[p.114] In one hour and a half from the borders of the Ledja, we came to
Kastal Kereim, a ruined village, with a Birket; half an hour from it,
Kereim, a Druse village. Between Kereim and Khabeb in the Loehf, is Aeib
[Arabic], a Druse village, in which is a powder manufactory; there is
another at Khabeb. Half an hour from Kereim is Kalaat Szamma [Arabic], a
ruined village, with several towers. One hour and a half, Shaara, a
village inhabited by about one hundred Druse and Christian families. We
travelled this day about eight hours and a half. Shaara was once a
considerable city; it is built on both sides of a Wady, half an hour
from the cultivated plain, and is surrounded by a most dreary barren
War. It has several large solidly built structures, now in ruins, and
amongst others a tower that must have been about forty-five feet high.
In the upper town is an ancient edifice with arches, converted into a
mosque: over its door is this inscription:
[Greek].
There is a salt-petre manufactory in the town; the earth in which the
salt-petre is found, is collected in great quantities in the ruined
houses, and thrown into large wooden vessels perforated with small holes
on one side near the bottom. Water is then poured in, which drains
through the holes, into a lower vessel, from whence it is taken, and
poured into large copper kettles; after boiling for twenty-four hours,
it is left in the open air; the sides of the kettles then become covered
with crystals, which are afterwards washed to free them from all
impurities. One hundred Rotolas of saline earth give from one to one and
a half Rotola of salt-petre. I was told by the Sheikh of the village,
who is the manufacturer