wool themselves, which is then woven in patterns of
their own design — very tasteful they are, and the
colours rich and brilliant; they are very strong and
thick, as well as pretty, especially the finer sorts. They
cost from 100 to 500 piastres *, according to their
size.
The eighth morning found us outside Beyrout, where
the swell— which is ceaseless in that bay — made every
one so sick, that we were thankful to get out of the
ship, and to settle into the pleasant Hotel on the southern
headland below the town, at Eas Beyrout; this hotel is
simply, almost barely, furnished, —the open corridor is
the only general sitting-room, but the semi-naked
* From about It. to 4?.