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| Title | Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt, Vol. 2 |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
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| Publisher | D. Appleton and Company |
| Date | 1883 |
| Description | Index: Phoenicia and Lebanon / by the Rev. H. W. Jessup -- The Phoenician plain / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- Acre, the key of Palestine, Mount Carmel and the river Kishon, Maritime cities and plains of Palestine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Lydda and Ramleh, Philistia / By Lt. Col. Warren -- The south country of Judaea / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- The southern borderland and Dead Sea / by Professor Palmer -- Mount Hor and the cliffs of Edom, The convent of St. Catherine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Sinai / by the Rev. C. P. Clarke -- The land of Goshen, Cairo, Memphis, Thebes, Edfu and Philae / by S. Lane-Poole. |
| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English |
| Type (DCMI) |
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| Original Item Location | DS107 .W73 v.2 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b1703789~S11 |
| Digital Collection | Exotic Impressions: Views of Foreign Lands |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/exotic |
| Repository | Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://info.lib.uh.edu/about/campus-libraries-collections/william-r-jenkins-architecture-art-library |
| Use and Reproduction | No Copyright - United States |
| Identifier | exotic_201304_015 |
| Title | Page 35 |
| Format (IMT) |
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| File Name | exotic_201304_015_051.jpg |
| Transcript | PHOENICIA AND LEBANON. 35 In i no Baldwin I., with the Crusading army, captured Beirut, and they long held it as a religious and military centre, the Maronites of Lebanon acting as a friendly barrier to the Muslim hordes of the east. Saladin occupied it for a short period, but the Christians were not permanently displaced until after the battle of Hattin, in 1187. From that time until the days of the famous Druse prince, Fakhr ed Din, it continued in obscurity. This energetic man rebuilt the city and planted new pine groves. In 1840 the English fleet bombarded the city to expel the Egyptian army of Ibrahim Pasha. In August, i860, it was occupied by six thousand French troops, sent by Napoleon III., with the consent of the European powers, to check the tide of massacre and civil war which had overwhelmed the land. The antiquities of Beirut are few. Columns of granite and porphyry are scattered everywhere, and built into the old castles at the entrance of the harbour (see page 41). Stone, earthen, and leaden sarcophagi are constantly dug up in excavating for the foundation of houses : three massive granite columns are still standing near the Russian church; old Roman mosaic floors are often uncovered; a Greek inscription is still legible over the Bab ed Dirkeh ; and a picturesque Roman aqueduct "crosses the Nahr Beirut a few minutes' ride above the stately bridge just built by H.E. Rustem Pasha. Smaller relics, such as lachrymatories, jewellery, and various articles of bronze and glass, are often discovered. The ancient coins of Beirut are adorned with various temples and porticoes, and it was once noted for its castles, of which four were standing a few years since. The most lofty and imposing, Burj el Kesshaf, stood outside the south-east corner of the old city, but was recently sold to a native merchant, who razed it to the ground for the stone. The military hospital covers the site of the old round tower, and the two remaining ones guard the entrance to the harbour. These castles were evidently built by the Crusaders from the ruins of ancient Beirut, as the foundations are laid up with granite columns from the old Roman porticoes and temples. But it is modern Beirut which is chiefly interesting to the traveller in our day. This favourite city of Justinian has become again the literary centre and pride of Syria. Here are gathered its colleges and seminaries, and its chief hospitals and churches, journals and printing presses. The American Mission, founded in 1820, preceded all other agencies in the work of education. Thousands of youths have been taught, and there are now under its care one hundred and four schools, with more than four thousand pupils, a college and medical institution, three female seminaries, and eight high schools. It has seen Beirut rise from a town of eight thousand to a city of eighty thousand. The cactus-bordered lanes have become macadamised streets of well-built houses, furnished with native-made furniture vieing with that of Europe. The native sects most hostile to education are falling under the influence of educated young men and women, and Mohammedans, Greeks, Maronites, Papal Greeks, and Jews have established schools of their own. Other foreign societies, as the British Syrian Schools, the Prussian Deaconesses of Kaiserswerth, and the Established Church of Scotland, have opened schools for girls and boys, until there are to-day in Beirut three thousand five hundred children in Protestant schools, and seven thousand in the schools of the native societies. Of the twelve |