HAMAH, the Hamath of the Bible, one of the oldest cities of Syria (Gen. x. 18), situated in the valley of the Orontes, 110 English miles N. (byE.)of Damascus. It finds a place among the northern boundaries of the Holy Land (Num. xxxiv. 8), and is frequently mentioned in Old Testament history (Num. xiii. 21, 2 Sam.viii. 9, 1 Kings viii. 65, 2 Kings xviii. 34, 2 Chron. viii. 3, Isa. x. 9, Amos vi. 2). The city lies in a narrow valley, the pass south of it being probably the “entering in of Hamath” (1 Kings viii. 65). The Orontes flows winding through it, and is spanned by four bridges. On the south-east the houses rise 150 feet above the river, and there are four other hills, that of the Kalah or castle being to the north 100 feet high. Twenty-four minarets rise from the various mosques. The houses are principally of mud, and the town stands amid poplar gardens with a fertile plain to the west. The castle is ruined, the streets are narrow and dirty, but the bazaars are good, and the trade with the Bedawin considerable. The numerous water-wheels (naûrali), of enormous dimensions, raising water from the Orontes are the most remarkable features of the view. The population is stated in official returns to consist of about 39,000 Moslems and 4000 non-Moslems. The curious Hamath inscriptions first mentioned by Burckhardt have lately attracted much attention. Four stones exist covered with ideographic designs in a character as yet quite unknown. The latest researches of Mr George Smith, however, indicate that the inscriptions are probably of Hittite origin, and other relics of that once powerful nation resembling the Hamath stones have been discovered farther east....