volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

The Abana and Pharpar. 165
over an hour arrived at Majdal 'Anjar ; a little to the
left were the ruins of a large town which was thought
to be Chalcis.
We next passed 'Ain Jadidah, and through the
Wadi al-Karn. After leaving this pleasant little valley
the scenery became wild and savage, and the crossing
of the Sahrat Dimas was very uninteresting. The
Sahrat is a stony desert, very much like the stony
plateau between the Nile and the Great Oasis. About
4.30 we arrived at Hamah, where we changed horses
and obtained some refreshment. On leaving Hamah
we seemed to enter another world. Our road lay through
the Wadi Barada, i.e., the " Valley of' Coolness," and
from the point of entrance all the way to Damascus
the drive was most pleasant. Wherever the waters of
the Barada reached there were gardens and groves of
trees of all the usual kinds found in Syria, and large
patches of cultivation, which stretched right out to the
edge of the desert. Damascus owes so much to the
Barada^ {i.e., the Amanah, or Abhanah, of 2 Kings v,
12) and its fine water that there is some excuse for
Naaman's boast that " Abana and Pharpar,* rivers of
Damascus " were " better than all the waters of Israel."
Half an hour after we left Hamah we passed Dummar,
a suburb of Damascus where rich Damascenes live,
and then for some miles we drove through beautiful
plantations and gardens, and suddenly the minarets and
cupolas of the great mosque of Damascus came into view.
Crossing the Barada we skirted SMihiyah, another suburb
of Damascus, and then passing over a region intersected
with many little canals we entered Damascus a little
after sunset, when the after-glow was beautifying everything
it fell upon. The terminus of the French road
was near the Hotel Dimitri, and there I went with my
belongings.
' The Chrysorrhoas of Greek writers.
• The Nahr Barbar of the Arabs. Robinson [Bihl. Researches, iii,
p. 447 f.) and others have identified the Parpar of the Bible with the
'Awaj or "crooked " river into which it flowed.