Many travellers praise this vale as one of the most beautiful in all Syria.
It certainly deserves the title of the 'most remarkable' valley, for excepting at Thebes and Palmyra we may search in vain for the grand antique ruins which are here met with; the title of the 'most beautiful' does not, according to my idea, appertain to it.

The mountains around are desert and bare.

The immeasurable plain is sparingly cultivated, and still more thinly peopled.

With the exception of the town of Balbeck, which has arisen from the ruins of the ancient city, not a village nor a hut is to be seen.

The corn, which still partly covered the fields, looked stunted and poor; the beds of the streams were dry, and the grass was burnt up.