A man riding out of the mountains on a track like the one Elias would have taken.
A village in the Qalamun mountains, on the Syrian side of what is now the Lebanese border. Elias Kallas came over these mountains from Jraijir to settle in Feeki, roughly four hundred years ago. The two villages are about thirty-five kilometres apart — close enough to walk in a few days. The border between them was not drawn until 1920, so when he made the crossing he left no country and entered none.
Village name and its Aramaic form: family tradition, recorded by Mike Kallas, 2026. Coordinates approximate, taken from the modern map. The four-hundred-year figure is family tradition and has not been checked against any record.
