The name Afka is found in the ancient geography of Syria. At Aphaca,
according to Zosimus, was a temple of Venus, where the handsomest girls
of Syria sacrificed to the goddess: it was situated near a small lake,
between Heliopolis and the sea coast. [Zosim. l.i.c.58.] The lake
Liemoun is at three hours distance from Afka. I could not hear of any
remains of antiquity near Afka. All the inhabitants are Metaweli, under
the government of Jebail. Near it, towards Jebail, are the Metaweli
villages of Mghaiere, Meneitere, and Laese.

From Afka the road leads up a steep Wady. At half an hour from it is the
spring called Ain Bahr; three quarters of an hour beyond it is a high
level country, still on the western side of the summit of the mountain.
This district is called Watty el Bordj

WATTY EL BORDJ.

[p.26] [Arabic], from a small ruined tower. It is three or four hours in
length, and two in breadth. In the spring the Arabs Abid, Turkmans, and
Kourdines, here pasture their cattle. These Kourdines bring annually
into Syria from twenty to thirty thousand sheep, from the mountains of
Kourdistan; the greater part of which are consumed by Aleppo, Damascus,
and the mountains, as Syria does not produce a sufficient number for its
inhabitants. The Kourd sheep are larger than those of Syria, but their
flesh is less esteemed. The Kourd sheep-dealers first visit with their
flocks Aleppo, then Hama, Homs, and Baalbec; and what they do not sell
on the road, they bring to pasture at Watty el Bordj, whither the people
of Zahle, Deir el Kammar, and other towns in the mountains repair, and
buy up thousands of them, which they afterwards sell in retail to the
peasants of the mountains.