Dam at Dummar
Dam at Dummar As the traveler approaches Damascus by the French road from Beyrout after miles of desert with no glimpse of tree or shrub, the road suddenly descends into the Barada and follows the river-side to the entrance of Damascus. The scenery could not present a greater contrast if there had been a change of worlds, from the bare, blistering, rocky upland to the cool, green gorge, where great trees crowd the river-side and dip their branches in the sparkling waters. We pass through the little group of villas called Dummar. The house of Ab’d el-Kader is seen on an eminence to the left. His name was before the public in the time of the war between the French and the Algerian Bedouins as the leader who was afterwards pensioned by the French and consigned to the Damascus district. Here is a picturesque dam across the Barada made in primitive fashion, of logs and [boulders]. Trunks of trees floated down and were caught among the rocks in time of freshet, and now lift their ...