ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO 



send a vehicle for us to take us to the best 

 hotel, so we sat down at the side of the chalky- 

 like clay streets, in the shadow of an artificial- 

 looking ^g tree, and eventually, the carriage 

 coming, we drove into the town. 



For years I had imagined an entirely differ- 

 ent Aleppo. I had pictured it as built in an 

 oasis of the desert, with beautiful wide streets, 

 clean and well-kept and lined with palm trees. 

 I was wrong. In reality it is a city built of 

 stone and mud. It has been tumbled down so 

 many times by earthquakes, that it looks as 

 tired as the old Roman road which leads up to 

 it. Our driver turned into a small street not 

 wide enough for two carriages to pass. The 

 dogs were more plentiful than they were in 

 Constantinople, and the stench was much 

 worse. On the faces of all the young people 

 were the sores of the Aleppo button, and on 

 those of the older ones were the scars left bv 

 that disease, and this added to our general de- 

 pression. We were half starved, and tired out 

 from the night ride and the effects of the sun. 

 Our spirits were low. To tell the truth we were 

 thoroughly broken down. We had cold feet, 

 although it was 125 degrees in the shade. The 

 stench grew worse, and as the streets narrowed 



[73 J 



