KANOUAT.
-ACIN CWCTIN O A.A
TON Ce IIOOOTNA
ETON Ie MFNI...
Round a pedestal, which now serves to support one of the
columns in the front of the Sheikh’s house, is the following:
ONIAAOCXZEIZQCHIOCACICIA. On the side of the pedestal is
a figure of a bird with expanded wings, about one foot high, and
below it is a man’s hand grasping at something.
Near the Sheikh’s house stands a colonnade of Corinthian
columns, which surrounded a building, now entirely in ruins, but
which appears to have been destined for sepulchres, as there are
some small arched doors, quite choaked up, leading to subterraneous ¬
apartments.
November 17th.—We rode to the ruined city called Kanouat
), two hours to the N. E. of Soueida; the road lying through
a forest of stunted oaks and Zarour trees, with a few cultivated
fields among them. Kanouat is situated upon a declivity, on the
banks of the deep Wady Kanouat, which flows through the midst
of the town, and whose steep banks are supported by walls in several ¬
places. To the S. W. of the town is a copious spring. On
approaching Kanouat from the side of Soueida, the first object
that struck my attention was a number of high columns, upon a
terrace, at some distance from the town ; they enclosed an oblong
square fifteen paces in breadth, by twenty-nine in length. There
were originally six columns on one side, and seven on the other,
including the corner columns in both numbers; at present six
only remain, and the bases of two others ; they are formed of six
pieces of stone, and measure from the top of the pedestal to the
base of the capital twenty-six feet; the height of the pedestal is
five feet ; the circumference of the column six feet. The capitals ¬
are elegant, and well finished. On the northern side was an
