DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36287#0076
52
TOPOGRAPHY OF NORTHERN CENTRAL SYRIA,
place was Ras Baalbek. We attempted to camp there, but the wind threatened to
blow the tents down, so we sought shelter in a native house. Another native, who
claimed to be an American citizen from Atlanta, Georgia, introduced himself to us in
this village.
The wind-storm had diminished somewhat by morning, and we set out again
northward, heading for the monument of limestone called Kamu'at il-Htirmul, which
is now weathered to a rich brown. It has often been said that this peculiar structure
is of Assyrian origin, but upon examining it we noticed that it has moldings and
other details of distinctly Roman typed There are weathered bas-reliefs of oriental
character on panels on the three sides of the building which are still standing. They
represent animals and implements of the chase. The monument has a square base,
and two orders of pilasters, capitals, and moldings are built one above another to
represent, two stories. Surmounting these, and rising to a height of about sixty feet
from the ground, is a pyramid of stone. Through a breach in the south side one can
see that the structure is solid. There may be a subterranean chamber, but no indi-
cation of it was found and there seems to be no entrance to any part of the monument.
With the small amount of evidence at hand it is impossible to say what it was meant
to commemorate. The stones on the south side are insecure and in a few years it
will doubtless be demolished. I observed that it is not perfectly oriented.
For some time after this we rode about in an apparently vain search for Der Mar
Marun, or the "Convent of Saint Marun." When we finally discovered it by the aid
of a passing native, it was evident that we had ridden over it several times. We
expected to see the ruin of a building erected in memory of this noted saint, after
whom the Maronite Church is named, on a site in plain view from the surrounding
country, but it turned out to be merely a hermit's abode dug out of the cliff which
forms the eastern side of the Orontes gorge. It was being used as a house and
sheepfold by some shepherds and was extremely filthy. There are two front rooms
hewn out of the rock, with a shelf cut from the cliff for a passageway between them.
In the rear of one of these rooms and connected with it by doorways are two smaller
chambers, lighted and ventilated only by these same doorways and some small
window-openings, all leading into the larger room. In the ceiling near the front of
the latter there is a large hole which evidently served as a doorway to two or three
rooms, one above another, higher up in the cliff. In all, there are six or seven rooms
in this " convent."
That night we encamped at Rableh, the Riblah of the Old Testament." Little
interest attaches to the village to-day save with regard to its more or less accidental
i Oppenheim: Bericht tiber eine Forschungsreise in der 1904; de Vogue refers to it under the name of Hermel in a
Asiatischen Ttirkei, 1901, p. 70 and photographs. Photo- note on p. g of LaSyrieCentrale.
graphs and a good description of this monument are also 2II Kings xxiii, 33; xxv, 6; Jeremiah xxxix, g; hi, 9.
given in Records of the Past, Vol. Ill, Part viii, August,
TOPOGRAPHY OF NORTHERN CENTRAL SYRIA,
place was Ras Baalbek. We attempted to camp there, but the wind threatened to
blow the tents down, so we sought shelter in a native house. Another native, who
claimed to be an American citizen from Atlanta, Georgia, introduced himself to us in
this village.
The wind-storm had diminished somewhat by morning, and we set out again
northward, heading for the monument of limestone called Kamu'at il-Htirmul, which
is now weathered to a rich brown. It has often been said that this peculiar structure
is of Assyrian origin, but upon examining it we noticed that it has moldings and
other details of distinctly Roman typed There are weathered bas-reliefs of oriental
character on panels on the three sides of the building which are still standing. They
represent animals and implements of the chase. The monument has a square base,
and two orders of pilasters, capitals, and moldings are built one above another to
represent, two stories. Surmounting these, and rising to a height of about sixty feet
from the ground, is a pyramid of stone. Through a breach in the south side one can
see that the structure is solid. There may be a subterranean chamber, but no indi-
cation of it was found and there seems to be no entrance to any part of the monument.
With the small amount of evidence at hand it is impossible to say what it was meant
to commemorate. The stones on the south side are insecure and in a few years it
will doubtless be demolished. I observed that it is not perfectly oriented.
For some time after this we rode about in an apparently vain search for Der Mar
Marun, or the "Convent of Saint Marun." When we finally discovered it by the aid
of a passing native, it was evident that we had ridden over it several times. We
expected to see the ruin of a building erected in memory of this noted saint, after
whom the Maronite Church is named, on a site in plain view from the surrounding
country, but it turned out to be merely a hermit's abode dug out of the cliff which
forms the eastern side of the Orontes gorge. It was being used as a house and
sheepfold by some shepherds and was extremely filthy. There are two front rooms
hewn out of the rock, with a shelf cut from the cliff for a passageway between them.
In the rear of one of these rooms and connected with it by doorways are two smaller
chambers, lighted and ventilated only by these same doorways and some small
window-openings, all leading into the larger room. In the ceiling near the front of
the latter there is a large hole which evidently served as a doorway to two or three
rooms, one above another, higher up in the cliff. In all, there are six or seven rooms
in this " convent."
That night we encamped at Rableh, the Riblah of the Old Testament." Little
interest attaches to the village to-day save with regard to its more or less accidental
i Oppenheim: Bericht tiber eine Forschungsreise in der 1904; de Vogue refers to it under the name of Hermel in a
Asiatischen Ttirkei, 1901, p. 70 and photographs. Photo- note on p. g of LaSyrieCentrale.
graphs and a good description of this monument are also 2II Kings xxiii, 33; xxv, 6; Jeremiah xxxix, g; hi, 9.
given in Records of the Past, Vol. Ill, Part viii, August,