The traveler who has crossed the settled, and more or less populous, coast range of northern Syria and descended into the narrow fertile valley of the Orontes, encounters in any farther journey toward the east an irregular range of limestone hills lying north and south and stretching to the northeast almost halfway to the Euphrates. These hills are about 2,500 feet high, rising in occasional peaks from 3,000 to 3,500 feet above sea level. They are gray and unrelieved by any visible vegetation. On ascending into the hills the traveler is astonished to find at every turn remnants of the work of men's hands, paved roads, walls which divided fields, terrace walls of massive structure. Presently he comes upon a small deserted and partly ruined town composed of buildings large and small constructed of beautifully wrought blocks of limestone, all rising out of the barren rock which forms the ribs of the hills. If he mounts an eminence in the vicinity, he will be still further astonished to behold similar ruins lying in all directions. He may count ten or fifteen or twenty, according to the commanding position of his lookout. From a distance it is often difficult to believe that these are not inhabited places; but closer inspection reveals that the gentle hand of time or the rude touch of earthquake has been laid upon every building. Some of the towns are better preserved than others; some buildings are quite perfect but for their wooden roofs which time has removed, others stand in picturesque ruins, while others still are level with the ground. On a far-off hilltop stands the ruin of a pagan temple, and crowning some lofty ridge lie the ruins of a great Christian monastery. Mile after mile of this barren gray country may be traversed without encountering a single human being. Day after day may be spent in traveling from one ruined town to another without seeing any green thing save a terebinth tree or two standing among the ruins, which have sent their roots down into earth still preserved in the foundations of some ancient building. No soil is visible anywhere except in a few pockets in the rock from which it could not be washed by the torrential rains of the wet season; yet every ruin is surrounded with the remains of presses for the making of oil and wine. Only one oasis has been discovered in these high plateaus.