Identifier: cu31924095158964 (find matches)
Title: The universal geography : the earth and its inhabitants
Year: 1876 (1870s)
Authors: Reclus, Elisée, 1830-1905 Ravenstein, Ernest George, 1834-1913 Keane, A. H. (Augustus Henry), 1833-1912
Subjects: Geography
Publisher: London : J.S. Virtue & Co., Ltd.
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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h these gigantic blocks, worked with such simplemechanical contrivances as ropes, levers, and rollers, how insignificant appear eventhe huge masses of concrete piled up on our modern breakwaters. Damascus, whose strategical and commercial position is analogous to that ofBaalbek, has not declined like the city of Coele-Syria. Formerly inferior toAntiochia alone, it is now the first city in Syria, and in the whole of AsiaticTurkey it is exceeded in population only by Smyrna. Hence its title of Esh-Sham, or Syria, as if the whole province were here concentrated. It stands inan extremely fertile and abundantly watered plain, directly facing the depressionseparating the Hermon from Anti-Libanon. Through the Bekaa it thus commandsall the northern and central positions through the Orontes and Leontes Valleys * Loret, Tour du Monde. t Stoppe, Munich Geographical Society. BAALBEK—DAMASCUS. 401 respectively. Damascus is the eye of the East, said the Emperor Julian. But llllllllimifl <a X o
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besides commanding the seaboard and connecting it commercially with the Mesopo-tamian plains, Damascus occupies a completely independent position, rendering it VOL. IX. D D 402 SOUTH-WESTEEN ASIA. self-supporting, even were its communications witli the sea entirely interrupted.During the wars of the Crusades, it was vainly attacked by the Franks, who wereadmitted into the place only for a few years in the character of allies. It was theresidence of Salah-ed-Din (Saladin) and Melek-ed-Dhaher-Bibars, the two mostrenowned opponents of the Crusaders, whose tomhs are still shown in the neighbour-hood of the great mosque. At this time Damascus was a famous centre of learning,celebrated especially for its school of medicine. Esh-Sham claims to be the oldest place in the world, and in any case it alreadyfigures in the list on the walls of Karnak amongst the cities reduced by Thotmes III.nearly three thousand eight hundred years ago. According to the Arab legend,the red soil of the surrounding

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