January 25th.
How is it that you never told me in any of your letters that Beirût is such a beautiful place?
I did; but you could not understand, and no wonder. Neither pen nor pencil can do justice to Beirut. Things hereabouts are on a scale so vast, and there is such an infinite variety in the details, that it is almost impossible to select, group together, and condense into reasonable limits enough to give an adequate idea of the whole.
View From a Terrace
That I can readily believe; and yet I am unwilling to pass away from Beirut without imprinting on memory's tablet a fairer, truer copy of her charming scenery than I have yet obtained.
Follow me, then, to the terrace of our house. It commands the whole prospect. The city and suburbs, as you perceive, are situated on the northern slopes of a triangular plain, whose base line is the shore, from Ras Beirut to Nahr Yâbis, some six miles toward Sidon. The perpendicular runs in eastward from the Ras about five miles to the foot of Lebanon, at the bottom of St. George's Bay. The hypothenuse is the irregular line of the mountains. The whole plain is a projection seaward from the general direction of the coast, and along the base of the hills it is so low as to appear like an island to one sailing up from Sidon. The surface rises gradually from the south to the immediate vicinity of the city, where it is about three hundred feet above the sea. Thence it falls rapidly down toward the roadstead on the north, by abrupt, irregular, and winding terraces. It is this feature that imparts such variety and beauty to the environs of Beirut.
Composition of Rocks
The substratum of this plain is everywhere a white marl, passing into compact limestone, and enclosing nodules of flint and thin seams of chert, similar to the adjoining hills of Lebanon. Upon this rests a very large formation of arenaceous, unstratified stone, easily wrought, and hence used from time immemorial for building. It is mixed with comminuted shells and corals, is very porous, and absorbs water with great rapidity, which renders the houses damp in winter. This, indeed, is almost the only defect in this otherwise admirable building stone. The quarries are to the southwest of the city, and from them a broad belt of loose, movable sand stretches inward from the shore, quite down to the point at Nahr Yâbis.
Groves and Forests
The southeastern part of the plain is one dense olive grove, the largest and most productive in Syria. In the center are beautiful pine forests, planted, or rather sowed, by successive governors at different times, from the famous Druse chief, Fakhred Dîn to Wamic Pasha, the present representative of the Sublime Porte at Beirut. There are a few orange and lemon gardens, where they can be irrigated. Figs, almonds, and apricots abound, and in certain parts
“The palm-tree rears his stately bend on high
And spreads his feathery plume along the sky”;
while the mulberry, melia, kharûb, sycamore, prickly oak, and many a tree and shrub of humbler name, cast abroad their grateful shade, and draw their green mantles over our lovely suburbs. Seen from any point, Beirût is charming. Many, however, are best pleased with the view from the roadstead north of the city.
View From the Road Stead
I am one of those. As our steamer came bravely into harbor at early dawn, the scenery was beautiful, and even sublime. Good old Lebanon, with a diadem of stars around his snowy turban, looked for all the world like some august monarch of the universe, with his head in heaven and his feet upon the sea, and I could and did salute him with profound respect;—laugh at me if you please, but I could not help it. And as morning grew into bright and glorious day, what a charming panorama was revealed all around the city!
Environs
The deep Bay of St. George sweeping around the base of the hills; the mountains of Metn and the Kesrawan on the east and northeast, rugged, steep, and lofty, shaded with pine forests, and dotted with villages, churches, and convents; the wild gorge of the Dog River, with snowy Sunnin beyond and above; the sandy ridge of Brumanah, and Deir el Kǔlâh, with the deep ravine of Nahr Beirǔt; the hills of El Ghǔrb, bold and bright against the southern sky, from Aleih to Abeîh, with hamlets, and factories, and orchards peeping over the smiling suburbs; and the city itself, with white houses seated seaward on overhanging cliffs, or grouped on showy terraces and commanding hill-tops, or stowed away along retiring glens, half revealed, now quite concealed by crowding mulberry and parasol China trees, and waving festoons of vines and cunning creepers of many colors—this, this is Beirut, with the glorious Mediterranean all around, and ships and boats of various nations and picturesque patterns sailing or at rest. You will travel far ere you find a prospect of equal variety, beauty, and magnificence.
Is Beirut mentioned in the Bible?
Beirût Not In Bible
I think not. It is possible that the Berothai of 2 Samuel 8:88And from Betah, and from Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, king David took exceeding much brass. (2 Samuel 8:8), from which David took exceeding much brass, was Beira, though that city seems to have been situated to the east or southeast of Hamath; still, since Hadadezer was either king of Damascus, or in close alliance with it, Berothai may have been her seaport, as Beirût is now; and after David had conquered Damascus, he might naturally enough cross over Lebanon to her seaport, where so much of her wealth would be collected. It is not at all likely that the Berothah mentioned in Ezekiel, 47:16, as one of the points in the northern boundary of the land of Israel, was our city; and from the similarity of names, and the apparent geographical position of both, we can scarcely doubt but that Ezekiel's Berothah and Samuel's Berothai were identical, and, of course, that neither of them was Beirût.
Conjectures
Dr. Wilson suggests that our city derived its name from Berûth, the wife of Elion, who dwelt at Byblus (Jebail); and if the chronicle of Sanchoniatho could be depended upon, I should have little hesitation in adopting the idea. This would give it a very high antiquity. This much is certain, that at the time when the fragments of Sanchoniatho were forged, if they are a fabrication, Beira was an important city, for it is repeatedly mentioned in them. Bochart and others are of opinion that the Baal-berith of Judges 8:3333And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god. (Judges 8:33) was the god Baal of the city of Berith, or Beirût. Nor is this supposition too far-fetched to merit consideration; for we know, not merely from these fragments of Sanchoniatho, but from other ancient authors, that the chief seat of Baal worship was in the regions around Byblus and Beirût. Intelligent natives say that the name is derived from beer, the word for well in nearly all the Shemitic dialects. Beira would then be “the city of wells”; and such it pre-eminently is. Almost every house has one. They vary in depth from twenty to one hundred and fifty feet, according to position.
Admirable Situation
After all that can be said, or even surmised, the student of our city's ancient story is surprised and disappointed to find her origin enveloped in such utter obscurity, and sighs for records which must once have existed, but are now forever lost. It is not to be believed that a spot so admirably adapted for a great city should have been neglected by the Phoenicians. Every foot of this densely crowded coast, and especially every available seaport, was appropriated by that enterprising people. And this is decidedly the most beautiful and healthy locality at the head of the Mediterranean. The roadstead, it is true, is better adapted to modern shipping than to that of ancient times; but still there are small inlets and sheltered coves too valuable to be overlooked on a coast where there are no good harbors. We may safely conclude, therefore, that it was occupied at a very early day by a colony, probably from Sidon, with which it has ever been closely connected. Accordingly, the earliest mention of Beirût by Greek and Latin geographers and historians implies that it was then, and had been previously, a place of importance. And this position it maintains ever after, as may be gathered from Strabo, Ptolemy, Pliny, Josephus, and other authors, both heathen and Christian.
A Roman Colony
It became a Roman colony in the reign of Augustus, and had Julia Felix added to its name. Agrippa adorned and beautified it with colonnades, porticos, theaters, baths, and other public buildings; and their remains are scattered over the gardens, and entombed beneath the rubbish of the ancient city. The number of large columns of both gray and red granite built into the quay is surprising; but a far greater number lie at the bottom of the sea in front of the town. In 1839-40, Mahmûd Bey, governor of Beirût, built a break-water entirely of these columns, fished up from the floor of the harbor. The unparalleled storm at the close of 1840 overturned this wall of columns, and spread them out again where they had been before. Probably this was only the repetition of a former attempt to protect the quay of Beira, when these columns were gathered from the ruins of the city and cast into the sea for that purpose. It is otherwise difficult to account for their being there at all. There is a tradition that Fakhr ed Dîn filled up the harbor to prevent the landing of pirates; but, if there is any foundation for the report, his work is probably to be found in the heaps of rubbish directly in front of the landing.
Theaters
It was in the theaters of Agrippa, I suppose, that Titus celebrated his own victories over Jerusalem, and his father's birthday, by gladiatorial shows, in which the miserable captives of Zion perished in great numbers, fighting with wild beasts and with one another, as Josephus informs us in the seventh book of his “Wars.”
Planting of Christianity
Though the apostles seem never to have visited Beirût—a fact somewhat remarkable—yet Christianity was early planted here, and so flourished that it soon became the seat of a bishopric. Under the Christian emperors, it continued to prosper down to the reign of Justinian. It was then one of the most celebrated seats of learning in the empire, and its law school was frequented by youth from the first families in the state. Then, as now, it was the most beautiful city on this coast. But its decline commenced under this reign.
Earthquake
On the 9th of July, A.D. 551, one of those awful earthquakes, which repeatedly shook the whole Roman world in the time of Justinian, seems to have entirely destroyed Beirût,—overthrew her colleges, churches, temples, theaters, and palaces, and buried multitudes of all classes beneath the ruins; and, although the city was rebuilt, it never regained its former magnificence. You can scarcely walk through a garden, or dig a foundation for a house, without coming upon the memorials of this dreadful calamity. It is amazing to see how deeply some of these ruins are entombed, suggesting the idea that the very terraces on which these costly structures stood were upheaved and precipitated on those below. And this corresponds with the history of that fearful time. We are told that “enormous chasms were opened, huge and heavy bodies were discharged into the air, the sea alternately advanced and retreated beyond its ordinary bounds,” and a mountain was torn from yonder bold promontory (then called Theoprosopon, and now Ras es Shukkah), and cast into the sea, where it formed a mole for the harbor of Butrōne. Perhaps the Arabic name, Ras es Shukkah—“the cape that was split open”—may be a memento and witness to this catastrophe.
Troubles in Middle Ages
During the middle ages, Beirût shared in all the troubles and revolutions which accompanied and grew out of the triumph of Mohammedanism, including the crusades of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. It was taken by Baldwin in 1110, and, during the two hundred years of Frank rule on this coast, it was several times captured and recaptured by Saracen and Christian. Since the close of the thirteenth century, few signal events have happened to vary the monotony of her story. But we must not forget to mention that exploit which was considered her greatest glory in the days of legendary lore.
St. George Here Killed the Dragon!
It was here that St. George killed the dragon; exactly when, or what particular dragon I know not, but he must have killed him, for he has never been seen since that time, and all agree that he is dead. If you doubt, I refer you to the deep bay down yonder, which owes its name to this contest on its shore. I can show you the well into which the victorious saint cast the horrid monster, and the spot where he washed his bloody hands after this dirty work was done. Not every legend of those days of facile faith is so strongly attested. In the eighth century, also, an illustrious miracle spread the name and fame of our good city far and wide. Some image-hating Hebrews, in scorn and mockery, attempted to go through the acts of the Crucifixion upon a very holy image and cross; when, as they thrust a spear into the side, to their confusion and horror, a large quantity of blood and water gushed forth. The thing is at least possible, and without resorting to supernatural interference. A little maneuvering, or a little money, could set either real or spurious Jews at work in the exact way to bring on the catastrophe. But let that pass; Beirût has no need of such doubtful claims to immortality. Judging from the scanty and indefinite notices by the pilgrims of the mediaeval ages, the number of her inhabitants varied from 5000 to 10,000, engaged in commerce, and in growing silk and oil, which for several centuries have continued to be the staple productions of this neighborhood.
Recent Progress
Within the last thirty years our city has rapidly increased in population, commerce, and wealth. When Mohammed Ali wrested Syria from the Sultan in 1830-31, he made Beira the grand quarantine station on this coast, and obliged all ships to come to her port. European merchants had already selected it for the seat of their operations, and, as the foreign consuls settled in this city, the government was led to make it the capital of the country.
Population
Thirty years ago the population was 5000, and the shops and markets were dependent for supplies on Sidon; now there are not less than 40,000 inhabitants, and Sidon is wholly dependent on Beirût. Thirty years ago there was scarcely a decent house outside of the walls; now two-thirds of the population reside in the gardens, and hundreds of convenient dwellings, and not a few large and noble mansions, adorn the charming suburbs. No city in Syria, perhaps none in the Turkish empire, has had so rapid an expansion. And it must continue to grow and prosper, with but one proviso to cast a shade of doubt upon her bright future. Should a railroad ever connect the head of this sea with the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, that will infallibly dictate where the emporium of Syria is to be. If Beirut can attract this mighty line of trade and travel to her door, she will quickly take rank among the great cities of the world; if she will not, or cannot, then must she wane before some other rising queen of the East.
Are there any antiquities about Beirut which merit attention Very few. We have columns and sarcophagi in abundance, and some of them have inscriptions which tell their own story. An ancient aqueduct has lately been discovered, cut through the rock, and passing beneath the city at Bab Yacōb. It must either have had a more permanent supply than the present, which fails in dry weather, when it is most needed, or have been connected with the great canal which brought water from. Lebanon to ancient Berytus.
Are the existing remains of this ancient work extensive?
More so than travelers, or even natives, are aware of. On the top of that dark, sandy ridge of Lebanon, to the northeast of Brŭmmanah, is a fountain of delicious water. It was conducted in stone tubes along the ridge southwest for six or eight miles to the temple that occupied the place of Deir el Kŭlah. From thence it descended the steep mountain, about fifteen hundred feet, in a direction nearly west, where it was carried over the river of Beirut on a series of lofty arches. The highest tier numbers twenty-five, and the canal upon them was one hundred and sixty feet above the bed of the river. The next tier below has fifteen arches; the third has only three, and the lowest two. The wall is twenty feet broad, and is built of well-cut stone—altogether a very imposing structure. Though carried over the river at so great an elevation, the canal meets, on the Beirut or west side, with perpendicular cliffs, and passes directly through them by a tunnel cut in the solid rock. I once crept into it for thirty or forty feet, beyond which it is choked up with rubbish. Descending to the margin of the plain, the canal was led along the base of the hills southward, past the Khan es Shîâhh, and thence westward to the vicinity of Beirût, and the water was distributed by many pipes to various parts of the city. As the plain west of Es Shîâhh is very low, the canal had to be elevated by a long line of arches, erected upon an immense wall. This was built solid throughout, of large, accurately cut stone, after the Roman style, and about forty feet broad. No traces of the arches remain, except masses of tufaceous deposit formed by the trickling of the water through the aqueduct, as is seen along the ancient canals of Tyre and Acre. The wall itself, however, was nearly entire when I first came to this country; but the rapid growth of Beirût created such a demand for building-stone that the greater part of it has been quarried and brought to the city. In this process, palm and olive trees, which had grown old upon the top, have been undermined and thrown away; and where the work of quarrying has been completed, the ground has been leveled, and orchards of mulberry-trees are now flourishing. What a pity! Beirût now greatly needs just the supply of water which this noble canal once brought to it, and a moderate expense would have restored it to its former use. But this is only one of a thousand of Syria's sad desolations. The Arabs, as a matter of course, ascribe this aqueduct to Zobeîda, a sort of Moslem St. Helena, according to popular legends, but, in historic truth, the wife of Haroun er Raschîd. It is quite impossible to ascertain who constructed it; but, whether made by Phoenicians, Greeks, or Romans, it was an admirable work, and a great blessing to Beira. The entire length cannot be less than twenty miles, and the starting-point is at least two thousand feet above the sea.