the Orontes. The hills of Libanus and
Anti-Libanus are planted from north to south, between the Orontes and
the Mediterranean; and the epithet of _hollow_ (Clesyria) was applied to
a long and fruitful valley, which is confined in the same direction,
by the two ridges of snowy mountains. Among the cities, which are
enumerated by Greek and Oriental names in the geography and conquest
of Syria, we may distinguish Emesa or Hems, Heliopolis or Baalbec, the
former as the metropolis of the plain, the latter as the capital of the
valley. Under the last of the Caesars, they were strong and populous; the
turrets glittered from afar: an ample space was covered with public and
private buildings; and the citizens were illustrious by their spirit, or
at least by their pride; by their riches, or at least by their luxury.
In the days of Paganism, both Emesa and Heliopolis were addicted to the
worship of Baal, or the sun; but the decline of their superstition and
splendor has been marked by a singular variety of fortune. Not a vestige
remains of the temple of Emesa, which was equalled in poetic style to
the summits of Mount Libanus, while the ruins of Baalbec, invisible
to the writers of antiquity, excite the curiosity and wonder of the
European traveller. The measure of the temple is two hundred feet in
length, and one hundred in breadth: the front is adorned with a double
portico of eight columns; fourteen may be counted on either side; and
each column, forty-five feet in height, is composed of three massy
blocks of stone or marble. The proportions and ornaments of the
Corinthian order express the architecture of the Greeks: but as Baalbec
has never been the seat of a monarch, we are at a loss to conceive how
the expense of these magnificent structures could be supplied by private
or municipal liberality. From the conquest of Damascus the Saracens
proceeded to Heliopolis and Emesa: but I shall decline the repetition of
the sallies and combats which have been already shown on a larger scale.
In the prosecution of the war, their policy was not less effectual than
their sword. By short and separate truces they dissolved the union of
the enemy; accustomed the Syrians to compare their friendship with their
enmity; familiarized the idea of their language, religion, and manners;
and exhausted, by clandestine purchase, the magazines and arsenals of
the cities which they returned to besiege. They aggravated the ransom of
the more wealthy, or the