Two months after his arrival in Ottoman Syria in September 1860, the Prussianbureaucrat Johann Ludwig Guido von Rehfues (1818–97) and his colleagues setoff on a hauntingly memorable journey to Damascus.² Leaving Beirut early in themorning, they rodefirst up Mount Lebanon. From all the heights to which theirpath took them, they could see the smoke-stained rubble of onceflourishingvillages in …