The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Fourth: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Egypt and the Holy LandKnox, Thomas Wallace
General
The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Fourth: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Egypt and the Holy Land
Knox, Thomas Wallace
Egypt -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature; Palestine -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
"We drove to the principal hotel, and our ride was at an end. After
arranging our toilets, for which we found ample materials in the welcome
trunks that had been sent from Jaffa, we went out for a view of Beyroot.
"We found the streets were not unlike those of Jaffa, Jerusalem, or
Damascus in their general features, so far as the old part of the city
is concerned. We had expected this, and therefore were not
disappointed; but we had not expected to find the streets in the new
part of Beyroot as wide and handsome as they are. The place has an
appearance of prosperity and activity more than any other we have seen
since leaving Alexandria; it has a large European population, and a good
many factories, business houses of various kinds, and kindred
establishments, all conducted by foreigners. The entire population is
said to be more than eighty thousand, and some authorities declare it to
be little, if any, short of one hundred thousand. About a third of the
inhabitants are Moslems; the remaining two-thirds include native
Christians, Jews, Druses, and a good many foreign nationalities.
"Beyroot is the ancient Berytus, and some authorities identify it with
Berothah or Berothai of the Bible. It is a very old city, as we have no
distinct record of the time when it was founded, and it is known to have
been destroyed and rebuilt one hundred and forty years before the
Christian era. It has always been a fairly prosperous city, but the
period of its greatest advance has been within the past twenty years.
"We hired a carriage for a drive along the coast to Nahr el-Kelb--Dog
River--passing the spot where St. George killed the dragon. If you have
any doubt about the truth of the story, you can be convinced by
borrowing an English twenty-shilling piece and studying the picture of
the performance represented on one side of the coin. Dog River runs
through a rocky ravine, and on its sides there are Greek, Roman,
Assyrian, and Egyptian inscriptions. They are supposed to commemorate
the occupation of the country by the armies of the various nations
represented: the Assyrian sculptures are estimated to date back at least
twenty-five centuries, while the Egyptian are of a period at least six
hundred years older.
[Illustration: MISSION SCHOOL IN SYRIA.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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