Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-03-04
O[D-T|ME REGIONS
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Dispatches From Syria Cite
Towns, Once Prominent,
Now Almost Forgotten.

Dispatches from Syria tell of politi-
cal prisoners being sent to Ruad and
mention other places which emerge
| into the days news after lying in the
| hack waters of world history since
the time of the Crusades.
In communication to the National
| Geographic Society, Maynard Owen
Williams tells of recent trip he
made through this historic, but almost
| forgotten, region.
"As one comes up to Tartus from
| the south, having left the ruins of
Marathus- behind and drawn a sort
| of coast circle around the shoreward
side of Ruad, the most prominent
| feature of the landscape is a huge
Crusade church bulking large above
the town. The interior, when one
has entered it, through small breach
in the Drowned wall. color or
crumbling newspaper falling away
from some treasure it enveloped, or
OF nut brown mummy wrapping, the
interior is pleasing in its grace. Time,
however, has worn finger holes In the
once rounded columns. and 1t re
sembes the workshop of a carnival
| committee or a pageant board. be-
cause artless battlements, jig-sawed
IL OII tIllIl luuIpCi, III oiiN 80 ''~''
Church No Longer a Church.
THE Crusader church stands alone
between fiat-roofed houses and the
fertile plain, edged with spiny cactus.
On the righthand forward corner
there is a small tower erected when
there were plans of making mosque
of this vast barn of a building. But
Tartus is small, and a mosque. ike a
cafe, is at it's best when embelhshed
with humans compacted together.
great face, high under upturneo
domes, may need only the compile
ment of a lowly, kneeling figure to
make it a house of worship. The
MOSQUE. lacking the presence, needs
a more companionable upholstery OF
living beings in it. SO the church,
no longer church, is saved from the
desecartion of non-Christian worship
and abandoned to the dissertation OF
dirt.
In the walled town (the roadway
from the south enters hole hackeo
in Phoenician masonry coeval with
Solomon's Temple. perhaps) there is
Crusaders Hall. the outside of which
runs along one side of the square. But
search as l would. no matter now
many Moslem women or village boys
the inside of this hall, now divided
among many owners.
Another Rare Building.
"A little farther on, its megalithic
foundations sloping to the disused
moat. there is a former church, now A
mosque, with a really fine mlnaret
proclaiming it's presence. Above the
arched doorway cross has given way
L. 4 ~
effacement, and the imam, handsome
and commanding in presence, Is so
cordial a friend that one cannot be-
grudge him the privilege of instruct
ing the youths in narrow corridor of
a room thanking the main hall.
THE student may, if he will, trace
the megalithic wall most of the way
around the town. But to what pur-
pose? Does counting stones awaken
the Imagination? Or does one huge
block, it's cheek bulging beyond the
carefully cut edges. trimmed to. a per
feet line along the seam. betray the
workmanship as akin to that which
Hiram did for his Jewish friends on
Mount Zion?
When Crusaders Sailed Home.
"Tartus was the last place on the
but it was from Ruad that the last of
the Crusaders, giving up hope of
Outstanding by the sword a land in
which they had lived for two CEN
turtles, set sail for home. When the
twentieth-century fighters arrived to
fight against the Turks and Germans
Ruad was occupied by the French,
and today its central castle. domi-
mating the low-lying island and in
turn dominated by a lighthouse, is the
prison of political prisoners.
"Ruad stirs the Imagination because,
quarrying away it's tiny coast line to
construct megalithic wall which
dropped sheer to the surf, the Arvadi-
ans shut themselves into a place
where, lacking fleet. they would
starve, but sallying forth from there
they dominated the mainland as far
as the Orontes. including the Nosari-
yeh Hills. now inhabited by descend
ants of several mystic sectS and those
who gave the word assassin to the
world.
Men of Ruad Skilled Mariners.
To-day the men of Ruad are skill
full mariners as of old. and in the lee
waters between the island and the
mainland there are many small ships.
lneSe SHIPS are I'll tndt turn the bal
ance of trade in favor Of the island,
enabling 1t to live, for all the food is
imported from the mainland. It Is a
tiny Britain, around which one can
row in half an hour, and the boatman
who ferried me across from Tartus In
a heavy boat equipped with four. oars
men and a sail was glad to add a trip
around Ruad to the ferry passage for
the promise of an extra so per cent
added to the 75-cent fare, which was
the minimum for a direct crossing.
Tonight / sat in a Tartus cave full
of muleteers in conical felt caps,
slouchy and comfortable, and town.
folks in tarbouches we'll pressed and
rudy in the light