DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36287#0068
46
TOPOGRAPHY OF NORTHERN CENTRAL SYRIA,
west of the city should be excavated. There are some caves on its eastern slope in
which a few people live. Hama stiil contains many trees, most of them poplars, which
add much to its otherwise unattractive appearance. A picturesque feature of the place
is a very large water-wheel with its aqueduct. The soothing melody given forth as
it is forced to its task by the muddy Orontes can be heard from afar.
Hama was a Hittite city, but it is notable
for other reasons as well. The kingdom
that bore its name and of which it was the
capital marked the northern limit of the land
of Israel in the days of its greatest powerd
It was involved in many conflicts with
Assyria, with the Greeks, the crusaders, the
Turks, and with the Arabs. In 636 A.D. it
fell without a struggle into the hands of
Abu 'Ubeidah and his army, representing
the Caliph 'Omard To the Greeks Hama
was known as Epiphania, so called by
Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
Early in the morning of the 14th we were in the saddle again. Going southward,
we followed the well-built road—constructed, 1 believe, by French engineers—which
passes through the great cemetery of Hama, filled with tall Mohammedan tombstones.
An odd lumbering diligence makes a daily trip on this road between Hama and Homs. ^
Before noon we approached ir-Restan, the ancient Arethusa, which marked the begin-
ning of the district of Seleucis. It is superbly located on top of a precipitous hill
which rises out of the narrow Orontes gorge. The houses of the modern village are
built in a substantial manner of black stone. They have hat roofs, whereas those of
Tell Biseh, a village five miles further south, have the Soon after ir-Restan
comes within sight as one travels south, the road makes a sharp turn and descends to
the Orontes gorge. Then it goes over the river on a stone bridge and ascends grad-
ually along a line parallel with the village to the plateau west of the Orontes.
The Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges were within view for several hours that
afternoon, and the snow on them glistened brightly in the sun. The wheat-fields,
which were then green with the winter grain; the open vineyards; and the large
hocks of sheep we passed, were evidences of the fact that this is one of the most
fertile and prosperous sections of Syria.
Before four o'clock we entered Horns, a city that is said to have 60,000 inhabitants.
1 Numbers xxxiv, 8; Joshua xiii, 5; H Samuel viii, g; 3 There {g now a railroad in operation between Hama,
I Kings viii, 6g ; II Kings xiv, 28; I Chronicles xviii, 3. Damascus, and Beirut.
2 Muir: The Caliphate, p. t^o.
A huge water-wheel, or dipping into the
Orontes at Hama.
TOPOGRAPHY OF NORTHERN CENTRAL SYRIA,
west of the city should be excavated. There are some caves on its eastern slope in
which a few people live. Hama stiil contains many trees, most of them poplars, which
add much to its otherwise unattractive appearance. A picturesque feature of the place
is a very large water-wheel with its aqueduct. The soothing melody given forth as
it is forced to its task by the muddy Orontes can be heard from afar.
Hama was a Hittite city, but it is notable
for other reasons as well. The kingdom
that bore its name and of which it was the
capital marked the northern limit of the land
of Israel in the days of its greatest powerd
It was involved in many conflicts with
Assyria, with the Greeks, the crusaders, the
Turks, and with the Arabs. In 636 A.D. it
fell without a struggle into the hands of
Abu 'Ubeidah and his army, representing
the Caliph 'Omard To the Greeks Hama
was known as Epiphania, so called by
Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
Early in the morning of the 14th we were in the saddle again. Going southward,
we followed the well-built road—constructed, 1 believe, by French engineers—which
passes through the great cemetery of Hama, filled with tall Mohammedan tombstones.
An odd lumbering diligence makes a daily trip on this road between Hama and Homs. ^
Before noon we approached ir-Restan, the ancient Arethusa, which marked the begin-
ning of the district of Seleucis. It is superbly located on top of a precipitous hill
which rises out of the narrow Orontes gorge. The houses of the modern village are
built in a substantial manner of black stone. They have hat roofs, whereas those of
Tell Biseh, a village five miles further south, have the Soon after ir-Restan
comes within sight as one travels south, the road makes a sharp turn and descends to
the Orontes gorge. Then it goes over the river on a stone bridge and ascends grad-
ually along a line parallel with the village to the plateau west of the Orontes.
The Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges were within view for several hours that
afternoon, and the snow on them glistened brightly in the sun. The wheat-fields,
which were then green with the winter grain; the open vineyards; and the large
hocks of sheep we passed, were evidences of the fact that this is one of the most
fertile and prosperous sections of Syria.
Before four o'clock we entered Horns, a city that is said to have 60,000 inhabitants.
1 Numbers xxxiv, 8; Joshua xiii, 5; H Samuel viii, g; 3 There {g now a railroad in operation between Hama,
I Kings viii, 6g ; II Kings xiv, 28; I Chronicles xviii, 3. Damascus, and Beirut.
2 Muir: The Caliphate, p. t^o.
A huge water-wheel, or dipping into the
Orontes at Hama.