El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-02-18


~ AALBEK. Feb. 81 am in the val
ley of Lebanon, the high. narrow
- plain which lies between the two
ranges Of the Lebanon mountains. The
word Lebanon means white" and the
Lebanon mountains are the White
mountains Of Syria, the highest peaks
of which are now covered with snow.
These mountains extend north ana
south parallel with the coast OF the
Mediterranean sea- They begin a little
below the border Of Asia Minor and
lose themselves in the Holy Land In
reading of them have always consid-
cred them hills They are higher than
any mountains of our country east or
the Mississippi, and the average height
of the range nearest the coast is thou
sand feet greater than that OF Mount
washington Mount Hermon is over
5000 feet high and Jebel Makmel meas
ures 10, geo feet The valley Of Lebanon
itself is twice as high as the topmost
peaks Of the Blue Ridge Of Virginia
and It slopes from here TO the north as
far as Aleppo and to the south beyond
Dan. where rises the Jordan
The Ruins Of Ba21bek.
Tt is In this little valley, which is
less than 100 miles long and from TO
miles In width, walled by these mighty
mountains that lie the ruins Of Baal-
through the ages. have spent hours
IN wandering through them, and their
fmmensity and beauty steadily grow l
despair Of being able to describe them
and can only hope to give you bits CT
the details I have seen most OF the
worlds mighty ruins. In the past year
I have wandered through the tombs OF
the Mings outside Mukden. Manchuria;
have stood upon -he Temple Of Heaven
hor ri ha6 ha
Chinese wall I have gone through the
Temples of Karnak at the hundred
gated city OF Thebes. far up the Nile;
have taken photographs OF the Colossl
Of Memnon and have measured the
stones Of the pyramids with a two foot
rule. Not long ago I visited the Tenn
pie Of Boro Boedor. in the heart OF
Java. to describe its three miles OF Won
derful carvings, and last year 1 spent
some time in the forts Of the Moguls
al Delhi and wrote of the Tai Mahal and
its wonders. I have also seen Timgad,
= the excavated city on the edge OF the
Sahara. and have lately gone through
the Colosseum at Rome and inspect
the equally wonderful amphitheater
which lies at FL Diem, in the heart OF
the Tunisian desert. All these are won
derful, but Baalbek is their superior.
The New Excavations.
The ruins here have been described,
but only by the writer's of the past, who
might as well have tried to picture
POmpeii before the ashes and washings
Of Vesuvius were dug away. These ruins
have never been so wonderful as they
are now. For centuries the most OF
them have been as much buried as is
Herculaneum. and 1t was only when The
emperor Of Germany made his tour
through this part Of the world that
they began to be brought TO the light
of day. Kaiser Wilhelm is great
archeologist. and when he travels he
leaves as many tracks as does Theo-
dore Roosevelt.
have marched IN his footsteps
through Palestine and have seen there
the churches and other monuments
which he has erected. Before he came
TO Syria. he stopped at Constantinople
with the sultan, Abdul Hamid, who
gave him q permit to do about as he
pleased As the kaiser Travelled he
BATTERED the ATohammedans, the Chris
tians and the Jews. He was alive to
every possibility, and he stamped Made
IN Germany" upon every city he visited
In Damascus he laid a golden 'crown
snd a bouquet Of artificial flowers on
the tomb Of Saladin, the famous soldier
who fought the Crusaders: and about
Jerusalem he built hospitals and
,chools and started great sanatorium-
Here at BaaIbek the sultan gave him
carte blanche, and he has erected in the
Temple Of the sun a tablet bearing an
Inscription IN German and Turkish tes-
1ifying to his regard for the sultan and
his pleasure at visiting the ruins. Short
" after leaving he sent German sci
@ntists, and they organized an army Of
natives and put them to work excavat-
ing the temples. The Germans laid
down a railroad track, and by means
of dirt cars they have carried away
mountains OF earth and debris They
have used modern machinery to lift
the vast stones into place. and have,
for the first time, given US an adequate
view Of these most wonderful temples
The Story Of BeaIbek.
But first let me tell you something
about the origin Of these structures
end the god whom they commemorated.
The Arabs claim that this is the Oldest
city of the world. They say that Adam
5ived here, and that it was between
here and the Mediterranean that Cain
killed Abel One OF Adams favorite
residences was Damascus, and Seth liv-
ed at Nebi Schitt, nest in the Lebanon
mountains They will show you where
Noah was buried and the town in which
Ham lived They also think that MIN
rod reigned in this valley, and they
have a tradition that when an angel
called upon him he threw the holy one
into a blazing furnace, from which he
came out unframed. They locate the
Tower of Babel at Baalbek and believe
that Nimrod built it. Another legend
states that Abraham reigned at Da-
mascus and came here frequently. II