July 6th.

We rode without halting for eight hours, sometimes through pleasant valleys, at others over barren unvarying regions, upon and between the heights of the Anti-Libanus.  At the hour of noon we reached the last hill, and

Heliopolis or Balbeck,

the “city of the sun,” lay stretched before us.

We entered a valley shut in by the highest snow-covered peaks of Lebanon and Anti-Libanus, more than six miles in breadth and fourteen or sixteen miles long, belonging to Caelosyria.  Many travellers praise this vale as one of the most beautiful in all Syria.

It certainly deserves the title of the ‘most remarkable’ valley, for excepting at Thebes and Palmyra we may search in vain for the grand antique ruins which are here met with; the title of the ’most beautiful’ does not, according to my idea, appertain to it.  The mountains around are desert and bare.  The immeasurable plain is sparingly cultivated, and still more thinly peopled.  With the exception of the town of Balbeck, which has arisen from the ruins of the ancient city, not a village nor a hut is to be seen.  The corn, which still partly covered the fields, looked stunted and poor; the beds of the streams were dry, and the grass was burnt up.  The majestic ruins, which become visible directly the brow of the last hill is gained, atone in a measure for these drawbacks; but we were not satisfied, for we had expected to see much more than met our gaze.

We wended our way along stony paths, past several quarries, towards the ruins.  On reaching these quarries we dismounted, to obtain a closer view of them.  In the right hand one lies a colossal block of stone, cut and shaped on all sides; it is sixty feet in length, eighteen in breadth, and thirteen in diameter.  This giant block was probably intended to form part of the Cyclops wall surrounding the Temple of the Sun, for we afterwards noticed several stones of equal length and breadth among the ruins.  Another to the left side of the road was remarkable for several grottoes and fragments of rock picturesquely grouped.

We had sent our horses on to the convent, and now hastened towards the ruined temples.  At the foot of a little acclivity a wall rose lofty and majestic; it was constructed of colossal blocks of rock, which seemed to rest firmly upon each other by their own weight, without requiring the aid of mortar.  Three of these stones were exactly the size of one we had seen in the quarry.  Many appeared to be sixty feet in length, and broad and thick in proportion.  This is the Cyclops wall surrounding the hill on which the temples stand.  A difficult path, over piled-up fragments of marble and pieces of rock and rubbish, serves as a natural rampart against the intrusion of camels and horses; and this circumstance alone has prevented these sanctuaries of the heathen deities from being converted into dirty stables.