Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1922-02-11
BEIRUT, THE CITY OF SUNSETS.

Beirut, the ancient Syrian city fea-
tured in recent dispatches because of
Moslem opposition to changes in street
naming and police innovations, is de-
scribed in bulletin of the National
Geographic Society by a former resi-
dent of the city as follows:
Picture, nesting at the base of the
Lebanon, a many tinted city pushed
out into the setting sun by the pres
sure of a, famous mountain range,
which, just east of the city and rob-
bling it of the early morning light, tow
ers to $500 feet in a beautiful noun
tain whose snowy heights form the
crystal screen upon which is project
ed the rose glow of the worlds most
colorful sunsets.
"The backbone of the city stretches
to the west from a low alluvial plain
which almost makes Beirut an island
The wharves are to the north, looking
away from the more famous but in
ferior ports of Tyre and Sidon to the
south and toward the other Phoeni-
clan ports of Tripoli and Alexandret-
ia and Seleucia, all of which have old
Phoenician names long since forgot
ten by the inhabitants. Berytus was
the name of Beirut.
enough most of the year, even though
just outside the disfiguring break
water there lies the bluest most nearly
perfect curve of bay east of Naples
1t bears the name of St. George ani
although it is the French that have
improved it, the British have made il
notable on their beautiful gold coins
now extinct, which once showed st
George killing a dragon or rather THE
dragon. Mythology will tell you whit
| st. George was and why he killed tn,
dragon and why the British put it OF
| their coins and his cross on their Unior
/ Jack. But here st. George slew tn,
dra gon, and threw him down a we'll
nothing harms an Oriental Well-an,
! if you don't believe, it the well is still
| there and if you go there on a darl
| night and gaze down into the inky wa
! tiers, you will see the dragons eyes
| The streets are narrow and full o
life. The buildings are kalsomined il
various hues, ugly near at hand, blu
| truly Turneresque from a distance. o.
one of the highest points at the east
ern end of the high rib which the cit
| straddles there is, or was, miliatr
barracks. Beirut has tram lines whic
run along the backbone, and near tn
! center OIL the city Lnefe is Snld
park embroidered with bookblacks wit
/ small shoe backing boxes, aroun
which the trans turn. Here there i
1 another line: of trans which runs t
the south to a beautiful grove of pine
| which were planted to save the cit
/ from the drifting sands.
The western end of the limeston
ridge is called Ras Beirut, or the poin
of Beirut, and near the extremity G
! this section there is one of the lowell
est college campuses on earth, wit
more than a score of principal build
ings. Possibly nowhere else on cart
has America name been more revere
and so lovely is the scene of the dee
blue bay and the snowy mountai
range that there has long been a stand
ing argument between this college an
the Robert College, al RoumeH Hissa
outside Constantinople on the Bosphc
rus, as to which has the lovelier view
In from the west and north swee
the waves which are eating away
the limestone cliffs and each year til
sEoreline recedes before the fierce bat
tie with the waters upon which tt
Pnoenician argosies set out in scare
of fame and commerce. At one plaC
the dashing waves have cut entirel