'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.' [‎508] (597/905)

508
SUEIDA AND ZAELE.
[CHAP. XX.
Ruins at ment of the plain on the eastern side, and near a copious
Sueida,. spring; the ruins are about half-an-hour's ride in circum
ference, and they contain a number of ancient houses with
very low stone doors ; l some inscriptions are also found there.
The former town is seated on a declivity of some high ground
on the western side of Jebel Haouran, and its ruins cover a
space of nearly four miles in circumference. It is supplied
with water from several Birkets, two of which are very large ;
and a good deal of cotton and tobacco are grown by the
Druses, who partially occupy the ancient buildings; of these
there remains part of a street with arches, apparently for shops
on each side. The ruins consist of part of a temple like that
of Kanouat, with a crescent-shaped building, probably once a
fountain, containing three niches. There is also a solid struc
ture 30 feet square and 26 feet high, with six Doric pilasters
on each side. There may have been an entrance and a sepul
chre in this part of the building, and the roof probably
terminated pyramidically. The angles, and not the sides, of
the structure face the cardinal points of the horizon, and there
is a Greek inscription on the north-eastern wall; several
other inscriptions occur in different parts of the ruins, and
one of them is in Hebrew.
Remains at On the south-eastern slope is the ruined town of Maaz, in
Ayeen. a ver y romantic and secluded spot, shaded by willows, 2 and
almost five miles south-eastward is Ayeen, which contains
about 400 families, with two springs walled in, and the re
mains of four public buildings, 3 on one of which there is a
Greek inscription. Ruined walls, which probably at one time
enclosed orchards and gardens, continue about six miles south
ward to German, anciently Philippopolis, whose ruins are some
what more extensive than those of Maaz. There is a spring at
this place, and several inscriptions. Nearly six miles S.S.W.
is the commanding castle and ruined town of Szaalkhat,
which contains upwards of 800 houses ; 4 and eight miles far
ther, nearly in the same direction, is Kerege, a ruined town,
1 Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, p. 93.
8 Ibid., p. 95. 3 Ibid., p. 97. 4 Ibid., p. 101.