[p.54]summits of the two chains nearest the village are called by a
collective name Mettall el Kessoue [Arabic]. I stopped for half an hour
at Kessoue, at a coffee house by the road side. The village has a small
castle, or fortified building, over the bridge.
From Kessoue a slight ascent leads up to a vast plain, called Ard
Khiara, from a village named Khiara. In three quarters of an hour from
Kessoue we reached Khan Danoun, a ruined building. Here, or at Kessoue,
the pilgrim caravan passes the second night. Near Khan Danoun, a rivulet
flows to the left. This Khan, which is now in ruins, was built in the
usual style of all the large Khans in this country: consisting of an
open square, surrounded with arcades, beneath which are small apartments
for the accommodation of travellers; the beasts occupy the open square
in the centre. From Khan Danoun the road continues over the plain, where
few cultivated spots appear, for two hours and a quarter; we then
reached a Tel, or high hill, the highest summit of the Djebel Khiara, a
low mountain chain which commences here, and runs in a direction
parallel with the Djebel Manai for about twenty miles. The mountains
Khiara and Manai are sometimes comprised under the name of Djebel
Kessoue, and so I find them laid down in D'Anville's map. The summit of
Djebel Khiara is called Soubbet Faraoun. From thence begins a stony
district, which extends to the village Ghabarib [Arabic], one hour and a
quarter from the Soubbet. Upon a hill to the W. of the road, stands a
small building crowned with a cupola, to which the Turks resort, from a
persuasion that the prayers there offered up are peculiarly acceptable
to the deity. This building is called Meziar Eliasha [Arabic], or the
Meziar of Elisha. The Hadj route has been paved in several places for
the distance of a hundred yards or more, in order to facilitate the
passage of the pilgrims in years when the Hadj takes place during the
rainy season.