owed into a series of
rough steps, giving it the appearance of a vast ladder.* Below this
precipitous path the waves dash with fury, and when the wind sets
towards the land every thud causes the rocky wall to tremble, and
detaches fragments from its surface. The majority of the towns, such as
Aksapu (Ecdippa), Mashal, Lubina, Ushu-Shakhan, lay back from the sea on
the mountain ridges, out of the reach of pirates; several, however,
were built on the shore, under the shelter of some promontory, and the
inhabitants of these derived a miserable subsistence from fishing and
the chase. Beyond the Tyrian Ladder Phoenician territory began. The
country was served throughout its entire length, from town to town,
by the coast road, which turning at length to the right, and passing
through the defile formed by the Nahr-el-Kebir, entered the region of
the middle Orontes.

* Hence the name Tyrian Ladder, which is applied to one of
these passes, either Ras-en-Nakurah or Ras-el-Abiad.

[Illustration: 201.jpg THE TOWN OF QODSHU]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

The second of the roads leading from Megiddo described an almost
symmetrical curve eastwards, crossing the Jordan at Beth-shan, then
the Jab-bok, and finally reaching Damascus after having skirted at some
distance the last of the basaltic ramparts of the Hauran. Here extended
a vast but badly watered pasture-land, which attracted the Bedouin from
every side, and scattered over it were a number of walled towns, such as
Hamath, Magato, Ashtaroth, and Ono-Eepha.*

* Proof that the Egyptians knew this route, followed even to
this day in certain circumstances, is furnished by the lists
of Thutmosis III., in which the principal stations which it
comprises are enumerated among the towns given up after the
victory of Megiddo. Dimasqu was identified with Damascus by
E. de Rouge, and Astarotu with Ashtaroth-Qarnaim. Hamatu is
probably Hamath of the Gadarenes; Magato, the Maged of the
Maccabees, is possibly the present Mukatta; and Ono-Repha,
Raphon, Raphana, Arpha of Decapolis, is the modern Er-Rafeh.

Probably Damascus was already at this period the dominant authority over
the region watered by these two rivers, as well as over the villages
nestling in the gorges of Hermon,--Abila, Helbon of the vineyards, and
Tabrud,--but it had not yet acquired its renown for riches and power.
Protected by the Anti-L