| Transcript |
PHOENICIA AND LEBANON.
31
the London Waterworks Company, then by the ancient Roman aqueduct on the north bank,
where a wonderful discovery has just been made by Mr. J. Loyted, a Danish architect in Beirut,
in company with Dr. Hartmann, Chancellor of the German Consulate. On a line with the
ruined abutment of the old Roman bridge they found a series of Babylonian cuneiform
inscriptions, engraved on a rock eight metres and forty centimetres long and twelve metres in
height. The modern aqueduct (see page 37) passes above it. These inscriptions have not yet
been fully translated, but it has already been ascertained that one of them relates to the time
of Nebuchadnezzar, and his name occurs more than once upon the tablet. From this point we
cross the ancient bridge (see page 36) and observe an almost obliterated Arabic inscription at
the base of a rock on the south bank, supposed to have been the work of Sultan Selim in 1517.
Farther on towards the sea, on the left of the paved road, is a Latin inscription (of 173 a.d.)
which settles the identity of the Lycus flumen of the ancients with the Dog River, the wolf
having given place to the dog. There is another short Latin inscription of Antoninus farther
west towards the sea. On the rock-cut road round the promontory south of the Dog River
(see page 33) are to be seen the collection of Assyrian and Egyptian tablets for which this
pass has long been celebrated. There are nine tablets in all, three Egyptian and six Assyrian.
Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen has arranged them as follows :—
Date, &c.
By Rameses II., dedicated to Phtha.
By Assur-ris-ilim (?), B.C. 1140.
By Tiglath-pil-esir, B.C. 1140.
By Assur-Nazir-pal, B.C. 885.
By Shal-men-esar, B.C. 860.
By Rameses II., dedicated to Ra.
By Sennacherib, B.C. 702.
By Rameses II., dedicated to the Theban Ammon.
By Esar-haddon, B.C. 681—671.
At the top of the pass on the modern road is a pedestal, and near by it a fragment of a
Roman milestone. Here, according to tradition, once stood the statue of a dog, which gave its
name, Nahr el Kelb, to the river. Among the striking features of the pass are the old road
beds cut in the solid limestone rock by successive monarchs of antiquity. The foot holes of
the horses and the grooves worn by the chariot wheels of armies are still distinctly traceable in
the rock. Here passed Pul, Tiglath Pileser, Sesostris, Shalmaneser, Sargon, and Sennacherib;
here swarmed the hosts of Alexander the Great en route for Egypt; here passed the Romans,
the later Greeks, the Arabs, the Turks, and the Crusaders ; and here pass constantly the traders
and travellers of the East.
South of the river's mouth, riding down the coast, we cross a lofty paved bridge, pass
numerous khans and rock tombs on the right of the road, and then come down to the low cliffs
which skirt the northern shore of the Bay of Juneh. Following an old Roman road hewn in
the face of the precipice above the water, we come down on the sandy beach to the river
Ma'amiltein. This little torrent is spanned by a round arched Roman bridge in fair state of
preservation (see page 24). It is called Ma'amiltein, or " Two Districts," as it divided
Height,
ft. in.
Breadth,
ft. in.
Depth,
in.
1. Egyptian, square-headed .
2. Assyrian, square-headed
7 6
6 7
3 8
4 5
6
4i
3. Assyrian, square-headed
4. Assyrian, round-headed
5 1
6 1
2 4
2 6£
5
4i
5. Assyrian, round-headed
6 4
2 9h
5
6. Egyptian, square-headed
7. Assyrian, round-headed
. 7 6
7 3
3 8
3 8J
5i
5h
8. Egyptian, square-headed
9. Assyrian, round-headed
7 4
6
3 8
3 1
5h
6 |
