1907.] 



BUTLER— ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION TO SYRIA. 183 



The barren wastes of central Syria are not to be thought of as 

 flat and sandy plains ; the region is mountainous in most parts, 

 though, as one goes further east, the hills are lower and the country 

 becomes more of a rolling nature. The mountain districts, where 

 the most important remains are found, present a formation not 

 unlike our own Berkshires in Massachusetts, or the mountains of 

 Pennsylvania, but where our own hills are covered with verdure 

 and capped with forests, the hill country of Central Syria is stripped 

 of soil, devoid of verdure, barren of forests and practically water- 

 less. The north is a rocky, mountain waste of limestone, naked to 

 the sky ; the south is a rolling sea of black basalt. 



This whole region, now sparsely settled or wholly deserted, was, 

 in ancient times, the seat of a highly developed civilization, and 

 thickly populated. There are extensive remains here of cities, large 

 and small, of military posts and excellent roads, all in a remarkable 

 state of preservation, witnessing to the former wealth and impor- 

 completely exposed for the examination of the explorer, and their 

 tance of this desert land. These remains are not buried ; they stand 

 state of ruin has been brought about solely by earthquakes. 



A hundred questions arise as to how a fertile country could be 

 reduced to the condition of a desert in fifteen hundred years, and 

 a long paper, even a book, might be prepared, attempting to give 

 an explanation. All that I can say now is that there is abundant 

 evidence to prove, first, that the region was thickly settled — twenty 

 large sites, all deserted, can be counted from the top of one high 

 hill ; second, that there was soil where now there is none, for the 

 hillsides were terraced up with high walls behind which there is 

 now hardly a cupful of earth ; third, that there was water in the 

 stream beds that are now always dry — aqueducts, washing places, 

 bridges and stepping stones show this ; fourth, that grapes and 

 olives were extensively grown, for thousands of wine and oil presses 

 are to be found near the deserted towns ; and fifth, that wood was 

 abundant, for timbers of large size were too extensively employed 

 in the architecture to permit of their having been imported. What- 

 ever other agencies may have operated to reduce this country to 

 its present state, I believe that the cutting of forests aided and 

 hastened the end. 



