2-979-575 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Desert Route - Khan near Nahar-el-Kelb, the Ancient Lycus, three leagues from Beyrout, 1857. 'The Khan, as you perceive, is a wretched old affair, damp, and full of rubbish. Here, at a temporary charcoal stove, a poor coffegee is eternally making coffee for casual droppers-in; while his boy, in what was once a white skullcap, is handing the small cups to and from the guests. Two recent arrivals are seen partaking of this luxury. The horse is probably...the property of both, on which they perform their journeyings alternately - the distinguishing sign of their intentions being the unloosening the shoes from the soles of their feet - a sure indication that the one means to walk and wishes the other to mount; as no peasant in Syria would ever be guilty of wearing his boots when on on a journey. A Cyprus hen, and her newly-fledged chickens, are busily running to and fro in search of grubs'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.