226 REPORT— 1872. 



able to leave Kerak without the payment of a very heavy ransom (^70 in 

 all), and started for the north. 



It must be remembered that Kerak is the one inhabited place in the whole 

 country, the only town or village in the vast and once densely peopled 

 region between Es Salt in Gilead and Shobek, a little villnge in the ancient 

 Edom. 



Passing the ruins of Suweiniyeh and Duweineh, after descending from 

 Kerak, and ascending again more than 1000 feet, we rode through the ruins 

 of llakim and Mikhersit, from which place we followed the liomau road 

 to the ancient llabbath Moab, now Kabba. These are some of the most 

 extensive and finest ruins in Moab ; but the incessant rain prevented our 

 taking any successful photographs. We camped inside an immense Eoman 

 tank, GO yards by 50, and, though filled to a considerable extent with the 

 refuse of the goats which are herded there, still nearly 30 feet deep. 



The city seems to have been a square, more than a mile each way. One 

 fine temple has some columns and two arches left ; but all else are only broken 

 walls, with long lines of straight narrow streets and countless vaults arched 

 over. The ruins are Eoman, but with many carved stones from earlier edifices 

 built in, and many dressed blocks of basalt, telling of a still more ancient city. 

 There are several greeu mounds covering extensive masses of masonry, which 

 might probably repay excavation. 



Prom Rabba we followed the Roman road northward, passing a very perfect 

 little Roman temple, one and a half mile from the city, and soon afterwards 

 a ruined town (the remains of which seem anterior to the Roman occupation), 

 Missdehh, and immediately afterwards Humcitah, the Hammat or "Animah" 

 of Palmer, probably an ancient Ham. 



Kasr Rabbah, or Beit el Kurm (the house of the vineyards), four miles 

 north of Rabbah, has possessed a magnificent Corinthian temple ; the diameter 

 of the columns, many of which with the frieze are standing, is 4 feet 8 inches. 

 Hence the Roman road divides, one line going towards 8hihau, the other, 

 more easterly, to the passage of the Arnon. The former crosses the gentle 

 depression which marks the commencement of the Wady Ghurweh. An 

 easy slope reaches to the top of Jebel Shihan, on the southern side of which, 

 lining the Roman road, are very singular remains, countless small enclosures, 

 fields or gardens, all formed of blocks of basalt, undressed, and no limestone 

 employed; they cover many acres. The road here has been only 15 feet 

 wide. The city itself, on the top of the hiU, has been built chiefly of limestone, 

 with very little basalt. The cisterns are numerous and of considerable depth ; 

 but they, as well as the wells, are now all dry. 



Descending by N.E. we passed through the ruins of Balh'ua, and overtook 

 the rest of our party, who had followed the other route. Near the edge of 

 the ravine of the Arnon are the remains of an old fortress, Kirbet Sum'hra, 

 and then Muhatet el Haj, conjectured to be the Jahaz of Scripture, shape- 

 less ruins. 



The passage of the Arnon has been described by several of our predecessors, 

 who have certainly not exaggerated its magnificence or their fatigues. By 

 our barometers the depth is 2150 feet, and the southern plateau is 200 feet 

 higher than that to the north. The Roman paved way may be frequently 

 traced, as weU as the remains of the bridge below. From crest to crest, 

 we computed by triangulation to be about three miles. The upper part of 

 tbe southern side reveals a superficial basaltic stream, which is absent on the 

 north. There are numerous ruined forts all along the Roman causeway. On 

 the northern brow, a mile cast of the road, arc the ruins of Arar, the ancient 



