volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

i6o Lebanon Pass.
authority on Phoenicia and its history and archaeology
as Movers. Like all the other great German scholars
I met between 1880 and 1890, Noldeke, Rodiger, Dillmann,
Hoffmann, Schrader, Merx, Socin and others,
he was very modest and gave me the information he
had to give ungrudgingly.
On my return to Berut I found that there was a seat
vacant in the diligence which was going to leave the
following morning for Damascus, and I secured it.
We left the hotel at 4 a.m. and travelled smoothly and
in comparative comfort, although the space allowed
inside the coach per passenger was not excessive. But
the vehicle itself was in good condition, and the animals
looked as if they were fed regularly and sometimes
groomed ; it was drawn by six animals, three horses
and three mules. The road to Damascus, seventy
miles long, was made by French engineers soon after
i860, and it had been well maintained ; it was, I believe,
at that time the only good road in all Syria. It was
quite dark when we left for Damascus and very cold,
so little could be seen of the country through which we
drove. When the day broke we saw that the road ran
practically parallel with the old mule track, on which
were many native travellers who could not afford to
pay for permission to use the French road. When we
began to ascend the slopes of Lebanon our pace decreased
considerably. The growing light revealed a well cultivated
country, and some of the views, especially thofee
westward, were very beautiful. After passing 'Areyah
the road winds the whole way to Maksah. We passed
Kh4n Jamhur, Khan Budekh^n and Khan Sufar and soon
afterwards we entered country which was to all intents and
purposes a desert. The top of the Lebanon Pass is marked
by Khan Mizhir, and from this point we obtained magnificent
views in all directions, in the west the sea, in
the north-east Ba'albak, and in the south Mount
Hermon were easily visible. After Khan Murad the
road ran by the side of the mountain and after passing
Maksah we skirted the northern end of Al-Baka'a, i.e.,
the plain between Lebanon and Anti Lebanon. At