CITIES OF GIANTS SURVIVE - EMPTY

Worldwide, most ancient cities have vanished. Not so Bashan,

in Syria. It is literally crowded with towns and large villages - most of them, until recently, deserted.

Yet they are not ruined! Many of the houses in these cities are perfect, as if only finished yesterday. The walls are sound, the roofs unbroken, the doors, and even the window-shutters in place.

The walls of the cities are 15 feet thick and 30 feet high. The huge gates have been found still in place.

Some of the buildings in the city of Bozrah would grace the proudest modern Western city.

These ancient streets are paved - still perfect, not a stone out of place.

Even the walls of houses are up to eight feet thick, built of large squared blocks of basalt, without cement. The roofs are made of basalt slabs, cut like planks and reaching from wall to wall.

Heavy slabs form the ceilings. The massive doors hang upon pivots, working in sockets, as do the window-shutters. The black basalt used is almost as hard as iron.

One early explor…