Sat Ap 22 [22 April 1911] At 5.30 temp 45 Bar 26.8. Off at 5.30 NE to
Gˆlli which we reached at 6.55. At 7.30 we saw Marje to NNW and
Fafigh to NNE. We got to Fafigh at 8.45 and stayed till 10.30. It stands
on the point of a high tongue. A spring trickles out of the rock to the N
and I noticed at once traces of massive ancient fortification on the
path leading to it - very big blocks of stone. We climbed up the hill on
the E side - it is very steep - and behind the village to the S found the
remains of a classical building - tower tomb? The houses on the hill
side are all rock cut. On the W side of the hill the great fortification
runs down from the tower, a huge wall and bastions but the work is
quite unlike that of the tower. Between the big bit of the S wall and the
SW bastion I saw the foundations of a bit of wall of good masonry that
looked like the same age as the tower. The tower was ruined by
Reshid Pasha 90 years ago (sic) The decoration was rinceaux
forming arches with nereids and other figures inside (cf the cornice of
Deir Zafran) and on the E side 2 headless nereid or male (more
likely) figures springing from acanthus leaves and forming a kind of
bracket. Only one of these remained on the S side. There was a
Greek inscrip in a tablet much defaced and ruined by a cannon ball.
Fragments of columns one with an Attic base. There had been a
pediment over the first storey. Inside much ruined. The place is a
ziarah with big trees below it. Traces of an arch or vault. So on to
Kirsefan which we reached at 11.30, riding along the ridge and down
into a valley. Stayed till 12.25 planning the great shrine then Kerm‰ti
was pointed out to me as 15? E of N from the ridge above Kirsefan.
From 12.45-1 lunch and so down the hill to Kerm‰ti which lies also on
the end of a tongue We got there at 1.15. Rode N along the face of
the hill and at 1.45 reached the shrine with figures on it on the N side of
the slope. Stayed till 2.15. We dropped down into the valley and on
the hillside saw an ancient building, cut into the rock and roofed with
huge slabs. Followed the valley till at 3.15 we saw Siti[?] up the valley
to the R. Then we struck straight E over the hills which gradually got
less rocky. We reached Kefr Howar at 5.15, Estel at 6.30 and Midyat
at 7.10. Bar 26.9. The Commissaire of police came to call.