did not enter, being afraid that the water falling on all sides might
extinguish the only candle that I had with me. Below this upper passage,
another dark one is visible through the water as it falls down. The
aqueduct continues beyond the hole through which I descended, as far as
the spot where the water issues from under the earth. Above ground, at a
small distance from the spring, and open towards it, is a vaulted room,
built in the rock, now half filled with stones and rubbish.

Ten or twelve years ago, at the time when the plague visited

DEIR EL AKHMAR

[p.17]these countries and the town of Baalbec, all the Christian
families quitted the town, and encamped for six weeks around these
springs.

From Djoush we crossed the northern mountain of the valley, and came to
Wady Nahle, near the village of Nahle, situated at the foot of the
mountain, and one hour and a half E.b.N. from Baalbec. There is nothing
remarkable in the village, except the ruins of an ancient building,
consisting at present of the foundations only, which are strongly built;
it appeared to me to be of the same epoch as the ruins of Baalbec. The
rivulet named Nahle rises at one hour's distance, in a narrow Wady in
the mountain. The neighbourhood of Baalbec abounds in walnut trees; the
nuts are exported to Zahle and the mountains, at two or two and a half
piastres per thousand.

In the evening we left Baalbec, and began to cross the plain in the
direction of the highest summit of Mount Libanus. We passed the village
of Yeid on the left, and a little farther on, an encampment of Turkmans.