DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36287#0058
36
TOPOGRAPHY OF NORTHERN CENTRAL SYRIA,
We spent that night not far from Shnaah, a picturesque viiiage with mud houses
and thatched roofs. A number of iow, spreading, brown Bedawin tents were pitched
on the ground or over wails similar to, though not so high as, those of the houses.
Near the houses and tents were stacks of long reeds put out to season so that they
might serve as supports for new thatched roofs. While we were reclining on the
ground waiting for the camp to be pitched and put in good order, a stately Bedawi
approached and, saluting gracefully, offered us "marhaba" or "welcome." He had
never beheld creatures like us before, and he asked if we were from Aleppo. "No;
further west than Aleppo." "From Beirut, then?" "No; further still." "Surely
you have not come so great a distance as from Stamboul (Constantinople)?" "Yes,
and from beyond Stamboul." He held up his hands in astonishment, for he thought
that the city of the great Sultan was at the end of the earth. After reflecting a few
moments, he asked what our country was like. One of our number described in a
few words the great trees, the grass, and other things that form the superficial differ-
ence between western countries and those of the devastated Orient. He did not seem
able to grasp the ideas expressed or to picture to himself the countries described, and as
he gazed at the barren hills, their vivid browns and yellows blending into each other in
the soft evening light, he exclaimed: "But they cannot be as beautiful as my native land!"
Leaving Shna ah on December 2d in a northerly direction, we came in less than an
hour to the stream to which is given the dignified name Nahr Sadjur, or "River" Sadjur,
by the people of this well-nigh waterless country. We forded the swift stream, at that
point about fifteen meters wide and half a meter deep, and not long afterward turned
aside from the path to gain a good view of the Euphrates and its broad valley. To the
north, east, and south everything was of a mournful gray, suggesting that the valley
has been the dust-heap of the ages. The hills of Mesopotamia rose opposite, to match,
though on a grander scale, the high land on which we stood. On either side of the
broad ribbon of silver which follows a tortuous course southward are many villages
whose cone-shaped huts, resembling in a measure a group of beehives, and similar
in color to the soil of the valley, indicate their early ancestry. ^ One of them, about six
miles toward the northeast, nestles close to a large hill, or A//, formed in part by the
crumbling of the buildings of the ancient settlement. We were told that its name is
Tell Beddayi. One might imagine that the houses of the common people of the Hittite
or Assyrian town had outlived by many ages the stronghold that once guarded and
protected them from the invading enemy. These A/A or conical hills of partly artificial
origin are numerous in the Euphrates valley, and suggest that extensive excavations
throughout this region would bring to light many archaeological treasures.
lLayard: The Monuments of Nineveh, 2d series, London, :8gg, Plate 17—Kouyunjik. Conical huts of the people of
Punt are depicted on the walls of the temple of Deir el Bahari near Thebes. Cf. Zf. WhvtYZ?, The
Temple of Deir el Bahari. Egypt Exploration Fund, Part III, Plate 71.
TOPOGRAPHY OF NORTHERN CENTRAL SYRIA,
We spent that night not far from Shnaah, a picturesque viiiage with mud houses
and thatched roofs. A number of iow, spreading, brown Bedawin tents were pitched
on the ground or over wails similar to, though not so high as, those of the houses.
Near the houses and tents were stacks of long reeds put out to season so that they
might serve as supports for new thatched roofs. While we were reclining on the
ground waiting for the camp to be pitched and put in good order, a stately Bedawi
approached and, saluting gracefully, offered us "marhaba" or "welcome." He had
never beheld creatures like us before, and he asked if we were from Aleppo. "No;
further west than Aleppo." "From Beirut, then?" "No; further still." "Surely
you have not come so great a distance as from Stamboul (Constantinople)?" "Yes,
and from beyond Stamboul." He held up his hands in astonishment, for he thought
that the city of the great Sultan was at the end of the earth. After reflecting a few
moments, he asked what our country was like. One of our number described in a
few words the great trees, the grass, and other things that form the superficial differ-
ence between western countries and those of the devastated Orient. He did not seem
able to grasp the ideas expressed or to picture to himself the countries described, and as
he gazed at the barren hills, their vivid browns and yellows blending into each other in
the soft evening light, he exclaimed: "But they cannot be as beautiful as my native land!"
Leaving Shna ah on December 2d in a northerly direction, we came in less than an
hour to the stream to which is given the dignified name Nahr Sadjur, or "River" Sadjur,
by the people of this well-nigh waterless country. We forded the swift stream, at that
point about fifteen meters wide and half a meter deep, and not long afterward turned
aside from the path to gain a good view of the Euphrates and its broad valley. To the
north, east, and south everything was of a mournful gray, suggesting that the valley
has been the dust-heap of the ages. The hills of Mesopotamia rose opposite, to match,
though on a grander scale, the high land on which we stood. On either side of the
broad ribbon of silver which follows a tortuous course southward are many villages
whose cone-shaped huts, resembling in a measure a group of beehives, and similar
in color to the soil of the valley, indicate their early ancestry. ^ One of them, about six
miles toward the northeast, nestles close to a large hill, or A//, formed in part by the
crumbling of the buildings of the ancient settlement. We were told that its name is
Tell Beddayi. One might imagine that the houses of the common people of the Hittite
or Assyrian town had outlived by many ages the stronghold that once guarded and
protected them from the invading enemy. These A/A or conical hills of partly artificial
origin are numerous in the Euphrates valley, and suggest that extensive excavations
throughout this region would bring to light many archaeological treasures.
lLayard: The Monuments of Nineveh, 2d series, London, :8gg, Plate 17—Kouyunjik. Conical huts of the people of
Punt are depicted on the walls of the temple of Deir el Bahari near Thebes. Cf. Zf. WhvtYZ?, The
Temple of Deir el Bahari. Egypt Exploration Fund, Part III, Plate 71.