3-053-588 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Giant Cities of Bashan - El Karayeh, 1873. 'Al Zuriah is in the plain, at the junction of the mountain with the plain on the south-west corner. It is about midway between Salchat and Bozrah, a little to the north of the old Roman road. It has a very melancholy appearance, both when seen at a distance and near at hand. From a distance there appears an irregular line of black houses, a yellow wely, and two towers - that is all. There is not a single tree to enliven the dreary aspect of the country around it. The chief object of interest here is a portico of three rows of columns, six in each row, supporting a flat roof. Seven tiers of steps, reaching from end to end of the portico, lead from the first row of pillars to the third. It stands on the western side of a large reservoir, well built with bevelled stones, but containing dirty water now. The town is disfigured with dung-heaps, and many of the old houses are smeared with cow-dung. The most singular sight there is an ordinary modern house, of the old pattern, occupied by Sheikh Ibrahim Il Atrash, son of the celebrated Druse Sheikh Ismael II Atrash, the Joshua of the Druses, and the terror of the Bedaween [ie Bedouin]'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.