2-995-598 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The city of Antioch, 1860. 'A glimpse of Antioch is caught from the shoulders of Mount Casius. This grand, bare peak, 5700 feet high, rises abruptly from the sea, where the Orontes...flows lazily through a narrow alluvial plain into the Bay of Seleucia...The scenery of the mountain chain which terminates in this striking peak is very beautiful. Forests of oak and fragrant pine clothe the lower range; but the district is feared and avoided as much as possible by native wayfarers, for it abounds so with robbers and cutthroats that travellers not unfrequently fail altogether to reach their journey's bourne...Ibrahim Pacha did his best to destroy [the city's] huge walls and massive towers. He blew up the massive masonry and employed the materials in building immense barracks for his troops and a country palace for himself, which edifices are now almost in ruins. They are seen on the right...The Pacha, however, failed to destroy the ancient walls and towers altogether, and portions of them still remain throughout their whole extent...The View we engrave is taken from the opposite side of the river, and in it a great proportion of the line of the ancient walls can be traced...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.