Beaufort, Emily Anne: Egyptian sepulchres and Syrian shrines: including some stay in the Lebanon, at Palmyra and in Western Turkey ; in 2 vol. (Band 2) (London, 1862)

EGYPTIAN SEPULCHEES

AND

SYEIAN SHBINES.

CHAPTER XVI.

STRONGHOLDS OF NATURE AND ART.

E stood much in need of rest after our return from

v ? Tadmor, and we were not sorry to spend a few days
in the hotel, varying our time with pleasant rides in
the suburbs of the city—the justly famous gardens of
Damascus. We are told that one might take a new
ride every day for four months among these charming
groves, fields, and orchards, with pleasant-looking vil-
lages every here and there: the roads, too, are mostly
excellent, and there are many fine views of the city to
be seen from between the trees. A net-work of little
canals and channels of water extends over all the culti-
vated plain, cooling the air and soothing the ear with
the pleasant murmuring of the streamlets to which all
the glorious verdure is owing; miles and miles of those
tiny rivers are spread over the ground, every one
coming originally from the Barrada, the river whose
course we had followed from 'Ain Fijeh. This river is
the Abana of Scripture, which Naaman considered, with
natural pride, as fine a river as any in Israel; the
VOL. II. B