Roadway Along the Abana, Damascus
Roadway Along the Abana, Damascus The Abana River has four sources; one is from Fijeh, under the Lebanon cliff; another from near Amri el-Hamar, north of Zebdany; another west of Zebdany; and the fourth west of Ruklah, under Hermon. The first reference to Abana is in the fifth chapter of 2 Kings , where we find the story of Naaman. There are some charming glimpses of roadway and river—the turn of the road, the shadow of the bridge, the overhanging trees, the crowding of the shrubbery to the very water’s edge, the variety of leafage—that are peculiarly beautiful. To me Damascus looked like a vision of paradise when I first saw it—all peace and beauty. It looks so rapturous in its evergreen bower, far removed from the din of commerce and the rude whirl of modern life and the jarring turmoil of the world’s politics, that one would think that it had never felt the shock of war, that its soil had never been polluted by crime, or that Abana and Pharpar had never been red with the...