CAPE BLANCO-SCALE TYRIORUM. 363 caught by the servants while pitching their tent. Happily we escaped without being assailed by these venomous creatures, at any time; but were aroused from our slumbers at night, by an outery from Hassenein, who came rushing into the tent, asserting that he had been stung on his hand. I instantly administered to him a dose of ammonia (which he deemed almost as bad as the mischief he professed to have sustained,) and sent him to his tent again. In the morning I inquired, and found he had not been really stung, but had probably in his sleep been punctured by thistles, which were abundant; and his fears had given them the form of scorpions. In former journeys he had been really bitten, and suffered very seriously. So great was his habitual dread, that once when I gave him a bottle to stow away, in which I had preserved one of these reptiles in brandy, he actually threw it on the ground in terror, as if the dead creature could attack him through the glass. the The temperature was very high during this part of the journey; but I had broken my thermometer, and could not continue to register the daily state of the atmosphere. It was often very trying to the strength and spirits. On quitting Ayùn el Masergi, we continued for a short time across a level surface, still within sound and sight of the Mediterranean waves, and soon arrived at the far-famed rocky promontory— the Album Promontorium, or Cape Blanco. It is a mighty mass of limestone, and ascends precipitously from the brink of sea, whose restless breakers dash around its base. Our road to Tyre lay over this vast rock. The pass itself is called Scale Tyriorum, and is said to have been the work of Alexander the Great. Whether or not, it assuredly was the work of an enterprising and bold spirit. It looked very formidable as we began the ascent; but the way on the southern side was easy, compared with what awaited us on the northern. From the summit, the view was magnificent, and we were enabled to catch our first distant view of Tyre. After pausing a few minutes, we began the descent. The way is cut in stairssteep and difficult. It must have been a work of immense labor and cost. Sometimes the path lay on the very brow of the rock, overlooking the sea from a frightful perpendicular height-guarded only by a low natural parapet of rock. With any horses but those of the country, I think I could not have dared to attempt the pass: but our poor animals performed admirably, and brought us on the shore beyond in perfect safety, and without even a false step. The way towards Tyre was now easy enough. There were no objects of particular interest to claim our attention, till within about an hour of the city, when we turned off a little eastward, for the purpose of exploring some remarkable artificial and ancient curiosities, consisting of fountains and reservoirs, originally intended to supply Tyre with fresh water by means of an aqueduct. They are called Ras-el-Ayun (the head of the fountain). Their unquestionable antiquity, and the admi. rable quality of the workmanship, the solidity of which is quite unimpaired by time, invest them with a peculiarity of interest. They appear not to have undergone the least change since Maundrell visited them in 1697. I therefore subjoin his description, as being more minute and satisfactory than I am capable of giving." * "RAS-EL-AYUN is a place where are the cisterns called Solomon's, supposed, according to the common tradition hereabouts, to have been made by that great king, as a part of his recompence to king Hiram, for the supplies of materials sent by him towards the building of the Temple. They are doubtless very ancient, but yet of a much later date than what this tradition ascribes to them. That they could not be built till since Alexander's time, may be conjectured from this, among other arguments-because the aqueduct, which conveys the water from hence to Tyre, is carried over the neck of land by which Alexander in his famous siege of this place joined the city to the continent; and as the cisterns cannot well be imagined to be ancienter than the aqueduct, so one may be sure the aqueduct cannot be older than the ground it stands on. Of these cisterns, there are three entire at this day, one about a furlong and a half distant from the se the other two a little further up. The former is of an octagonal figure twenty-two yards in diameter. It is elevated above the ground nine yards on the south side, and six on the north, and within is said to be of an unfathomable deepness; but ten yards of line confuted that opinion. Its wall is of no better inaterial than gravel and small pebbles; but consolidated with so strong and tenacious a cement, that it seems to be all one entire vessel of rock. Upon the brink of it, you have a walk all round eight feet broad. From which, descending by one step on the south side, and by two on the north, you have another walk twenty-one feet broad. All this structure, though so broad at the top, is yet made holow, so that the water comes in underneath the walks; insomuch that I could not, with a long rod, reach the extremity of the cavity. The whole vessel contains a vast RAS-EL-AYUN-TYRE. 365 We spread our carpets at noon under a noble fig tree, in the midst of a large plantation of tobacco a matter of diligent cultivation in the neighborhood of Tyre and elsewhere. It grows very luxuriantly, and is, I believe, held in esteem. After taking our accustomed rest and refreshment we advanced; and another hour brought us to the gates of Tyre. Tyre is an object of the deepest interest, not only on account of its ancient splendor and political importance, but also, and more especially, on account of the fulness and minuteness of the prophecies directed against it, which have been fulfilled with the greatest exactness. Tyre, as we now behold it, is as it were, a permanent, living witness to the truth of God-a hoary monitor-speaking forth from its desolation to us and to men of all ages and climes. Those who would rightly appreciate Tyre in this point of view, and understand the value of modern descriptions of it, should carefully study Isaiah xxiii. and Ezek. xxvi. xxvii. xxviii. My limits, as well as the plan and intention of this work, forbid all attempt at an exposition of these prophecies. But-is there any need? has not every prediction become history? Tyre was the capital of the ancient Phoenicia, and enjoyed more commercial prosperity than any city of the known world. It was built by the Sidonians, after their conquest by the Philistines of Askelon, two hundred and forty years at least before the erection of Solomon's temple; hence it is callbody of excellent water; and is so well supplied from its fountain, that though there issues from it a stream like a brook, driving four mills between this and the sea, yet it is always brim full. On the east side of this cistern was the ancient outlet of the water, by an aqueduct raised about six yards from the ground, and containing a channel one yard deep. But this is now stopped up, and dry; the Turks having broke an outlet on the other side, deriving thence a stream for grinding their corn. An aqueduct now dry, is carried eastward about one hundred and twenty paces, and then approaches the other two cisterns, of which one is twelve and the other twenty yards square. These have each a little channel, by which they anciently rendered their waters into the aqueduct; and so the united streams of all the three cisterns were carried together to Tyre.. The foun tain of these waters is as unknown as the contriver of them. It is certain from their rising so high, they must be brought from some part of the mountains, which are about a league distant; and it is as certain that the work was well done at first, seeing it performs its office so well, at so great a distance of time." Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem. in 1697. |