DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36287#0027
PALMYRA AND THE REGION OF THE HAURAN
5
1 he marshy plain into which we descended from the Anranus range, called now il-
Amk, was known in former times as Amykion Pediond Still earlier, in the days of
Assyrian domination, it was called Unqi, and it is recorded that in the year 876 n.c.
Ashur-Natsir-Pal III crossed the river Apri (Nahr 'Afrin) into Unqi and conquered
Runalua, the capital of Lubarna, king of Patin, a small monarchy west of the
Orontesd
1 his plain witnessed in 273 A.D. one of the series of defeats indicted upon Zenobia,
queen of Palmyra, by Aurelian.
Uvidence of later occupation of the region is to be seen in Kal At Baghras, a Moham-
medan ruin which is rapidly crumbling away. The Arab geographer Idrisi describes
it as "Hisn (Fort of) Baghras, where there is a Friday mosque and a great popula-
tion. It lies on the road to the Frontier Fortresses,on the northern boundary of Syria.
It is near the foot of the eastern slope of the mountains, and not far south of the great
highway.
Ihe famous Antioch, variously known as the "Oueen of the East," "Antioch the
Beautiful,' the "City of God," and by still other glorious names, was once considered
the third city of the world, only less than Rome and Alexandria in size and splendor,
and until the rise of Constantinople was actually the chief city of the East, but it is
now a squalid town which is said to have some 30,000 people crowded into its narrow
limits. Some claim that it has less than one-third that number. Only a few shape-
less traces of its great buildings of early days are to be seen. Successive wars and
earthquakes and other agencies have played havoc with the city and the great fortress
on the hill to the south. Much of the stone used in the modern barracks and other
government buildings was taken from the ruins of the great basilica and of other
important structures.
Antioch was an important Christian center in the early days of our era. The disciples
were for the first time called "Christians" there/and Saint Paul began there his sev-
eral missionary journeys.''
1 he modern town has few notable features. The houses, built of stone for the most
putt, are small and packed closely together. They are, as a rule, two stories in
height. Some of them have the upper story projecting over the narrow street, while
many have the latticed windows which are so characteristic of oriental cities projecting
stdl further until they sometimes nearly meet the windows of the houses opposite.
These projections serve effectually to darken the thoroughfare below. The streets, or
passages as they may more properly be termed, intersect each other at all angles.
Carts cannot go along many of them, for about two-thirds of the space between the
Of. Gazetteer. 3 Le Strange: Palestine under the Moslems, p. 407.
"Paton: Syria and Palestine, p. 200; Sayce: "The ^Actsxi, 26.
Standard Inscription of Assur-Natsir-Pal," in Records of ^ Acts xiii, xiv, xv, etc.
the Past, New Series, II. 170.
5
1 he marshy plain into which we descended from the Anranus range, called now il-
Amk, was known in former times as Amykion Pediond Still earlier, in the days of
Assyrian domination, it was called Unqi, and it is recorded that in the year 876 n.c.
Ashur-Natsir-Pal III crossed the river Apri (Nahr 'Afrin) into Unqi and conquered
Runalua, the capital of Lubarna, king of Patin, a small monarchy west of the
Orontesd
1 his plain witnessed in 273 A.D. one of the series of defeats indicted upon Zenobia,
queen of Palmyra, by Aurelian.
Uvidence of later occupation of the region is to be seen in Kal At Baghras, a Moham-
medan ruin which is rapidly crumbling away. The Arab geographer Idrisi describes
it as "Hisn (Fort of) Baghras, where there is a Friday mosque and a great popula-
tion. It lies on the road to the Frontier Fortresses,on the northern boundary of Syria.
It is near the foot of the eastern slope of the mountains, and not far south of the great
highway.
Ihe famous Antioch, variously known as the "Oueen of the East," "Antioch the
Beautiful,' the "City of God," and by still other glorious names, was once considered
the third city of the world, only less than Rome and Alexandria in size and splendor,
and until the rise of Constantinople was actually the chief city of the East, but it is
now a squalid town which is said to have some 30,000 people crowded into its narrow
limits. Some claim that it has less than one-third that number. Only a few shape-
less traces of its great buildings of early days are to be seen. Successive wars and
earthquakes and other agencies have played havoc with the city and the great fortress
on the hill to the south. Much of the stone used in the modern barracks and other
government buildings was taken from the ruins of the great basilica and of other
important structures.
Antioch was an important Christian center in the early days of our era. The disciples
were for the first time called "Christians" there/and Saint Paul began there his sev-
eral missionary journeys.''
1 he modern town has few notable features. The houses, built of stone for the most
putt, are small and packed closely together. They are, as a rule, two stories in
height. Some of them have the upper story projecting over the narrow street, while
many have the latticed windows which are so characteristic of oriental cities projecting
stdl further until they sometimes nearly meet the windows of the houses opposite.
These projections serve effectually to darken the thoroughfare below. The streets, or
passages as they may more properly be termed, intersect each other at all angles.
Carts cannot go along many of them, for about two-thirds of the space between the
Of. Gazetteer. 3 Le Strange: Palestine under the Moslems, p. 407.
"Paton: Syria and Palestine, p. 200; Sayce: "The ^Actsxi, 26.
Standard Inscription of Assur-Natsir-Pal," in Records of ^ Acts xiii, xiv, xv, etc.
the Past, New Series, II. 170.