HAMAH.
146
called El Shyhy (), was to our right; at three hours, we passed
the village El Djadjye (), distant from the left of the road a
quarter of an hour; and near it the village El Kasa. The fertile
soil now begius to be well cultivated. In four hours we reached
Hamah, where we alighted, at the house of Selym Keblan, one of
the Mutsellim’s secretaries, the most gentlemanly Levantine I had
yet known.
Hamah is situated on both sides of the Orontes; a part of it
is built on the declivity of a hill, and a part in the plain ; the
quarters in the plain are called Hadher () and El Djissr;
those higher up El Aleyat (le), and El Medine. Medine is
the abode of the Christians. The town is of considerable extent, ¬
and must contain at least thirty thousand inhabitants, of
whom the Greek families, according to the Bishop’s information, ¬
are about three hundred. In the middle of the city is a
square mound of earth, upon which the castle formerly stood ;
the materials, as well as the stones with which it is probable that
the hill was faced, have been carried away and used in the erection ¬
of modern buildings. There are four bridges over the Orontes ¬
in the town. The river supplies the upper town with water
by means of buckets fixed to high wheels (Naoura 5,5), which
empty themselves into stone canals, supported by lofty arches on a
level with the upper parts of the town. There are about a dozen
of the wheels; the largest of them, called Naoura el Mohammedye, -
is at least seventy feet in diameter. The town, for the
greater part, is well built, although the walls of the dwellings, a few
palaces excepted, are of mud ; but their interior makes amends for
the roughness of their external appearance. The Mutsellim resides ¬
in a seraglio, on the banks of the river. I enquired in vain
for a piece of marble, with figures in relief, which La Roque saw;
but in the corner of a house in the Bazar is a stone with a num
