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29 September 1879 — Baalbek | |
Monday. 29th September [1879]. We breakfasted early & went into a nice house near the hotel belonging to a family called Moultran where some of our party had been lodged. I think they are Armenians. The eldest girl was very nice looking & spoke beautiful French & had been educated by the “Soeurs.” We had coffee & nargilehs & then went on foot to the great ruins of the Temple of Baal wh are still most magnificent. It is surrounded by an Arab fortress & one only gets in by a long underground kind of passage. The remains of the Temples are so vast that at first one can hardly take it in. Successive earthquakes have shaken down some of the massive pillars but many lean still against the building just as tho’ they were reeds. It was very hot & I got into the shade of the tent and made a pencil sketch of some of the ruins. Alice was anxious to try riding on a camel so one was brought but she very soon wished to come off it as the movement makes one sea sick. At 12 o’cl: we got on our poneys & rode to a spot called Ras el ain or the springs. There we found a beautiful tent pitched by the water & we had luncheon. Afterwards I sketched & others slept & so the time passed till towards eveng when we returned to the Temples & walked abt outside the fortress walls & the ruins. We dined in the tents near the temples & when it got dark beacons were lighted in all directions & the moon rose. It was so bright that it seemed almost like day. I went into the large temple & it was most curious to see one side of it lighted up with the white rays of the moon & the other in deepest gloom. It made one think of many things– The temple is so perfect all but its roof one cd almost imagine one wd see a procession of priests come sweeping from some corner carrying the sacred fire. When it was time to go home we went in a kind of procession men carried the lighted beacons in front of us & it had a very weird look & so we went back to the hotel. | |
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