CHAPTER XXIX. 
FROM BAALBEK TO DAMASCUS. 
About noon we left the ruins of Baalbek behind us, and 
proceeded through the plain of Bukaa toward Damascus. 
Our road lay along the base of Anti-Lebanon. The aspect 
of the whole country was sterile and desolate in the extreme. 
There was not a shrub on the wayside to relieve the utter bar¬ 
renness of the scene, or intercept the dazzling glare of the sun, 
which even now in midwinter had something left of its sum¬ 
mer fierceness. The weather was not warm ; hut the whit¬ 
ish cast of the earth and the unclouded brilliancy of the sky, 
gave that intensity of light so characteristic of Syria, and 
which is so destructive to the sight that nearly half the inhab¬ 
itants are afflicted with ophthalmia. Not far from the outer 
walls of Baalbek, we saw the quarries from which the stone 
for the Temple of the Sun and all the public edifices was 
taken. Large gaps, in the form of an amphitheatre, are cut 
in the solid rock, from which the immense blocks of stone in 
the castle were taken. The ground or bottom of the quar¬ 
ries is covered with detached blocks, cut awqy, trimmed, and 
ready for transportation. It is a strange sight to see these 
pieces there, just as they were left in ages past, fresh from 
the hands of the masons. One block of stone is of immense 
length. It is said to he larger and longer than any found in 
the ruins of Baalbek. I think our dragoman said the length 
was sixty-seven feet. The Arabs have another legend con¬ 
nected with this stone, rather harder to credit than the story 
of the column. They say that the Sultan, when he was 
building the Castle of Baalbek, found all the men in his king¬ 
dom unable to remove this stone, so great was its weight. A 
