Excerpt from Five Years in Damascus: With Travels and Researches in Palmyra, Lebanon, the Giant Cities of Bashan, and the Hauran IN preparing a New Edition of this Work I have not thought it necessary to retain minute topographical details. These have already served the purpose for which they were origin ally written - to rectify the map of that section of Eastern Syria embraced in my travels. I have also omitted the Greek and other inscriptions, as they are of little importance to the general reader, and the scholar may now obtain access to them in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Litera ture, ' where they have been published, with a valuable com mentary by John Hogg, Esq., F. R.s. While I have thoroughly revised the whole work, care fully re-examined every point connected with geography and antiquities embraced in it, and considered with respectful attention the critiques with which numerous reviewers and correspondents have favoured me, I have not seen my way to change a single statement, or modify a single opinion. The book remains in substance as it was written fourteen years ago. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.