CAPE BLANCO. 
This promontory forms one of the most striking natural objects on the coast of Syria. 
At the foot of Cape Blanco — also called by the natives Ras-el-Abiad (the white pro¬ 
montory), from its bleached front—the road ascends, and winds along the face of the 
cliff to a startling elevation. It appears to have been the work of remote times; for 
it is deeply worn, and worn by the wheels of carts, a vehicle seldom used on the Coast 
at the present day. Huge masses of the cliff have fallen away on the seaside, and the road 
has become more difficult in consequence. A low parapet of loose stones is all that now 
stands between the traveller and a precipice several hundred feet deep, with the sea rolling 
in at its base. Prom its full exposure to the West, the effect of a winter storm, with 
the Mediterranean pouring its whole fury on the rocky barrier, is overwhelming,— the 
surges sometimes dashing up the promontory to the height of the road. The passage over 
the Mountain is about a mile in length. To add to its picturesque effect, the cliff is 
tenanted by “ myriads ” of wild pigeons, which, on the discharge of fire-arms, rush out 
and cloud the air. 
All the wonders of Syria are attributed to Alexander the Great, as all the churches 
of Palestine claim the Empress Helena for their founder. But the tradition which gives 
to the great Conqueror and Civiliser a work of such difficulty, usefulness, and grandeur, is 
not unsuitable to the genius of the most daring, yet most cultivated, master of mankind. 
The Artist had the advantage—which, perhaps, none but an Artist could fully appre¬ 
ciate—of seeing Cape Blanco under the influence of a coming storm. “ The sky ivas dark 
and louring; heavy clouds swept over our heads, and the rolling surge beat with a 
thundering noise on the rocks. It was certainly the most sublime scene I had yet 
beheld on the coast of Syria.” 1 
Descending the northern side of the promontory, the traveller enters upon the celebrated 
Phoenician Plain, which extends from three hours south of Tyre to the Nahr-el-Auly, an 
hour north of Sidon; the whole being a distance of about eleven hours. Its breadth is 
unequal, generally half an hour, except round Tyre and Sidon, where the hills recede. 
The soil is now nearly waste, but obviously capable of tillage. 2 The actual domain of Tyre 
never exceeded a circumference of twenty miles. 
This was a singularly small territory to maintain the mightiest traffic of the ancient 
world. The trade of Tyre extended eastward through Persia, or even, perhaps, through 
India; and westward through the Ocean; at a period when, to all other nations, the mouth 
of the Red Sea was the “ Straits of Death,” and the Pillars of Hercules were the boundaries 
of the earth. In the Ocean, northward it reached the British Isles, and southward ranged 
the coast of Africa. 3 For ages before Greece or Italy had attained regular government, 
1 Roberts’s Journal. 2 Bibl. Res. iii. 410. 
3 Vincent, Commerce, &c. of the Ancients, ii. 624, &c. 
