_ 145 _ degrees; and six days’ journey in the same direction is Jerusalem. Across flat land through the city of Damascus pilgrims travel from Aleppo to Jerusalem. It is a very large and populous metropolis in that region and has many enclosures and fine, ancient buildings; there are orchards planted within the city, many streams, groves of trees and thorn trees, and it is extremely fertile. It lies two days’ journey from the Mediterranean, which lies to the west of it, and between the city and the sea there is flat land with innumerable villages. Most of the houses in the city which are very tall and all built of wood, are very richly painted inside. There is always a pasha here with a good garrison of horsemen. It has a good fortress from the time of the Sultan of Cairo, to whom it belonged. The Holy Land begins at this city. There is much trade here among the eight thousand citizens, Moors and Christians, who all speak Arabic, and native Jews and Venetian merchants who reside here. It is encircled by a range of mountains; to the west this is at some distance and called the Mountain of the Saints, and there is another close to it called Jebel Shea, “white mountain”, which is the source of four rivers. The first flows from north to south and into the River Jordan which lies at thirty-two-and-a-half degrees. The River Jordan
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