'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎454] (539/905)

454
BATRUN.
[CHAP. XIX.
count of Toulouse, the Crusaders failed before this place in
1099; they subsequently succeeded, but it was retaken by
Salah-ed-din in 1187. 1 Batrun, the next district, contains a
small town of the same name, with a port and 300 or 400
houses, chiefly belonging to Maronites, with a few which are
occupied by Greeks and Turks; it is subject to the Emir
Beshir, and probably is the site of ancient Bostrys. 2
District of Eastward of the three preceding tracts, from north to
Jfil Kataa. Jlil •» i i • • r* . _ _
Dannye, and south, aie the districts of El Kataa, El Akura^ and Tscliubbet-
Bshirrai. el-Meneitere, one of the principal seats of the Mitaulis: these
are covered with wild rocks, terraces, shrubs, scattered trees,
and patches of cultivation. To the eastward of the first, which
is inhabited chiefly by Greeks, is the extensive tract of El
Dannye, and higher in the same direction, the great mountain
amphitheatre of Bshirrai', which contains a Maronite village
of the same name, having 120 houses and 7 churches, sur
rounded by gardens of mulberries and other fruits; and on its
southern slope is Kanubin, the summer residence of the
Maronite Patriarch. This remarkable monastery overhangs
a precipitous rock, in the upper part of which, in addition to
a church dedicated to the Virgin, and some 40 or 50 cells for
the monks, a sepulchral grotto has been excavated for the
deceased patriarchs, and another for the priests. On the
opposite side is the pretty village of Eden; and higher up in
a valley at the eastern side, are the remains of the celebrated
forest already mentioned, from whence Solomon was supplied
with cedars. Five of very large, about 50 of tolerable
growth, and 200 or 300 of small size still remain ; but stunted
cedars are common in other parts of the Lebanon, 3 and pro
bably are indigenous.
El Hermii,&c. On the opposite slopes towards Baalbek is the tract called
El Hermii, which is partly inhabited by Kurds, and contains
the sources of the Nahr-el-A'si, or western Orontes; and on
the other side of the chain, in the same latitude, is the tract
of El Dunniyeh, which stretches from Jebel Akkar westward
1 Mill's Hist, of the Crusades, vol. I., pp. 234, 442
2 Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, p. 178.
3 See above, page 387.