The spot was probably Aphaca, at
the source of the river Adonis, half-way between Byblus and Baalbec;
for at Aphaca there was a famous grove and sanctuary of Astarte
which Constantine destroyed on account of the flagitious character
of the worship. The site of the temple has been discovered by modern
travellers near the miserable village which still bears the name of
Afka at the head of the wild, romantic, wooded gorge of the Adonis.
The hamlet stands among groves of noble walnut-trees on the brink of
the lyn. A little way off the river rushes from a cavern at the foot
of a mighty amphitheatre of towering cliffs to plunge in a series of
cascades into the awful depths of the glen. The deeper it descends,
the ranker and denser grows the vegetation, which, sprouting from
the crannies and fissures of the rocks, spreads a green veil over
the roaring or murmuring stream in the tremendous chasm below. There
is something delicious, almost intoxicating, in the freshness of
these tumbling waters, in the sweetness and purity of the mountain
air, in the vivid green of the vegetation.
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