hollowed out in the side of a hill, or of a Wady, in the soft volcanic rock, and so arranged as to form separate chambers : these are chiefly on the E. 01 Jebel Hauran (Wetzstein, pp. 22, 44 f., who names three, viz. Umm DubSb, Aj6la, and Shibikke).* (2) Others are on a larger scale, bein^ subterranean chambers entered oy shafts invisible from above, and capable of forming a secure retreat from an invader ; these are frequent on the W. of the Zumleh range (ib. p. 46 f. ; cf. Oliphant, Land of Gilead, pp. 103, 108 f. [about Irbid]) ; an extensive underground city of this kind at Edre'i (at the N.E. foot of the same range) was explored by Wetzstein (p. 47 f.) and Schu- macher (p. 121 itf.). (3) A third kind, of which Wetzstein saw but one example, at Hibikke, on the E. of J. Hauran, about 8 miles N.lE. of Salchad, consists of chambers cut out in an elevated plateau of rock, and covered with a solid stone vault, producing outside the appearance of a cellar or tunnel. Hibikke was originally surrounded with a wall, in the manner of a fortress (p. 48 f.). (4) The fourth and commonest kind consists of dwelling-houses built in the ordinary manner above ground, but constructed of massive well-hewn blocks of black basalt, — the regular and indeed the only building material used in the locality, — \vith heavy doors moving on pivots, outside staircases, galleries, and roofs, all of the same material : or this kind are the remains described by Porter (I.e. chs. x.-xiii.) at Burak, on the N. edge of the Leja, Sauwarah, Hit, Heyat, Bathani- yeh, Shuka, Shuhba, east of it, Kanawat and Suweideh on the W. slopes of J. Hauran, Bosra, Salchad, and ^Cureiyeh, on its S. slope (cf. Heber- Percy, A Visit to Baslutn and Argob, 1895, pp. 40, 47, 60, 71, etc., with photographs). Many ol these cities are in such a good state of preserva- tion, that, as Wetzstein observes, it is difficult for the traveller not to believe that they are inhabited, and to expect, as he walks along their streets, to see persons moving about the houses. The archi- tecture of these remains (which include temples, theatres, aqueducts, churches, etc.) is of the GriEco-Roman period, and is such as to show that between the first and the seventh centuries A.D. the cities in question were the home of a thriving and wealthy population. Can, now, any of these deserted localities be identified with the ' three- score cities, with high walls, gates, and bars,' of the ancient kingdom of 'Og ? The spectacle pre- sented by many of them is so singular and impres- sive that amongst those who visited and almost re-discovered them, in the present century, there were some who assigned them confidently to a remote antiquity, and who boasted that they had themselves traversed the cities ' built and occupied some forty centuries ago ' by the giant race of the Rephaini : so, in particular, J. L. Porter, who visited the district in 1853 (Fix'C Years in Damas- cus, 1855, ii. 206 f., ed. 2, pp. 257 f., 263 f. ; Giant Cities of Bashan, 1882, pp. 12, 13, 30, 84, etc.), and Cyril C. Graham, who visited it in 1857 (Journal of the Royal Geogr. Soc. 1868, p. 256 f., Cambridge Essays for 1858, p. 160 f.). The emphatic contra- diction which Porter's theory received from Pouglas Freshfield in The Central Caucasus and Bnshan, 1869, ch. ii., led to a somewhat heated correspondence in the Athcnrrum for 1870 (June, pp. 774, 837; July, pp. 18, 117, 148; cf. also
• The habit of dwellinjr in caves in these partfi ia illustrated by an iiiterestin^r but unfortunately nuitilated inscription (Le lias ami Waddin^^lon, Inscriptiong Grecqueg et Latintt rfruriUi).'ii rn Gri'cf et en A»ie Mineurf, iii. 1, No. 2;i29) from Kaiiatlia (Kanawat), on the W. slope of J. yauran, which seems to speak of an attempt made by kin^ Agrippa (prob. Airrippa I.) to civilize rajt (vfapAiii<r(«*Tafi. and reclaim them ft Dm theil Hv.fiiMlv.; xetrurrtLrtt (cf. Jos. Ant. XIV. XV. 6; also, of the Leja, X. 1 ; XVI. ix. 1).
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Porter, Damascus', Preface). There can, how- ever, be little doubt that Porter and Graham much exaggerated the antiquity of these remains. As has ueen stated, the prevalent style of architecture is Grivco-Koman ; in many of the cities Greek in- scriiitions, dating from the time of Herod onwards, have l>een found, and, in the opinion of the best and most independent judges, the extant remains, at least in the great majority of cases, are not of a more ancient date than llie 1st cent. A.D. De Vogue, the principal authority on the architecture of tlie Hauran, in the preface (p. 4) * to his collec- tion of 150 plates, called Syrie Centrale, Architec- ture Civile et lietigieujse du i" au ni' sit'c/e (18G7), expressly states that he had found no structures of an earlier date : Burton and Drake ( Unexplored Syria, 1872, i. 191-196) declare that even a careful examination of foundations disclosed to them no specimen of ' hoar antiquity.' Wetzstein and Waddington express a similar judgment, though not quite in tlie same umiualilicd terms: the former (pp. 103 f., 49) agrees tbat in the main there are no edifices earlier in date than the Christian era, but allows that the Troglodj'te dwellings, and those found at Ilibikke (see above), may be of very great antiquity, and also that very ancient building materials may be ]ircserved in such places as Kosra and .SaUhat ; the latter writes {op. cit. p. 534) : ' Malgre les recherches prolongccs et minutieu.ses