ASIA. 



is traversed from north to south by two moun- 

 tain-chains, inclosing a valley, which, in the south, 

 where it is occupied by the Dead Sea, sinks 

 below the level of the Mediterranean. Like the 

 rest of Western Asia, it suffers from aridity. In 

 some places, however, where the streams have 

 been employed for irrigation, as in the country 

 round Damascus, it becomes amazingly fertile. 

 The inhabitants of Syria speak Arabic, but are 

 not Arabs ; they resemble more the inhabitants 

 of South-eastern Europe. Neither are they all 

 Mohammedans. They are hopelessly divided by 

 their religious creeds. The Druses of the Lebanon 

 have a religion of their own. In 1860 their san- 

 guinary conflicts with the Maronites, Christians 

 who now acknowledge the supremacy of the pope, 

 were put an end to by a French expedition. 

 The Mohammedan population is partly Shiite, 

 and partly Sunnite, and is split by minor distinc- 

 tions, which also appear to be causes of strife. 

 At Aleppo (pop. 70,000) there are large manu- 

 factories of silk and cotton. The city has been 

 for a time falling off in population, due to an 

 earthquake in 1822, and more recently to the 

 growing competition of the West in the markets 

 of Asia. Damascus (pop. 150,000), the capital 

 of Syria, is less prosperous than it was, it never 

 having recovered from the injury done to its 

 trade in 1860, when the fanatical Mohammedan 

 mob rose and massacred the Christian popula- 

 tion. Beyrout (pop. 60,000) is the seaport of 

 Damascus, and the chief seat of European com- 

 merce with Syria. 



Palestine, although forming only a small, and 

 one of the least fertile provinces of Syria, claims 

 special notice as the scene of events which have 

 influenced the whole course of human history. It 

 consists of (i) The deep valley of the Jordan, in 

 which lie the Sea of Galilee, 120 feet above, and 

 the Dead Sea, 653 feet below, the Mediterranean ; 

 (2) The hills and table-lands of Gilead and Moab, 

 which bound this valley on the east ; (3) The 

 table-land of Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee, with a 

 mean elevation of 1000 feet, bounding the valley 

 of the Jordan on the west ; and (4) The plain 

 of Sharon, which lies between the last-mentioned 

 table-land and the sea. The geography and his- 

 tory of Palestine are probably better known to 

 most Englishmen than those of any country ex- 

 cept their own ; however, the pleasure-excursions 

 which the enterprising Mr Thomas Cook now 

 conducts through the chief scenes of sacred his- 

 tory, give his pilgrims a very different impres- 

 sion of the Syrian landscape from that obtained 

 from the works of the old Italian painters, and 

 the engravings from them, which still find a place 

 in our illustrated Bibles. The tourists return prob- 

 ably better pleased than when they went with 

 the fogs and leaden skies of England, and above 

 all, impressed with that want of water everywhere 

 which now characterises the Promised Land. Yet 

 they see traces of ancient cultivation. They see that 

 the country must at one time have been highly pro- 

 ductive, and supported a teeming population, for 

 even in those places where it is now most desolate, 

 are the vast remains of terraces, constructed to 

 collect the rains and fertilise the soil, and of cities, 

 which seem to have crowned every eminence. 

 Jerusalem (population probably 20,000) stands on 

 the highland of Judaea, in a rocky country, at an 

 elevation of 2660 feet above the sea. One-half of 



the population is Mohammedan ; one-third, Chris- 

 tian ; and what remains, Jewish. Its only industry 

 is the manufacture of beads and crucifixes and 

 other objects, sold to pilgrims, of whom more than 

 10,000 annually visit the holy places in and 

 around the city. 



Assyria was the name once given to the country 

 lying west of the Zagros Mountains, and drained 

 by the Upper Tigris and its eastern tributaries, 

 t corresponds pretty nearly with the modern 

 Kurdistan. In the east, the mountainous districts 

 are well watered and productive ; but westward, 

 the plains are alternately a garden and a wilder- 

 ness, the heat of summer completely drying up 

 the vegetation. The Kurds are a rude people, 

 speaking an Indo- Germanic language, but in- 

 dulging to a great extent in the predatory habits 

 of the Turks and Arabs. Mossul (pop. 30,000) is 

 the seat of a Syrian Christian patriarch, and was 

 anciently the metropolis of the Mesopotamian 

 Christians, of whom there are still said to be 

 10,000 in the city. It is needless to say that the 

 ancient prosperity of Assyria is attested by won- 

 derful ruins of reservoirs and canals for irrigation, 

 and of splendid and populous cities, of which 

 Nineveh was the chief. 



Babylonia is the name given to that part of the 

 plain of the Tigris and Euphrates south of the 

 point where the rivers first approach each other. 

 It is a low alluvial plain, and forms for the most 

 part an unproductive and unhealthy wilderness; 

 but in early times it had, under a skilful system 

 of irrigation, the very highest fertility. In an- 

 tiquity, the country was, in fact, traversed in all 

 directions by great canals, which have been des- 

 cribed by the Greek historians. The soil is now 

 only cultivated near the villages, but where it is 

 irrigated, its fertility is unbounded. The depreda- 

 tion of wandering Kurds and Arabs, and Turkish 

 misgovernment, give no hope of any improvement 

 in its cultivation. The capital is Bagdad (pop. 

 65,000). It has manufactures of silk, cotton, and 

 leather. Bassorah (pop. 60,000), on the Shat-el- 

 Arab, the name given to the Tigris and Euph- 

 rates after their union, is the port for Indian 

 commerce. According to Sir Henry Rawlin- 

 son, recent researches carry back the historical 

 period of Babylon to about 5000 years B.C. (see 

 HISTORY OF ANCIENT NATIONS). Now that 

 the extension of the cultivated surface of the 

 globe has become the chief necessity of the 

 rapidly increasing population of Europe and 

 India, it is not impossible that modern statesmen 

 and capitalists may consider if it would not be 

 possible to recultivate an area which could supply 

 with food and clothing the inhabitants of a whole 

 series of cities which, in ancient Babylonia, seem 

 to have rivalled the capital in size and splendour. 

 Asia Minor, Syria, and Mesopotamia form part 

 of the Turkish empire, as immediate possessions 

 of the sultan. 



Arabia lies south of the Syrian countries. It 

 forms, as has been already stated, a lofty table- 

 land, nowhere sinking to less than 1000 feet, and 

 surrounded on the west and south by lofty 

 mountain-chains and terraces. The southern 

 slopes are, at certain seasons, well watered, espe- 

 cially in parts of Yemen on the west, and Oman 

 on the east. Between these countries lies Dahma, 

 or the great sandy desert which spreads over one- 

 third of the table-land. Farther north is the 



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