In the time when the Babylonian Empire came into being, the narrow tract of Phoenicia--smaller than many an English county--was among the most valuable countries of Asia; and its possession was far more to be coveted than that of many a land whose area was ten or twenty times as great.
Eastward of Antilibanus, in the tract between that range and the great Syrian desert, was another very important district--the district which the Jews called "Aram-Dammesek," and which now forms the chief part of the Pashalik of Damascus.

From the eastern flanks of the Antilibanus two great and numerous smaller streams flow down into the Damascene plain, and, carrying with them that strange fertilizing power which water always has in hot climates, convert the arid sterility of the desert into a garden of the most wonderful beauty.

The Barada and Awaaj, bursting by narrow gorges from the mountain chain, scatter themselves in numerous channels over the great flat, intermingling their waters, and spreading them out so widely that for a circle of thirty miles the deep verdure of Oriental vegetation replaces the red hue of the Hauran.
Walnuts, planes, poplars, cypresses, apricots, orange-trees, citrons, pomegranates, olives, wave above; corn and grass of the most luxuriant growth, below.

In the midst of this great mass of foliage the city of Damascus "strikes out the white arms of its streets hither and thither" among the trees, now hid among them, now overtopping them with its domes and minarets, the most beautiful of all those beautiful towns which delight the eye of the artist in the East.

In the south-west towers the snow-clad peak of Hermon, visible from every part of the Damascene plain.