535JR 
 
OF THE 
 
 U N I VERS ITY 
 Of I LLI N O I S 
 
 Received by bequest from 
 Albert H. Lybyer 
 Professor of History 
 University of Illinois 
 1916-1949 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/ruinedcitiesofeaOOtwee 
 

 
 
 
 
RIHNS OF BA’ALBEK. 
 
TV. K. TIVEEDIE , D.D., 
 
 Author of “ Early Choice” “ Seed Time and Harvest &°c. 
 
 Behold man proudly view some pompous pile, 
 Whose hi$:h dome swells to emulate the skies, 
 
 And smile and say, ‘ My name shall live with this. 
 Till time shall be no more;' while at his feet, 
 
 Yea, at his very feet, the crumbling dust 
 Of fallen fabrics of the other day 
 breaches him solemn lessons." 
 
 Kirkk White. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW; 
 
 EDINBURGH ; AND NEW YORK. 
 
 1867. 
 
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RUINED CITIES OF THE EAST. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 I. 
 
 §Utins of djrfitsms. 
 
 Though the human race undoubtedly sprang from one 
 parent pair, there have been various centres, at different 
 periods of man’s history, from ^which fresh influences 
 or new impulses proceeded, to quicken progress, — to 
 emancipate or to enslave, — to conquer and crush, or to 
 elevate and advance. One of these centres was that 
 section of Europe in which The Seven Chueches of 
 Asia were placed. For centuries a bright light radiated 
 thence into the surrounding regions, and though that 
 light has long been extinguished, the friends of truth 
 still love to linger among the scenes where it shone ; 
 to ponder on the moral darkness which now envelops 
 everything there ; and to wonder when the fulness of 
 time shall come, when the truth which came from heaven 
 to illumine every land shall shine on those regions 
 again. 
 
 Somewhat in that spirit we are now to consider the 
 present condition of two of these ancient centres of 
 light, Ephesus and Sardis. Were we merely to describe 
 the events mentioned in Scripture regarding Ephesus, 
 
io Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 “ The Light of Asia,” as it has been called, the narrative 
 would be long, and would embody some of the pro- 
 foundest lessons ever taught to man. But we are to 
 consider mainly its ruins. It was the capital of Ionia, 
 and dated from pre-historic times, — the times of fable 
 and of myths. It was situated on the River Cayster, 
 from among whose reeds the swans of old rose clangingly, 
 according to Homer, and not far from the shores of the 
 Ionian Sea. The place was at one period furnished 
 with wharves and docks, which were favourable to the 
 development of its resources ; so that it became at length 
 one of the chief Greek cities in Asia Minor. As to a great 
 mart, many of the children of Israel resorted thither, 
 guided by an instinct which ruled them in ancient times 
 as it rules them still ; and from among them Paul col- 
 lected a Christian Church (see Acts xviii. 19, and other 
 places), which exercised considerable influence over the 
 adjacent country. Within that city Paul had again and 
 again to do battle for the truth, and suffer in its cause. 
 Indeed the darkness that comes from hell, and the light 
 which beams from heaven, were there very often in con- 
 flict ; and Paul tells us (figuratively or literally) that he 
 had to fight with wild beasts at Ephesus while uphold- 
 ing the cause of truth. Those who were mad upon the 
 worship of their great goddess Diana could ill brook 
 the proximity of a purer faith ; and hence Paul’s life 
 was endangered by her fanatical and infuriated idolaters. 
 Her temple was a wonder of the world, and her worship 
 was dear to many as their own life-blood. The abomi- 
 nations which marked her service harmonized well with 
 the dissolute desires of Orientals ; and where voluptu- 
 
THE RUINS OF EPHESUS. 
 

 
 
 
Ephesus . 1 1 
 
 ousness of the grossest type reigned, the pure truth of 
 heaven was sure to be opposed. The temple, which it 
 cost the labour of 220 years to complete, stood up in 
 proud defiance against all that was pure and lovely. The 
 pile was 425 feet long, and 220 wide ; it was supported 
 by 127 columns, each the gift of a king, and each 60 feet 
 in height. Chersiphron was the architect ; Praxiteles 
 chiselled the altar ; Scopas, the sculptor, made one of 
 the pillars ; and Apelles, a native of the city, contributed 
 a splendid picture of Alexander the Great, who had 
 offered to rebuild the temple when it was burned to the 
 ground by Erostratus, if the Ephesians would allow him 
 to inscribe his name on the fagade. Cedar, cypress, 
 Parian marble, and gold were lavished on the structure. 
 The great staircase was formed of the wood of a single 
 Cyprian vine ; while the wealth accumulated in the pile 
 from votive offerings was beyond computation. Thus 
 equipped, then, it pressed like a moral millstone on the 
 souls of myriads ; it fascinated the sensuous, and when the 
 admiration of art was put for worship, the havoc among 
 the souls of men was such as only eternity can reckon. 
 Diana’s gorgeous temple, her silver shrines, her worship 
 altogether, formed, beyond a doubt, one of the heaviest 
 curses that ever smote poor man to the dust of death 
 for ever. 
 
 To their other delusions the Ephesians added that of 
 sorcery, and Ephesus possessed a high reputation for 
 magic ; insomuch that we learn from Acts xix. 19, that 
 the Ephesians, when the truth got its rightful place in 
 the conscience, burnt books, no doubt on magic, to the 
 value of 50,000 pieces of silver.— It was a signal triumph 
 
12 Ritmed Cities of the East . 
 
 of truth over falsehood : it was Satan so far baffled in 
 one of his chosen strongest holds ; for the delusion of 
 these arts was at once deep and wide-spread. 
 
 It is time, however, to turn to the remains of Ephesus. 
 A two days’ journey from Smyrna brings the traveller to 
 the supposed ruins of the place ; for so completely has 
 its glory gone that some speak of them as supposed. 
 Many of them are placed upon eminences, as in our 
 Yiew, and consist of shattered walls, into which are 
 built pillars, architraves, and fragments of marble. The 
 soil of the neighbourhood appears to be rich, but it is 
 everywhere deserted and solitary, though skirted by 
 mountains which are described as picturesque. The 
 wolf and the jackal now prowl among these remains, 
 and their howling often adds dreariness to a scene other- 
 wise abundantly depressing. Large masses of shapeless 
 ruins and stone walls, interspersed with some corn 
 fields, indicate still further the supposed site of what 
 was once proudly called “The Emporium of the World.” 
 But even the sea, it has been remarked, has retired 
 from the scene of desolation, and a pestilential morass, 
 covered with mud and rushes, has succeeded to the 
 waters which brought up ships laden with merchandise 
 from every part of the known world. The body now 
 pines, though the inhabitants are but a handful, where 
 souls were ruined of old. 
 
 Along the slopes of the hills Coressus and Mount 
 Prion, and over the plain, there are numerous ruins ; but 
 nothing has been discovered to indicate exactly the 
 site of the great temple. Broken pillars and Corinthian 
 capitals of white marble ; the ruins of a theatre, with 
 
Ephesus. 
 
 puted the largest of any theatre of antiquity, and sup- 
 posed to be that in which Paul was speaking when the 
 storm broke upon him, “ Great is Diana of the Ephe- 
 sians!” are all described as forming part of the remains 
 of Ephesus. The ruins of a circus or stadium 887 feet 
 in length, of some palaces or temples, and other build- 
 ings, can also be traced; but no inscription has been 
 found, no locality clearly identified: the city has, in truth, 
 long been a quarry of marble ; and the ruins of an adjoin- 
 ing town, which was built about four centuries ago, for 
 the most part, out of the exuviae of Ephesus, add still 
 further to the desolation of the scene. The nearest ap- 
 proach to identification has taken place in regard to 
 some churches, built when Ephesus was so far Christian 
 that the Church met in Council there. Tradition, or 
 Superstition, has also pointed out the tombs of John, of 
 Timothy, of the Virgin Mary, and of the Seven Sleepers, 
 in Ephesus or the vicinity. The prison of St. Paul is 
 also mentioned, and a gate called the Gate of Persecu- 
 tion ; but, in truth, all is indiscriminate confusion — the 
 real remains must be sought in far-off mediaeval build- 
 ings. Columns of green jasper were torn from Diana’s 
 Temple to support the dome of St. Sophia at Constan- 
 tinople, while some of its other decorations maybe found 
 in Italian cathedrals. As the result, though the environs 
 of these ruins be at some places beautiful, well wooded, 
 and covered with groves of myrtle, a visit to Ephesus is 
 one of the most depressing that can be made. Goths 
 from beyond the Danube were here, as elsewhere, em- 
 ployed as the avengers ; and it has sunk, like countless 
 
14 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 other places, under the weight of its own guilt ; the 
 rude heel of war, and long years of misrule, have trod- 
 den it in the dust. 
 
 We have said that scarcely any of the ruins of 
 Ephesus have been distinctly identified. We should 
 notice, however, the opinion of some travellers who 
 have visited the place and have told us that the ruins 
 of the Artemision or Temple of Diana have been traced. 
 That stately pile, it is said, was eight times reduced to 
 ruins. Its foundations were at last laid in a swamp, to 
 guard against the effects of earthquakes; and as the 
 arches of a vast substruction, forming a labyrinth 
 of vaults in which water stagnates, have been traced, 
 some hence conclude that they have discovered the 
 site of one of the seven wonders of the world. The 
 walls are said to be formed of immense blocks of marble, 
 perforated in front so as to admit of fastenings for the 
 plates of brass and silver by which the temple was 
 adorned. Some huge pillars of porphyry are mentioned 
 as having perhaps formed the portico of the temple; 
 but whether these conjectures be correct, or the reverse, 
 the entireness of the ruin is complete. To intensify the 
 impression made by all this we need scarcely add, what 
 some have said, that “ the numerous Christian congre- 
 gation of Ephesus is reduced to two individuals, one a 
 Greek gardener, and the other the keeper of a coffee- 
 house; and these are the representatives of the first 
 great Church of the Apocalypse !” The finger of the 
 Almighty Euler of heaven and earth has written 
 “ Ichabod ” here as surely as it wrote His will on the 
 two tables of stone. 
 
Ephesus „ 1 5 
 
 The sermons which are in the stones of Ephesus will 
 readily occur to any meditative mind. One who visited 
 the scene about a century ago, in substance thus de- 
 scribes it :* The population of the place now consists 
 of a few Greek peasants, who live in extreme wretched- 
 ness and insensibility. They are the sole representatives 
 of .an illustrious people, and dwell amid the wreck of 
 former greatness. Some occupy the substructions of 
 once glorious edifices; some live in the vaults of the 
 stadium, once the scene of animated diversions; and 
 some in the very caves which received the ashes of the 
 ancient people. The Emperor Justinian bore away its 
 statues and decorations to Constantinople, and reared 
 the Church of St. Sophia with columns rifled from Ephe- 
 sus ; and now its very streets are effaced and overgrown. 
 A herd of goats was driven in for shelter from the sun 
 at noon ; and a noisy flight of crows seemed to insult 
 the silence. We heard the partridge call in the area of 
 the theatre and stadium, where solitude, destruction, 
 and death are paramount. The pomp of its heathen 
 worship is remembered no more, and a truer faith, which 
 was planted by an apostle, barely lingers here in an 
 existence which is hardly visible. And all this, be it 
 remembered, has taken place in a city where the Saviour 
 himself once saw work, and labour, and patience, which 
 he could praise. Along with the praise, however, there 
 was the warning, “ Remember whence thou art fallen, 
 and repent, and do the first works ; or else I will come 
 unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out 
 
 * See Kitto’s Encyclopaedia, Art. Ephesus. 
 
1 6 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 of his place, except thou repent.” — It is the mingling of 
 mercy and rebuke, of love and faithfulness; but all 
 was unavailing. The warning was neglected, — there 
 was no repentance, or none that was continuous. The 
 candlestick was therefore removed, and yonder is the 
 debris, the rubbish of Ephesus, — she has become her own 
 grave, because the word of Truth was slighted. First 
 Diana; then for some time, and to some extent, the 
 Redeemer; then the Impostor of Mecca; and now a 
 silence which saddens, — behold the story of Ephesus ! 
 “ A few more scores of years,” one has said at the sight, 
 — “ a few more scores of years, and Ephesus has neither 
 temple, cross, crescent nor city, but is a desolation, a 
 dry land, and a wilderness.” We may pronounce the 
 prediction as already fulfilled. 
 
 In our View, the background is filled up by the 
 mountains already named, which terminate the plain 
 in which Ephesus stood. Near to the spectator, on the 
 central eminence, is the castle and town of Aiasaluk ; 
 and under that hill are the ruins of a church dedicated 
 to St. John. The remains of an aqueduct built by 
 Herodes Atticus are seen on the right, and in the fore- 
 ground are some of the massed ruins of Ephesus. The 
 Cayster still oozes through the plain, but it also has par- 
 taken of the general desolation of the region.— The origin 
 of the name Aiasaluk, or Asalook, is perhaps worthy of 
 being noticed. The Greeks call John, Ayos Scologos, — 
 a corruption of Agios Theologus, the Holy Divine ; and 
 from that corruption arose the modern name of the place. 
 
 Such, then, is a glimpse of the ruins of Ephesus, — the 
 home of desolation, inscribed all over with righteous 
 
Ephesus. 1 7 
 
 retributions from on high, retributions which may 
 strike us in a thousand other places, but rarely amid 
 such contrasts or with such emphasis as here — 
 
 “ Here, waning grandeur strikes the wanderer’s eye ; 
 
 There, mouldering towers, like giants, rise in air, — 
 
 Another Babel, mounting to the sky, 
 
 Touched by the hoar of time, mature and fair.” 
 
 But no power of m'hn can evolve all the lessons which 
 such scenes and sights may teach. Here is the grave 
 of greatness, and here the humiliation of pride. Here 
 are paid the wages of sin, and here desolation swallows 
 up the pomp of the voluptuous, the grossness of the 
 idolater, and even the exquisiteness of art. Here man 
 is seen at once in his power and his puniness. Here 
 abject wretchedness shakes hands with regal pomp 
 across the gulf of many centuries; and here, among 
 the ruins of Ephesus — crumbling, indiscriminate, Babel- 
 like — the world may read its own history, or its own 
 final doom, when He who is holy and true shall arise to 
 judgment, and assert his prerogative as the God of all 
 the ages and all the ends of the earth. 
 
 2 
 
II. 
 
 Clje |kms of Sarbis. 
 
 Like the solitary pillar of Phocas in the Forum at 
 Rome, the pillars presented in our next view, as exhibit- 
 ing nearly all that remains of Sardis, furnish another 
 melancholy memorial of the vanity of earthly things. 
 
 Sardis was the capital of tjie ancient kingdom of 
 Lydia. It stood at the base of Mount Tmolus in a plain 
 watered by the river Pactolus, whose waters floated 
 down particles of gold, or whose sands contained no in- 
 considerable fragments of that precious metal. It was 
 a city of great wealth and corresponding luxury. Pos- 
 session of Sardis was therefore coveted by many of the 
 royal robbers of antiquity ; and many a battle was fought, 
 and many a siege was laid, in order to secure the com- 
 mand of the place. Its last king was Croesus, whose 
 name is now a synonyme for riches. During his 
 reign it was taken by Cyrus, b.c. 548, and yielded the 
 most opulent prize of all the cities in the East. When 
 the Romans became masters of the place it rapidly fell 
 into decay. An earthquake in the time of Tiberius has- 
 tened its downfall, and though that emperor ordered 
 its restoration, yet the voluptuous character of its in- 
 habitants wasted it more completely than earthquakes 
 could — no emperor could restore the ravages wrought 
 
Sardis. 
 
 19 
 
 by the gross lives of the Sardians, and Sardis sank at 
 last under the weight of its own abominations. It had 
 a name to live — but nothing more ; and though “ a 
 few” were there who had not defiled their garments 
 with the world, yet what were these among so many? 
 The particles of preserving salt had no power against 
 the abounding corruption, and Sardis may be said to 
 have entirely ceased to be. 
 
 The ravages of war combined with those of earth- 
 quakes to speed on this desolation. The Saracens and 
 Turks took revenge upon Sardis for even the shadow- of 
 the Christian name which it retained ; and its site is 
 now a wide-spread mass of ruins, studded with tokens 
 of its former splendour, but saddening to all who re- 
 member the connection between guilt and degradation. 
 The village of Sart, among the ruins, consists of a few 
 miserable cottages, inhabited by Greeks and Turks, con- 
 trasting drearily, to the eye of faith, with what the ruins 
 proclaim to have been the ancient splendour of the place. 
 The Acropolis appears distinctly to define the site of the 
 city. It is described as “ a tall distorted rock of soft 
 sandstone, rent as if by an earthquake.” The ruins of 
 a theatre, of a stadium, and some churches, are found 
 there, and a countless number of sepulchral hillocks 
 in the neighbourhood tell how lowly the once proud 
 and lordly now lie : they show that man and his handi- 
 work are equally transient when the Eternal I am 
 gives the word. 
 
 But perhaps the most remarkable ruins at Sardis 
 are two Ionic pillars of white marble, represented in 
 our View, supposed to have formed part of a temple 
 
20 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 dedicated to Cybele, the mother of the gods. In the 
 year 1700 , six of these marble columns stood erect ; 
 but barbarism has destroyed four : they were blasted 
 by gunpowder, and only two now remain to pro- 
 claim the grandeur that is gone. If that conjecture 
 be correct which assigns these columns to the Temple of 
 Cybele, then these remains rank among the oldest ruins 
 in the world ; for that temple is believed to have been 
 built only three hundred years after that of Solomon, 
 or perhaps seven hundred years before the coming of 
 the Saviour. 
 
 But temple, theatre, stadium — all that luxury prompt- 
 ed or wealth could supply have passed away. “ The 
 Lady of Kingdoms” sits lonely and desolate now ; and 
 travellers tell that a feeling of “ indescribable solitude,” 
 or of “ desolate abandonment,” takes possession of the 
 mind amid these crumbling vestiges of the past. After 
 visiting the alleged Palace of Croesus, and other re- 
 mains, one says, — “ I was filled with wonder and awe 
 at beholding the two stupendous columns of the Temple 
 of Cybele which are still remaining : they are silent 
 but impressive witnesses of the power and splendour 
 of antiquity ;” — a power and a splendour, we may add, 
 which contrasts very strongly with what is recorded of 
 the modern Sardis : “ She affords no permanent habita- 
 tion to any human being, while her whole Christian 
 population is comprised in two servants of a Moham- 
 medan miller in the vicinity.” But still more touching 
 scenes can easily be there reproduced by memory, and 
 another traveller has been at pains to tell us that, as he 
 sat to gaze upon the ruins of Sardis from the banks of 
 
Sardis . 
 
 21 
 
 the golden-sanded Paetolus, scene after scene once 
 enacted there, rose before his view. Beside him were 
 the cliffs of the Acropolis which the hardy Median scaled 
 when leading on the Persians to conquest. Near that 
 traveller were the remains of the Palace of Croesus, within 
 which were sometimes assembled the wisest of their 
 age, Thales, Cleobulus and Solon. Here iEsop composed 
 the Fables which still delight our youth, and here a 
 wretched father mourned over the corpse of his mangled 
 Atys. In the distance across the Hermus, to which the 
 Paetolus is a tributary, are the grave-mounds of the 
 Lydian monarchs, Candaules, Halyattes, and Gyges ; 
 and around them are spread the very plains which the 
 hosts of Xerxes traversed when, rushing in quest of 
 glory, they found only a grave at Marathon. Surely 
 such sights might do more than solemnize, — they might 
 transform. But no. No sight of human littleness, — no 
 bursting of the bubble, fame, — no vanishing away of the 
 glory which is transient and worthless as the foam- 
 bell on the waters, can accomplish that result : God has 
 reserved it in his own hand. His power alone can 
 transform ; and we may gaze on all the ruins of Sardis* 
 where more varied and more vivid remembrances 
 (one says, though not correctly) may be awakened than 
 could possibly be attached to any other spot on earth, 
 only to rise from the spectacle and plunge into vanity as 
 before. What can the ruined fanes of a dead religion 
 do to change man’s heart ? What power have the 
 tombs of forgotten monarchs to lift our thoughts to 
 heaven? Though the palm-tree now waves in the 
 banquet-hall of kings, will that make me set my affec- 
 
22 
 
 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 tions upon things above 1 Ah, no. Such things may 
 sadden, but they cannot renew ; and until the sweet 
 influences of grace be granted to deepen and perpetu- 
 ate such impressions, they will prove but like the 
 early dew, the mirage of the desert, or the dreams of our 
 youth. When Solon, to whom Croesus proudly showed 
 his treasures, warned the monarch not to glory in them, 
 did the warning produce much effect h It did not ; 
 and in due time all that wealth became the property of 
 his conqueror, Cyrus. It is ever the same with foolish 
 man; and Omnipotence alone, working with Omni- 
 science, can make him wise. 
 
 Were this the place to submit it, the history of Sar- 
 dis would be found one of the most remarkable upon 
 record. Its founder is not known. As we have seen, 
 it was captured by Cyrus more than five centuries be- 
 fore the Saviour came. It passed into the hands of the 
 Greeks under Alexander the Great. Antiochus, the 
 last king of Syria, besieged and took the city, being 
 guided to an entrance where the walls of the citadel 
 were low, by the flight of vultures, and other birds of 
 prey, as they resorted to the offals thrown from the 
 fortress at that spot. The place was surrendered by 
 Antiochus to the two Scipios more than 150 years be- 
 fore Christ. Julian the Apostate resolutely attempted to 
 restore a waning paganism there, and re-erected all the 
 pagan altars which had been previously cast down. 
 The Saracens succeeded the Romans, and now Deso- 
 lation has supplanted them all. If Paul planted the 
 Church there, as some suppose, corruption speedily 
 did its work ; and neither the presence of bishops nor 
 
Sardis. 
 
 23 
 
 the holding of Councils could retard the descent of 
 Sardis into the grave which sin digs for nations as 
 well as individuals. But we give one extract more, to 
 exhibit as clearly as we can the lowly condition of 
 Sardis : “ I saw from afar,” one says, “ the lofty Acro- 
 polis, fringed with crumbling ruins ; and when I crossed 
 a branch of the golden Pactolus, which once flowed 
 through the Agora, or market-place, and when I stood 
 there at eleven o’clock, the very hour at which, in its 
 ancient days, the place would be crowded, I saw not a 
 soul, nor an object of any sort, to remind me that this 
 solitude had been a vast and splendid city, save here 
 and there a patch of ruin, a dismantled wall, or a heap 
 of brambles and brick-work, mixed with brushwood and 
 creeping weeds. Where palaces and temples, theatres 
 and crowded habitations, had stood, a green and flowery 
 carpet of smooth sward met the eye ; and the tall, stately 
 asphodel, or gay lily, gleamed in its beauty, where a 
 marble column had risen in other days.” 
 
 But the whole story of this city has not yet been told. 
 We have already mentioned the name of Gyges, and it 
 suggests some incidents which were at once flagitious 
 and tragical. Candaules, one of the kings of Sardis, 
 maltreated his queen ; and in revenge she encouraged 
 the approaches of Gyges, who slew the king, married 
 the outraged queen, and became king of Sardis himself. 
 
 Now about five miles from that capital a large lake 
 called Gygea is found, and on its shores are some of 
 the most memorable of ruins. That lake, which is not 
 far from the river Hermus, is by some deemed artifi- 
 cial in its origin, but the lapse of ages has invested it 
 
24 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 with the aspects of nature. It teems with fish, flocks 
 of swans stud the waters or gleam in the air, and other 
 attractions add beauty to the scene. On the banks of 
 that lake, the ancient kings of Lydia selected their 
 place of burial. Their remains are deposited in a vast 
 cemetery, and the crowds of monuments which cluster 
 around them have acquired for the scene the oriental 
 name of “ The Place of a Thousand Tombs.” They 
 are now large mounds covered with grass ; but one is 
 conspicuous above all the rest, which is regarded as the 
 Tomb of Alyattes, the father of Croesus the Rich. 
 
 The mode of its erection lets us see far into the 
 morals of Sardis, and enables us to comprehend why 
 the Saviour said he had a few even there who had 
 not defiled their garments. Such was the number and 
 such the wealth of the abandoned females of that capital 
 that they reared this magnificent tomb to their king by 
 their own gifts, — “a monument to their own infamy,” it 
 has been said, as well as to their king. Herodotus saw 
 and described it half a millennium before the Christian 
 era, very much as it continues to this day. The base is 
 about three-fourths of a mile in length ; the monument 
 itself is a truncated cone now covered with verdure ; while 
 from the summit, the lake reposing in its beauty, the 
 crowds of monuments all around, the Hermus, and the 
 whole neighbourhood, impress the visitor once more 
 with the thought of dreary desolation. The traditions 
 regarding these ruins are believed to be thoroughly 
 authentic ; and the remains are in themselves so gigan- 
 tic that “ the traveller there sees a monument as vast 
 and ancient as a pyramid of Egypt, but whose history 
 
Sardis. 2 5 
 
 is much more certain and authentic.” Around that 
 lake tastes the most diverse might find indulgence. The 
 botanist might luxuriate amid its aquatic verdure. 
 The naturalist might find objects of interest in its 
 flocks of feathered occupants. The antiquarian might 
 be regaled by ruins which carry us back over two or three 
 thousand years. But above all, the moralist or the man 
 of God might here behold how shameless vice becomes, 
 and how truthful Paul was when he wrote to Rome 
 about ancient paganism, and said that God “ gave men 
 up to a reprobate mind,” so that they were “filled with 
 all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetous- 
 ness, maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, 
 malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, de- 
 spiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, diso- 
 bedient to parents, without understanding, covenant- 
 breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmer- 
 ciful : who knowing the judgment of God, that they 
 which commit such things are worthy of death, not only 
 do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” 
 Rom. i. 29-32. 
 
 Without dwelling further on the ruins of Asia Minor, 
 inviting as the subject is, we now cross the “ Great 
 Sea,” and traverse the desert on the way to the Pro- 
 mised Land. Not far from one of its borders we find 
 the Wady Mousa, or Glen of Moses, and we are alike 
 astonished and delighted by the ruins which there 
 abound. We now refer to Petra. 
 
III. 
 
 Cjje limns xif 
 
 It would be impossible to convey a full account of this 
 marvellous scene unless a volume were devoted to its 
 details. We therefore merely glance at its history, and 
 briefly describe the entrance to the place, with some of 
 its most prominent ruins. 
 
 The name Petra, Selah, the Rock, is one of the most 
 descriptive ever applied to any place, as the whole 
 wondrous scene is one mass of living rock. There are 
 houses of rock, and a theatre of rock, and tombs in- 
 numerable of rock, and stairs, and excavations, and 
 works without number and without end, all exquisitely 
 chiselled or elaborately dug in the solid rock. — Petra 
 was the ancient capital of Edom, and is utterly unlike 
 any other ruin of which history tells or which modern 
 enterprise has brought to light. The descendants of 
 Esau are reckoned its founders ; and as the Edomites 
 are known from Scripture to have been a powerful and 
 a numerous people many centuries before our era, their 
 capital may date far back in the dimness of remote 
 antiquity. In Genesis xxxvi. we have an abstract of 
 its history, or a catalogue of its princes ; and we there 
 learn that the place was governed first by dukes and 
 princes, then by many successive kings, and then by 
 
ROCK-CUT TOMB AT PETRA. 
 
 Page 26 . 
 

Petra. 
 
 27 
 
 dukes again, and all that prior to the foundation of 
 Israel as a kingdom, — “ before there reigned any king 
 over Israel.” In the time of Saul, Edom was subdued 
 and became tributary to the kingdom of Judah. It 
 revolted, but was again vanquished in the days of 
 David. When the Romans overran the East, Edom 
 was absorbed ; and some of their emperor^ did much to 
 adorn it. Under Augustus it was a flourishing place, 
 the abode of many Romans. Adrian patronized Petra, 
 and changed its name into Adriane ; but soon after his 
 death it ceases to be mentioned in history. Its singular 
 position, “ in the clefts of the rock,” sequestered it from 
 the eyes of all excepting the wandering Arab ; and the 
 unique and magnificent capital became a dwelling only 
 for robbers, for wild beasts and birds, for scorpions and 
 bats. It had once been a centre or a focus of commerce. 
 The roads from the East to the West, and from various 
 other quarters, all converged upon Petra ; and the cara- 
 vans of those remote times occasioned an activity of 
 trade, a bustle among the merchants of all nations there, 
 such as even fancy can scarcely reproduce amid these 
 stupendous ruins, so deserted now that even the foot- 
 fall of the traveller appears to mar the solitude. But 
 as Petra flourished artificially, by the commerce of the 
 nations, it fell in their fall. When Nineveh and Baby- 
 lon were no more, when Egypt sank low among the 
 nations, and when Palestine was peeled and trodden 
 down, the great market-place of the desert faded with 
 them— its occupation was gone; and we know concern- 
 ing it now only that prophecy has there been marvel- 
 lously fulfilled : “ 0 thou that dwellest in the clefts of 
 
28 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 the rock, and holdest the height of the hill, though thou 
 shouldest make thy nest as the eagle, I will bring thee 
 down from thence, saith the Lord. Also, Edom shall 
 be desolate : every one that goeth by shall be astonished, 
 and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof. .... The 
 pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that 
 dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is 
 
 high I laid the mountains of Esau and his 
 
 heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.” 
 Never a more explicit prediction, — never a more exact 
 fulfilment. For many centuries the name of Petra was 
 never heard, till the enterprising traveller, Seitzen, 
 brought it once more into notice about the commence- 
 ment of the present century ; and we need scarcely tarry 
 to tell how changed all this was from the time when 
 this capital of the Nabatheans was the focus of all the 
 commodities of the East, — when caravans from the in- 
 terior of Arabia, from the Persian Gulf, from Yeman, 
 spread their cargoes thence to Damascus, to Jerusalem, 
 to Gaza, to Tyre, and other places. It is unprecedented 
 in all history, that a spot so arid and dreary by nature 
 should have been forced into such prominence, or be- 
 come such a depot of all forms of wealth ; yet long 
 before Israel was a kingdom, and long after that king- 
 dom had withered away, Petra flourished, as we have 
 seen, while it is now perhaps the most wondrous monu- 
 ment on the globe. 
 
 The Wady Mousa, where these remarkable ruins are 
 found, is about two days’ journey from the Red Sea; 
 and so vast is the solitude, that we travel for days all 
 round this capital without beholding a trace of man, 
 
ENTRANCE TO PETRA. 
 
 Page 29. 
 
 3 
 
Petra. 
 
 29 
 
 except it be some horde of Arab robbers prowling for 
 plunder. But it was not always so. Eighteen centuries 
 ago, Edom could furnish a contingent of 30,000 men to 
 help to repel the Romans from J erusalem ; and the ruins 
 of more than thirty towns can be counted in the ter- 
 ritory of Edom within a circuit of a few miles. — It is 
 amid such scenes that the believer can realize most 
 vividly the truth of his religion. He who sees the end 
 from the beginning laid its foundation on the ever- 
 lasting Rock, and it is waxing stronger and stronger 
 the more the world’s history and condition are ex- 
 plored. 
 
 Amid scenes so wonderful, it will be difficult to 
 convey a very satisfactory account of the ruins with- 
 out the help of the pencil or the daguerreotype. 
 The Entkance to Petra is by a narrow gorge, 
 lined by lofty precipices, formed by the channel of 
 a rivulet. This defile is nearly two miles in length. 
 At some places the overhanging rocks approach so 
 near to each other that only two horsemen can pro- 
 ceed abreast. Along this pass, however, merchandise 
 which enriched thousands, and corrupted thousands 
 more, once flowed into the place. The ledge-like path 
 is lined with tombs cut from the live rock, which is at 
 some places not less than from 200 to 300 feet high ; 
 and near the city the pathway is absolutely a street 
 formed by tombs. In that neighbourhood stands a mag- 
 nificent temple, the Khuzne, or Treasury, all cut from 
 the solid rock ; and all the details of decoration, though 
 tasteless in themselves, are fresh and sharp, and well 
 defined, except where the hand of violence has damaged 
 
30 
 
 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 them, as if only a few years had passed since they 
 were reared. The sight, it may well he supposed, has 
 roused the genius of poetry. The befitting strain, in 
 such a place, would be a dirge— an anticipation of the 
 cry, “Woe, woe, woe !” and one has sung, in words ap- 
 plicable to the place, — 
 
 “ Across yon cliff a bridge seems hung in air, 
 
 While, mingling life with death, a thousand caves 
 Yawn far and near, — the ancient dwellers’ graves.” 
 
 But no poetry can really depict the scene. Under the 
 bridge the pass is only 12 feet wide. “ I was perfectly 
 fascinated with this splendid work of ancient art (the 
 Khuzne) in this wild spot,” wrote one not apt to speak 
 in raptures ; “ and the idea of it was uppermost in my 
 mind during the day and all the night. In the morn- 
 ing I returned, and beheld it again with increased ad- 
 miration. There it stands, as it has stood for ages, in 
 beauty and loveliness : the generations which admired 
 and rejoiced over it of old have passed away; the wild 
 Arab, as he wanders by, regards it with stupid indiffer- 
 ence or scorn ; and none are left but strangers from far 
 distant lands to do it reverence. Its rich roseate tints, 
 as I bade it farewell, were lighted up and gilded by the 
 mellow beams of the morning sun ; and I turned away 
 from it at length with an impression which will be 
 effaced only at death.” * 
 
 When the visitor to Petra emerges from the ravine, 
 which is the main approach to the place, the city 
 
 * Dr. Robinson. 
 
ROCK TEMPLE AT PETRA 
 
Petra. 
 
 3i 
 
 opens before him in all its loveliness. The site forms 
 a natural amphitheatre, about two miles and a half 
 in circumference, while the lofty hills stand sentinels 
 all around. The dwellings, the temples, the tombs, 
 are all fresh and youthful in their aspect ; and though 
 pillars have fallen, the friezes are there, for they are parts 
 of the rock. Cornices have given way, yet the entabla- 
 tures above them remain. Gazed at, in short, with the 
 eye of mere wonder, Petra is a mystery in stone. Judged 
 of by other ruins, it is unique and unmatched. Viewed 
 historically, it is a mighty monument of fallen grandeur : 
 in the light of Scripture it proclaims that God is true 
 and every man a liar. 
 
 “ Pillar and arch, defying Time’s rude shock, 
 
 Gleam on each side, upstarting from the rock;” 
 
 but the Eternal has done what time has failed to 
 achieve, and the sin of Petra has found it out. It is its 
 own grave, its own monument, and its own epitaph. 
 
 In this area one is struck by a strange combination. 
 The rock is lioney-combed, Stanley says, with cavities 
 of all shapes and sizes ; and through these you advance 
 till the defile once more opens, and you see — strange 
 and unexpected sight, with tombs above, below, and in 
 front — a Greek theatre hewn out of the rock, its tiers 
 of seats literally red and purple alternately, — all in the 
 living rock, — an amazing monument at once of folly 
 and of taste. Its diameter at the base is 120 feet. It 
 has thirty-three rows of seats, rising one above an- 
 other, in the side of the cliff behind. Above the seats, 
 in the circle of the rock, a row of small chambers is ex- 
 
32 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 cavated, whose occupants could survey the whole scene 
 below. The theatre is estimated by some to contain 
 about 3000 people, but others deem that number too 
 small. Such a structure or fabric, carved entire, we 
 repeat, from the living rock, is surely an architectural 
 marvel ; but here we have a moral wonder as well. The 
 frivolities of the stage had their zest deepened, and the 
 fetters of the frivolous were pleasantly rivetted, by the 
 magnificence of the adjoining tombs: it was “amusement 
 in a cemetery, — a theatre in the midst of sepulchres.” 
 But the surpassing marvels of this city of the dead must 
 be visited by us in person, if we would know all its 
 wonders, or become familiar with all its beauty. Wrapt 
 in the silence which has long enshrouded the place, the 
 remains of a convent, with crosses carved within, and 
 called Ed-Deir, are found among the ruins ; but we need 
 not such a memento to tell us of a present God. He is 
 here fulfilling his word. He is here in the glory of his 
 justice ; and, we must add, there are few spots on all the 
 earth where there is less to remind us of his mercy. 
 
AMPHITHEATRE AT PETRA. 
 

 / 
 
 
 
 
1Y. 
 
 limns of ^sfiefnn, anir ^sljiinir. 
 
 GAZA. 
 
 In entering the territory of the tribe of Judah by Beer- 
 sheba, and passing along the sea-coast, we reach three 
 mined cities, ancient strongholds of the Philistines, which 
 it would not be proper to pass without a notice. They 
 are not remarkably signalized by the remains of former 
 elegance, but more than enough still exists to create 
 no little interest, and shed not a little light on the Bible, 
 in the ruins of Gaza, of Askelon, and Ashdod. 
 
 Gaza, a city at the distance of about 60 miles from 
 Jerusalem, is mentioned in Scripture as existing in very 
 early times (Gen. x. 19). Thenceforward it holds a con- 
 spicuous place in the history of the Hebrew people. 
 Moses refers to it, and Joshua conquered it, but 
 spared the Anakims (Josh. xi. 22), who then occupied 
 the place. In the division of the Promised Land, Gaza 
 fell to the lot of Judah ; but its inhabitants were never 
 extirpated, and along with four other Philistine cities it 
 •gave a golden emerod from time to time as a trespass- 
 offering to Jehovah (1 Sam. vi. 17). It remained a Phil- 
 istine city, then, and though taken by the Egyptians, and 
 often otherwise assailed (1 Kings iv. 24 ; 2 Kings xviii. 
 
34 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 8), it never was thoroughly incorporated with the 
 kingdom. The prophets denounced it, and monarchs 
 besieged it, but it was strong enough to perpetuate its 
 own existence against external enemies. It even sus- 
 tained a siege of five months from Alexander the 
 Great, who took it at last, however, by storm, slaugh- 
 tered its defenders, sold their wives and children as 
 slaves, and sought new inhabitants for the city in the 
 adjoining country. But not content with that, Alex- 
 ander, in imitation of his model, Achilles, dragged the 
 dead body of the general who had defended the city 
 twice around its walls, and so evinced the ferocity of a 
 nature which was inherently mean amid all its boasted 
 greatness. The Maccabees also besieged Gaza, and one 
 of them took it after extraordinary efforts had been 
 made. Other sieges and sackings are recorded, and 
 the place eventually passed under the dominion of 
 Herod, as a gift from Augustus his patron. 
 
 But the most noted of all the incidents connected 
 with Gaza relate to Samson, and form part of his his- 
 tory. It was there that he tore away the gates of the 
 city, “ bar and all,” and bore them on his shoulders to a 
 hill top before Hebron ; it was there also that he, as a 
 blinded captive, “ did grind in the prison house,” being 
 bound with fetters of brass ; and it was there that he 
 avenged his own sufferings and the wrongs of his coun- 
 try upon the Philistine lords and people, by tearing 
 down the pillars of the Temple of Dagon. Near Gaza, 
 moreover, in more recent times, Philip the deacon 
 baptized the chamberlain of Queen Candace : so that 
 the place is inwoven at once with Old and New Testa- 
 
Gaza. 
 
 35 
 
 ment events, and the traveller can scarcely visit the 
 scene without being reminded of some of the most re- 
 markable incidents recorded in the history of man. 
 
 But what ruins remain to indicate the former grandeur 
 of the place ? The population has been variously 
 estimated. Some rank it as low as 2,000, while others 
 mention 10,000 or 11,000, and one mounts as high as 
 16,000. These are the inhabitants of a new town, 
 however, which is considerably more inland than the 
 ancient one ; and, like many other places, the latter can 
 be described by two brief lines : — 
 
 “ Two or three columns with many a stone, 
 
 Marble and granite with grass overgrown,” 
 
 seem all that remain of a city which once required the 
 might of Samson to do it injury, and which for five 
 months withstood the arms even of Alexander the 
 Great. 
 
 The modern town, in Arabic called Ghuzzeh, stands 
 on a low round hill of some extent ; it is surrounded by 
 suburbs which stretch far to the east and the north ; but 
 houses mainly built of unburnt bricks can ill represent 
 Gaza, once renowned as “ the strong,” the key of Pales- 
 tine and Syria. A gate is still shown there as that 
 from which Samson carried off the bars ; and his tomb, 
 upon the same authority, Moslem tradition, is pointed 
 out in the neighbourhood. But sober inquiry tells us 
 that the vestiges of the ancient walls and strength of 
 Gaza are gone.* Even the traces of its antiquity are 
 
 * Robinson’s Researches, ii. 38. 
 
3 6 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 rare, “ consisting of occasional columns of marble or 
 grey granite scattered in the streets and gardens, or 
 used as thresholds at the gates and doors of houses, or 
 laid upon the front of watering-troughs. One fine 
 Corinthian capital of white marble lies inverted in the 
 middle of a street.” Amid all this desolation, however, 
 the soil of the adjoining country is rich and productive. 
 Apricots, mulberries, palm and olives trees, with fruits 
 of every kind, as well as other Eastern productions, are 
 rife in this region. Nor should we fail to notice that 
 though the Christian religion was early planted at 
 Gaza, — for one of its bishops died a martyr in the year 
 285, — idolatry long kept its hold of the place, and in the 
 fifth century no fewer than eight temples dedicated to 
 heathen gods still existed there. 
 
 But Gaza “ the splendid and delicious” was doomed, 
 like other places, to fall under Mohammedan rule. 
 That took place a.d. 634. In 796 it was laid waste during 
 a civil war. In 1152 the Crusaders erected a fortress 
 there, and intrusted the defence of it to the Knights 
 Templars. In 1170 Saladin sacked the town ; and in 
 1187, after the battle of Hattin, the fortress and the 
 entire place fell, along with other strongholds, into the 
 conqueror’s hands. Kichard of England for some time 
 held the citadel, but it soon melted from his grasp, like 
 his other conquests in Palestine. 
 
 Besides the information already given regarding the 
 utter desolation of ancient Gaza, some Eastern travellers 
 dwell still more earnestly on its dreary dilapidations. 
 “ Baldness is come upon Gaza” — “ I will send a fire 
 upon the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces 
 
Gaza. 
 
 37 
 
 thereof” — “ Gaza shall be forsaken” — “ The king shall 
 
 perish from Gaza I will cut off the pride of 
 
 the Philistines” — these are some of the predictions 
 of J eremiah, of Amos, and Zechariah, regarding this 
 lordly city ; and there are some, therefore, who seek 
 for a more literal fulfilment of the divine denunciations 
 than can be found in a city whose population is vari- 
 ously estimated at from 2,000 to 11,000, or more. We 
 are accordingly told that the plain between Gaza 
 and Ramleh is now deserted and peeled — in prophetic 
 language, the sea-coast has become “ dwellings and cot- 
 tages for shepherds and folds for flocks.” Moreover, 
 even Infidelity speaking by Volney, one of its high 
 priests, tells us that the ruins of white marble some- 
 times found at Gaza prove that it was formerly the abode 
 of luxury and opulence. It has shared in the general 
 destruction, and, notwithstanding its proud title of the 
 Capital of Palestine, it is now no more than a defence- 
 less village. The house of the present Aga, we are in- 
 formed, is composed of fragments of ancient columns and 
 cornices ; and in the court-yard some shafts and capitals 
 of granite columns, fragments of former lordliness, “ are 
 bedded in a wall that forms an enclosure for beasts !” 
 But more precise still. It was predicted, we have seen, 
 that “ baldness would come upon Gaza,” and it has 
 been doubted whether that could be supposed to have 
 been fulfilled when a town, according to some nearly 
 as populous as Jerusalem, is still found there. But a 
 modern traveller, Dr. Keith, was detained a day in that 
 vicinity, contrary to his purposes and plans, and spent 
 it in traversing the sand-hills, in which manifold though 
 
38 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 minute remains of the ancient city are still often dis- 
 covered. He was thence led to the conclusion that 
 ancient G-aza stood among these sand-hills now so bald 
 and bare. Broken pottery, pieces of glass and polished 
 marble, lie thick in every hollow, over a space of several 
 square miles, while others speak of fragments of antique 
 statues. The places where such remains are found can- 
 not be reckoned under fifty. The ruins, it is supposed, 
 lie buried in the sand ; but where Gaza once stood, not 
 a fragment of ruin one cubic foot in size, not a shrub, 
 not a blade of grass was seen to interrupt the desolation. 
 Other travellers,* after full inquiry, were satisfied that 
 the bare sand-hills now referred to cover the site of 
 Gaza, — once the abode of luxury and opulence. Its 
 palaces had there found a grave, and those fragments 
 of polished marble were all that remained to tell that 
 Philistine lords ever ruled there, — that Alexander the 
 Great had disgraced himself there, — that the Bomans 
 were once masters of Gaza, — that Crusaders had shed 
 blood in torrents there in name of the Prince of Peace ; 
 and that fr,om the times of the Crusades the place has 
 been of no note except to pilgrims and their purveyors. 
 At various times and various places over the three miles 
 which intervene between the present town and the sea, 
 hewn stones have been dug up. At one spot ten massy 
 fragments of wall are found embedded in sand. At 
 the distance of about two miles the fragments of 
 another wall exist, and four fountains, belonging, no 
 doubt, to ancient Gaza. About half a mile from the sea 
 
 * Nar. of Scot. Dep. p. 136. 
 
Gaza. 
 
 39 
 
 three pedestals of beautiful marble have been uncovered. 
 Holes like quarries for stones still indicate the extent of 
 the ruins : in a word, whatever date we may ascribe to 
 the buildings thus partially disinterred, they connect us 
 with some of the most perfect ruins even in Syria, — the 
 melancholy remains of former grandeur, the tokens of 
 a vanished lordly power. And yet of that vicinity 
 we read, “ Bare to perfect baldness as ancient Gaza is, 
 the opposite side of the modern town may challenge 
 any land with its rich groves of olives, at least three 
 
 miles in length One of the finest crops of 
 
 wheat seen in Syria grew under the partial and pro- 
 tecting shade of stately olives in the plains of Gaza.” 
 While ruins, endless but thorough, prove what the past 
 has been, the luxuriant vegetation of the region, where 
 there is any moisture at all, forewarns us as to what 
 Gaza and its environs may yet become. Israel is pre- 
 served, as if by a perpetual miracle, for some peculiar 
 destiny; and though we are not disposed to dogmatize 
 as to what its future may be, we should be taught, by 
 all that we see and learn in such neighbourhoods as 
 that of Gaza, hopefully to leave the future to Him who 
 sees the end from the beginning, and to whom all dura- 
 tion is only one everlasting now. The believer sees 
 among these ruins, compared with the prophecies which 
 predict them, new buttresses to his faith ; and the in- 
 fidel must encounter difficulties which it is not easy, on 
 his principles, to solve. He must either deny the re- 
 cords of history, or grant that wondrous transformations 
 have been wrought, as predicted, in wondrous ways, 
 among these bald, bare hills of sand. 
 
 4 
 
40 
 
 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 ASKELON. 
 
 This ancient stronghold is situated on the shores of 
 fche Mediterranean, about thirty-seven miles W.S.W. 
 from J erusalem, and twelve or fifteen miles from Gaza. 
 Its modern name is Askulan, Askalun, or, according to 
 some, Scalona. It belonged of old to the Philistines, and 
 was originally assigned to the tribe of Judah, though 
 never long in the actual possession of the children of 
 Israel. As the birth-place of Herod the Great, Askelon 
 became famed for the decorations which he bestowed on 
 it, in the shape of colonnades, baths, and fountains. As 
 in some degree a frontier town, it was subject to various 
 vicissitudes; and at one time Egypt, at another Syria, 
 reckoned Askelon a part of its territory. During the 
 wars between the Jews and the Romans this city suffered 
 much ; for as its people hated the Jews (see 2 Sam. i. 
 20), and at one time slew 2500 of that nation, who re- 
 sided within their walls, the spirit of revenge and re- 
 taliation was rife. It is, however, in the times of the 
 Crusades that Askelon becomes chiefly important. 
 Under Saladin and Richard it was repeatedly disman- 
 tled and rebuilt. In 1009 the Caliph of Egypt was 
 defeated at Askelon by Godfrey of Bouillon. In 1192 
 a signal victory was gained by Richard I. over Saladin, 
 when 40,000 Saracens and Turks were slain, and the 
 city became the property of Richard. Its fortifications 
 were at length entirely dismantled by the Sultan Bibars, 
 a.d. 1270. The port was at the same time filled up 
 with stones, in order to baffle all future attempts to 
 
A skelon. 
 
 41 
 
 resuscitate the place. For centuries its desolation has 
 been complete. Though to some extent inhabited, it is 
 another melancholy instance of prostrate magnificence : 
 a blight has descended upon Askelon, and all is dreary 
 desolation. 
 
 The ruins, however, which remain, tell of the former 
 strength of the place. The situation of the fortifica- 
 tions was naturally strong. The thick walls were 
 flanked by towers, and built on a ridge of rock which 
 encircles the town and terminates at each end at the sea. 
 The ground in the interior of the city sinks in the man- 
 ner of an amphitheatre. But strong as nature and art 
 might combine to make it, Askelon could not resist the 
 Almighty fiat : all its glories faded away, and it now 
 remains as only the shadow of a shade. Traveller 
 after traveller describes it as one of the most mournful 
 scenes of utter desolation on which the eye can rest. 
 Yet Canon Stanley ranks it among the cities which are 
 remarkable for the extreme beauty of the gardens which 
 surround them, adorned as they are by the scarlet blos- 
 soms of the pomegranates, and the enormous oranges 
 which gild the green foliage of their famous groves. 
 This place was deemed the haunt of the Syrian Yenus ; 
 and the same traveller tells that the doves consecrated 
 to her still fill with their cooings the luxuriant 
 gardens which grow in the sandy hollow within the 
 ruined walls. 
 
 These things, with the fact that our Richard held his 
 court in Askelon, while the white-faced hill which forms 
 a conspicuous object in the western part of the plain is 
 the “ Blanche Garde” of the crusading chroniclers, and 
 
42 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 witnessed his chief adventures,* throw additional inter- 
 est around these hoary ruins. Blackened and rent as 
 they are, they seem to stand as frowning monuments to 
 the vanity of man. 
 
 It had been proclaimed of old that Askelon was thus 
 to perish. Though one of the strongest fortresses of 
 Syria, it was written, “ How can the sword of the Lord 
 be quiet, seeing that he hath given it a charge against 
 Askelon, and against the sea-shore ?” “I will cut off 
 him that holdeth the sceptre from Askelon.” “It 
 shall be a desolation.” “It shall not be inhabited.” 
 By these and similar predictions did Jeremiah and 
 Amos indicate the coming doom of the strong city ; and 
 in due time it came. Though it was one of the proudest 
 satrapies of the lords of the Philistines, not an inhabi- 
 tant is now found in the ancient city. The sea is gra- 
 dually ebbing away from it. “ The lofty towers of 
 Askelon,” a traveller exclaims, “lie scattered on the 
 ground, and the ruins within its walls do not shelter 
 one human being.” They exhibit, however, a strange 
 medley of pieces of wall, huge building stones, frag- 
 ments of columns, marble, granite, porphyry, and lime- 
 stone rubbish in prodigious heaps. The huts of the 
 modern inhabitants contrast strangely with the enor- 
 mous masses of heavy wall which are still left. These 
 are remains of the Herodian and Crusading ages ; but 
 the quadrangular castle, in particular, shows “ in its 
 gigantic remains what Askelon must have been, and 
 how dreadful must have been its overthrow.” + 
 
 Stanley, p. 257. 
 
 f Van tie Velde, ii. 17y. 
 
Askelon. 
 
 43 
 
 Among these ruins, so black and scarred that traveller 
 seems to vie with traveller in describing their gloomy 
 desolation, twenty fountains of excellent water, once 
 buried in ruins, have been recently dug up. Patches of 
 wheat, barley, olive-trees, almonds, pomegranates, ana 
 other productions, betoken the richness of the soil and 
 its capability for future luxuriance. Well might em- 
 perors like Saladin, or kings like Kichard, contend for 
 such a place; and well might Baldwin II. besiege it, though 
 in vain. Dreary as it now appears, there are unques- 
 tionable tokens all around that the place was once 
 goodly and greatly to be desired. Its sanctuaries may 
 be desolate, and the Christian churches once erected 
 there are in ruins like the rest. Its neighbourhood may 
 have been the scene of some of the most terrible slaugh- 
 ters that redden the history of man. The chronicler 
 may be able to record that on one occasion, for twelve 
 miles, there was a continued slaughter of Moslems by 
 the Franks. Or when the King of England led the 
 Crusaders to victory, “ a march of 100 miles, from Acre 
 to Askelon, may have been a great and perpetual battle 
 of eleven days.” Of all these the ruins before us seem 
 a befitting memorial,— they awe by their mass, they 
 sadden by their gloom and the dreary memories of 
 carnage which they awaken. Yet it will not be always 
 so, and the mind gladly seeks a refuge from the certain 
 woes of the past in the probable brightness of the future. 
 
 Such, then, is a glimpse of the ruins of Askelon. Its 
 history from first to last, amid all the vicissitudes of 
 bloodshed, of triumph or disaster, of royal grandeur or 
 down- trodden oppression, forms a signal chapter in the 
 
44 
 
 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 history of man. Yet, even while we gaze upon these 
 ruins, we cannot feel that Askelon has existed in vain. 
 Nay, it wrought out, blindly no doubt, but thoroughly, 
 some of the great purposes of God. These purposes are 
 never thwarted ; they are never turned aside ; they 
 are never so much as impeded ; and one feels that it is 
 true among the ruins of Askelon, as it is true elsewhere, 
 that in Jehovah’s hands all events conspire, none of 
 them conflict — 
 
 “As the Incarnate Mystery’s dying cry, 
 
 ‘ ’Tis finish’d ! ’ was his triumph over death ; 
 
 So oft his cause is crowned with victory 
 
 Though they who love Him buy it with life’s breath.” 
 
 True, a curse was pronounced upon Askelon, and it 
 lies to-day in ruins, a monument of the truth of the 
 Supreme. True also, as Lord Lindsay has recorded, 
 the curse upon Askelon might be exhausted before it 
 became the residence of the Herods or the court of the 
 Crusaders, and there may be some danger in over-press- 
 ing the argument from prophecy in connection with 
 such ruins. But that conceded, enough remains to 
 show that Askelon has for ages been a silent yet an 
 eloquent advocate for the truth of God. We cannot 
 wander amid its grim and half Cyclopean masses with- 
 out feeling that great has been the fall, because great 
 was the guilt, of such a place. 
 
 A S II D 0 D. 
 
 Ashdod, now Esdud, and called Azotus in the Acts of 
 the Apostles, in connection with the history of Philip 
 
A shdod. 
 
 45 
 
 the deacon, stands near the sea-coast, about 20 miles 
 N.E. from Gaza, and 10 or 12N.E. from Askelon. Like 
 these two cities, it was a chief place of the Philistines, 
 and famed among idolaters for the worship of Dagon, 
 “ The Fish-god.” It was there that the idol fell help- 
 less and demolished before the ark of the Lord, which 
 had been taken from the Hebrews by the Philistines, 
 and there that other woes befell the people in connec- 
 tion with that capture. At the partition of the Holy 
 Land among the twelve tribes, Ashdod fell to the lot of 
 Judah ; but that tribe never got permanent possession of 
 the place. On the contrary, it continued a snare to the 
 Jews, and gave occasion to great scandal at some periods 
 of their history (Nell. xiii.). One reason, no doubt, why 
 Ashdod never was subdued was the great strength of 
 the place, and the possession of it was contested by all 
 the conquerors who sought to make Palestine their 
 tributary. Assyria held it for a time, and it is more 
 than note- worthy that this comparatively obscure Phil- 
 istine town sustained the longest siege that is on record. 
 For nine-and-twenty years did Psammeticus, king of 
 Egypt, beleaguer it. But strong as were its defences, or 
 intrepid its defenders, the prophets of God had pre- 
 dicted the ruin of Ashdod, and it fell. Jeremiah, Amos, 
 Zephaniah, and Zechariah, all spoke of its coming deso- 
 lation, when “ the inhabitant was to be cut off from 
 A shdod and in due time the Maccabees arose to verify 
 the prophecy. It subsequently revived, however; in 
 the days of Herod it was again signalized ; and when 
 Christianity had a foothold in Palestine, Ashdod was 
 made the seat of a bishop. But it is now little more 
 
46 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 than an Arab village, though the site is marked by 
 ruins, by broken arches, by fragments of marble pillars 
 partly buried, by dilapidated capitals, cornices, and 
 other mementoes of a magnificence that has all passed 
 away. The position is said to be picturesque. Olive gar- 
 dens and date-palms overtopping the rest of the vege- 
 tation, give some appearance of freshness to the place. 
 Two large pools of water near the village lend^a further 
 interest, as water ever does in the East. But nothing 
 can redeem the sea-coast of Palestine from its utter 
 desolation till a new rule be inaugurated, and God’s 
 mercy be made known, as his judgments have for ages 
 been felt. We cannot look upon the sea-board of Pales- 
 tine, indeed, as anything but a land asleep, or rather, 
 to carry out the figure, as a land oppressed by a terrible 
 incubus. Be that removed, not by any miraculous in- 
 terposition, but just by giving free course to the word 
 of God, and the moral desert will speedily blossom, 
 the sandy mounts will grow green, and the rose of 
 Sharon will bloom in its native valley once more. 
 
V. 
 
 CIjc guilts of Jerusalem. 
 
 We ought perhaps to search for moral rather than 
 material ruins in “ The City of the Great King.” It was 
 there that a nation’s conscience grew seared, and there 
 that that nation made shipwreck of a faith first an- 
 nounced from heaven, and attested by Almighty Power. 
 It was there that the blood of Christian martyrs, and 
 more, touched the blood of the holy prophets ; and there 
 that a people’s guilt culminated in the appalling cry, 
 a cry whose echoes are still ringing in woe in the 
 hearts of myriads, — “ His blood be on us, and on our 
 children !” 
 
 Though J erusalem be now trodden down of the Gen- 
 tiles, and though its former glory be gone, there are fewer 
 remains of ancient times existing there than in some pro- 
 vincial towns in Palestine. Controversy has thrown 
 doubts and shadows around many a spot, and the stu- 
 dent of Jerusalem is sometimes tempted to seek relief 
 from the pain of local disputations in a general scepti- 
 cism. The very name of the city is an arena. Jebus or 
 Jebusi, Jerusalem or Jerushalaim, Salem or Solyma, 
 Hierosolyma, Jebus-Salem, and still other names, are 
 applied to the capital of the Holy Land, — not to men- 
 tion Zion, or iElia Capitolina in ancient times, and El- 
 Khuds, or Beit-el-Makhuddis among Mohammedans. 
 
48 Ruined Cities of the East: 
 
 We may safely discard all these, however, and abide by 
 the name by which the place is best known, — a place 
 which has been historical for eight-and-thirty centuries, 
 and which was at least 1168 years of age when Rome 
 was only a collection of huts. 
 
 Though the visible ruins of J erusalem may not be so 
 numerous as we might at first sight suppose, yet a 
 thousand spots are invested with sacredness to the 
 uttermost. Let us take our stand, in thought, on a 
 summit of Olivet, from 918 to 1310 yards from St. Ste- 
 phen’s Gate, according to the footpath we select for our 
 ascent, and from that gentle elevation we see, on the 
 south, the Mount of Corruption, where Solomon sinned; 
 Beth-liaccerem, where the bones of the truculent Herod 
 were buried ; and then beyond these, undulation swell- 
 ing upon undulation, forming the hill country of Judea. 
 On the east one beholds the mountains of Moab and 
 Ammon, with the ruins of Kir-Moab. Pisgah is seen, 
 though we cannot absolutely decide which summit in the 
 range forms that Mount. Then nearer at hand is the Dead 
 Sea, with all its dark associations ; and the Jordan with 
 more numerous associations still. To the north is Miz- 
 pah, Gibeon, the valley of Ajalon, Michmash,Ramah, and 
 Anathoth. But venerable as these names may be, there 
 is something more venerable still at your feet, — it is 
 Jerusalem. There was Golgotha, although it is now 
 unknown; near these walls was Gethsemane; and 
 within them were a thousand spots which the Re- 
 deemer’s presence hallowed. 
 
 It may tend to show with what pains all that relates 
 to Jerusalem and its various localities has been ex- 
 
Jerusalem . 49 
 
 plored, if we submit the following measurements. In 
 order to fix the distance travelled by the Great Sufferer, 
 and the places, between the Upper Room and Golgotha, 
 visited by Him just previous to his crucifixion, Dr. 
 Barclay * has said that, — 
 
 From Zion, where the Upper Room 
 was, to Gethsemane, was from 850 to 900 yards. 
 
 From Gethsemane to the House of Annas, 2300 to 2400 , , 
 
 Thence to the High Priest’s Palace, 1400 to 2100 ,, 
 
 Thence to the Council House, 200 to 400 ,, 
 
 Thence to the Prsetorium (in Antonia), 350 to 400 „ 
 
 Thence to Herod’s Palace, 950 to 1000 „ 
 
 Thence back to the Praetorium, 950 to 1000 ,, 
 
 Thence to Golgotha, 500 to 600 ,, 
 
 Or from 7 500 to 8800 yards. 
 
 But some of the places here referred to are only con- 
 jecturally known, and we can only in general terms refer 
 to the antiquities of the place. It is well known, then, 
 that a large portion of modern Jerusalem is built over 
 the ruins or debris of the ancient city. In digging for 
 foundations, or in other excavations, many feet of rub- 
 bish, in some cases forty or fifty, have to be cleared ere a 
 firm foundation can be obtained. The Tyropmon has 
 been to a great extent filled up with ruins and the ac- 
 cumulated rubbish of ages, and in some places such 
 accumulations have turned a wady into a plain. But in- 
 stead of dwelling vaguely upon such topics, we proceed 
 to enumerate some of the more remarkable ruins re- 
 corded in history or still known to exist. 
 
 City of the Great King, p. 84. 
 
50 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 1. Josephus tells of a Gallery, or Xystus — a covered 
 colonnade, which stood in the Yalley of the Tyropseon, at 
 the base of the north-east cliff of Mount Zion, and just 
 below the royal palace. It was built about 175 b.c. 
 The colonnade, it is conjectured, surrounded a quad- 
 rangular area in that region of the old city, adorned 
 with fountains and reservoirs. It is believed to have 
 been built as a gymnasium by the infamous high priest, 
 Jason, who purchased the privilege of erecting it at the 
 price of 150 talents. It was long appropriated to athletic 
 exercises, in imitation of the heathen nations, but be- 
 came at last the great gathering-place, — the Forum of 
 Jerusalem. The people were assembled there when 
 that Herod who was “ almost persuaded to be a Chris- 
 tian” addressed them, while his half-sister, the noted 
 Bernice, stood near. Here, also, the Jews were con- 
 vened when Titus their conqueror harangued them from 
 the cloisters *of the Temple. It is conjectured that 
 Peter’s congregation on the day of Pentecost also met 
 there. But whatever truth there may be in these con- 
 jectures regarding the colonnade, it is an undistin- 
 guished ruin now, buried deep under the debris of that 
 city which has seen fire and sword, pillage and blood- 
 shed, again, and again, and again do their work within 
 its walls, till, it is said, on one occasion 600,000 dead 
 were carried out by the gates. 
 
 “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! thy cross thou bearest now; 
 
 An iron yoke is on thy neck, and blood is on thy brow : 
 
 The golden crown, the crown of truth, thou didst reject as dross, 
 
 And now thy cross is on thee laid ,— the Crescent is thy Cross!" 
 
 But, 2. One of the most remarkable of all the ruins of 
 
Jerusalem. 5 1 
 
 Jerusalem is found in the substructions of what men 
 begin to call the Tyropseon Bridge. The King’s Palace 
 stood of old on Mount Zion, which was separated from 
 Moriah, the Temple Mount, by the Tyropseon Valley, and 
 the monarch could not pass from the one to the other 
 except by a circuitous descent and ascent. But to remedy 
 that inconvenience, the founder of Tadmor in the Wil- 
 derness, the builder of the Temple, and of other magni- 
 ficent structures, caused a bridge to be built across the 
 valley, connecting Zion on the west with Moriah on the 
 east. This, it is believed, is one of the wonders which 
 astonished the Queen of Sheba (1 Kings x. 5) ; but, on 
 the other hand, some dispute the existence of the struc- 
 ture in Solomon’s day. Owing to the piles of rubbish 
 long collected at the base of Zion, no remains of the 
 bridge are visible there ; but on the eastern side con- 
 siderable portions exist. The valley is here about 118 
 yards wide, and that must have been about the length of 
 the structure. Its breadth was 5H feet, its length at 
 least 350, and the remains enable us to ascertain with 
 perfect accuracy the span of each of the arches, or 41 feet, 
 supposing them to have been equal. Some of the blocks 
 which remain as the spring of a broken arch are 5| feet 
 thick, and vary from 21 feet to 25 in length. 
 
 The discovery of these remains, which we owe to Dr. 
 Robinson, has led to much discussion, for some deny 
 that the arch was in use so early as the days of Solomon. 
 But its discovery in Chaldea and Assyria refutes that 
 objection. The arch is found, moreover, under Solo- 
 mon’s Pools, near Jerusalem; so that we can now cher- 
 ish the hope that in examining these long-concealed 
 
52 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 remains upon Mount Moriah we are in contact with a 
 relic of Solomon’s time, a portion alike of his Palace 
 and his Temple. 
 
 The bridge now mentioned was at the north-west 
 corner of the Temple ; but another structure, called the 
 Bridge of the Red Heifer, is believed to have stood on 
 the east side, spanning the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and 
 connecting the Temple Mount with the Mount of Olives. 
 According to the Mishna, says Dr. Barclay, the red 
 heifer was conducted through the eastern gate of the 
 Temple, across the Kedron, to be burned on the Mount 
 of Olives. By the same path, it is said, the scape-goat 
 was led away to the wilderness, and though some allege 
 that a temporary structure was raised every year for 
 these purposes, others explicitly and circumstantially 
 say, “ They built at no small cost a foot causeway, up- 
 held with arches, from the Mount of the Temple to the 
 Mount of Olives, upon which they led away the red 
 heifer to be burned. It was double arched, arches upon 
 arches,— one arch upon two arches, so that the foot of 
 one arch stood upon two arches that were there under- 
 neath it.” 
 
 3. We might now advert to some ruins which are 
 found in one of the streets of Jerusalem, supposed to be 
 the remains of “Millo in the city of David.” The walls 
 there are six feet thick ; arches are also traced, and 
 other tokens of strong underground work, now utterly 
 defaced. Or we might mention the remains dis- 
 covered at the Damascus Gate, and connected with it, 
 supposed to belong to the times of Solomon, and said 
 to be the best specimens of ancient Jewish mural 
 
Jerusalem . 5 3 
 
 structures which the battering-ram and the tooth of 
 time have spared. But we pass from these to speak of 
 the Tower of Hippicus, — the best preserved of all the 
 ruins in Jerusalem. It stands near the Jaffa Gate, and 
 is now generally known as the Tower of David. Time, 
 the elements, and man have reduced it to the height 
 of only about 40 feet. It is entirely solid, at least no 
 hollow has been detected in the pile, which has bid 
 defiance alike to the battering-ram, to cannon-balls, 
 to prying curiosity, and the wasting elements, for nine- 
 teen centuries. It is 70 feet on one side by 56 on the 
 other ; but the stones which compose it are much smaller 
 than those of the Temple wall, and altogether it is ob- 
 vious that Hippicus is less ancient than many other 
 structures in the city. The Crusaders have added 
 some 15 or 20 feet to the original 40, and Josephus says 
 “ that over the solid building .... there was a reservoir 
 20 cubits deep ; over which there was a house of two 
 storeys, whose height was 25 cubits, and turrets all 
 round of three cubits high ; so that the entire height was 
 80 cubits.” 
 
 4. But few of the remains of ancient Jerusalem can 
 be more interesting than its Tombs, and some of these 
 we now proceed to describe. It is well known that at 
 several places in the environs of the city the rocks are 
 honey-combed with cave-sepulchres. At some other 
 spots, as in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the grave-stones 
 appear to pave the ground. But a Jewish tomb of 
 some mark has been thus described. It is found at El 
 Messahney, and is hewn in the solid rock, the facade 
 being dressed so as to imitate the bevelled stones of the 
 
54 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 ancient Temple wall. Though time here has done its 
 work, much of the pile continues fresh and sharp in its 
 decorations, as if it were only a thing of yesterday. Some 
 would carry the date of this tomb back to the time of 
 King Saul, and though it now forms the winter abode 
 of a goat-herd and also the. fold of his flock, it bears the 
 marks of having formed the resting-place of some dis- 
 tinguished person. It contains seventeen niches. The 
 style is Roman Doric, and the conjecture which ascribes 
 it to the age of Saul cannot therefore be correct. 
 
 The Tombs of the Judges, so called, form another 
 remarkable group of rock-hewn sepulchres. The door- 
 way is surmounted by a sculptured Grecian pediment, 
 and leads into the main room, which contains thirteen 
 recesses. Another door-way conducts from that to a 
 second apartment containing nine repositories. By a 
 stair there is a descent into a lower room which contains 
 ten or twelve receptacles. About sixty niches are found 
 in these catacombs, but tradition, exaggerating as usual, 
 first makes them seventy-two, and then calls the ruin 
 the resting-place of the Sanhedrim. 
 
 The Tomb of Helena, queen of Adiabene, who be- 
 came a convert to Judaism about a.d. 44, has given 
 rise to much antiquarian controversy. Without dis- 
 cussing any questionable points, we refer to that tomb 
 which appears to possess the best claim to the honour 
 of once containing the dust of the queen. There 
 are loose rocks and rubbish on the spot, indicating 
 a structure above ground, as some suppose this monu- 
 ment to have been. In the sepulchre there are three 
 niches much superior to the rest, supposed to have 
 
the tombs of the judges. 
 

 
Jerusalem . 5 5 
 
 belonged to the queen and others of equal rank. These, 
 however, and all similar structures, must give place to 
 the Tombs of the Kings, the Kubr-el-Moluk, or Kubr- 
 es- Sultan, — a costly and imposing structure, which has 
 given rise to not a few discussions. These we omit 
 and only describe the remains of the cemetery. It is 
 situated just a mile to the north of the Damascus Gate. 
 On the west side of a low court, about 90 feet square, 
 and more than 20 feet deep, the catacombs are entered 
 through a splendid though dilapidated portico and hall 
 134 feet high, and 284 feet wide. From this apartment 
 a door less than three feet high opens into an ante- 
 room about 19 feet square. Another door leads from 
 that apartment into another chamber which is 134 
 feet square, where there are about twelve niches for the 
 dead. In a storey still lower there is a room 10 feet by 
 12; and several other chambers of a similar construc- 
 tion, all furnished with recesses for entombment, are 
 described as existing in these royal vaults. In one of 
 them sarcophagi have been found, which are now for the 
 most part reduced to fragments. Large pieces of richly 
 panelled stone doors are also found scattered about 
 the rooms. These doors swung on mortise-and-tenon 
 hinges of stone, and the jambs of the interior door- ways 
 have such an inclination that the ponderous doors closed 
 from the force of gravity. The outer door was closed 
 by an unique contrivance, which, however, it is difficult 
 to explain without a drawing. The niches here are 
 about thirty in number. 
 
 The portal of this subterranean abode was orna- 
 mented by pillars and pilasters. The perpendicular 
 
56 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 surface of the rock above the portal was richly adorned 
 with classic mouldings, clusters of grapes and wreaths 
 of flowers ; and so difficult is it to assign the style to any 
 recognised standard, that some have invented a name and 
 given it the designation of Romanized Hebro-G-recian. 
 The whole range of these marvellous catacombs, let it 
 be remembered, was chiselled from the solid rock ; and 
 with that in view, we may readily concede to such vast 
 excavations the rank of one of the greatest wonders of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 But what were they ? Not the tombs of the Kings of 
 Judah ; these were on Mount Zion. Not of the 
 Maccabees ; they were buried at Modin. Perhaps the 
 tomb of Helena, already mentioned, say some. Per- 
 haps the resting-place of some of Herod’s line, say 
 others. But we must wait for further discoveries, 
 ^ should any ever be made, before we can finally decide, 
 and meanwhile we only remark that the decorations 
 of these catacombs are all of a joyous kind. No 
 souvenirs of death are there — but roses and gar- 
 lands, as if the associations of the dead were rather 
 with festoons and flowers than with the cypress or a 
 skeleton. If they were believers in Him who is the 
 Life, they were right. Their “place of peace” should 
 not be transmuted into woe. 
 
 The Tombs of the Prophets, called also of the Apostles, 
 form another labyrinth of s sepulchres, excavated on the 
 slope of Olivet. They extend about 28 yards from 
 north to south, and 30 or 40 from east to west. About 
 thirty niches are still accessible, but many of the 
 passages are so choked with rubbish that the whole 
 
THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS. 
 
 f 
 
Jerusalem. 5 7 
 
 space cannot be explored. They have been regarded as 
 in some way connected with the idolatrous worship of 
 Baal, while others surmise that they may have be- 
 longed to the School of the Prophets. 
 
 Besides these, Jehoshaphat has a tomb assigned to 
 him by tradition in the glen of the Kedron. So has 
 some Zechariah ; so has St. J ames, and so has the 
 rebel Absalom. Of these, we mention first the alleged 
 Tomb of Zechariah. It is a monolith cut from the 
 rock, from which it is separated on three sides by a 
 passage several yards wide. Its appearance is that of a 
 four-sided pyramid, mounted on a cube about 20 feet 
 high. At least a fourth part of the lower portion is 
 buried in rubbish ; but the Ionic capitals which crown 
 the pillars and pilasters give a certain pleasing air to 
 the pile. As no entrance has been detected, this mo- 
 nolith is supposed to be solid ; and though the archi- 
 tecture is not imposing, the effect is said to be highly 
 impressive. Strange that the history or special design 
 of such a work should be utterly unknown ! 
 
 Like the tomb just described, Absalom’s Pillar, 
 called also Tantour Pharoun, is monolithic, being cut 
 from the rock which skirts Mount Olivet in the same 
 way as the former monument. About a fourth part of 
 the pile is buried in rubbish, but its height may be about 
 50 feet, and its breadth 23 or 24. Some of the orna- 
 ments are Doric, while the capitals of the pillars are 
 Ionic. The interior appears never to have been finished, 
 and it is well known that neither Christian nor Mos- 
 lem ever passes this structure without casting a stone to 
 indicate the indignation felt against the rebel son. We 
 
58 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 need not reason against the genuineness of this ruin. 
 Nothing but all-devouring tradition could assign such 
 a pile to such an age as that of Absalom ; and the differ- 
 ent names attached to the cenotaph at different times 
 are sufficient to provoke our suspicions. Hezekiah, 
 Uzziah, Isaiah, Jehoshaphat, Simon the Just, and others, 
 have had their names associated with it. 
 
 It were tedious even to catalogue the traditional 
 tombs of this valley; but one remark may illustrate 
 how little faith can be placed in the traditions which 
 assign their modern names. In 2 Chron. xxi. 1, we read 
 “that king Jehoshaphat was buried with his fathers 
 in the city of David but a legend, on the other hand, 
 insists we shall believe that he was buried in the valley 
 which bears his name. It even leads us to his very 
 tomb. But that and the titles given to perhaps all the 
 rest of the ruins which line the valley, sober truth com- 
 pels us to discard. 
 
 Among the ruins of Jerusalem we may also place the 
 fountains and reservoirs, though at first sight the collo- 
 cation may appear incongruous. The fountains under 
 the Temple, the aqueducts, the lower Pool of Gihon — 
 which, when full, presented an area of nearly four acres 
 of water — as well as others, are all associated with re- 
 mains of ancient architecture which proclaim the ela- 
 borate pains with which the city was supplied with 
 water. Here, however, the first place is due to the Pool 
 of Siloam, which, next to Olivet, may be regarded as 
 the most popular and most veritable remnant of former 
 times. It is now known to be not an independent 
 spring, but only the outflow of one further up the val- 
 
Jerusalem. 59 
 
 ley, called the Virgin’s Fount, through a channel cut in 
 the rock under the hill Ophel, and traced by Dr. Robin- 
 son with some danger. The present pool and its sur- 
 rounding ruins, consisting mainly of six pillars of Jeru- 
 salem marble, the remains of a basilica over the pool, 
 are no doubt the representatives of the place as it ex- 
 isted in the days of Isaiah, Nehemiah, and the Saviour. 
 There is reason to believe, however, that it is much 
 reduced in size, though still 50 feet long and 144 feet 
 wide at one end, and 17 at the other. It is a placid 
 sheet of water, fed by some intermittent fountain ; and 
 around it many plants, nourished by the water, give 
 verdure and beauty to the spot. Both the past and the 
 present — both Isaiah’s allusion to the waters “ which 
 go softly,” and the Saviour’s injunction to the blind man 
 to wash in Siloam and receive his sight, as well as the 
 goodly green which beautifies the spot — combine to 
 render it one of the fairest near Jerusalem. 
 
 The Pool of Bethesda, unhappily another scene of con- 
 troversy, is also another spot which the power of Jesus 
 made illustrious. But where was it ? Some describe 
 it as existing near the site where the Castle of Antonia 
 is known to have stood ; and there to this day, not far 
 from St. Stephen’s Gate, a tank, 360 feet in length, 130 
 feet wide, and 75 feet deep, is found, with some ruins 
 which appear to be the remains of the porches men- 
 tioned by J ohn (v. 2). Others, however, utterly discard 
 this idea, and deem that tank or trench a portion of the 
 moat which surrounded the castle. Some, again, re- 
 gard Siloam as the true Bethesda ; while another 
 opinion makes the Fountain of the Virgin, with which 
 
60 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 Siloam is connected, the scene of Christ’s miracle on 
 the poor paralytic. Others still give the honour to a 
 (ittle tank called Birket-el-Hejjeh, outside the city 
 walls, to the north of St. Stephen’s Gate. But the most 
 recent investigations would lead to the conclusion that 
 the remains of Bethesda, as well as the pool itself, are 
 covered over with ruins in a space immediately east 
 from the Temple. We must be content, then, for the 
 present to remain as ignorant of the site of the real 
 Bethesda as we are of the nature of that power which 
 the angel imparted to its waters to render them healing, 
 eighteen centuries ago (John v. 2-9). 
 
 It were tedious to plunge into the discussions raised 
 by topographers regarding the walls and gates of Jeru- 
 salem. The four modern gates — the Jaffa or Beth- 
 lehem on the west, the Damascus on the north, St. 
 Stephen’s on the east, and the Zion or David’s Gate on 
 the south — are respectable in point of architecture. But 
 the only gate that we need specify is the Golden Gate 
 — the Bab-ed-Dahareyeh of the Arabs, the Porta Aurea 
 of the Crusaders and others. It is a work apparently 
 of Roman times, and stands on the east side of the city, 
 but has been shut up for many generations ; and one 
 reason at least is manifest— the Bedawin on that side 
 of the city might be too near or too offensive to admit 
 of a gate 55 feet wide being often opened. The interior 
 recess occasioned by the wall which closes up the gate is 
 used by the Moslem as a place of prayer ; and many 
 traditions are connected with the gate. Some say that 
 by it the Saviour rode in triumph into the city ; the 
 Emperor Heraclius is reported to have done the same 
 
THE WAILING PLACE OF THE JEWS. 
 
 I’age 61 
 
Jerusalem. 6 1 
 
 when lie brought back the fabled Holy Cross, which he 
 had recovered from the Persians ; and finally, some 
 allege that this gate was shut by Omar himself, and will 
 never be re-opened till the Saviour return. At no great 
 distance, part of an ancient pillar projecting from the 
 wall above the Yalley of Jehoshaphat is regarded by 
 Moslems as the seat on which Mohammed is to judge 
 the world. — Some fragments of other gates, and vast 
 stones in various parts of the Temple wall, are men- 
 tioned among the ruins of J erusalem ; but on these we 
 need not dwell. 
 
 The Wailing Place of the Jews, however, is a portion 
 of the ruins to which the attention of travellers is always 
 turned. It occupies a space of about 40 yards in length. 
 The stones in the wall, like others in the vicinity, are 
 dressed in the form supposed to be peculiar to the build- 
 ings of ancient Jerusalem; and there, within the pre- 
 cincts of what was their Temple, the Jews assemble to 
 mourn, and wail, and pray. Though fancy-pictures of 
 the scene be presented by some, it is unquestionably one 
 of the saddest spectacles in this city of sad memories, 
 to behold the children of Abraham thus brought low, 
 the victims of oppression, if we should not rather say 
 of their own unbelief.* 
 
 We have already said that the ruins of ancient Jeru- 
 salem are for the most part buried under the present 
 city ; and of these we can, of course, only get casual 
 
 * Dr. Barclay has described some remarkable remains, apparently 
 ancient, at the south-east corner of the Haram, as well as many other 
 portions of the substructions of the Great Mosque. Indeed his subter- 
 ranean discoveries are in many respects remarkable. Some of them may 
 require confirmation, but even now they are eminently interesting. 
 
62 
 
 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 glimpses. Yet in some respects the under-ground 
 world of Jerusalem has marvels as well as that portion 
 which sees the sun. Under the hill Bezetha, for ex- 
 ample, Dr. Barclay traced a series of chambers, scooped 
 in some degree by nature, but more by art, in the rock. 
 There he found many meandering passages leading to 
 immense halls, as white, he says, as the driven snow, 
 and supported by colossal pillars of irregular shape, 
 sustaining the roofs of the various grottoes. It is a 
 quarry, and the pillars have been left to prevent the 
 sinking of the city. There are marks of the cross there, 
 indicating that the place was known to Christians ; but 
 the jackal and other wild animals now reign undis- 
 turbed in the cave. Clambering over huge blocks of 
 stone and piles of chippings, indicates too painfully 
 to explorers that they are in a vast quarry; and 
 Dr. Barclay says, “ This, without doubt, is the very 
 magazine from which much of the Temple rock was 
 hewn — the pit from which was taken the material 
 for the silent growth of the Temple.” He even fears 
 that when the roof gives way, as it is slowly doing, 
 much of the city may be laid in ruins. At the extreme 
 end of the last chamber blocks of stone were found 
 half quarried, and still attached by one side to the rock, 
 where the marks of the tools were as fresh and distinct 
 as if the workmen had but yesterday left the work. 
 The length of these excavations was reckoned rather 
 more than a quarter of a mile, and the greatest breadth 
 less than a furlong. Dr. Bobinson is of opinion that 
 this vast cave carries us back to the times of Solomon ; 
 so that, bit by bit, the Jerusalem of our day becomes 
 
Jerusalem. 63 
 
 united to the Jerusalem of two or three thousand years 
 ago ; though many years must elapse ere that can be 
 thoroughly accomplished, unless some of the Eastern 
 political complications, more speedily than men suppose, 
 hasten on the grand consummation towards which all 
 things are majestically tending. 
 
 And we thus close our glance at the ruins of Jeru- 
 salem. Well may we resort to her own Place of Wailing, 
 and there exclaim — 
 
 “Reft of thy sons, amid thy foes forlorn, 
 
 Mourn, widowed Queen 1 forgotten Zion, mourn ! 
 
 * * * * 
 
 No prophet hards thy glittering courts among 
 Wake the full lyre and swell the tide of sopg ; 
 
 But lawless Force and meagre Want are there, 
 
 And the quick-darting eye of restless Fear; 
 
 While cold Oblivion, ’mid the ruins laid, 
 
 Folds his dark wing beneath the ivy shade.’’ 
 
 — The ruins of Baalbec are in many respects a mystery ; 
 Palmyra, at least in vastness, surpasses even Baalbec ; 
 Athens, Poestum, Rome, and other scenes of decay, 
 appeal to our pity and touch our hearts : but for Jeru- 
 salem — the city of the Great King, the joy of the whole 
 earth, for many generations the focal point of heavenly 
 light — we can only, like her own captives of old, hang 
 the harp upon the willows and weep. Wherever we 
 turn, the eye seems to rest on desolation. It is a city 
 clothed with a pall ; and yet our affections cling to it 
 as to the most sacred spot on earth. It has long been 
 wasted by the self-imprecated curse. When will the 
 blessing come ? Will Jerusalem soon, or at all, be made 
 a praise in the whole earth ? 
 
YI. 
 
 CJjc fjUthts of C»smm 
 
 There were two cities in Palestine which bore this 
 name ; the one upon a rocky ledge on the sea-coast be- 
 tween Acre and Jaffa, about 55 miles from Jerusalem; 
 the other at the base of Jebel esh-Sheikh : it is to the 
 former that we now refer. The Engraving will give 
 some idea of the present condition of the place, but it 
 can convey none regarding its former grandeur, its 
 marble columns sunk in hundreds in the sea, and 
 other relics of prostrate greatness. It was the metro- 
 polis of the Eoman Palestine, and rose to eminence 
 about twenty-two years before the birth of Christ, when 
 Herod the Great, who did so much both to embellish 
 Judea and to oppress its people, founded the city where 
 Strato’s Tower had stood before — about 35 miles from 
 Jaffa. Like the harbour of Jaffa and other places 
 along the coast of the Mediterranean, the port of 
 Caesarea was dangerous, or at some seasons inaccessible. 
 One of Herod’s first labours, therefore, was to surround 
 the bay with a mole — which is reckoned one of the most 
 stupendous works of antiquity. The south and west 
 sides of the harbour were thus defended, while the 
 entrance was from the north ; and once within the huge 
 breakwater, likened by some to that at Plymouth, ships 
 
THE RUINS OF C/ESAREA. 
 
Ccesarea . 
 
 65 
 
 rode in safety, however the tempest might rage. The 
 foundations were laid twenty fathoms deep in the 
 ocean ; the stones, brought from a great distance, were 
 of prodigious size ; and everything betokened the vast 
 •conceptions as well as the exhaustless resources of the 
 truculent Herod, — the Henry VIII. of antiquity. The 
 place was named after his patron, Augustus. 
 
 But these were not the only decorations of Caesarea 
 by its royal founder. A temple dedicated to Caesar, a 
 theatre, an amphitheatre, and numerous statues, were 
 all crowded into the city during the twelve years which 
 were employed in building it. The place was sub- 
 sequently raised by Vespasian to the rank of a Roman 
 colony, with various immunities ; and as the population 
 was partly Jewish and partly Gentile, disputes between 
 them were both rife and bloody. When the Jewish 
 wars with the Romans began, 20,000 Jews, inhabitants 
 of Caesarea, were slaughtered in that city. 
 
 In the New Testament we find many references to 
 this place, some of which are exquisitely touching. 
 There Cornelius was converted, and the gospel thrown 
 open to the Gentiles, (Acts x.) There Herod Agrippa, 
 who was hailed as a god and accepted of the adula- 
 tion, was smitten for his pride by a mortal disease from 
 a heavenly hand, (Acts xii.) There Philip the evan- 
 gelist resided, (Acts xxi.) There Paul pled' before Felix ; 
 there he was detained as a prisoner for about two 
 years ; and there also he pled before Festus and King 
 Agrippa, (see Acts xxiii. xxiv. xxv.) 
 
 But of all the waste places of Palestine none is more 
 completely desolate now than Csesarea, the modern Kai- 
 
66 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 seraeh. Near the end of the mole the remains of an 
 ancient castle are found, which are sometimes compared 
 to those of St. Andrews in Scotland ; and miles of ground 
 in the vicinity are covered with ruins, with fragments 
 of former magnificence and tokens of former grandeur ; 
 but the tangled grass, the thistles, the noxious weeds, 
 and heaps of ruins, render it impossible to trace the out- 
 line of the city. 
 
 “ Weed and wild-flower grown 
 Matted and massed together, hillocks heaped 
 On what were chambers, arch-crushed columns strewn 
 In fragments,” — 
 
 all proclaim how complete is the overthrow, how per- 
 fect the desolation. Two aqueducts in the neighbour- 
 hood still attest how thorough the arrangements of the 
 place and neighbourhood were : but all, all have perished, 
 and the place where 20,000 Jews were butchered, and 
 a mortal hailed as a god, is now occupied only by 
 snakes, scorpions, lizards, wild boars, and jackals. 
 Saracen and Crusader were alternately enriched by its 
 spoils or defended by its strongholds ; but the prophet’s 
 truth has prevailed against the pride of man, and “ the 
 land is desolate from all that are therein, because of 
 the violence of all them that dwelt therein.” A recent 
 traveller, while riding along a beaten track among 
 the ruins, saw “ a large serpent darting across it, 
 through the rustling plants ; and at the sight, his horse 
 started back and literally shuddered under him.” 
 Some ruins resembling those of a cathedral rise among 
 the green mounds ; but the pride of Roman, of Saracen, 
 of Templar, and of Turk, is all prostrate now. Csesarea 
 
Cczsarea. 
 
 67 
 
 is “ desolate without an inhabitant,” and all its glory 
 is in the dust : another study for the misanthrope ; 
 another proof, if such a proof were wanted, that man’s 
 handiworks as well as himself are deeply stamped by 
 Heaven with vanity and vexation* These scanty re- 
 mains speak loudly of such scenes as the prophet saw 
 
 “ When by the vision led 
 
 His eye surveyed the dark idolatries of alienated Judah.” 
 
 These fragments of marble and granite columns only 
 help to render the ruin as saddening as they proclaim it 
 to be entire. — Had the truth which Paul preached there 
 been welcomed and retained, what might have been the 
 lot of Caesarea now ? 
 
 — There are ruins which awe the traveller by their 
 grandeur, like Baalbec or Palmyra. There are others 
 which depress him by their completeness, like those 
 of Warka or of Susa. There are others still which 
 sadden him by their dreary desolation — their nameless, 
 dateless condition, like those remains by which, as we 
 shall see, Mount Lebanon is girdled or studded. But 
 Caesarea appears to partake of the nature of all these. 
 Its crowds of broken pillars speak of former grandeur ; 
 its utter demolition, at many points, speaks to us of the 
 thoroughness of its retribution. The dreariness of its 
 heaps, without a name, proclaims the blight that has 
 passed over the whole ; and did we seek a scene to strike 
 a meditative mind dumb at the sight of what God has 
 wrought, we know none, even in Palestine, more fit for 
 that purpose than the prostrate Caesarea. 
 
VII. 
 
 limns 0I Cgre. 
 
 That was a fearful display of the atrocity of despotic 
 power, when Mohammed Ali, Pasha of Egypt, swept 
 250,000 men, women, and children, from the Delta, to dig 
 the Mahmoudieh Canal. He allowed them provisions 
 only for a month ; their implements of labour were few; 
 yet, under pain of death by starvation, the canal must be 
 dug in that brief period ! The men worked with the 
 energy of despair ; children bore away the earth in tiny 
 handfuls ; nursing mothers laid aside their children 
 and toiled, for had they halted to nourish them the 
 scourge would have mingled their blood with nature’s 
 aliment. The work was not finished in the time allotted 
 by the despot ; famine soon appeared, and five-and- 
 twenty thousand are said to have found a grave on the 
 banks of that canal which conducts the waters of the 
 Nile to Alexandria. 
 
 Five-and-twenty thousand ! Yet what is even that 
 holocaust to despotism compared with the myriads 
 immolated in battles and sieges'?— We are now to 
 glance at the ruins of a place famous of old for its 
 sieges and its slaughters, in one case amounting to 
 50,000, either butchered or sold as slaves. 
 
 Tyre, now Sur, a Rock, was founded by a colony from 
 Sidon, and is hence called “ the daughter of Sidon,” 
 
I 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
Tyre. 69 
 
 though it rose to be itself the planter of colonies like 
 Carthage and Cadiz. Its foundation took place about 
 240 years before the building of Solomon’s Temple. It 
 is commonly supposed that the original city stood upon 
 the mainland ; and it was already a stronghold when 
 Canaan was divided among the tribes, (Josh, xix.) It 
 had become more noted still in the days of David; 
 and when Solomon reigned at J erusalein the Tyrians 
 inhabited the island, — the rock. In the year 720 B.c. 
 the chief city was on the island, while the portion on 
 the mainland already bore the name of Old Tyre. 
 Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, besieged or blockaded 
 the island for five years, but without success. Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, the Bonaparte of antiquity, afterwards be- 
 sieged it for thirteen years ; and then came the memor- j 
 able siege under Alexander the Great, about 322 B.c. 
 He took the island after seven months of labour and 
 struggle, and succeeded only by bringing wood from 
 Lebanon for constructing a mole or causeway from the 
 mainland to the walls of the island city. For that pur- 
 pose Old Tyre was razed for the sake of its stones. The 
 place was subsequently besieged and taken by Antig- 
 onus after a period of fourteen months spent in that 
 undertaking. Eventually Tyre passed into the hands 
 of the Romans. It was under their dominion in the 
 days of the Redeemer’s sojourn here, and we know 
 that he and his followers sometimes frequented “ the 
 coasts of Tyre.” It afterwards became the seat of a 
 Christian bishopric, and in the fourth century it is de- 
 scribed as trading “ with all the world.” But in common 
 with the rest of Phoenicia and the East, it felt the de- 
 
70 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 solating force of the Moslem and Mameluke power, and 
 was ravaged again and again during the wars of the 
 Crusades. 
 
 The Crusaders had held Jerusalem for five-and-twenty 
 years ere they could lay siege to Tyre. It was then 
 strongly fortified, at some places with double walls, 
 nay even with treble defences, some of which are said 
 to have been 150 feet high, so important was the occupa- 
 tion of the place. But in June 1125 Tyre was deliver- 
 ed up to the Crusaders, and for more than a century and 
 a half it remained in their possession ; strictly guarded 
 for its safety, but energetic as before in its trading. 
 After the battle of Hattin, which laid Palestine at the 
 feet of Saladin, Tyre was besieged by that emperor ; 
 but he was forced to raise the siege in 1188. The 
 Sultan Bibars, under various politic pretexts, gradually 
 hemmed in the power of Tyre, and in the year 1291, 
 after the Sultan of Egypt and Damascus had taken 
 Ptolemais, the Frank inhabitants of Tyre embarked on 
 board their ships, and abandoned their stronghold to 
 the Saracens. 
 
 Not long subsequent to these events Tyre is de- 
 scribed as fortified by quadruple walls, which on the 
 land side were connected with a citadel which had 
 seven towers, and was then deemed impregnable. 
 But it soon became a ruin, and sank deeper and 
 deeper in its desolation. It is described in the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as only a heap 
 of rubbish, consisting of broken arches, tottering walls, 
 and fallen towers, with a few miserable inhabitants 
 occupying the vaults among the ruins. Attempts 
 
7i 
 
 Tyre . 
 
 were made to restore it to some of its former import- 
 ance, but Maundrell saw “ not so much as one entire 
 house left,” while only a few poor fishermen found a 
 harbour among its cells. About the year 1740 con- 
 siderable quantities of grain were exported from Tyre, 
 yet only a handful of inhabitants could be found there. 
 In 1751, Hasselquist described Tyre “as a miserable 
 village having scarcely more than ten inhabitants . . . 
 who lived by fishing.” In 1766 a partial revival 
 began. Twenty years thereafter, Yolney spoke of Tyre 
 as consisting of wretched huts covering a third part of 
 the peninsula, — that is the rock joined to the mainland 
 by the mole ; and its trade has continued in some 
 measure to revive. After all, however, its glory has 
 departed, and even Tyre, with all its wealth, its com- 
 merce, and its world- wide influence, is now rather a 
 thing of the past than the present. 
 
 The actual Sur is a small sea-port, and those who 
 have seen it say that it hardly deserves the name of 
 city. The houses are, for the most part, mere hovels ; 
 the streets are narrow and filthy; the population is 
 computed at 3000 souls ; but the presence of palm-trees 
 and other Eastern plants imparts a pleasing aspect to 
 the scene. Yet the effects of earthquakes and that un- 
 tidiness which is so common in cities of the East, render 
 the place offensive and poor in its appearance. “ Here 
 was the little isle, once covered by her palaces,” Dr. 
 Robinson says of Tyre, “ and surrounded by her fleets, 
 where the builders perfected her beauty in the midst of 
 the seas, where her merchants were princes, and her 
 traffickers the honourable of the earth ; but alas ! thy 
 
72 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 riches and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners and 
 thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy mer- 
 chandise, and all thy men of war that were in thee, and 
 all thy company, where are they h Tyre has indeed be- 
 come like the top of a rock, a place to spread nets upon. 
 The sole remaining tokens of her more ancient splen- 
 dour lie strewed beneath the waves in the midst of the 
 sea, and the hovels which now nestle upon a portion of 
 her site present no contradiction of the dread decree, 
 
 ‘ Thou shalt be built no more.’” 
 
 Meagre as this account may seem, it is nearly all that 
 we can say of Tyre, until we apply to the Scriptures of 
 truth for information. The ruins of the ancient city — 
 that is, Tyre before the Christian era — have now been 
 swept all but utterly away. The modern city is placed 
 upon the eastern part of the island, and a broad strip of 
 land under tillage lies between the houses and the 
 western shore. “ That shore is strewed, through all its 
 length, along the edge of the water and in it, with 
 columns of red and grey granite of various sizes, — the 
 only remaining monuments of the splendour of ancient 
 Tyre. At the north-west point, forty or fifty such 
 columns are thrown together in one heap beneath the 
 waves,” as if some magnificent fane had once stood 
 there. When we look, then, for the ruins of Tyre, we 
 need for the most part to dive below the waves of the 
 Mediterranean. That is the grave of the ancient mis- 
 tress of the seas,— the prototype of Britain in maritime 
 adventure and power, — must we add, of eventual de- 
 cline and fall h 
 
 Yet Van de Yelde has given us some account of re- 
 
73 
 
 Tyre . 
 
 mains which he saw, and which should not be passed 
 over. The sea, he states, has swallowed up a large part 
 of the magnificence of Tyre, yet vestiges of its sump- 
 tuous temples and towers lie buried under ground, 
 especially on the south side of the city. Excavations 
 have there been made, and rich fragments of columns, 
 of statues, and other relics, have been disinterred. They 
 well recall the magnificence of “ the crowning city for 
 the ground for many feet under the present surface is a 
 complete mass of building stones, pillars, shafts, and 
 marble, porphyry, and granite rubbish. Even frag- 
 ments of the rare and costly verde antique lie scattered 
 around, and Van de Velde felt assured that enough 
 could be discovered to reward the researches of any 
 who would undertake the task. 
 
 Tyre has been compared to Alexandria in ancient 
 times, and to London in our day. For about a thousand 
 years that Rock was so ascendant that no production of 
 the East passed to the West, or of the West to the East, 
 but by means of the merchants of Tyre. Her ships 
 alone crossed the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. 
 Spain, Britain, and even the coasts of Malabar, saw her 
 fleets. The Tyrian bravery was equal to its enterprise, 
 and though now lower than the dust — even sunk in the 
 sea — the daughter of Sidon has so stamped her char- 
 acter on the past, that not even Nebuchadnezzar and 
 Alexander, her conquerors, have left more indelible 
 traces of their power than Tyre has done of hers. The 
 Christian clings, however, to such facts as the Re- 
 deemer’s visit to the region and the incidents connected 
 therewith, as shedding a halo round the place more 
 
74 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 sacred and perennial than all that its heaped-up gold 
 could have purchased. 
 
 We have heard much of the Tyrian dye or purple, 
 and the Tyrian traffic, and Ezekiel (chap, xxvii.) may 
 enable us to understand the extent of the latter. First, 
 then, Hermon and Lebanon supplied timber for building, 
 cedar or fir ; Bashan furnished oaks ; Greece conveyed 
 ivory ; Egypt gave fine linen ; Pel oponnesu s furnished 
 blue and purple cloths for awnings ; Sidon and Arad 
 contributed mariners ; and Tyre itself gave pilots and 
 captains. Persia and Africa sent mercenary troops. 
 Tarshish yielded iron, tin, lead, and silver, — the tin 
 pointing, as some suppose, to Britain. Further slaves 
 and brass ware came from Greece. Armenia furnished 
 horses, mules, and horsemen. The Gulf of Persia sent 
 ebony, ivory, and rich cloths ; while Syria contributed 
 emeralds, coral, agates, and other productions. Judah 
 furnished wheat, honey, oil, and balsam ; Damascus 
 sent various manufactures and productions ; and the 
 tribe of Dan supplied iron, cassia, cinnamon, and other 
 articles of commerce. Lambs, rams, and goats, came 
 from Arabia Petrsea and Hedjaz. Sabea yielded spices, 
 and India furnished gold and precious stones ; while 
 Mesopotamia and the adjacent countries brought many 
 exquisite products, such as blue cloth and broidered 
 work, and rich apparel in chests of cedar-wood. — Such 
 is a mere glimpse of the merchandise of Tyre, or “ the 
 multitude of wares of her making,” as a prophet de- 
 scribes it; but glimpse as it is, we see enough to warrant 
 the words that that city was indeed the mart of the 
 world, as the world was then known. 
 
It is, however, in regard to the fulfilment of prophecy 
 concerning it that Tyre is perhaps most frequently re- 
 ferred to, and we give, in conclusion, a few specimens 
 of these. Ezekiel, then, recorded a sentence of con- 
 demnation against Tyre (xxvi. 13 ); and before a gene- 
 ration passed away Nebuchadnezzar verified the pre- 
 diction, by making a fort, and casting up a mount, 
 and lifting up the buckler against the city. Isaiah 
 (xxiii. 15 ) uttered another prediction against Tyre ; and 
 that also was in due time fulfilled, though she had 
 “ heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the 
 mire of the streets.” Again, Ezekiel (xxvi. 12) had ex- 
 plicitly foretold that men “ would lay her stones and 
 her timber and her dust in the midst of the water and 
 it was precisely by doing so with the materials of Tyre 
 on the mainland that Alexander constructed the mole 
 which led him to Insular Tyre — a mole which continues 
 to this day. And, to name no more, Ezekiel prophesied 
 further (xxvi. 21), Tyre “ shall be no more ; though thou 
 be sought for yet shalt thou never be found again, saith 
 the Lord God:” and so completely has that been veri- 
 fied, that the site of Tyre on the mainland is still 
 disputed, or unknown, while Tyre on the rock must be 
 sought in a few granite columns scattered on the sea- 
 beach or sunk beneath the waves of the Mediterranean ; 
 so mighty is the word of God, so unfailing his truth, 
 and so inevitable the decree which links iniquity with 
 woe, pride with a fall, and the oblivion of our God with 
 the forsaking of our mercies. 
 
 Finally : in wandering amid the ruins of these memor- 
 able sites, one often longs to know how far the light of 
 
• > ■ •;/ 
 
 76 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 heavenly truth has yet penetrated the darkness, and re- 
 garding Tyre we can add a single sentence which bids us 
 hope for it and other places. One Christian friend ad- 
 dressing another, says, “ There is an interesting move- 
 ment at Tyre (1854). Several have declared for the 
 gospel, and are urging us to give them a good school- 
 master who can also instruct adults in the way of truth. 
 I hope we shall be able to do so soon. Sidon was the 
 mother of Tyre, and now the new born Protestants of 
 Sidon are teaching their relatives of Tyre the truth as 
 it is in Jesus.”* — He who sometimes of old visited the 
 coasts of Tyre and Sidon will yet see of the travail of 
 His soul in those regions, not in costly cathedrals such as 
 that in which the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa was so 
 pompously interred at Tyre after he was drowned in the 
 distant Cydnus, but in lowly hearts, in renewed souls, 
 — in men who live for heaven. An Infidel has written 
 regarding this region that “ a mournful and solitary 
 silence now prevails along the shore which once re- 
 sounded with the world’s debate — but that shore will 
 yet resound with far other voices. 
 
 It would be pleasant to dwell on the associations 
 linked with Zarephath (now Surafend) and Elijah in 
 this district, or even to refer to the tradition which 
 connects the Saviour’s miracle on the daughter of the 
 woman of Canaan with Ras-el-Ain, at no great distance 
 south from Tyre ; but we cannot linger longer here, 
 though all around seems consecrated and solemn. 
 
 4 
 
 * See Van de Velde’s Syria, &c., ii. 491. 
 
VIII. 
 
 Clje |lums of Samaria. 
 
 This place was long the capital of the Ten Tribes, after 
 the disruption of the kingdom in the days of Solomon’s 
 successor. Omri king of Israel bought the hill of 
 Samaria, and called the city which he built (b.c. 925) 
 after the name of its original owner, Shemer ; and few 
 seats of royalty can surpass it either in venerable 
 associations or in natural beauty. In the green and 
 welb watered valleys, on the slopes of the surrounding 
 hills, and all over the region, the patriarchs once 
 roamed; and perhaps not a spot in Palestine could be 
 named where beauties deemed peculiar to the West 
 appear in finer combination with the exuberance of the 
 East. 
 
 But it is with the ruins of Samaria as exhibited in 
 our Engraving that we have mainly at present to do. 
 Among his other gigantic architectural operations, 
 Herod the Great enlarged and adorned Samaria, and, 
 in honour of Augustus, bestowed on it the name of 
 Sebaste ; that is, the Venerable, the August. Placed on 
 the slope of a hill, with elevation sufficient to make it 
 imposing and conspicuous, the site would naturally 
 attract such an eye as that of Herod. Encircled with 
 heights, Restling amid much that is green and goodly, 
 
y8 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 famous for having resisted the assaults even of Assyrian 
 kings, and in other respects conspicuous, Samaria 
 invited the taste of that remarkable tyrant, and a 
 city unsurpassed in beauty sprang up at his bidding. 
 In subsequent times a church dedicated to John the 
 Baptist was built there, when the place became the 
 seat of a bishop ; and the tower of that structure, or of 
 one built upon its site, forms a conspicuous object in our 
 View. But the chief attraction of the place is a long 
 avenue of broken pillars, some of them of granite and 
 others of marble, supposed to have formed the main 
 street of Herod’s royal city. Here, as in the Hauran, 
 or at Palmyra, Damascus, and in some of the cities of 
 Egypt, vast colonnades lined each side of the street; 
 and running as these pillars do along the topmost 
 terrace of the hill, they tell us how magnificent the 
 fabric must have been, while travellers vie with each 
 other in their descriptions of the imposing scene. In 
 the deep ravine which bounds the city on the north 
 there is another colonnade, completely • shut in by hills 
 except to the north-east. The columns there are ar- 
 ranged in a quadrangular, space 196 paces in length by 
 64 in breadth. The whole number of columns is com- 
 puted to have been 170, and the place was probably 
 designed by Herod for his public assemblies. 
 
 One has told us, for example, that though the hill has 
 been ploughed for centuries, and though the ancient 
 edifices be now demolished, and built into modern 
 houses, yet rows of columns, some erect and many pros- 
 trate, remain to attest what Sebustieh — the Arabic 
 form of Sebaste — once was. Even the splendid view 
 
THE RUINS OF SAMARIA. 
 
Samaria . 
 
 79 
 
 from the summit gives place to the admiration called 
 forth by these remains. They are the ruins of temples, 
 of triumphal arches, and a colonnade, running in a 
 straight line for about 1000 feet, and then curving on 
 account of the nature of the ground ; the whole causing 
 us to marvel more and more at the resources, the skill, 
 and the power of those early times. At one place about 
 sixty limestone pillars are still erect, most of them on 
 ground frequently ploughed. ‘ Further east some twenty 
 more are standing at irregular distances, and many 
 more than these lie prostrate on the ground. The 
 colonnade was 50 feet wide, the pillars about 16 feet 
 high, and the whole length of the structure, whatever 
 its design, could not be much less than 3000 feet. 
 
 But the pride of man must be stained, and the ori- 
 gin of all this magnificence is left to conjecture or to 
 doubt. Writing on the spot, one has said that the pur- 
 pose of the work and of the edifice it was intended to 
 decorate are alike unknown. These columns now stand 
 solitary and mournful, in the midst of ploughed fields, 
 the mere skeletons of departed glory. One visitor 
 has spoken of no fewer than two hundred columns on 
 the west and the south of the hill : in a word, every- 
 thing here reminds us of the vanity of the creature, who 
 yet can proudly boast, — 
 
 “ Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; 
 
 My footstool earth, my canopy the skies! ” 
 
 But while everything is dark or doubtful regarding 
 these structures, our information concerning Samaria 
 itself is abundantly clear in the Scriptures. For two 
 
8o Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 centuries it was the seat of idolatry, and was, accord- 
 ingly, often denounced by the prophets. Ahab built a 
 temple to Baal there, and Jehu destroyed it. Elijah 
 and Elisha were prominent actors in Samaria, during 
 various famines and the deliverances of the place. 
 Ilerod, after Augustus gave him the city, placed a 
 colony of 6000 persons there ; and various Boman em- 
 perors, from Nero to Geta, maintained a connection with 
 the proud city. It early became, as we have seen, the 
 seat of a bishopric ; but perhaps its ruin began as far 
 back as the fourth century, and though its name occurs 
 in the history of the Crusaders, Samaria sank like a 
 wreck, in spite of its lovely situation, its streams, its 
 gardens, orchards, vineyards, and olive-trees. “ I will 
 make Samaria as a heap of the field, and as plantings 
 
 of a vineyard I will discover the foundations 
 
 thereof,” was the prediction of Micah ; and it is fulfilled 
 to the letter. “ Judgment-stricken as it is, none can 
 stand on the uncovered foundations of the vanished 
 city, and look from among its solitary columns on the 
 gleanings of its ancient glory all around, without 
 beholding, with the memory’s eye, the once glorious 
 beauty of the city and the scene, ere ever the flower 
 that bloomed there in all its gorgeous beauty had 
 faded, or ‘the crown of pride’ that was seated there 
 had been trampled under foot.” “ The glory of 
 Ephraim” (of which Samaria was the capital) “ flew 
 avjay like a bird .” “ As for Samaria, her king is cut 
 off as the foam upon the water” (Hos. x. 5, 7) ; and were 
 this the place, it might be shown that prophecy has 
 been fulfilled in that city in a manner which literally 
 
Samaria. 
 
 8 1 
 
 transforms prophecy into history. Nor should we fail to 
 notice that the drunkenness of Samaria, as it gave rise 
 to one of the names of the place, is mentioned among 
 the causes of its final overthrow. 
 
 There is one thought which must often occur to the 
 mind of a wanderer among such ruins as those of 
 Samaria : How many thousands must have toiled and 
 died in erecting these piles ! Slaves were overtasked 
 and crushed into the dust. To gratify the pride, or 
 to perpetuate the name of some incarnate atrocity like 
 Herod, crowds were doomed to a life-long drudgery, per- 
 haps to early graves. At the thought, it seems a right- 
 eous retribution that the memory or the meaning of 
 such structures has utterly passed away. A spunge of 
 extinction has blotted them out; at least all that is 
 known of them is fitly represented by the fragments of 
 cornices and columns, of marble or of granite, which are 
 scattered so copiously over such spots. 
 
 Crossing the Jordan from Samaria, and entering 
 what was formerly the Eastern possessions of the Jews, 
 we reach scenes of desolation and piles of ruins still 
 more eloquent, as to man’s blended pride and nothing- 
 ness, than those which have already been explored. 
 
IX. 
 
 §amrs of fyt Paurmt. 
 
 JERASH. 
 
 The region at which we are now to glance is one of the 
 most wonderful in the world. 
 
 Early in their history, the Israelites took all the cities 
 of Sihon, king of the Amorites, from Aroer on the 
 Arnon even unto Gilead. At the battle of Edrei the 
 King of Bashan was smitten and his kingdom subdued 
 by the Hebrews. “ From the river of Arnon unto Mount 
 Hermon, all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead and 
 Bashan unto Saleh ah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of 
 Bashan,” thus became subject to Israel; and it w r as in 
 that territory, on the east of the J ordan, that some of 
 their largest cities were formed, insomuch that “ three 
 hundred and forty- five ruined or deserted places ” have 
 been counted there by a single traveller. 
 
 The first place that w r e notice on the east of the Jor- 
 dan is Oom Keis, now generally believed to be the 
 Gadara of the New Testament. Leaving the southern 
 extremity of the Lake of Tiberias, and travelling 
 southward on the left bank of the Jordan, the traveller 
 soon arrives at the Yermuck, a swift-flowing stream, as 
 wide as the Jordan, but deeper. Ascending for a few 
 
Jerash. 83 
 
 miles to the east, a plateau is reached, and there stand 
 the ruins of Oom Keis. Besides the foundations of a 
 whole line of houses, there are the remains of two 
 theatres,— one quite destroyed, but the other in tolerable 
 preservation, and handsome. Broken columns and capi- 
 tals lie around in every direction, as well as sarcophagi 
 to the east of the town, where tombs are found which 
 have greatly surprised a succession of visitors since 
 their first discovery. They are nearly all inhabited now, 
 and Lord Lindsay tells that the massive stone doors 
 which originally closed them still move on their hinges, 
 and open or shut at the option of their present owners. 
 “ These doors,” he continues, “ are usually five or six 
 inches thick. The best specimen I saw was beautifully 
 carved in four deep panels, with a false knocker. A 
 wreath between two roses was sculptured on the lintel, 
 and the sarcophagus still retained its place within. .... 
 Over one of the sepulchres I was shown a Greek in- 
 scription, claiming it as the tomb of Gaius Annius 
 Gaamph, — a curious mixture of Hebrew and profane 
 names.” 
 
 Here, then, we are at once introduced to the ruins of 
 the Hauran. At the very threshold we find some rare 
 specimens of ancient art, as well as tokens of the Roman 
 passion for theatrical displays, which were for many 
 ages not known to exist. It is like stumbling upon a 
 new section of the globe ; or, at least, it is discovering 
 that whole decades of the history of the world are lost, 
 as well as of the Roman history by Livy. Their events 
 were long a blank, and even now we know little more 
 than the fact that such places were. Many things con- 
 
84 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 ceming them only furnish an arena for antiquarian dis- 
 putations. 
 
 But among the ruins of the Hauran a prominent 
 place is due to 
 
 JERASH. 
 
 Its ancient name was Gerasa, and it is certainly the 
 most remarkable of all the ruins east of the Jordan. 
 Its walls are from three to four miles in circuit, and the 
 area enclosed is covered with remains, some of which, 
 by their extent, remind us of the Coliseum at Borne. 
 Two theatres, which rank among the most entire of the 
 ruins, proclaim the former character of the place as one 
 given up to pleasure under Boman rule. Near one of 
 these, where rows of seats 120 paces in circuit can still be 
 counted, the walls of a temple, eight feet thick, are still 
 standing, surrounded by a Corinthian peristyle of many 
 columns, whose lofty shafts now lie in immense heaps 
 around its base. In front of the theatre ran a street 
 lined on both sides with columns, like those at Damas- 
 cus, Samaria, and elsewhere. That street divided the 
 city into two, and terminated in a semicircular colon- 
 nade, opening at once into a theatre and a temple. It 
 was crossed by similar streets, in which some of the 
 columns are still erect ; but heaps of rubbish and debris 
 bury much of the former grandeur of the place. Its 
 pavement, rivalling that of modern streets, with the 
 gateways, and other structures of vast dimensions, all 
 tell us what Jerash once was, and contrast sadly and 
 drearily with its present decay, — for it is literally “ with- 
 out an inhabitant.” One temple, for example, built on 
 a spacious area, and closely lined by two hundred pib 
 
Jerash. 
 
 8 S 
 
 lars, now fallen, was adorned in front by columns which 
 are still erect, and which may challenge competition 
 with the ornaments of a modern city. 
 
 Gerasa was one of the ten cities which formed the 
 Decapolis ; and as this province was a favourite with 
 the Eomans, great pains were taken to adorn the place. 
 Along with Bozrah, hereafter to be mentioned, and 
 Petra, already described, it formed a line of fortresses 
 to defend the frontier of the Syrian provinces. But this 
 did not prevent calamity after calamity from assailing 
 it. At one time it was taken by storm for the sake 
 of its treasures. Then the Jews, enraged by the mas- 
 sacre which took place at Caesarea, were also incensed 
 against it. Under Vespasian it was taken once more, and 
 fire was set to the houses, so that, according to Josephus, 
 “ what was remaining was all burnt down.” In 1122 a 
 crusading king of Jerusalem, Baldwin II., destroyed the 
 castle ; and thus, by various stages, Jerash became an- 
 other city of desolation, — its beauty was buried in the 
 dust : it ceased to be the abode of man. For centuries 
 it was forgotten and unknown, till discovered by 
 Seetzen, about the beginning of the present century. 
 
 But the ruins, which are so extensive as to be reck- 
 oned by some superior even to those of Palmyra, may 
 deserve a more exact description. And Buckingham 
 tells that when he approached J erash from the south, 
 he first saw a triumphal arch, of the Corinthian order 
 nearly entire. Within the gateway he found a Nau- 
 machia for mock sea-battles ; and the channels for filling 
 it with water could still be traced, though corn then grew 
 upon the spot. Passing over heaps of ruins and fragments 
 
86 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 of pillars, lie came to a second gateway, within which he 
 found a large and beautiful circular colonnade of the 
 Ionic order. He then refers to the streets lined with 
 colonnades, as already mentioned ; to a square once lined 
 with an avenue of columns in the same way ; to theatres, 
 temples, bridges, aqueducts, and a necropolis, near the 
 northern wall, in which Buckingham found nearly a hun- 
 dred sculptured sarcophagi, and other proofs that multi- 
 tudes rested from their labours there. Beheld from the 
 adjoining hills, Jerash appears to be situated in a deep 
 valley, encircled by lofty and verdant mountains, and 
 altogether it is one of the most remarkable scenes which 
 the traveller can visit, or where he can see embodied 
 before his eyes how true it is that the fashion of this 
 world passeth away. All flesh is as grass, but the word 
 of the Lord is perennial, and Jerash is now precisely 
 what the Lord, two thousand years ago, predicted it 
 would become. 
 
 Opinions vary much as to the general style and 
 taste of the buildings there. While some applaud the 
 effect, others, for example Lord Lindsay, confess to dis- 
 appointment at the sight ; not because the ruins are 
 insignificant, but because they indicate a declining 
 taste,— in truth, a great decay from the rude severity of 
 the Doric and Ionic, as well as from the elegance of the 
 Corinthian styles. There may be cause for such criti- 
 cism, but Jerash in such a desert is still a wonder. 
 
 We might here refer to other ruins existing in this 
 region besides those at Oom Keis, already mentioned. 
 Traces of colonnaded streets, and other symbols of mag- 
 nificence, which are conjectured by some to represent 
 
Jerash . 87 
 
 the ancient Gamala, and other places, are mentioned. 
 The ruins of Edrei, m the same region, are two miles 
 and a half in circuit. Salchah contains eight hundred 
 ancient edifices, all tenantless now. Kenath, in ruins, 
 is nearly three miles in circumference, while spacious 
 edifices, lofty towers, and forty columns still erect, pro- 
 claim that the place once had decorations though they 
 have now melted away before the displeasure of the 
 Ruler of the nations. 
 
 But we need not depict these in detail. The whole 
 of the Hauran may be described, without exaggeration, 
 as a land of ruins : its past glory, and its present decay 
 under Mohammedan rule and Bedawin pillage, are 
 equally signal. Could the religion of the West — that is, 
 of the Bible — be planted there, these sad desolations 
 would cease. Malcolm’s wish might be gratified for 
 the union of the West and the East in their symbols — 
 
 “In one wreath let the Laurel and Lotus entwine:” 
 
 but that would not revive the dead. While Islam re- 
 mains what it is, an incubus and a curse, even Bashan 
 and Gilead will continue widowed and withered. 
 
 But we cannot even yet pass away from these re- 
 markable ruins : they suggest inquiries which bear very 
 directly on the truth or the illustration of Scripture. 
 It has been assumed by many that the piles which 
 abound in the Hauran are chiefly of Roman origin ; 
 and no doubt some of the prodigious ruins, like the 
 theatres and temples, are to be ascribed to these Western 
 conquerors. But more recent investigations have made 
 it manifest that not a little of the architecture — all, for 
 
88 
 
 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 instance, that is domestic — must be traced to much 
 earlier times than those of Greek or Roman art. The 
 opinion has even been hazarded that the houses still 
 standing are the very abodes of the colossal race of 
 which Og, king of Bashan, was the ruler. The Chris- 
 tian structures appear modern in comparison with the 
 other buildings ; and so much is that the case, that, 
 founding on the huge masses employed in the ancient 
 fabrics, and other architectural peculiarities, travellers 
 seem to be agreed that these ruins may have been the 
 abodes of the people who dwelt in these regions ante- 
 rior even to the conquests of Israel. But hear Rev. J. L. 
 Porter, in his work entitled Five Years in Damascus. 
 
 “ We are informed,” he says, “by the sacred historian, 
 that in the land of Argob there were threescore great 
 cities with gates and bars. They had apparently been 
 constructed by the Rephaim, the aborigines of the coun- 
 try (Gen. xiv. 5, Deut. iii. 3-14, Josh. xiii. 12, and 
 1 Kings iv. 13) ; and the houses of Kureiyeh appear to 
 be just such structures as the race of giants would rear 
 up. The huge doors and gates of stone, some of which 
 are nearly eighteen inches in thickness ; and the ponder- 
 ous bars, the places for which can still be seen, are in 
 every way characteristic of a period when architecture 
 was in its infancy, when manual labour was of little 
 comparative value, and when strength and security 
 were the great requisites. Time produces but little 
 effect upon such buildings as these.” 
 
 Now, if these views be correct, we are here brought 
 into contact with some of the most ancient structures 
 now existing in the world. We are led back to times 
 
Jerask. 89 
 
 very remotely primitive, and see before us one proof 
 more of the Bible’s truth where it speaks of giants, at 
 whose existence Infidelity scoffs. More than three thou- 
 sand years, Mr. Porter supposes, have passed away since 
 the race who inhabited these abodes vanished from the 
 earth. That the men were Cyclopean we may infer 
 from the Cyclopean nature of their works ; and surely 
 we may bestow that name on “ doors uniformly of 
 stone, while even the gates of the town are between 
 nine and ten feet high, and each of a single piece of 
 stone” Future explorations may further clear up these 
 views, but meanwhile we have here both a wonder and 
 a proof ; — a wonder in the vastness and antiquity of 
 these fabrics ; a proof that the mirth of the Infidel is 
 as baseless as it is irreverent. 
 
 We are still, however, only on the threshold of these 
 mysterious dilapidations. 
 
X. 
 
 This place, as Rabbath- Ammon, possesses a melan- 
 choly interest, for it was before it that Uriah was fight- 
 ing for his king and his country when that king sent 
 the dastardly message which led to the warrior’s death. 
 In about an hour after leaving Jerash in a southernly 
 direction, the traveller crosses the modern Zerka, the 
 ancient Jabbok, which flows through a country once 
 well peopled, though now the home only of the roaming 
 Bedawin. Between 30 and 40 miles from Jerash he 
 reaches the valley of Ammon, formed by bare and rocky 
 hills, which are perforated by numerous caves. The city 
 of Ammon stood on both sides of its river, and its re- 
 mains are such as to draw from some of its visitors the re- 
 mark, that “ the dreariness of its present aspect is quite 
 indescribable : it looks like the abode of death only 
 the croaking of frogs and the screams of wild birds mar 
 the solitude of the place. Tombs, sarcophagi, a mauso- 
 leum, an aqueduct, at one place full of human skulls,— 
 these are among the first sights which greet the visitor to 
 Ammon. The chief ruins are grander in design, but much 
 more dilapidated, than those of Jerash. Corinthian pil- 
 lars, with an elegant cornice lying in pieces on the ground, 
 
 * Lord Lindsay. 
 
A mi non. 
 
 91 
 
 form the ornament of one structure, — a mausoleum. A 
 lofty portico, following the windings of the river in its 
 form, and ornamented in front with stately Corinthian 
 pillars, of which four much injured and without their 
 capitals are still standing, is another. A well built Chris- 
 tian church with a spire is a third. A temple of florid 
 Corinthian architecture is a fourth. But the noblest 
 ruin of all is a most magnificent theatre, built in the hol- 
 low of a hill. A quadrangular Corinthian colonnade ex- 
 tended in front of the pile, and twelve of its pillars were 
 erect when Lord Lindsay visited the place. Eight of 
 them are perfect, entablature and all ; and some portions 
 of the theatre are in good preservation. Forty-three 
 tiers of seats, divided by three galleries, w r ere counted, 
 though probably others were buried in the rubbish. 
 Some of the decorations are very chaste ; and the effect 
 of the ruins in the foreground, with the crags towering 
 above them, is majestic and imposing. But the bones 
 and skulls of camels were mouldering in the vaulted gal- 
 leries of the immense structure ; and the odour of these 
 animals, dead and decaying, at other places of the valley, 
 made it like a penance to visit the scene. Ruins heaped 
 on ruins, walls to restrain the stream when in flood, a 
 bridge to span it, a channel to carry off the water and 
 prevent inundations, with other works, all evince the 
 pride of Rabbath- Ammon, and tell how its more recent 
 lords, the Romans, dreamt of nothing so unlikely as that 
 the time would ever come when their glory would be 
 laid in the dust. 
 
 But it has been so. Men were bent on being exalted. 
 The Most High had decreed that they should be laid 
 8 
 
g2 Ruined Cities of the East 
 
 low ; and the result is according to his word : “ Ammon 
 
 shall be a desolation. Eabbah of the Ammonites 
 
 shall be a desolate heap. I will make Eabbah a stable 
 for camels, and the Ammonites a couching-place for 
 flocks ; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.” The 
 noble traveller who quotes these words had occasion 
 again and again to notice the multitude of flocks and 
 herds in that vicinity ; but the place where Moloch, the 
 Cl horrid king,” was god, where monster parents were 
 the worshippers, and little children the sacrifice, is now 
 a ruin, and humanity rejoices in that result. 
 
 “ Him the Ammonite 
 
 Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain, 
 
 In Argob and in Basan, to the stream 
 Of utmost Arnon.” 
 
 In this region, however, in the direction of Mount 
 Gilead, there are scenes of even Oriental luxuriance to be 
 witnessed. At some places the valleys are terraced for 
 vineyards. Gardens of figs, olives, and pomegranates of 
 the most refreshing green are there. Its pomegranates, 
 one has magniloquently said, are famed over all the 
 world ; so that while the ruins of J erash, of Ammon, 
 or Bozrah, show us what these regions once were, the 
 rich productions just named appear to foretell what 
 they may yet become, when He who says “ I will over- 
 turn, overturn, overturn,” shall have accomplished all 
 his pleasure. 
 
XL 
 
 CIjc nf §o^aIj. 
 
 It is well known that the children of Israel had 
 grants of land from the Supreme Proprietor on the east 
 of the Jordan as well as between that river and the 
 Mediterranean. Bashan, Gilead, and other districts, were 
 included in that territory ; and we are now glancing at 
 some of the ruins which are there. 
 
 Bozrah, Buzrah, or Bostra, the capital of the Hauran, 
 is first mentioned in Genesis in connection with Jobab, 
 its king. It was about four days’ journey from Damas- 
 cus. Isaiah and Jeremiah also refer to it in connec- 
 tion with Edom, and we need scarcely enter here 
 upon the disputed question whether there were two 
 Bozrahs or only one. Whether we ascribe it with some 
 to Edom, or with others to Moab, or give a Bozrah to 
 each, the ruins continue the same, and add another to 
 this land of wonders. Bozrah was once the capital of 
 the Hauran. The Bomans reckoned the city as belong- 
 ing to Arabia Deserta. Its circumference is about three 
 quarters of an hour, or less than three miles ; and it 
 was anciently defended by a thick wall, many portions 
 of which still remain. On one side of the place there 
 are copious springs, and on the opposite side there is . 
 
94 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 found a reservoir, 190 feet in length by 153 in breadth, 
 and about 20 in depth. But here, as elsewhere, ruin and 
 dilapidation have laid the pride of man in the dust. 
 Time, Bedawin rapacity, and “ the wages of sin,” have 
 eaten out the life of the place ; and though once famous 
 for its vines and their produce, not a vestige of these now 
 remains. There is scarcely a tree in the neighbourhood ; 
 and the twelve or fifteen families who inhabited Boz- 
 rah when Burckhardt visited it, cultivated only wheat, 
 barley, house-beans, and dhourra. The ruins are Greek, 
 Roman, and Saracenic in their style ; but their extent, 
 and in some cases their beauty, tend only to deepen the 
 sadness of the scene ; in short, Bozrah is now for the 
 most part a heap of ruins : here and there the direction 
 of a street or alley is discernible, but that is all, and 
 the handful of its modern inhabitants are almost lost 
 in the maze of ruins. Olive-trees grew here within a 
 few years,— all extinct now, like its famous vines : and 
 such in the nineteenth century, and under Moslem rule, 
 is the condition of a city which in the seventh century 
 was called “the market-place of Syria, Irak and Hedjaz.” 
 “ I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord of hosts, that 
 Bozrah shall become a desolation and reproach, a waste 
 and a curse, and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual 
 wastes — and that word is true. All this, however, is 
 in strange contrast with Gibbon’s information, that in 
 the seventh century Bozrah could send forth 12,000 
 horse from its gates. 
 
 But it may be right to furnish some more specific 
 details concerning this city, which Trajan made the cap- 
 ital of the district, adding his own name to its former 
 
Bozrah. 
 
 95 
 
 title ; which Alexander Severus, about a century later, 
 further honoured ; which, a.d. 245, gave an emperor to 
 Rome in the person of Philippus, one of its inhabitants 
 — while “good Fortune” was worshipped as the protec- 
 tress of the place ; where, finally, a Christian church was 
 early planted, and a metropolitan with thirty-nine suf- 
 fragans presided over the district. 
 
 In one street, then, the traveller finds the remains of 
 an ancient temple, where some columns still exist said 
 to be fifty feet high, though indicating a vitiated archi- 
 tectural taste. Opposite to these, however, are some 
 Corinthian pillars of great beauty and in fine preserva- 
 tion ; so fair, indeed, are these relics of centuries ago, that 
 the first thought of the traveller in the Hauran, at this 
 sight is, Whence and why such beauty here ? 
 
 At no great distance is a noble triumphal arch, pro- 
 bably of the times of Philip. Its consists of three gates, 
 and is about 40 feet long, as much in height, and 20 
 in depth. The castle of Bozrah is another massive 
 structure, with lofty vaulted chambers, long corridors, 
 and a hundred tokens of strength and durability. A 
 theatre, also, appears among these remains, strangely 
 constructed within the castle ; and the view' from this 
 ruin upon Jebel-esh-Sheik and the intervening terri- 
 tory is described as unrivalled. In that enclosure the 
 inmates of the place at seasons collect all their effects, 
 and defend themselves there from the assaults of the 
 rapacious Bedawin. Further : the western gate of the 
 city, called “ The Gate of the Winds,” is very perfect, 
 and described as one of peculiar beauty. By that gate a 
 modern traveller has thus mused and moralized : “ I 
 
g6 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 looked inward .... and there was not a human being, 
 there was not a living thing, — there was not a sign of life 
 within the range of vision. There was that noble gate- 
 way, open and solitary : within it, nought but heaps of 
 rubbish and piles of hewn stones ; away in the distance 
 rose the deserted-looking columns, without an entabla- 
 ture to support or a building to adorn ; there too was 
 the triumphal arch, as if erected to commemorate the 
 triumph of Destruction : while without , the whole coun- 
 try around was waste, desolate, and forsaken. Never 
 before had I seen a picture of such utter desolation, 
 except when looking down upon Palmyra.” 
 
 But, as we have seen, the whole region is studded with 
 remains ; and wherever the traveller reposes, he may 
 find ruins for a screen. “ We halted,” says Lord Lind- 
 say, in his Travels here, “ under a Doric tomb, orna- 
 mented with six semi-columns on each side. On the 
 east of the town are the ruins of a temple surrounded 
 by a peristyle, of which ten columns are still erect. 
 Rows of Roman houses in ruins, Corinthian pilasters, 
 fragments of beautiful frieze, and other remains, — all 
 tell of ancient grandeur and modern decay. They are 
 little thought of, only because of the over-t opping won- 
 ders of Bozrah.”* 
 
 Such is a mere glimpse — not even a meagre catalogue, 
 but only a glimpse — of the ruins of Bozrah. It is one of 
 the wonders of antiquity ; and when its history is 
 viewed in connection with prophecy, we can scarcely 
 
 * Of another place Lord Lindsay says: “The Kasr,” a little temple, “ is 
 the most beautiful little building I saw in the Ilauran. The portico is 
 supported by two Corinthian pillars,” etc. 
 
Bozrah. 
 
 97 
 
 help endorsing the sentiment that the curse of God lias 
 fallen on that land for the sins of a rebellious people. 
 Thousands of years ago a prophet said, — and the tra- 
 veller in the Hauran may see the saying fulfilled at 
 this hour, — “The spoiler shall come upon every city, and 
 
 no city shall escape Give wings unto Moab, that it 
 
 may flee and get away ; for the cities thereof shall be 
 desolate, without any to dwell therein.” “ Howl and 
 cry ; tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled, and 
 
 judgment is come upon Kiriathaim, and upon 
 
 Beth-gamul, and upon Beth-meon, and upon Kerioth, 
 and upon Bozrah.” In accomplishment of this, w T e 
 read that the roofs of the houses have long since fallen 
 in, the walls have crumbled down, and the whole is 
 now like a plain covered with confused heaps of stones, 
 in which the lines of the old streets are seen like fur- 
 rows.* But the description of Bozrah is, in sub- 
 stance, an account of hundreds of ruins in those long 
 untrodden regions : — 
 
 “ There may survive a tinge of glory yet 
 
 O’er all the pastures and the heights of green; 
 
 Which, though the lustre of their day hath set, 
 
 Tell of the joy and splendour that have been ; ” 
 
 but the glory has departed, and Edom and Moab are 
 as desolate and as widowed now as the Palestine which 
 they often tried to enslave. These ruins of empires 
 might confound the sceptic, did he explore them with 
 the Bible for his guide-book. 
 
 Yet a sceptic has written regarding Bozrah without 
 
 * See Five Years in Damascus by Rev. J. L. Porter, chap. xii. 
 
98 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 being undeceived. Gibbon has described Its conquest 
 by the Saracens, and tells that 4000 Moslems pre- 
 sumed to attack the fortress of Bozrah. They were 
 repulsed by the garrison, but saved by one of their 
 leaders with 1500 horse. After a short repose the at- 
 tack was renewed, the morning prayer was raised, and 
 the proud Moslem rushed against the place. The in- 
 habitants of Bozrah threw open their gates,* formed 
 line in the plain, and resolved to die for their religion. 
 But a religion of peace, Gibbon says, could not com- 
 pete with the onset of fanatics exclaiming, “ Fight j 
 Fight! Paradise! Paradise!” and Bozrah fell before 
 them, though the ramparts, he records with a sneer, 
 “ were crowded with holy crosses and consecrated ban- 
 ners.” The treachery of the governor, who apostatized 
 to Islam, promoted that result, and from that day we 
 may date the ruin of Bozrah. 
 
 In. speaking of Jerash we have mentioned the theory 
 that many of the Hauran buildings are much more an- 
 cient than the times of the Boman conquests ; and this 
 theory is believed by some to receive fresh confirmation 
 at Bozrah. Substructions are there pointed out which 
 seem to refer to a remote antiquity ; so that discovery 
 after discovery increases our wonder, as we contemplate 
 this land of ruins, once the abode of giants, now de- 
 populated, dreary, and forlorn. Travellers have gone 
 far to identify the spot where the decisive battle was 
 fought between the Israelites and Og king of Bashan. 
 If we would listen to tradition, we might find in those 
 parts the home and domains of J ob. But the blood- 
 
 thirsty and fanatical character of the Moslem inhabi- 
 
Bozrah. 
 
 99 
 
 tants renders deliberate investigation difficult ; yet 
 everything tends to make it plain that further and 
 more accurate inquiry will at once amaze us by its dis- 
 closures, and satisfy us by the fresh proof which it brings 
 that the word of God is all that it claims to be. 
 
 So remarkable are some of the Hauran ruins, though 
 so long unknown, that we can ascertain the form and 
 proportions of an old Roman’s abode more easily there 
 than among the ruins of Rome itself. One ruin, if we may 
 call it so, is described at Nedjraun, which explains at 
 a glance the structure of Roman abodes, though modern 
 buildings have been erected in the spacious court of 
 the place. The mansion obviously belonged to one of 
 the chief men of the city. The court appears to have 
 been nearly square ; the entrance is in the centre of the 
 front, but the door is nearly buried in rubbish. There 
 are two windows on each side of it, and beyond 
 these are two other doors, each opening into a moder- 
 ately sized apartment lighted by windows from with- 
 out. The entrance hall was 11 paces wide and about 
 8i deep, and spanned by a beautiful arch. A com- 
 munication led from the hall to the left by the cham- 
 ber on that side ; while on the right, a stone staircase 
 led to the upper storey, where the rooms are small, nu- 
 merous, and still inhabited. The wings are also full of 
 rooms, while the ground floor of the right wing is partly 
 occupied by a beautiful stable, seven paces long and 
 nine paces deep, with mangers of stone ; and as the 
 mansion is still entire, owing to its substantial struc- 
 ture of hewn stone, the Arabs of our day stable their 
 horses where the Romans stabled theirs, while they 
 
ioo Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 themselves find a home in the identical abodes of some 
 of the world’s conquerors. 
 
 Here, then, in the remote, inhospitable Hauran, which 
 has now taken the place formerly held by Britain, when 
 it was “ cut off from the whole world,” we are brought 
 as nearly as possible into personal contact with the 
 Bomans ; — and not at Nedjraun merely, but in many 
 other places. In some lists of ruins, the names of 
 156 cities are mentioned as found in the Hauran and 
 the Ledja; 81 in Bashan ; 86 in Ajlun; and 123 in 
 Belka ; or 446 in the countries east of the Jordan. 
 It is so surprising, that we mention the fact again 
 and again : — these regions, now given up to dreary soli- 
 tude, or, what is worse, to Arab robbers, appear, both 
 from ancient testimony and from still existing ruins, to 
 have ranked at one period among the most fertile and 
 thickly peopled countries on the face of the earth ; 
 some conjecture that they could scarcely be second even 
 to China itself. 
 
 Upon the whole, we may here quote and apply to the 
 Hauran what Lord Lindsay has quoted from Sir Thomas 
 Brown regarding Egypt : “ She is now become the land 
 of obliviousness and doateth. Her ancient civility 
 is gone, and her glory hath vanished as a phantasma. 
 Her youthful days are over, and her face hath become 
 wrinkled and tetrick. She poreth not upon the heavens : 
 Astronomy is dead unto her, and Knowledge maketli 
 other cycles. Canopus is afar off ; Mernnon resoundeth 
 not to the sun ; and Nilus heareth strange voices. Her 
 monuments are but hieroglyphically sempiternal. Osiris 
 and Anubis, her averruncous deities, have departed : 
 
BozraJi . iot 
 
 while Orus yet remains, dimly shadowing the principle 
 of vicissitude and the effluxion of things, but receiveth 
 little oblation.” 
 
 And yet we should not speak of oblivion in connec- 
 tion with the Hauran, — the ancient Auranitis. It 
 formed part of the Idumea or Arabia-Provincia of the 
 Romans ; — and to that region did Paul the apostle 
 proceed immediately after his conversion From Da- 
 mascus “ he went,” he says, “ into Arabia, and returned 
 again to Damascus.” For three years, it appears (Gal. 
 i. 17, 18), he sojourned in these regions, before going to 
 J erusalem to enter on his life-and-death work. There 
 he gave himself, we may suppose, to the study of that 
 truth which he was to proclaim to others, — to millions, 
 — to generations ; there, no doubt, he grew in grace 
 and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ ; and if we could link his name to any of these 
 ruins,— to Jerash, or Bozrah, or any of the vast remains 
 which stud this land, — interesting as they are, they 
 would become more interesting still. The chance of 
 their having formed the home of the most honoured 
 man that ever lived might well eclipse and overshadow 
 all their other glories. 
 
 Before leaving this region, and in order still further 
 to show how crowded and extensive are the ruins, we 
 might dwell on Kennawat, where is the reputed tomb 
 of Job; but we give only one specimen more, in Shoaba, 
 — a place whose very name, we are sure, never was 
 heard by millions of Westerns. The streets of that 
 town, then, are described as handsome, and better paved 
 than any in London. Masses of masonry still stand, 
 
i02 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 which are supposed to have been surmounted by statues 
 or columns. Public buildings line some of the streets. 
 In one stand five Corinthian pillars, the remains of the 
 colonnade of a temple ; an extraordinary octagonal 
 building is found at another place ; a theatre solidly 
 built at another : yet while some parts of the city are 
 beautiful, others are so defaced that it is difficult to 
 describe them or fix their character, though there are 
 buildings there as fresh as if they were only fifty years 
 of age. 
 
 It is thus that, in wandering from city to city from 
 day to day, ruin after ruin invites our study or aug- 
 ments our wonder. One general description might suf- 
 fice for all, but their extent, their number, and in many 
 cases their elegance, can be brought out only by repe- 
 tition. In the inhospitable Hauran men live in Roman 
 houses vacated by Romans sixteen or seventeen cen- 
 turies ago, yet perfect now as then ! 
 
XII. 
 
 Cjw Quirts af §a'altreli. 
 
 At the distance of two days’ journey from Damascus, 
 more or less according to the route pursued, we find one 
 of the marvels of all time, — the town of Ba’albek, with 
 its stupendous ruins. We submit first a brief history 
 of the place, and then advert to the temples. 
 
 Ba’albek and Heliopolis appear to the most exact in- 
 quirers to be perfectly identified. Its name, “ The City of 
 the Sun,” indicates at once who was the chief god there. 
 He was the Jupiter of Syria, or at least of this portion 
 of it ; but it is a remarkable fact, that, except what may 
 be collected from collateral references, we have no his- 
 torical notice of this marvellous place earlier than the 
 fourth century. There can be little doubt that long 
 prior to that period some distinguished buildings stood 
 here : the ancient substructions, — somewhat like the 
 most ancient of the ruins in Jerusalem, — sufficiently 
 attest that fact ; but we must be content with infer- 
 ence and conjecture. Whether is Banias or Ba’albek 
 the Baal-gad of Scripture % Or, is Ba’albek rather the 
 Baalath which Solomon built along with Tadmor ? Or 
 again, is it the Baal-hamon of Solomon (Cant. viii. 11), 
 where he had his vineyards and retreats ? Or, once 
 more, is it “ The plain of Aven,” — Bikath-aven, men- 
 
104 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 tioned by Amos (i. 5) % All these have their advocates, 
 and the last seems to be countenanced by the fact that 
 Ba’albek has always been the capital of the magnificent 
 plain of Coele-syria, now called Buka’a in Arabic ; by 
 Amos, Bikath, in Hebrew ; each meaning a plain or 
 level among hills. 
 
 But we may hasten away from the regions of conjec- 
 ture to such certainty as we can obtain. During the se- 
 cond and third centuries our knowledge of Heliopolis 
 is derived from medals, which date from the Emperor 
 Herva to Gallienus. In the seventh century John Malala 
 wrote that “iElius Antoninus Pius erected at Heliopolis, 
 in Phoenicia of Lebanon, a great temple to Jupiter, — one 
 of the wonders of the world.” How, if this record may 
 be credited, written so long after the event to which it 
 refers, it is sufficiently definite ; and various considera- 
 tions appear to confirm it. The style of architecture 
 agrees with that of the period of the Antonines ; some 
 of the inscriptions found at Ba’albek point in the same 
 direction ; and these things, together with later coins, 
 leave little doubt that we know about the period when 
 these structures began to be reared. They most pro- 
 bably supplanted former temples. Baal, as the Sun, — 
 or perhaps a whole Pantheon of gods,— was worshipped 
 there ; and when we read that Venus was also adored 
 by rites the most disgusting that ever ripened men for 
 woe, we may have no difficulty in explaining the present 
 desolation of the place. 
 
 When Constantine assumed the Christian name, the 
 worship of Venus ceased, and a Christian church was 
 founded. But Julian the Apostate restored the old 
 
Ba' alb ek. 
 
 105 
 
 paganism and its abominations for a season ; and Helio- 
 polis became prominent in the atrocities of those times. 
 Such was the hatred of its people to the followers of 
 Christ, that in at least one case they feasted on the liver 
 of one of their victims. But these enormities could not 
 last. Other emperors arose who favoured Christianity ; 
 and Christian ministers officiated at Ba’albek till about 
 the year 636 , when the place passed into the hands of the 
 victorious Mohammedans. The great temple now be- 
 came a fortress. It continued an object of strife among 
 rival factions, and was alternately the property of one 
 royal master and then of another. In 1139 , 1157 , and 
 1170, it was shaken by earthquakes, while the Crusaders 
 ravaged the adjoining country. In 1400 , Ba’albek be- 
 came the property of Tamerlane ; and until about 1550 
 no further notice of the place is known. The temple 
 was then a fortress, as it had been for centuries ; but in 
 the eighteenth century it became famous again. In 1784 , 
 Yolney gave one of the best accounts of Ba’albek ; but 
 prior to his visit, an earthquake, in 1759 , had over- 
 thrown three out of nine majestic columns remaining 
 till that date. Arabic cupidity and Turkish plunderers 
 have helped further to demolish and deface ; but, in 
 spite of all, Ba’albek still continues a wonder. “Diana’s 
 marvel” at Ephesus was a mere shrine to this, or like 
 a mere side chapel to some gorgeous fane. 
 
 We have been thus particular in outlining the history 
 of Ba’albek because few are at all acquainted with its 
 wonders ; and next proceed to as brief an account of 
 these majestic remains. 
 
 The walls and towers of ancient Ba’albek are now in 
 9 
 
<5 ? ® / /fa 
 
 $ 
 
 106 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 ruins, and the modern village is miserable enough : it 
 contains perhaps about 100 families, with 400 or 500 
 souls. Standing in the region where the Orontes or the 
 Aasy, the Leontes or the Litani, and the Jordan, take 
 their rise, the native beauty of the place may be as- 
 sumed. Its height above the sea is 3769 feet ; but in a 
 region like that of Syria, under the shelter at once of 
 the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon range, the climate 
 is more than temperate. — Here, however, everything 
 must give ^placjp to the Temples, the greater and the less. 
 The^fornllf^was 1000 feet in length from east to west, 
 and is raised by an artificial platform about 25 feet 
 above the adj acent country. The six remaining columns 
 of the peristyle, which appear in our Engraving, consti- 
 tute, by universal consent, the crowning glory of the 
 place ; what then must the whole have been, when the 
 wondrous fane was entire, gleaming in a Syrian sun, and 
 looking forth upon the Buka’a, Mount Lebanon, and a 
 thousand other glories ! The material is everywhere the 
 compact limestone of the country. The porti co of the 
 GreatTemple was 180 feet long, and about 37 deep. It 
 had columns in front, of which only the pedestals 
 
 remain. Their diameter was j?feet finches. There was 
 a pavilion at each end of the portico, and a single stone 
 in one of these measured 24 feet 5 inches long. The 
 pilasters, cornices, and other decorations, are all dwelt 
 on with very special care by every visitor. The first 
 court is a hexagon 200 feet by about 250. The great 
 quadrangle in front of the temple proper is about 
 440 feet by 370; and the divisions of this vast area, 
 with its decorations of Syenite granite, are all carefully 
 
Baalbek. 
 
 107 
 
 noted. We can only allude to what is said of the 
 pillars, the friezes, the sphinxes, and other decora- 
 tions. 
 
 Fronting this quadrangle was the peristyle, 290 feet 
 long by 1$0 broad. Nineteen Corinthian columns stood 
 on each side, and at each end ten (counting the corner 
 pillars), making 54 in all. At the base, their diameter 
 was seven]/feet, and five at the top. The shafts were 
 62 feet high ; the entablature was about 14 more : 
 the whole 76. Each shaft consisted of three stones 
 strongly cramped together with iron ; for the sake of 
 which the Arabs have laboriously undermined the 
 pillars. This peristyle, elevated altogether about 50 feet 
 above the surrounding country, though only six of its 
 columns now remain, is one of the architectural won- 
 ders of the world. There are some bevelled stones in the 
 substructions which remind us of the architecture of 
 Jerusalem, of perhaps the times of Solomon. 
 
 Of these substructions, the western wall is amazing. 
 One stone is 64 feet long, another 63 feet 8 inches, and 
 a third 63 feet. Their height is about 13 feet, their 
 breadth about the same. They are placed about 20 feet 
 above the ground, and there are seven others of like 
 dimensions. The three large stones gave rise to one of 
 the ancient names of this temple, — the Trilithon. We 
 cannot trace the vaults and alleys of the substruction, 
 
 1 forming as they do an underground world. 
 
 But there is a second temple. Its length is 225 feet, 
 its breadth about 120. It is surrounded by a magnifi- 
 cent peristyle of fifteen columns on each side, and eight 
 at each end. Some of the columns are six feet three inches 
 
io8 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 in diameter at the base, and five feet eight higher up. 
 They are 45 feet high, including the Corinthian capitals. 
 The entablature is seven feet high, and the cornice is 
 elaborately wrought. But only four of the columns re- 
 main in their place on the south side, six on the west, 
 and nine on the north. The rest are scattered in frag- 
 ments or demolished by Vandal hands. 
 
 The portal of this temple is called the gem of the 
 whole ; and an artist has said, “ This is perhaps the 
 most elaborate work, as well as the most exquisite in 
 its details, of anything of its kind in the world. The 
 pencil can convey but a faint idea of its beauty. One 
 scroll alone of acanthus leaves, with groups of children 
 and panthers intertwined, might form a work of itself.” 
 The carved ornaments, the crested eagles, the garlands, 
 and other decorations, all crowd upon us for a notice ; 
 but we can only name them, and add that the earth- 
 quake of 1759 shivered much of their beauty to pieces. 
 The size of some of the columns may be inferred from 
 the fact that they enclose and conceal a spiral staircase, 
 leading to the top of the fabric. 
 
 “ What an entrance !” a traveller exclaims on the spot. 
 “ Here are accumulated vast heaps of mighty ruins ; 
 immense shafts of broken columns ; gigantic archi- 
 traves, cornices, and ceilings, all exquisitely sculptured 
 —all now trodden under foot, and forming perhaps the 
 most imposing and impressive avenue in the world.” The 
 symmetry and grace give an airy lightness to the whole, 
 yet the first impression is described as actually over- 
 whelming. These structures, when compared with those 
 of Athens, are said to equal them in lightness, but 
 

Ba albek. 
 
 109 
 
 surpass them in massiveness ; with those of Thebes, 
 they are as massive, but far more graceful ; and though 
 some might desire a simpler and severer style than that t 
 which reigns at Ba’albek, it is to be confessed that in 
 many respects they are unmatched in the world. 
 
 There is a third temple in the vicinity, which is circu- 
 lar, very small, and composite in its character. It is 
 surrounded by eight columns on the outside, and has two 
 tiers of pillars, the lower Ionic, the upper Corinthian, 
 in the interior. But though beautiful exceedingly, 
 everything seems tame or diminutive beside the magni- 
 ficent peristyle of the Trilithon. 
 
 “ Where’er we tread, ’tis haunted, holy ground ; 
 
 No earth of thine is lost in vulgar mould, 
 
 But one vast realm of wonder spreads around, 
 
 And all the Muse’s tale seems truly told.” 
 
 One object of interest more deserves to be named, — 
 the quarries whence materials for these colossal piles 
 were obtained. They are situated a furlong or two 
 south from the town, and display at a glance the an- 
 cient mode of quarrying. The stones were commonly 
 hewn from the face of the rock in an upright position, 
 by cutting away a space of a few inches all round ; and 
 many stones still remain in that position, attached to 
 their native rock only at the bottom of the column. 
 One stone remains in those quarries which attracts all 
 eyes by its prodigious and apparently incredible mag- 
 nitude. Its length is 84 feet 4 inches ; its breadth, 17 
 feet 2 inches ; and its height, 14 feet 7 inches. Travel- 
 lers are at a loss to say for what this mass was de- 
 signed. 
 
XIII. 
 
 A mere enumeration of the historical events connected 
 with Antioch, “ The Queen of the East,” and once called 
 “ God’s City,” would suffice to show how large a share 
 of influence it exerted upon the men of former times. 
 
 That city stood on the banks of the Orontes, between 
 the mountains of Amanus on the north-west and Mount 
 Casius on the south-east; and was about 300 miles 
 north from Jerusalem. It was inland about twenty or 
 thirty miles from the Mediterranean, and along with 
 Seleucia, Apamea, and Laodicea, it formed the Tetra- 
 polis of antiquity; though that name has also been 
 ascribed to the fact that Antioch consisted of four sec- 
 tions, each surrounded by its own wall, and all by a wall 
 in common. It was deemed the third city in importance 
 in the Roman Empire, Rome being the first, and Alex- 
 andria the second ; and its population may be vaguely 
 estimated by the fact that within 150 years of the 
 date of its foundation, Antioch saw the slaughter of 
 100,000 of its inhabitants by the Jews in a single day. 
 Early in the Christian era the population was computed 
 at 200,000 ; of whom about one-half were Christians. 
 The Christian Church there is said to have supported 
 3000 poor, or even more ; so that we may at least con- 
 
A ntioch. 
 
 in 
 
 jecture the opulence, the numbers, and the charities of 
 the Christians at Antioch. 
 
 The following incidents may be mentioned among 
 the memorabilia of that city : — 
 
 1. It was there that the followers of the Saviour be- 
 gan to be called Christians (Acts xi. 26). His truth was 
 taught there with a remarkable blessing from on high, 
 so that “a great number believed and turned to the 
 Lord;” and Antioch thenceforth became a centre whence 
 the light of truth radiated into the surrounding regions. 
 There Barnabas the eloquent, and Paul the devoted and 
 unwearied, laboured for a whole year continuously, first 
 in founding the Church, and then in building it up. 
 Controversies no doubt arose, and the peace of the 
 infant Church was broken ; but for centuries, Antioch 
 continued one of the eyes of the East, at once receiving 
 the light and spreading it to others. The first Chris- 
 tian Council or Assembly was held there. In the third 
 century three others were convened in it; and such 
 historical facts appear to manifest the wisdom of Him 
 who rules over all, in selecting such a city — so central 
 and so influential, in which to plant his truth and 
 secure its dissemination through the lands of the 
 East. 
 
 2. Martyr after martyr attested at Antioch the vigour 
 of his faith. Ignatius was the second of its bishops, 
 and suffered martyrdom in the year 107. Babylas, 
 another, died in prison in the reign of Decius ; while 
 Lucian, one of its most distinguished presbyters, perished 
 in the fiery times of Diocletian, a.d. 312. There also 
 Chrysostom was born; and there for nearly half a 
 
1 12 
 
 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 century he held up the torch of truth, that its light 
 might be further and further reflected. 
 
 3 . This city passed through various vicissitudes ere 
 it became a ruin. In the year 260 the King of Persia 
 pillaged it. Earthquake after earthquake has over- 
 thrown it. In the years 340 , 394 , 396 , 458 , 526 , and 
 528 , catastrophes of that kind befell ; and in that of 
 526 it is said 250,000 persons were destroyed, as the 
 earthquake took place at the time of one of the great 
 festivals which superstition has introduced and per- 
 petuated. The emperor of that period, Justinian, gave 
 a sum computed to have amounted to «£l 80,000 to help 
 to rebuild the city ; but the Persians came once more, 
 in 540 , and gave Antioch to the flames. In the year 
 658 the Saracens seized upon the place ; and that city 
 which had been the capital of the successors of Alex- 
 ander, the seat of the Roman government in the East, 
 and honoured with the titles, Free, Holy, Inviolate, was 
 degraded by the caliphs to the rank of a provincial 
 town. When the Crusades took place, Antioch, from 
 its position, was coveted by those invaders. About the 
 year 1100, the Duke of Kormandy entered it at the 
 head of 300,000 men ; and in a battle or siege a century 
 or two thereafter, 17,000 fell, and 100,000 were made 
 captives at ill-fated Antioch. To this day earthquakes 
 continue to desolate the place ; and in 1822 , 4000 or 
 5000 , out of 20 , 000 , its entire population, perished by 
 one of these disastrous visitations. 
 
 But it is with the ruins of Antioch that we are 
 chiefly concerned at present ; and these are sufficiently 
 ample to attest the former importance and magnitude 
 
Antioch. 
 
 113 
 
 of the place. On the south-west side of the city a 
 precipitous mountain ridge forms a kind of natural 
 wall ; hut it is rendered yet more strong and command- 
 ing by the remains of an ancient Koman wall, which 
 runs along the ridge and descends into the valley. The 
 portion which remains is at some places 30 feet high, 
 at others 50 ; and the strength of the whole may be in- 
 ferred from the fact that these masses are about 15 feet 
 in thickness. To complete the means of defence, about 
 four hundred lofty square towers were placed at short 
 distances from each other along the wall, each contain- 
 ing a staircase and two or three apartments. The wall 
 runs in a direct line up the steepest part of the moun- 
 tain, and the ascending top is formed into stairs, up 
 which the soldiers marched from station to station, or 
 tower to tower, on their way to the citadel, which stood 
 above. The wall ran along two separate hill-tops, in 
 order to environ the city, and crossed a deep ravine, 
 which separated the two, upon a magnificent arch. 
 
 The acropolis, we have just seen, stood on the preci- 
 pitous hill which these ruins now crown or cover ; and 
 hence, no doubt, the care with which the place was de- 
 fended. Altogether, the walls enclose a space which is 
 nearly seven miles in circuit ; but much of that is now 
 occupied with mulberry-groves, vineyards, and fruit- 
 gardens. The glory has thus departed ; and where the 
 gay and dissolute Lucius Yerus, who spent four winters 
 at Antioch, once wasted five-and-thirty thousand pounds 
 on a single supper, ruin piled on ruin is all that now re- 
 mains— the skeleton or the ghost of former grandeur. 
 
 At the eastern extremity of the western hill the re- 
 
1 14 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 mains of a fortress are found, with turrets, vaults, and 
 a cistern 45 paces in diameter, but nearly filled up with 
 earth ; while remains of an aqueduct are seen near the 
 mountains south-south- west from the city. But, in addi- 
 tion to these tokens of ancient strength, antique marble 
 pavements are sometimes laid bare during heavy rains. 
 Gems, carnelians, and rings are frequently found, — all 
 betokening its former proficiency in art. Yet, after all, 
 these ruins are but a poor representative of a city whose 
 people were once counted by hundreds of thousands, and 
 whose position as a stronghold was desired alike by the 
 men who are great in time and the men who are great 
 for eternity. 
 
 “ Low it lieth, earth to earth, — 
 
 All to which our pride gives birth: 
 
 Palace, portal, tower, and fane, — 
 
 Earth, that never asks in vain, 
 
 Hath reclaimed its own again.” 
 
 The entrance to the present city, when approached 
 from Aleppo, is by an ancient gate, which is named 
 after the Apostle Paul ; and the association of his name, 
 or the achievements of his faith in that city, render it 
 famous for all time, — nay, for ever. Paul, several of the 
 Roman Caesars, fierce Jews, crusading leaders, fiery 
 Saracens, and wind-winged Turks, have all made An- 
 tioch the scene of their doings ; but which of these was 
 the true hero 1 — which the real conqueror ? With some 
 of them, armies were their weapons and kingdoms their 
 prey ; but with Paul armies and kingdoms were like the 
 small dust in the balance : he contended for eternity ! — 
 he had in view the crown of glory which fadeth not 
 away ! Which, then, is really the nobler soul h Paul, or 
 
Antioch. 
 
 US 
 
 the men whose crown, even when they did gain it, faded 
 on their brow? Their influence is in the dust, — his is ex- 
 tending from year to year : and all this supplies another 
 example of the fact that, after all, godliness with perse- 
 cution and a violent death is a surer way to immortal- 
 ity, than massacring myriads, subduing kingdoms, and 
 founding an empire by the sword. “Alexander founded 
 an empire by force ; so did Caesar, and so did I,” said 
 Napoleon Bonaparte on the rock of St. Helena ; “ and 
 where are our empires now ? But J esus Christ founded 
 his empire upon love ; and now, after eighteen hundred 
 years, he has millions that would die in his cause.” 
 Such was the testimony of one who had caused the 
 death of 3,000,000 of men to glut his fierce ambition ; 
 and amid the ruins of Antioch the words are re-echoed. 
 
 We might have spoken of the grove and the temple 
 of Daphne, in the vicinity of Antioch. They formed 
 one of the most exquisite retreats which Paganism ever 
 constructed ; but they are an utter ruin now. Their 
 very site is disputed, and nothing remains of either 
 the temples or the gods of the place to tell that they 
 ever had existence. “To live after the manner of 
 Daphne,” was once a proverb expressive of all that is 
 debasing ; yet the doings which that proverb describes 
 took place amid beauties such as the world has never 
 surpassed. How idle, then, the dream, that mere beauty 
 can tame the heart of man, — can either truly refine or 
 truly elevate the soul ! The voice of the past from those 
 desolate scenes exclaims — Omnipotence alone can raise 
 man from the dust. 
 
XIY. 
 
 |lums of Halmnra. 
 
 A city which owed its origin to Solomon, and waned 
 to its extinction after the reign of the heroic and intre- 
 pid Zenobia, deserves and will repay our study. We 
 submit, first, a brief historical account of the place, and 
 then glance at the marvellous ruins which are there. 
 
 In 1 Kings ix. 18, and elsewhere in Scripture, we 
 read that Solomon built “ Tadmor in the wilderness.” 
 The name means Place of Palms. That wise and wide- 
 viewed man saw that the position was favourable as a 
 commercial centre, for at that period the wealth and 
 productions of the East passed through Tadmor or 
 Palmyra, to gratify, enrich, and corrupt the Western 
 nations. Near it there are copious streams — themselves 
 a treasure in the East. The place was about mid-way 
 between the Euphrates and Syria, and the wealth of 
 India and the stores of Mesopotamia hence found an 
 exchange, or an entrepot at Tadmor. For nearly a 
 thousand years, however, the place is not mentioned in 
 history ; and when it became known again, about the 
 commencement of our era, it was a city of importance, 
 of some architectural beauty, and of magnitude enough 
 at least to attract the cupidity of imperial Rome. 
 
 About a.d. 130 it submitted to the Emperor Adrian, 
 who made it a Roman colony, and adorned it with some 
 of the stately colonnades w^hich still amaze and awe every 
 
THE RUINS OF PALMYRA. 
 
Palmyra. 1 1 7 
 
 visitor, even in their decay. Prior to that time, however, 
 the Palmyrenes themselves had erected some magnificent 
 structures, as if they would make the grandeur of their 
 city compensate for the sterility of its environment. 
 But from about the time of Adrian, who died a.d. 138, 
 Tadmor rapidly grew in wealth and beauty. It was self- 
 governed, and raised to the rank of a capital ; and for 
 nearly a hundred and fifty years its opulence increased, 
 while its pride became proportionally inflated. But this 
 is not the place to detail the ambitious projects, the mar- 
 tial achievements, or the massacres of the Palmyrenes ; 
 and we proceed at once to the times of Zenobia — a 
 woman of extraordinary sagacity, virtue, and power. 
 As the widow of Odenatlius, the associate of Gallienus 
 in the empire of Pome, she was more than royal ; and 
 when her husband was murdered by a nephew, she 
 assumed the title of “ Queen of the East.” By con- 
 quest, she added Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Asia-Minor 
 to her empire ; but having incurred the displeasure of 
 Pome, Aurelian marched against Zenobia a.i>. 270, 
 defeated her in several battles, laid siege to Palmyra, 
 and took it after a protracted and bloody struggle. The 
 queen was captured on the banks of the Euphrates, and 
 led to grace the emperor’s triumph at Pome (a.d. 272), 
 where she appeared bound to his chariot by chains 
 made of her own gold. Her subjects rose and mas- 
 sacred the garrison left in Palmyra by the emperor; 
 out, in revenge, the city was pillaged and in great mea- 
 sure destroyed. The Temple of the Sun was rebuilt, 
 but the place never^recovered its former glory, though 
 successive emperors attempted to arrest its decline. 
 
 10 
 
1 1 8 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 Palmyra became the seat of a bishop. The Saracens 
 took early possession of it ; a large colony of Jews 
 made it their home ; but it gradually dwindled down to 
 a village, and in our day a few miserable huts, clinging 
 like parasitic insects to the noble ruins of Palmyra, are 
 all that remain of the city of Solomon and Zenobia, 
 of Adrian, of Aurelian, of Diocletian, and Constantius. 
 Caravans halt there, and the Bedawin prowl around it 
 for plunder ; but Palmyra is a city of the dead rather 
 than of the living, — a grave for ambition, — an antidote, 
 one would think, to pride. 
 
 But we are to speak of the ruins themselves, situated 
 in the great desert, about four days’ journey east from 
 Damascus. On approaching the place from the west, 
 numbers of tower-like tombs are seen in the valley and 
 along the slopes of the neighbouring hills ; but all else 
 fades into insignificance when Tadmor in the desert 
 first flashes on the view. The remains stretch from the 
 base of the adjoining mountains to the Temple of the 
 Sun, all as white as marble, and unshaded by a single 
 tree or twig. The ruin is unutterable, — columns and 
 colonnades, porticoes and temples, •mouldering capitals, 
 shivered shafts, triumphal arches, and monuments ot 
 the illustrious forgotten, — all, all in architecture that 
 can indicate man’s mingled littleness and greatness, 
 there meet the eye of the visitor, while at the same time 
 all is still and lifeless as the limestone of the pillars. 
 
 Among the ruins, the Temple of the Sun is generally 
 the first that is visited, as it is the most gigantic ; but 
 we give an account of another portion, which must nearly 
 suffice for the whole. At the north-west angle of the 
 
Palmyra. 119 
 
 walls of Palmyra stood a peripteral temple. The doorway 
 was surrounded by a broad border of festooning vine 
 branches and grapes, all exquisitely sculptured in alto- 
 relievo. A Corinthian capital, with a monolithic shaft 
 is all that remains of the front row of the portico. But 
 the delicate workmanship and decorations of that capi- 
 tal, the rich scroll-work of the frieze, and the other 
 beauties of these lovely fragments, all proclaim how ex- 
 quisite the structure in its entireness was. The original 
 plan of the temple was this : It had a portico of four 
 columns in front, with a portico on each side of twenty 
 columns. Near that fabric is a smaller temple, where 
 fragments of fluted columns are still standing ; and at 
 a little distance to the south-east, a mausoleum, with a 
 portico still nearly perfect, formed by six columns, all 
 monoliths, and exquisitely proportioned, enhances the 
 beauty of the spot. 
 
 But we feel that words can give no adequate idea of 
 this scene. It is a chaos of ruins — of rifled sarcophagi, 
 of subterranean tombs, of shattered columns ; a blend- 
 ing of modern Vandalism and ancient art, — a forest in 
 stone, — a tomb worthy indeed to contain the dust of an 
 empire rather than to encircle or shade the miserable 
 huts of the modern Palmyrenes. The decorations, criti- 
 cised in detail, are inferior to those at Ba’albek, and 
 cannot rival those of Athens or Rome ; but viewed in 
 their grandeur and their mass, even the ruthless bands 
 of the Bedawin who demolish columns for the sake of the 
 iron clamps, the waste of centuries, and the devasta- 
 tions of war, have not been able to efface the beauty of 
 this wondrous scene. While we gaze upon such mag- 
 
1 20 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 nificent sights as those of Tadmor, or of Ba’albek, the 
 mind feels over-informed. The blending of beauty and 
 decay flashes upon us the truth of a hundred texts, and 
 no adequate vent is found for the emotions which arise. 
 
 “ 0 think who once were blooming there, 
 
 The incense-vase with odour flowing, 
 
 The silver lamp its softness throwing 
 O’er cheeks as beautiful and bright 
 As roses bathed in summer light,” 
 
 — all gone ! — all a dream ! — all a mirage, a mockery of 
 man, if earth were all ! 
 
 Of the great colonnade of Palmyra we can only say 
 that it consisted of four rows of columns, forming a cen- 
 tral and two side avenues, about 4000 feet in length : and 
 who can tell the more than magical effect of one thou- 
 sand five hundred columns all gleaming in the brilliance 
 of an Eastern sun h Only about a hundred and fifty 
 columns, each 57 feet high, now remain ; but even these 
 daguerreotype themselves, by their imposing loveliness, 
 in the minds of all who resort to the scene. 
 
 Yet the Temple of the Sun, already mentioned, out- 
 rivals even this colonnade. It occupies a square of 740 
 feet on each side, and the height of the edifice is about 70 
 feet. A double colonnade lined the interior on three 
 sides, and the shrine, the cell, and other parts of the 
 temple, were all decorated with an art and a beauty such 
 as prompt the thought, How much men have done to 
 honour their false gods, how little tc glorify the true ! 
 The Ionic and Corinthian decorations which are there, — 
 the pillars and pilasters, — the sculptured eagles, flowers, 
 festoons, and endless ornaments, — all proclaim what 
 Palmyra once was ; and though its ruin was no doubt a 
 
I 2 1 
 
 Palmyra . 
 
 stage in the world’s development, one marvels here at 
 the sad law to which fallen man is subject — to work 
 out all good by suffering, sorrow, and decays. 
 
 Such is a mere glimpse at Tadmor. We have shunned 
 all reference to technical names, and made our narra- 
 tive popular ; and in closing our attempted description 
 we can only say, Go and see. Then only can the past 
 glory and the present magnificent dilapidation of Pal- 
 myra be understood. 
 
 If it be needful to add other associations to these 
 colossal piles besides their own mass and grandeur, we 
 might find them in the Wady Kebeer, or Great Valley, 
 by which the ruins are approached. It is dreary in 
 itself, but historically it is interesting for ever. There 
 Abraham journeyed on his way from Charran, when 
 going forth at the command of his God, not knowing 
 whither he went ; and there J acob also drove his flocks 
 and herds towards the Promised Land. The vicinity of 
 the springs of Palmyra and other places, it is believed, 
 must have been his resting-ground for his live wealth ; 
 so that if Solomon founded or greatly increased the 
 splendour of Palmyra, fhe fathers of his nation were 
 there before him, consecrating these scenes by their pre- 
 sence, and connecting four thousand years ago with the 
 present hour by ties which only truth, the truth of 
 God, can establish. But if Abraham journeyed there 
 “ seeking a city which hath foundations, whose builder 
 and maker is God,” surely we may do the same, in 
 right of these gorgeous ruins, — these piles whose mass, 
 in cases not a few, forms a sepulchre of oblivion for the 
 very name of those who reared them. 
 
XV. 
 
 limits of §aijnloit. 
 
 The eye can nearly take in at one glance all that now 
 remains of this proud capital— this boastful Queen of 
 Cities. The accounts which have reached us of its 
 magnificence and its extent, its walls, its riches, and 
 its decorations, appear the creations of Oriental fancy 
 rather than the sober facts of history ; and yet these 
 accounts are so circumstantial and so well authenti- 
 cated, that at least in their great leading features 
 they may be received as true. Its walls are variously 
 estimated at from 300 to 75 feet in height, at different 
 periods ; and from 75 to 32 feet broad. The circuit of 
 the city, which was a square, is by some alleged to 
 have been 34 miles, by others about 60 . The Temple of 
 Belus, or Baal, was half a mile in circumference, and 
 the eighth of a mile in height. The hanging gardens, 
 constructed by one of the monarchs to gratify a queen 
 whom he had married from a mountain land, rivalled 
 the bulwarks of nature. In tier above tier, resting 
 upon arch above arch, they rose as high as the walls, 
 and bore the floral beauties of many lands. The hun- 
 dred brazen gates, which defended the city from an 
 attack on the side of the Euphrates which washed it, 
 gave both beauty and strength to the place. An arti- 
 
Babylon. 123 
 
 ficial lake in the neighbourhood, 40 miles square, and 
 resembling an inland sea, rendered the proud capital 
 prouder still. Its bridges and its palaces, all enhanced 
 its’ beauty, — in a word, we are safe in pronouncing the 
 colossal city a marvel. Constantinople, Naples, Venice, 
 or other sea-side cities of modern times, would have 
 been but a suburb to Babylon. 
 
 “ Her daughters had their dowers 
 From spoils of nations ; and the exhaustless East 
 Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers. 
 
 In purple was she robed ; and of her feasts 
 Monarchs partook, and deemed their dignity increas’d.” 
 
 One main source of all this wealth and grandeur 
 was the Euphrates. Its waters, distributed by art 
 and science,— by canals and hydraulic machines— 
 over the vast plains, occasioned a fertility such as few 
 lands can boast ; while its productions — vegetable and 
 live — rendered the territory of Babylon the store-house 
 of the nations. And its power abroad was in pro- 
 portion to this abundance at home. Again and again 
 did its Nebuchadnezzars and other potentates penetrate 
 to distant lands. More than once they pillaged Jeru- 
 salem, and made its people captives ; and though that 
 victory proved the ruin of Babylon, when Belshazzar 
 used the sacred vessels of the Temple to pander to his 
 pride or his passion, it was a trophy, to have laid a 
 heaven-defended city in the dust. In short, Babylon 
 was the hammer of the whole earth. It demolished 
 cities : it changed dynasties : it made and unmade : it 
 arrogated the prerogatives of a Supreme. 
 
 But all this glory was to perish in a night. It did 
 
124 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 not wane like the moon, — it fell like lightning from 
 heaven ; but we need not detail the circumstances. It 
 is well known that Cyrus laid siege to Babylon, and led 
 many confederated chiefs against it ; but it long baffled 
 and laughed to scorn the power of all assailants. Secure 
 behind its impregnable walls, and doully guarded, it 
 was thought, by the river, the city lived in wanton- 
 ness though beleaguered by the foe. Revelry and wild 
 luxury reigned. The prodigious granaries, the stores that 
 seemed exhaustless, men’s high hopes, and their spirit of 
 jubilant defiance, — all taught Babylon to set its be- 
 siegers at nought. But it was the purpose of God that 
 it should fall, and who then shall hold it up h Cyrus 
 turned the Euphrates into other channels above the 
 city ; he marched his forces into the heart of it along 
 the bed of the river ; his detachments met in the centre ; 
 and a large portion of the place was in the hands of the 
 enemy while the last king of Babylon was deep in his 
 carouse, perpetrating sacrilege, and making the God of 
 Israel “ serve with his sins.” 
 
 After the times of Cyrus the place was conquered 
 again and again, by Darius, by Alexander the Great, 
 by Antigonus, by Demetrius, by Antiochus the Great, 
 and by the Parthians. Xerxes, when ingloriously re- 
 treating from Greece, rifled Babylon and the Temple 
 of Belus, when the golden statue, forty feet in height, 
 and other treasures, are said to have yielded to him 
 ^20,000,000 sterling. Some of her conquerors attempted 
 to restore the proud city : among the rest, Alexander, 
 who would have made it the capital of an universal 
 empire. But, according to prophecy, “We would have 
 
 » 
 
I 
 
/ 
 
Babylon . 125 
 
 healed Babylon, but slie is not healed and the build- 
 ing of Seleucia completed the ruin of the place. Her 
 buildings became quarries for other cities, like Ctesi- 
 phon, Kufa, Korbella, Hillah, Baghdad,— themselves 
 nearly all ruins now. Her idols were carried off, and 
 they are said to have weighed 400,000 pounds in gold. 
 The Forum and fairest parts of the city were fired ; the 
 people were deported to Seleucia, at the distance of 
 about forty miles ; and the power which had shattered 
 kingdoms, which had beaten down Jerusalem, slain 
 its princes, and both bound and blinded its kings, was 
 itself at last laid in the dust. The slaughter of the 
 rulers of Israel was avenged when Darius impaled 3000 
 of the nobility of Babylon. “ The golden city” thus 
 became a heap ; and heaps it still remains. 
 
 A single mass of ruins, the Birs Mmroud, repre- 
 sents nearly all that is now found of Babylon the 
 great. A full description of that mound would suffice 
 to show how completely the proud city has been de- 
 molished, — how its mighty men* “ could not find their 
 hands,” and how “ an end has come upon it ;” but a 
 mere enumeration of the phrases employed by the pro- 
 phets to describe it will show how utter is the ruin, — 
 how thoroughly “the besom of destruction” has done its 
 work. Babylon, then, is fallen. It has become heaps. 
 It is brought down to the grave. Wild beasts of the 
 desert lie there. It is a possession for the bittern, and 
 a dwelling-place for dragons. Pools of water are there. 
 In a word, Babylon at this moment is the reality of 
 which Isaiah 2500 years ago presented the word-pic- 
 ture. The whole face of the country is covered with 
 
126 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 lines of ruin, with green mounds of rubbish and 
 traces of once extensive buildings. The Temple of 
 Belus and two royal palaces are supposed to be known ; 
 and one pile covers a space of 700 yards square. But 
 lions, hyenas, jackals, and other noxious animals, now 
 prowl where the proudest of princes once abode and the 
 loudest of revellers abounded. 
 
 But, as we have said, the Birs Nimroud, on the west- 
 ern bank of the Euphrates, conspicuous in our Engrav- 
 ing, is the chief ruin of the scene. It is supposed by 
 some to be the remains of the Temple of Belus or Baal. 
 It is 2082 feet in circuit, and now resembles a hill with 
 a castle on the summit. From top to base, it is a huge 
 and formless mass of ruins ; and though originally con- 
 structed of seven or eight successive towers, rising from 
 each other to the height of about a furlong, it is now a 
 confused heap of about the third of that height. The 
 bricks of which the pile was constructed are cemented 
 into a conglomerate, which renders the whole well-nigh 
 like stone ; and yet the mass is dislocated, chaotic, 
 and utterly ruinous — as perfect a monument of deso- 
 lation as Sodom and Gomorrah themselves could be 
 after the fire and brimstone fell. The Mujelibe, 140 
 feet high, and the Kasr, two ruins on the eastern bank, 
 are huge, but they become petty mounds beside the 
 Birs Nimroud ; and occupying, as it is supposed by some 
 to do, the site of the Tower of Babel, it tells in many 
 ways of Jehovah’s indignation against the pride of man. 
 The Turks digging for hidden treasures, the Arabs for 
 building materials, and the curious for antiquities, have 
 so completely defaced the whole, that confusion now 
 
Babylon . 127 
 
 reigns where vice, luxury, and gross ungodliness long 
 held their polluted court and highest carnival. 
 
 With all these tokens of decay, these dilapidated 
 trophies of Jehovah’s truth and power before them, — 
 with the Birs Nimroud on the western bank, the Mu- 
 jelibe and the Kasr on the east, in view, — traveller 
 after traveller confesses “the overpowering sensation of 
 reverential awe that possesses the mind when contem- 
 plating the extent and the magnitude of these ruins.” 
 The grey osiers, still growing on the banks of the river, 
 descendants of those on which the Hebrew captives 
 hung their harps of old, deepen the dreariness of the 
 scene, like flags of distress on a sinking vessel ; while 
 the majestic reed-lined stream, wandering solitary amid 
 the maze, seems to murmur something about the time 
 when these mounds were palaces, these lines of rubbish 
 streets, and this dreary solitude the abode of gay and 
 thoughtless and idolatrous crowds. 
 
 — But we may pause. Bead Isaiah — read Jeremiah — 
 and find there a very hand-book to the ruins of Babylon. 
 There are two modes of learning how complete is its over- 
 throw : first, by visiting the place ; secondly, by studying 
 the prophecies which predict its long and utter desolation. 
 
 In digging among the debris of Babylon, some inscrip- 
 tions, in cuneiform characters, have been discovered. 
 In one of the palatial ruins a lion of colossal form and 
 of rude workmanship was found ; and cylinders stamped 
 with groups of figures, some of them obviously wor- 
 shipping, have also been dug up. But these only help 
 to render the traces of ruin more complete; and the 
 meditative mind, amid such mouldered and moulder- 
 
128 
 
 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 ing piles, reads more plainly than ever a sentiment 
 which is true alike of individuals, of cities, and of 
 empires, — “ Be sure your sins will find you out.” 
 
 We have referred to the commonly received opinion 
 regarding the Birs ISTimroud ; but it were wrong not to 
 observe that more recent and ‘more accurate investiga- 
 tions have led to other conclusions. In the year 1854, 
 some excavations, conducted under the directions of Sir 
 Henry Bawlinson, have to a considerable extent modi- 
 fied previous opinions. He ascertained, as had been 
 conjectured, that the structure consisted of several dif- 
 ferent stages, or terraces, and found that there were six. 
 Each terrace was about 20 feet high, and 42 feet nar- 
 rower than the one immediately below it. They were 
 so constructed as to form together an oblique pyramid ; 
 and upon the sixth storey, according to Bawlinson, 
 stands a vitrified mass, which has given rise to much 
 discussion, but which is now supposed to have been the 
 sanctum of a temple. Built into some of the corners 
 were stamped cylinders of Nebuchadnezzar’s times, giv- 
 ing to the fabric the name of “ The Stages of the Seven 
 Spheres of Borsippa.” Each storey was dedicated to a 
 planet, and stained with the colour peculiarly attributed 
 to it by Sabean astronomers, and handed down from 
 the Chaldeans. The lowest tier was black, for Saturn ; 
 the second orange, for Jupiter ; the third red, for 
 Mars ; the fourth yellow, for the Sun ; the fifth green, 
 for Venus ; the sixth blue, for Mercury; and the temple 
 on the summit is conjectured by some to have been 
 white, for the Moon. This structure, though not the 
 Temple of Belus, if these statements be correct, is under- 
 
Babylon. 129 
 
 stood to Lave been built upon the same plan as that 
 celebrated erection, insomuch that, “when we look 
 upon the existing edifice, we regard a fac-simile of the 
 one that is now destroyed.” * 
 
 But whether the former or the more recent solution 
 of the questions connected with this pile be preferred, 
 the following translation of the inscribed cylinders of 
 Nebuchadnezzar, which have been discovered there, is 
 full of interest, and proves him to have been as zealous 
 a builder as the Bible describes. The translation says, — 
 “ I am Nabu-kuduri-uzur, king of Babylon, the estab- 
 lished governor ; he who pays homage to Merodach, 
 adorer of the gods, glorifier of Nabu, the supreme chief ; 
 he who cultivates worship in honour of the great gods ; 
 the subduer of the disobedient man, repairer of the 
 temples of Bit-Shaggeth and Bit-Tyida, the eldest son 
 of Nabupaluzur, king of Babylon. Behold now, Mero- 
 dach, my great lord, has established men of strength, 
 and has urged me to repair his buildings. Nabu, the 
 guardian over the heavens and the earth, has committed 
 to my hands the sceptre of royalty ; therefore, Bit-Shag- 
 geth, the palace of the heavens and the earth, for Mero- 
 dach, the supreme chief of the gods, and Bit-Kua, the 
 shrine of his divinity, and adorned with shining gold, I 
 have appointed them. Bit-Tyida, also, I have firmly 
 built with silver and gold, and a facing of stone ; with 
 wood of fir, and plane, and pine I have completed it. 
 The building named the Planisphere, which was the 
 wonder of Babylon, I have made and finished ; with 
 
 * Loftus, Chaldoea and Susiana , p. 31. 
 
 11 
 
130 Rained Cities of the East. 
 
 tricks enriched with lapis lazuli I have exalted its 
 head. Behold now the building named the Stages of 
 the Seven Spheres, which was the wonder of Borsippa, 
 had been built by a former king. He had completed 
 forty-two cubits [of height] ; but he did not finish its head. 
 From the lapse of time it had become ruined. They had 
 not taken care of the exits of the waters, so the rain and 
 wet had penetrated into the brickwork. The casing 
 of burnt brick had bulged out, and the terraces of crude 
 brick lay scattered in heaps. Then Merodach, my great 
 lord, inclined my heart to repair the building. I did 
 not change its site, nor did I destroy its foundation 
 platform ; but in a fortunate month, and upon an auspi- 
 cious day, I undertook the building of the crude brick 
 terraces, and the burnt brick casing of the temple. I 
 strengthened its foundation, and I placed a titular record 
 on the part I had rebuilt. I set my hand to build it 
 up, and to exalt its summit. As it had been in ancient 
 times, so I built up its structure : as it had been in for- 
 mer days, thus I exalted its head. Nabu, the strength- 
 ener of his children, he who ministers to the gods, and 
 Merodach, the supporter of sovereignty, may they cause 
 this my work to be established for ever ; may it last 
 through the seven ages ; and may the stability of ,my 
 throne, and the antiquity of my empire, secure against 
 strangers, and triumphant over many foes, continue to 
 the end of time. Under the guardianship of the regent, 
 who presides over the spheres of heaven and the earth, 
 may the length of my days pass on in due course. I 
 invoke Merodach, the king of the heavens and the earth, 
 that this my work may be preserved for me, under thy 
 
Babylon . 1 3 1 
 
 care, in honour and respect. May Nabu-kuduri-uzur, 
 the royal architect, remain under thy protection.” — Such 
 a document, transmitted to our day from such a source, 
 is surely a marvel. 
 
 While adverting to the ruins in Babylon, or its envi- 
 rons, we should not omit to notice the Tomb of Ezekiel, 
 so called, which stands due south from Birs Nimroud. 
 A road runs along the raised bank of a marsh in the 
 vicinity of Babylon, and at the distance of about twelve 
 miles stands the little town of Keffil, surrounded by a 
 high wall, and, except at the time of the annual pilgrim 
 festival, a dreary and sad abode. Among the buildings 
 which overtop the city wall, the Tomb of Ezekiel is one. 
 It has the appearance of an elongated cone, tapering to 
 the top by a succession of divisions or steps, cut and 
 embellished in a peculiar manner. Mr. Loftus is rather 
 of opinion that the tradition which assigns that tomb 
 to the Prophet is not unworthy of belief. It is hon- 
 oured, and has for centuries been so, alike by Moslems 
 and by Jews. Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish traveller 
 in the twelfth century, tells that it was erected by 
 Jeconiah, king of Judah; and though this information 
 may be deemed apocryphal, this much is certain : — The 
 spot and the scene are lonely and deserted enough to be 
 the last resting-place of a prophet in exile, and such a 
 prophet as Ezekiel. The interior of the pile is tawdry, 
 or worse, but is said to contain an ancient Hebrew copy 
 of the Pentateuch, built into the wall. An ever-burn- 
 ing lamp sheds the dimmest possible light upon the 
 chamber where the tomb of the prophet is shbwn ; 
 but with ail this show of honour, it appears as if the 
 
132 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 place were hastening to decay, and many of the abomi- 
 nations of the East are found in and around the pile. 
 
 Nor would it be out of place to refer to the ruins of 
 Kufa, at no great distance, a place signalized at least by 
 Moslem traditions. The city is said to have extended 
 in former times over a space of forty-five miles, although 
 all that remains is now the fragment of a wall with some 
 mounds, which tell of entombed buildings. There, it is 
 believed, the angel Gabriel once alighted upon earth and 
 prayed ; there the waters of the deluge first broke forth 
 from the ground; there Noah embarked in his ark; nay, 
 thither the serpent, after the temptation, was banished ! 
 — but, like a thousand other scenes all around, Kufa, 
 once a vast, if not a magnificent place, is now dreary, 
 
 , “ without form, and void.” There may be scenes in 
 that region, as travellers tell, to which not fewer than 
 80,000 Moslem pilgrims annually resort ; or places of 
 interment consecrated by the blood of the martyred 
 Khalif Ali, to which from 5000 to 8000 corpses are 
 annually conveyed from a distance to be entombed; 
 but all that only makes these dreary scenes more dreary 
 still : they are morally, as well as physically, a waste ; 
 and if it be true that the Holy Land, like the book 
 which John beheld in Patmos, is written within and 
 without with the doings of God, not less signal, or not 
 less speaking, are the ruins, the decay, and the desola- 
 tion of Babylonia. 
 
XVI. 
 
 |tuma hr C{jalbra. 
 
 From year to year the past is becoming more and more 
 known to us, through the disinterment of ruins, and 
 consequent familiarity with their marvels. The colossal 
 piles of Egypt have given forth their secrets, and the 
 history of that land, so long a perfect labyrinth, is now, 
 on the whole, intelligible and consistent. The ruins of 
 Syria have also been extensively explored, and their 
 secrets made known. Nineveh, and Babylon, the far 
 West of America, and the far East of India, have all 
 been ransacked, and both the public and the private life 
 of the dwellers in these long entombed or long forgot- 
 ten places are as familiarly known, in our day, as the 
 habits of some of the regions or some of the tribes of 
 the present age. The epoch of the fabulous is thrown 
 much further back than it was in our fathers’ times ; 
 and just as a walk in Pompeii lets us see far into the 
 life and habits of the Bomans, a walk about Babylon, 
 or Nineveh, in Petra, or Jerash, or Yucatan, will impart 
 more knowledge of the past than whole volumes of 
 narrative, or even whole sheets of photography. 
 
 But of all the regions of the earth famed for their 
 ruins, if we -except the Valley of the Nile, few are more 
 remarkable than the ancient Mesopotamia. It is, for 
 the most part, a dreary level ; at least the chief eleva- 
 
134 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 tions, in some parts, are the mounds which inter long 
 extinct cities, and hide from mortal eye the homes of 
 some who once held the world in awe. Proof is there 
 heaped upon proof of the dense population which 
 crowded those regions in ancient times. Some lofty 
 mound tells of a fallen capital, or important city. Frag- 
 ments of pottery, or crumbling walls speak of towns and 
 villages. Now a palace and anon a temple is found, as 
 at Niffar, Bismya, Phara, Hammam, and elsewhere ; and 
 as the traveller hastens across the plain, the ruins seem 
 as boundless as the view. Ten have been counted — 
 twenty — fifty from one point. And are these all? Nay, 
 advance a few miles further, and you may count the 
 same number again, till wonder becomes mute ; for we ' 
 are astonished at the thought of what must once have 
 been the fertility of these regions, all dreary and deso- 
 late as they now appear, — a fertility which only awaits 
 to be re-awakened, when the authority of law shall have 
 superseded that of oppression ; when the truth of God 
 shall have supplanted the fables and the fanaticism of 
 man; and when the fierce and prowling Arab, tamed by 
 a heavenly power, shall be found clothed and in his right 
 mind at the feet of a heavenly Saviour. — We are next 
 to glance at some of these Mesopotamian or Chaldseau 
 ruins, selecting chiefly those which refer to places men- 
 tioned in Scripture, or in connection with the early his- 
 tory of our race. 
 
 I. — MUGrEYER. 
 
 The great Temple of Mugeyer is situated on the right 
 bank of the Euphrates, at the distance of six miles from 
 
Chaldcea. 135 
 
 the river. The ruins consist of a series of low mounds 
 running from north to south, for rather more than half 
 a mile. Near the north end of these there is a remark- 
 able building, about 70 feet high, which is the only 
 known specimen of a Babylonian temple in good pre- 
 servation, not covered with rubbish. It is of brick, and 
 consists of two massive storeys. Its form is a parallelo- 
 gram, and each storey slopes inward, as if with a view to 
 sustain a heavy pressure at top. The longer side of the 
 figure is 198 feet, and the shorter 133. It is buttressed 
 all round : on the south-west there are nine buttresses, 
 and on the north-west, six. The lower storey is 27 feet 
 nigh, and there is only one entrance, which is eight feet 
 wide. The upper storey is 14 feet high, its length is 
 119 feet, and its breadth 75. The fabric appears to 
 stand upon a mound about 20 feet high, though the 
 rubbish and ruins render it difficult to speak distinctly. 
 The entire exterior is faced with red kiln-baked bricks 
 to the extent of ten feet. A difference in the structure 
 of the two storeys is ascribed to the fact that they 
 were built by two different kings. 
 
 For some time nothing of much importance was dis- 
 covered by the excavations carried on in this mass. At 
 length, however, six feet below the surface, a perfect 
 cylinder was found deposited in a niche in the wall. It 
 was inscribed all over with characters which have been 
 deciphered by Sir Henry Rawlinson. And guided by the 
 discovery of this cylinder, shafts were sunk at the cor- 
 responding corners of the pile ; where other cylinders 
 were found. These records bear the names of a series of 
 kings from Urukh, who lived 2230 years before Christ, 
 
136 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 to Nabonidus, who lived b.c. 540. One of these kings 
 is Chedorlaomer (Gen. xiv. 1 ). But the most important 
 identification, according to Mr. Loftus, is, that Mugeyer 
 (which means “cemented with bitumen”) is Ur of the 
 Chaldees ; and this identification Sir Henry Bawlinson 
 believes to be completa At all events, the cylinders 
 disinterred there tend to elucidate and confirm a diffi- 
 cult passage of Scripture. Profane history assigns no 
 place to Belshazzar among the kings of Babylon ; but 
 the Scriptures do. How is this to be reconciled? One of 
 the cylinders of Mugeyer, as read by Sir Henry Rawlin- 
 son, distinctly bears that Bel-shar-ezer (Belshazzar) was 
 the eldest son of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon 
 according to profane history ; and that the son was 
 admitted to share the government with his father. 
 When Cyrus, then, took the father prisoner, the son was 
 king, and in that character Daniel describes him. 
 
 An Oratory has also been discovered among these 
 ruins ; a cemetery of the primitive ages ; and some large 
 blocks of black granite, which are supposed to have be- 
 longed to an altar. 
 
 Assuming, then, the correctness of the interpreta- 
 tion of these inscriptions, we are here actually guided 
 to Ur of the Chaldees, concerning which we read 
 that “ Terah, the father of Abram, took his house- 
 hold, and went forth from Ur of the Chaldees to 
 go into the land of Canaan.” This discovery is like 
 placing us in contact with the foundation-stone of some 
 majestic building, or the fountain of some majestic 
 river,— the Nile, the Jordan, or Euphrates. From that 
 centre, light began to radiate 4000 years ago, and it is 
 
Chaldcea. 
 
 137 
 
 spreading still. Though Abraham knew not whither he 
 went, his God knew, and led him by an unknown path, 
 — the type or the model of believers in every age. 
 
 II.— WAKKA. 
 
 In Gen. x. 10, Nimrod is said to have founded four 
 cities, “ Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in 
 the land of Shinar and Warka, the next Babylonish 
 ruin we are to glance at, is held to be Erech by some, 
 though others are disposed to regard it as Ur. But 
 whatever ancient place they may represent, these ruins 
 are full of interest, dating, as they do, far back in a 
 period when nearly all except the Bible is fable. They 
 stand on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, and about 
 three miles from the river. At no great distance are 
 other remarkable sites, as Sinkara, Tel Ede, and Ham- 
 mam. At Warka, the desolation and solitude are even 
 more striking than the dreariness of Babylon itself ; but 
 the zealous explorer of the ruins should himself be heard. 
 
 “ There is no life for miles around,” Mr. Loftus says. 
 “ No river glides in grandeur at the base of its mounds 
 (as at Babylon) : no green date groves flourish near its 
 ruins. The jackal and the hyena appear to shun the 
 dull aspect of its tombs. The king of birds never 
 hovers over the deserted waste. A blade of grass or 
 an insect finds no existence there. The shrivelled lichen 
 alone, clinging to the weathered surface of the broken 
 brick, seems to glory in its universal dominion upon 
 those barren walls. Of all the desolate pictures which 
 
1 38 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 I have ever beheld, that of Warka incomparably sur- 
 passes all. There are, it is true, lofty and imposing 
 structures towering from the surrounding piles of earth, 
 sand, and broken pottery ; but all form or plan is lost in 
 masses of fallen brickwork and rubbish. These only 
 serve to impress the mind more fully with the complete 
 ruin and desertion which have overtaken the city. Its 
 ancient name even, is lost to the modern tribes, and 
 little is known with certainty of its past history. Nine- 
 veh, Babylon, and Susa, have their peculiar traditions ; 
 but ancient Warka and its sanctity are forgotten, as 
 
 though they had possessed no previous existence ” 
 
 The principal edifice at Warka is called the Buwa- 
 riyya ; and from its summit one gazes on a wilderness 
 of mounds and relics of ancient art, nearly six miles in 
 circumference. The earthen rampart which surrounds 
 it is, in some places, 40 feet high. There are buildings 
 of great mass, supposed to be temples, or perhaps royal 
 tombs. Tokens of the devastations of fire are seen. 
 At the extreme north a conical mound appears, the re- 
 mains of some huge pile ; and, as if not content with the 
 space within the walls, ruined buildings, mounds and 
 pottery, stretch fully three miles into the desert. A 
 dome-shaped pile, called Nuffayji, at the distance of two 
 miles from the central edifice, rivals it in height ; while 
 mounds and barrows all around form, we may sup- 
 pose, the tombs alike of the city and the citizens. The 
 barren region surrounding the ruins, devoid as it is at 
 once of water, of vegetation, and of inhabitants, inten- 
 sifies the melancholy of the forlorn scene ; and all this 
 has prevailed for perhaps 2000 years. The walls are 
 
Chaldcea. 
 
 139 
 
 now little more than large green mounds, though traces 
 of several turrets are visible at some places along them. 
 
 The Buwariyya, already mentioned (meaning Reed- 
 mats), is a tower 200 feet square, supported by but- 
 tresses ; and the monarch whose name has been read on 
 some of the inscriptions, — Urukh, who lived B.c. 2230, 
 — dedicated this pile to the Moon. The total height of 
 the ruin is now about 100 feet. The summit is 68 feet 
 broad from north to south ; and some inscriptions point 
 to a Sinshada, who lived about 1500 b.c. In the but- 
 tresses, when opened, inscriptions were found in cunei- 
 form characters ; and walls of vitrified bricks, bearing 
 the name of Merodach-gina, who lived b.c. 1400, are 
 traceable in different parts. 
 
 But the most interesting of the ruins at Warka is that 
 called Wuswas. It stands in an oblong enclosure, of which 
 the north-west side measures 650 feet, and the south- 
 east 500. Gateways, courts, and steps can still be traced. 
 One pile of ruin is 246 feet long, 174 feet wide, and 80 
 feet high. It stands on a lofty artificial platform 50 
 feet in height, while the piled-up rubbish and debris all 
 around excite unbounded surprise. A palace has also 
 been discovered there whose facade is 174 feet long; 
 which, according to Mr. Loftus, “ furnishes a new page 
 to the annals of architecture,” — and, we may add, a new 
 topic to the moralist. Arches are there ; columns are 
 there ; indeed the ruin is thorough, and leaves us more 
 and more amazed at the’ works both of man and of 
 time. Mr. Loftus excavated seven chambers, one of 
 which is 57 feet by 30. Every chamber was filled with 
 rubbish, and it is supposed was lighted from above. 
 
J 40 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 This fabric, it is conjectured, was erected seven or eight 
 centuries before Christ. 
 
 As we wander from pile to pile among these remains 
 of forgotten times and forgotten men, and study their 
 decorations, in cones, vases, urns, and similar things, 
 we seem to have reached some other planet than our 
 own. But though that idea were true, the planet would 
 still be the abode of mortals ; for we observe next that 
 Chaldaea abounds in sepulchral cities of immense ex- 
 tent ; and at Warka the accumulation of human re- 
 mains at once assures us that it must long have been a 
 sacred place of sepulture,— it is conjectured for about 
 2500 years. The bones and tombs of the dead crowd 
 nearly every spot ; and even the sepulchres of ancient 
 Thebes seem surpassed in number by those of Warka. 
 The funereal remains perhaps penetrate into the earth 
 to the depth of sixty feet ; and the coffin, commonly of 
 clay, is thus described : “ It contains the bones of a 
 human being, or only a single head, with engraved 
 cylinders and gems, beads and neck ornaments, and 
 rings cut out of marine shells. Sometimes two of these 
 vessels are placed mouth to mouth, and then cemented 
 
 together. They contain one or more bodies.” 
 
 In some of them the skeleton is seen trussed like a 
 fowl, and reclining generally on the left side. Some- 
 times the skull rests on the bones of the left hand ; and 
 those of the right are occasionally found in a copper 
 bowl in front, containing cylinders of agate, or meteoric 
 stones, with small personal ornaments. Even the hair and 
 the head-dress have in some cases been found at Warka. 
 
 We cannot dwell on the slipper-shaped coffins of this 
 
Chaldcea. 
 
 141 
 
 place, nor on the inscriptions and figures which are 
 found on them. Every year hundreds are rifled by 
 the Arabs, for the sake of the gold ornaments which 
 they contain. Armlets, bugles, and toe-rings of silver, 
 brass, and copper, with gold and silver finger-rings, and 
 gold ear-rings, are found in some of the coffins. Head- 
 dresses are also discovered, as well as drinking vessels 
 and lamps, glass lachrymatories, copper bowls, and 
 other utensils. The top of the coffin is often a recep- 
 tacle for relics, supposed to be the parting gifts of 
 friends, while copper coins are often found strewed 
 around the coffin. G-lazed water-jugs and earthen drink- 
 ing-cups are placed at the foot of each coffin ; and a steel 
 and flint have also been picked up. Terra cotta figures 
 of warriors and women are also found, with some images 
 of Venus, and decorations which we need not describe. 
 
 We must, however, name what are called “the bank- 
 notes” of Babylon, or bricks from two to four and a half 
 inches long, and one to three inches broad. Sir Henry 
 Bawlinson believes, from the inscriptions which they 
 bear, that they are certainly official documents issued 
 by the king, attested or endorsed by the principal officers 
 of state, and referring to specific weights of gold or sil- 
 ver. These curious relics relate to a period ranging 
 from 626 to 522 B.c., and are just the circulating me- 
 dium of Chaldsea. Ornaments in alabaster, in sculp- 
 tured shells, in carved ivory, and other objects, were 
 found near these bank-notes. In one of the ruins Mr. 
 Loftus discovered a series of tablets, containing some 
 minute but beautiful engravings ; and we give the con- 
 tents of one tablet, as curious illustrations of the pro- 
 
142 Ruined Cities of the East 
 
 gress of art : 1. A roaring lion, moon, and star ; 2. A wild 
 ass and crescent ; 3. A winged Sagittarius and crescent ; 
 4. A winged griffin with a single horn ; 5. A bone ; 6. A 
 winged griffin and crescent ; 7. Nude figure ; 8. Goat, 
 and crescent; 9. Winged bull and crescent; 10. Human- 
 headed bull ; 11. Dressed figure ; 12. Winged human- 
 headed animal ; 13. Lion holding a crescent ; 14. Fish 
 god ; 15. Human figure ; 16. Dog and triangle. 
 
 Such, then, is a glance at Warka, perhaps the Erech 
 of Scripture. We need not moralize. These green 
 mounds, and rifled sepulchres, and mouldering, nay, 
 buried palaces, mute as they have been for ages, now 
 speak, trumpet-tongued, concerning man, his greatness 
 and his littleness, his glory and his shame. 
 
 III.— SINKARA. 
 
 This is another site of ruins about fifteen miles south- 
 east from Warka. The pile is about four miles and a 
 half in circumference. One of the ruins is oval-shaped, 
 and 320 feet long by 220 broad. During the excava- 
 tions some perfect cylinders were found. Here, also, 
 tombs of great antiquity, and remains bearing the 
 legend of Nebuchadnezzar and other monarchs, were 
 discovered ; and a date which extends to 1500 years be- 
 fore Christ, is given. Cemeteries of vast extent are there. 
 Jars and vases of various forms were exhumed, as well 
 as skeletons and their coffins. Funereal ornaments like 
 those at Warka were also dug up. Indeed, the mere 
 catalogue of these old-world discoveries is so full, that 
 as we read we seem to grow familiar with the habits 
 
Chaldcza. 
 
 143 
 
 and the thoughts, the life and the death, of the men of 
 3000 years ago. Their games, — for example, boxing,— 
 their pursuit of the lion, in a rude form, and various 
 other things, are now made known to us by the excava- 
 tions at Sinkara ; but these, as well as some minor 
 ruins at Tel Sifr, (or Copper, from the number of copper 
 articles discovered there,) we need not particularly de- 
 scribe. The latter articles were so rife at one place, 
 that they were supposed to be the stock in trade of a 
 coppersmith : and Mr. Loftus, after Sir Henry Raw- 
 linson, concludes that some of the remains at this place 
 point us back to the date of the Exodus, or more than 
 3300 years ago. Thus is the gulf of the past bridged 
 over, so that the two extremes of time, as far as time 
 has run its course, are brought together, like a bow 
 whose extremities are made to touch each other. As 
 we thus march over the graves of centuries, and mark 
 how city after city — nay, nation after nation — has been 
 entombed in the past, we are taught to think more than 
 ever of the believer’s portion — Him that is unchange- 
 able ; and of the believer’s home — the city which hath 
 foundations. Strange, and only the Bible can explain it, 
 that men should visit these ruined piles, — nay, actually 
 moralize among them, — and yet cleave to earth as their 
 portion ! 
 
XVII. 
 
 Sit sa. 
 
 “ Shushan the palace,” in the city where Esther 
 became a queen, and Haman found a gallows, and 
 Daniel attended to the king’s business — what modern 
 ever expected, fifty years ago, to see its halls ransacked, 
 plans of that palace formed, and its curiosities transfer- 
 red to Britain ? Yet all that has been done in our day ; 
 and we are now to submit some meagre specimens of 
 the wonders of Sushan, Susa, Sus, or Shush. 
 
 The first thing that invites attention here is the re- 
 puted tomb of Daniel the prophet, — a place at once of 
 Moslem and of Jewish superstition. Dismissing the 
 Oriental fables which relate to it, and which deserve no 
 regard, we observe that the reputed tomb forms the side 
 of a large court, which must be passed through to reach 
 the sacred pile, shrouded in date-trees, and rising with 
 a conical spire above most of the surrounding objects. 
 Various chambers are traversed before reaching that in 
 which the supposed shrine is found, — that shrine being 
 merely a slab of polished cement. A few miserable 
 lamps, more miserable prayer-mats, and similar things, 
 as filthy as Eastern habits can make them, constitute 
 the entire furniture, — gloomily belying the lightness of 
 the outward aspect. The cone-shaped spire is not 
 
Susa. 
 
 145 
 
 wholly inelegant ; but whatever degree of credit ma;y be 
 attached to the tradition that Daniel was buried here, 
 (which is undoubtedly ancient,) the tomb is little worthy 
 of his name. Seven invisible but sleepless lions are be- 
 lieved to guard the structure ; — and that may illustrate 
 the moral condition of the region. 
 
 The first positive reference to Shushan dates from 
 650 b.c. About the year 560 B.c. it passed into the 
 possession of Cyrus. It was richly embellished by the 
 succeeding Persian kings, and became the rival of Baby- 
 lon and Nineveh. Ahasuerus, whom some now identify 
 with Xerxes, reigned here, and in the providence 
 of God was made the deliverer of the Jews from mas- 
 sacre, by capriciously choosing Esther for his queen. 
 He made Shushan a treasure city, and deposited there 
 the wealth which he took from Delphi and Athens. 
 Alexander the Great further enhanced the importance 
 of Shushan, where he found silver to the value of 
 i>7,500,000. Indeed, it was so rich that the possession 
 of its wealth, it was said, would make a man a rival to 
 J upiter himself. 
 
 The area of the ruins existing there is about three 
 miles and a half in circumference. The mounds are of 
 vast magnitude, one of them being 2850 feet round the 
 summit. Cuneiform inscriptions, upon fragments of an 
 obelisk and other blocks, are found at a place which is 
 reckoned the citadel. What is called “ the great cen- 
 tral platform” of the city covers upwards of sixty acres ; 
 and the river Shaour, which skirts the ruins, contri- 
 buted of old to the defence of the place. The list of ani- 
 mals now inhabiting the district is somewhat miscel- 
 12 
 
146 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 laneous. Lions, wolves, lynxes, foxes, jackals, bears, 
 porcupines, francolini, and partridges, are named,— a 
 signal contrast to the times when the magnificent city, 
 with its colossal citadel and columnar edifices, rose 
 from the groves of dates, lemon-trees, and other Ori- 
 ental productions,— when little but the sound of the 
 tabret and the viol was heard, and when myriads passed 
 on to eternity, amid bacchanalian orgies, without ever 
 discovering the great end of their being. 
 
 When excavations were recently made at Susa, frag- 
 ments of fluted columns and their bases were discovered 
 at various places ; and when these were traced and a plan 
 reconstructed from them, a palace was discovered rival- 
 ling the halls of Persepolis in grandeur, and said to be 
 more graceful in design and ornamentation. It were 
 tedious to detail the discoveries made among these 
 ruins ; but they are magnificent in extent, and, in so far 
 as they can be reproduced, they are gorgeous in their 
 decorations as well as rich in inscriptions. Moreover, 
 we are willing to believe the conclusion at which Mr. 
 Loftus arrived, namely, that this palace is the actual 
 structure in which the events recorded in the Book of 
 Esther took place. “ The garden of the king’s palace,” 
 the “ pillars of marble,” and other things, he thinks are 
 still to be traced among the debris of fallen grandeur. 
 The lotus, the palm, and the bull, are all conspicuous 
 among the decorations of this palace ; and though no- 
 thing now remains but the bases of its forest of pillars, 
 fancy can easily re-picture the magnificence of the scene 
 when Darius and other monarchs made it their home, 
 and before it was destroyed by fire, perhaps by Alex- 
 
Susa. 
 
 H7 
 
 ander the Great. But to show the moral degrada- 
 tion of the occupants of these halls, about 200 terra 
 cotta figures, most of them rude images of Venus, 
 were found in the ruins which were named the Colon- 
 nade.* Though only the ground-plan of these struc 
 tures can now be traced, and though only a vague con- 
 ception of their vast magnificence can consequently be 
 formed, yet enough is known to indicate both the gran- 
 deur and the taste of the piles themselves, as well as the 
 ambition of their founders. Man’s mind was created 
 for the enjoyment of somewhat more than the vast — 
 even the Infinite. It could find repose only in some- 
 thing better than the long-lived — even the Eternal. 
 But, ignorant of the Infinite and the Eternal, man tried 
 to supply his place by such stupendous piles as the 
 palaces of Susa. A pyramid alone could suffice for a 
 grave, or a palace for a home. 
 
 In submitting these condensed details, we have, after 
 all, presented only a meagre epitome of the Chaldseen 
 ruins, and especially of those of Susa. Nothing has 
 been said of the Ulai river spoken of by Daniel, nor 
 of various ruins excavated on its banks. More than 
 enough, however, has been noticed to show how stu- 
 pendous were the conceptions of the monarchs and 
 palace builders of antiquity. Their architecture, tried 
 by modern taste, might be bizarre ; their religion might 
 be superstition ; their rule oppression; but for grandeur 
 or vastness of conception the moderns must yield the 
 
 * At one place about 170 Moslem silver coins were discovered in a 
 small glazed pot ; elsewhere alabaster vases were found ; elsewhere articles 
 in ivoiy, iron, copper, and other substances. 
 
148 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 palm to those ancient men : and while we wander amid 
 the wreck and debris of their palaces, their temples, 
 and their tombs, we are again, and again, and yet again, 
 reminded of the united puniness and magnificence of 
 man, that singular combination of “ deity and dust.” 
 Shush an, in particular, furnishes a remarkable instance 
 of disinterment ; it seems to render our thoughts of the 
 resurrection in some degree more easy. Here are the 
 foundations of a majestic pile cleared out. Here are 
 some of its pillars recomposed. Here are some of its 
 chambers measured. Here are some of its decorations 
 disinterred, and brought to our distant isle of the sea. 
 By all these things we are so much the more prepared 
 for the future, and the grand disclosure of all, when 
 the earth and the sea shall give up their dead. There 
 is, no doubt, a gloom hanging over the past which no 
 excavation can dispel, — the gloom of moral darkness, 
 the shadow of eternal death, because of the dread abo- 
 minations of those scenes and cities. But we gladly 
 turn from the gloom of the past to the daylight of the 
 future, — from the contemplation of death to the antici- 
 pation of life. He who has prostrated so many palaces 
 in his righteous retributions, will arise in mercy yet. 
 He will make a short work on the earth, and then a 
 long eternity for his redeemed in glory. 
 
 But crossing Mesopotamia to the Tigris, its eastern 
 boundary, we find other ruins competing in vastness 
 even with those of Susa. 
 
XVIII. 
 
 die §luins of |J[inebefj. 
 
 What Babylon was to the Euphrates, that was Nineveh 
 to the Tigris. Its origin dates from the remotest an- 
 tiquity ; and though antiquarians have argued and 
 speculated deeply on the subject, they have fixed no- 
 thing more than was told us thousands of years ago, — 
 namely, that “ out of that land” (Shinar, where Babel 
 was built) “went Asshur, andbuilded Nineveh” (Gen. x. 
 11). The name means “ the town or dwelling of Ninus,” 
 Nin-Navah ; and the original city stood on the eastern 
 bank of the Tigris, opposite to the present town of 
 Mosul, represented in our Engraving. It is believed 
 by some that what is now called Neby Younas, or the 
 Tomb of Jonah, occupies the site of about the centre of 
 the city. After the first reference to Nineveh, its name 
 does not occur again for many centuries ; but in the 
 days of Jeroboam, or 825 years before Christ, it appears 
 again; and Jonah, it is well known, refused for a time 
 to preach repentance to “ that great city.” So great, 
 indeed, had it become, that in the height of its walls 
 and the extent of its area, it was more than a match for 
 Babylon itself. One ancient author says that Nineveh 
 was 480 stadia in circumference ; while its lofty walls, 
 together with the river, rendered the place impregnable. 
 We need not wonder, therefore, though Jonah, as long 
 
1 50 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 as he consulted with flesh and blood, shrank from the 
 thought of delivering an unwelcome message to such a 
 place Its population was such that there were 120,000 
 children among them ; and its inhabitants are conse- 
 quently reckoned by millions. The mounds and other 
 remains at Nimroud, Konyunjek, Khorsabad, and else- 
 where, if they be what some suppose, so many por- 
 tions of the original city, would indicate a circumfer- 
 ence of about sixty miles ; so that the prophet’s dread 
 had a natural cause. But the habits of the people were 
 more formidable than even the magnitude of the place. 
 Prodigious wealth had led to abounding immorality; 
 luxury and corruption reigned paramount; cruelty of 
 the most atrocious kind characterized its rulers ; and 
 the disinterred remains of Nineveh attest all that the 
 Scriptures tell of the fierceness and the crime of that 
 metropolis. 
 
 Soon after Jonah, another prophet, Nahum, arose ; 
 and he lets us see further and further into the state of 
 Nineveh. Her inhabitants, nay, her very princes, were 
 numerous as the locusts ; her wealth was endless (“ there 
 is none end of it”); her idolatry made her “ vile ;” she 
 was by pre-eminence “ the bloody city,” — and her sculp- 
 tures prove the truth of the title. At length, however, 
 the cup of her iniquity was full. The king, Senna- 
 ’cherib, invaded Judea— 
 
 “ The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, 
 
 And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; ” 
 
 but soon thereafter “ Nineveh was made a desolation, 
 and dry like a wilderness.” Jehovah “ dug her grave, 
 for she was vile.” Ezekiel described its glory, its opu- 
 
THE GREAT WINGED BULL. 
 
Nineveh . 
 
 151 
 
 lence, and wide commercial influence ; but all was god- 
 less, and it faded away, — about 625 years before Christ 
 “that great city” became a ruin. There was a fort 
 there in the time of the Roman conquests in the East \ 
 but, till very recent times, huge mounds and dim tra- 
 ditions were all that remained of Nineveh. The town 
 of Mosul, its modern substitute, though on the oppo- 
 site bank of the Tigris, is a commercial city of some 
 importance as an entrepot between the East and the 
 West. It is, however, a humble representative of the 
 city of Ninus, of Semiramis, and Sardanapalus. 
 
 But in recent times the excavations by Botta and 
 Layard at Nineveh have invested the place with an 
 extraordinary interest. We cannot describe these ope- 
 rations here at length, and give only some hints as to 
 their results. The British Museum and other deposi- 
 tories in England now contain many Ninevite remains ; 
 and thousands in this land are as familiar with the 
 progress in art, the wars, the customs, and even some 
 of the domestic habits of the ancient city, as with those 
 of G-reece or of Rome. The cylinders and inscriptions 
 found in a disinterred palace, and deciphered by Sir 
 Henry Rawlinson with such admirable skill, singularly 
 confirm the Scriptures, and supply some historical 
 blanks heretofore perplexing, silencing the sceptic, and 
 establishing the truth. The deities of Assyria, the archi- 
 tectural decorations, the sphinxes, the winged bulls and 
 lions, and a hundred other things, — all tell that that land 
 and its capital were precisely what the Bible describes. 
 The lists of its kings ; its obelisk inscriptions, detail- 
 ing its divinities and wars ; its personal ornaments, 
 
1 52 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 in the form of ear-drops, bracelets, and armlets ; its 
 crowns, shields, swords, bowls, and caldrons ; its or- 
 naments in ivory and mother-of-pearl, beautifully and 
 elaborately embossed,— all tend at once to excite and 
 to gratify curiosity. The hunting scenes sculptured on 
 the walls, personal encounters with lions, warriors en- 
 gaged in battle or in assaulting cities, and other views, 
 — all help to carry us back over a mighty gulf of three 
 thousand years, and enable us not merely to study the 
 public and official life of the ancient Assyrians, but in 
 some degree their home habits and their personal de- 
 portment. 
 
 But we can only glance at these things, and proceed 
 to a brief account of 
 
 THE EXCAVATION OF THE GREAT WINGED BULL. 
 
 In the course of their labours, Mr. Layard’s Arab 
 workmen discovered this colossal figure in one of the 
 trenches during his absence. On hastening to the spot, 
 he beheld a human head of prodigious magnitude and 
 great beauty, sculptured in the alabaster of the country. 
 The body was still buried in the earth, but the part 
 which appeared was in admirable preservation. The 
 expression was calm, yet majestic; and the features 
 displayed such a freedom and knowledge of art as few 
 expected to witness in the production of a period so 
 remote. The Arabs, from their sheik to the humblest 
 labourer, ascribed it to the “ infidel giants,” to whom 
 they had been taught to ascribe whatever could not 
 otherwise be explained. 
 
 After the discovery, the mind of Mr. Layard was 
 
REMOVAL OF THE GREAT WINGED BULL, 
 

Nineveh . 
 
 153 
 
 naturally turned to the best mode of transporting such 
 a prize to Britain ; and after great exertions and many 
 devices, he succeeded in conveying it on board a raft on 
 the Tigris. To bring the bull down from the spot where 
 it was discovered to the level of the plain below, a 
 trench nearly 200 feet long and 15 wide was cut, and 
 in some places 20 feet deep. About fifty Arabs and 
 Nestor ians were employed in the work. Hopes, haw- 
 sers, and every available means were employed in 
 lowering the colossus. The steamers on the Euphrates 
 expedition furnished some of their apparatus. The 
 sculptures were wrapped in mats and felt, to preserve 
 them from being chipped. As soon as the operations 
 allowed, rollers were placed under the mass, and by 
 coiling one end of some ropes round some parts of the 
 mound cut for that purpose, and the other end round 
 the bull, and slipping these ropes as the huge bulk 
 slowly descended, it gradually reached the desired level 
 in safety. The sheik was present, attended by a body 
 of horsemen. The different classes of workmen were 
 skilfully distributed, so as to prevent all accidents; 
 and Mr. Layard, on the top of a high bank, directed the 
 whole. During the operation the ropes broke ; but by 
 that time the bull was so low that no inj ury was in- 
 flicted ; and the whole undertaking, accompanied as it 
 was by the drums and shrill pipes of Kurdish musi- 
 cians, the war-cry of the Arabs, and their savage as- 
 pect, as they toiled nearly naked at their exciting task, 
 was one of a trying, yet, in the end, most triumphant 
 nature. When the discovery was made that the bull 
 was not injured by the fall, the Arabs “ darted out of 
 
1 54 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 the trenches, and seizing the women who were looking 
 on, formed a large circle, and yelling their war-cry, 
 with redoubled energy commenced a most mad dance. 
 The musicians exerted themselves to the utmost, but 
 their music was drowned by the cries of the dancers. 
 Even the sheik shared in the excitement, and throw- 
 ing his cloak to one of his attendants, insisted upon 
 leading off the debkhe Night fell on these opera- 
 
 tions ; and, in retiring to their homes, the Arabs, with 
 the musicians at their head, marched towards the vil- 
 lage singing their war songs, and occasionally raising a 
 wild yell, throwing their lances into the air, and flourish- 
 ing their swords and shields over their heads.” The 
 whole operations, by night and day, were accompanied 
 with scenes of true Oriental excitement and rejoicing, 
 sometimes threatening to end in bloodshed ; and it is 
 not difficult to sympathize with the enterprising explorer 
 when, after a hundred impediments surmounted, and 
 three hundred men employed to drag the car, the trophy 
 of his indefatigable zeal was fairly embarked on the 
 Tigris (along with the figure of a lion) on its way to 
 Baghdad and Great Britain. 
 
 Here again, then, the present and the past are seen to 
 touch in wondrous ways, and on a marvellous arena. 
 The taste of these remains is often exquisite. Progress 
 in art was mature, and men who were paragons of fero- 
 city, or whose pastime was bloodshed, were aesthetically 
 accomplished : they rivalled in some respects the pro- 
 gress of modern times. How great man may become 
 without the knowledge of the true God, — and yet how 
 puny, or how perishing amid it all ! 
 
XIX. 
 
 CJj£ ^Utms of 
 
 We know that Persia at one period exercised a power- 
 ful influence on the condition of the Jews. In the 
 times of Ahasuerus and other monarchs, the chosen 
 people were subject to Persian rulers; and Esther was 
 then in providence raised to power, to save her people 
 from extinction. In short, the two nations were at dif- 
 ferent periods closely linked together, — so closely as 
 almost to entitle Persia to be regarded as one of the 
 Lands of the Bible. (See Acts ii. 9.) 
 
 And there are ruins in that land which deserve the 
 study of all who love to shed light upon the present by 
 the events of the past. In travelling, for example, from 
 Shiraz to Ispahan, the ancient Araxes, now Band-emir, 
 is repeatedly crossed ; and on the northern bank of that 
 stream stand the famous ruins of Persepolis. That city 
 was founded by Cyrus the Great, or his son Cambyses. 
 It was greatly enlarged and adorned by Darius I. and 
 Xerxes ; and occupying as it did a beautiful and healthy 
 valley in Hollow Persis, watered by the Araxes and its 
 tributaries, the Medus and the Cyrus, it became, as 
 might have been predicted, a place of great importance. 
 During the middle ages its title was Istakhar ; but in 
 modern times that has given place to Takhti Jemshid, 
 or The Throne of Jemshid; and Chil-Minar, or The Forty 
 
1 56 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 Pillars. It was long the capital of Persia, though, as 
 Babylon was taken about the time that Persepolis was 
 raised to that rank, the latter was seldom mentioned as 
 a royal residence. It was, however, one of the burial- 
 places of the Persian kings, and also their treasure city. 
 Alexander found immense riches there, amounting, it 
 is said, to <£27,120,000 sterling, which had been stored 
 up since the time of Cyrus. The place, we have seen, 
 was adorned by Darius I. and Xerxes, and the doings 
 of the latter there are thus mentioned in one of the 
 inscriptions : — “ I am the noble Xerxes, a great king, 
 according to the will of Auramazdes: King Darius 
 built this pillared hall, who was my father. Aura- 
 mazdes ! defend me with gods, — both this palace and also 
 the palace of my father King Darius. 0 Auramazdes ! 
 worthy to be propitiated, defend me with gods.” Other 
 inscriptions of a similar nature have been deciphered 
 and translated, on some of the portals of the palace. 
 At the instigation of a favourite, and after a debauch, 
 Alexander the Great set fire to these halls with his own 
 hand, about 330 years before the Christian era. Some 
 time after that Persepolis revived, and took its place in 
 history again ; but it has long been deserted now, and 
 must be added to the long and melancholy list of pros- 
 trate and dilapidated capitals, which tell, with reiterated 
 earnestness, how shadow-like and transient is man. 
 
 Had it been our design to furnish in full detail an 
 account of this place and its vicinity, instead of mere 
 glimpses of its faded glories, we must have dwelt on 
 various sculptures found at a short distance, resembling 
 those at Nineveh and elsewhere, and manifestly con- 
 
THE RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS 
 
 13 
 
Persepolis . 157 
 
 necting Persepolis, in some degree, with the proud city 
 of the Tigris. But we must limit our notice chiefly to 
 the remains of the palace on the north bank of the 
 Araxes, about thirty miles south from Shiraz, certainly 
 one of the most extensive of existing ruins, and “ one 
 of the most magnificent structures which art ever 
 reared.” Competent judges have said that it may be 
 classed with the buildings at Palmyra, Ba’albek, Jerash, 
 and Ammon ; and that the excavations are not inferior 
 to those of Petra, or similar works in India and Egypt. 
 The front of the palace is 600 paces in length, and the 
 wing 390. The architecture, though peculiar in style, is 
 remarkable for correct proportion and beauty of execu- 
 tion. The portals and the capitals are adorned with 
 numerous figures in basso-relievo, and represent com- 
 bats and processions of various kinds, similar to those 
 at Nimroud and Khorsabad ; and though they may not 
 compete with the sculptures of Greece, the ruins of 
 Persepolis deserve the study of all who love to trace the 
 development of the arts. 
 
 Near the place, the citadel was built on the summit 
 of a rock levelled for the purpose, and surrounded by 
 triple walls 16, 48, and 60 cubits high. The palace, 
 the royal treasures, and sepulchres were enclosed there ; 
 but the ruins of the palace form the chief attraction. 
 Astonishment at the vastness, and admiration of the 
 beauty, seize upon the visitor : one says, — “ We yielded 
 at once to emotions the most lively and the most enrap- 
 tured.” One of the most surprising parts of the ruin is 
 a staircase and its surrounding walls. Portals, columns, 
 sphinxes, sculptured bulls of prodigious size, bas-reliefs, 
 
] 58 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 polished marbles, pillars erect and prostrate, (sixteen 
 of the former in one place,) aqueducts cut in the solid 
 rock, reservoirs, and other elaborate works, — all proclaim 
 the magnificence of the original structure. Hall follows 
 hall, and ornament crowds upon ornament, till one is 
 wearied by the variety. Some blocks of marble are 24 
 feet 6 inches in length, and 5 feet in breadth. So colossal 
 is one of the stairs that each step is 26 feet 6 inches 
 in width : in a word, though time and Vandalism have 
 here as elsewhere done their work, one pauses often to 
 marvel at this mingling of the gigantic and the minute, 
 — these stairs which mounted horsemen can with ease 
 ascend, and yet these ex piisite decorations of roses and 
 of beads. The columns were of two orders, distinct in 
 their capitals as well as in their height ; and seventy- 
 two have been counted, including those still standing, 
 as mementoes of the past, and those of which only the 
 bases or the sites have been discovered. The highest 
 columns have, strictly, no capital. They are a shaft to 
 the summit, and there a sphinx reposes. Some of the 
 lower columns are fluted, and measure 16 feet 7 inches 
 in circumference. The greater columns are said to be 
 86 feet high, and the smaller about 60. 
 
 But here, as elsewhere, words, or even measurements, 
 fail to give any correct notion of the magnificence of 
 Persepolis. All around, in the plains and on the hills, 
 sculptured figures and remains of buildings, — supposed 
 to have been a temple to Ormazd, — are discovered; 
 remains which carry us back without effort to the 
 Assyrian sculptures with their peculiar decorations. 
 But one such scene deserves a more special notice, 
 
Persepolis . 159 
 
 namely, the hill of Nakshi Roustan or Rustam. It is 
 a few miles south from Persepolis, and is about 300 
 yards high. It presents a precipitous face of whitish 
 marble, covered with sculptured tombs. The four 
 highest are in a superior style of execution, and are 
 now believed to be the last resting-places of the early 
 kings of Persia. The lower tombs are assigned to the 
 Parthian Sassanide dynasties, and the decorations re- 
 present their wars with the Romans and the Tartars. 
 
 The top of the rock at JSTakshi Rustam is levelled 
 into a platform about 20 feet square, and upon it is 
 placed an elevated throne. This may have had some 
 connection with the Magian worship of the sun, or fire, 
 — at least, this seems to be the ascertained use of a 
 similar eminence near Margab, about ninety miles to 
 the north of Persepolis. Juckt-y-Sulieman — such is its 
 name — consists of a large marble structure raised on 
 the face of a hill and forming a platform at top, and is 
 supposed to mark the site of Pasagarda, the city of the 
 Magi, for whose worship the platform is alleged to have 
 been erected. Fire altars and temples have been found 
 in such places. But these, together with the ruins of 
 Persepolis, and all that once constituted the glory of 
 Persia, are now laid in ruins ; most of them are level 
 with the dust. 
 
 It seems, however, as if it would be wrong to leave 
 these majestic remains without some further reference 
 to their details. To some it has appeared that they 
 should modify, if they do not silence, the boast of modern 
 men regarding our supposed proficiency and progress in 
 art beyond the ancients. Though they actually carry 
 
160 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 us back to a period which was five hundred years nearer 
 to the days of Noah than to ours, they may still furnish 
 us with models, which some advise us closely to copy ; 
 if, indeed, we are able either to plan, or to grasp a 
 structure so vast as the palaces of Persepolis. An 
 ancient author records that it “became the glory of the 
 East, and no other existing city could be compared with 
 it.” The immense platform artificially levelled, on 
 which the chief ruins stand, is 802 feet long on the 
 south side ; 926 on the north ; and on the west 1425 ; 
 and, like other Eastern ruins, these remains consist of 
 huge blocks of stone, or marble, so exquisitely com- 
 pacted, that the platform must at first have appeared 
 part of the solid rock. Terrace rises above terrace, 
 giving inexpressible grandeur to the whole, and helping 
 the effect of the colossal pile. All this, however, is 
 credible, when we learn that when Alexander took Per- 
 sepolis, the spoils loaded 20,000 mules, and 5000 horses. 
 
 The following account of one of the most striking 
 parts of the fabric is as distinct, perhaps, as mere words 
 can make such things : — “ The ascent from the plain to 
 the great levelled platform is by one vast double flight 
 of steps, the finest, perhaps, in the world, which rise to 
 the north and south with a very gentle ascent, and 
 emerge from the flat space which has been gained from 
 the face of the valley, over a slope of accumulated ruins 
 and rubbish. The entire height is 45 feet ; the width of 
 each step is 22 feet (others make it 26), its height three 
 inches and a-half, and the whole number of steps, 55. 
 The blocks of marble used in their construction are 
 gigantic, and some are so large as to allow of 10 or 
 
Perscpolis, 161 
 
 14 steps being cat into the solid mass. The size of the 
 base which they cover is 67 feet by 22. On ascending 
 the first flight, an irregular landing-place presents itselt 
 of 37 feet by 44, from whence -springs a second flight 
 formed of 48 steps and covering 59 feet by 22.” * 
 
 But it were long to tell in detail of the winged Bull and 
 other figures found at Persepolis, almost identical inform 
 and aspect with those of Nimroud. We can only advert 
 in general terms to the sculptures which cover the entire 
 front of some parts of the ruins, and which actually 
 bewilder the eye and perplex the judgment by their 
 number and variety. Figures of warriors are there, 
 dressed in the costume of thousands of years ago. A 
 representation of a fight between a lion and a bull— 
 “ a spirited and admirable performance,” is seen at one 
 place. Processions, apparently commemorative of some 
 victory, or representing some great festival, appear at 
 other places. But it is the view over the ruins as a 
 whole that awes the visitor the most, so magnificent 
 are the remains, yet so perfect is the overthrow. So 
 beautiful are some of the details, so exquisite is the 
 finish, that the polished surface might still serve as a 
 mirror, and so royal is the grandeur of the pile from 
 every point, that the mind is fatigued by the contempla- 
 tion. Alexander revelled here ; it is even said, as we 
 have seen, that at the instigation of a female favourite, 
 he set fire to the place with his own hand ; but whether 
 or not he was the immediate author of the dilapida- 
 tion which reigns here, the shattered shafts and capi- 
 
 * Vaux, Nineveh and Persepolis , chap. ix. 
 
1 62 Ruined Cities of the East 
 
 tals, the fragments of beauty, and the dreary deso- 
 lateness of the whole, render Persepolis a rival to 
 Palmyra in the sad associations which it suggests. 
 
 Let it be further borne in mind that all this decay 
 has happened in spite of means the most energetic to 
 prevent it. The gigantic size of some of the stones of 
 Persepolis rivals even those of Ba’albec. The smallest 
 vary from 8 to 15 feet in height ; and it seems to have 
 been the passion of those mighty builders to construct 
 portions of chambers, stairs, and other structures, out 
 of a single block. The Temple of Latona in Egypt is 
 said to have had a chapel made of a single stone, “ the 
 wall of which was 40 ells long and broad, and its roof 
 of one single stone 4 ells thick, 5 ’ * and we may therefore 
 cease to wonder at the utterances of amazement on the 
 part of all travellers who visit Persepolis. 
 
 In other places of Persia — for instance, in the great 
 plain of Istakhr — there are traces of other structures 
 which betoken again the ancient greatness of the king- 
 dom. Marble columns, doorways, and other vestiges, 
 attest what Persia once was, and we may single out from 
 among these sites of ruined cities, for more detailed de- 
 scription, the celebrated remains of Naksh-i-Kustam. 
 Various theories are entertained regarding this place, 
 like many of the others ; but theory apart, there can be 
 little doubt that the chief remains found here are tombs. 
 To ascend to them, hollowed as they are far up in the 
 face of the rock, the traveller must submit to be hauled 
 up by ropes. It was the same in ancient times, for some 
 
 * Vaux. 
 
Persepolis. 163 
 
 of the kinsmen of Darius Hystaspes perished in being 
 elevated with a view to inspect these very sepulchres.* 
 Those who were employed to pull the rope were scared 
 by the sight of some serpents; they let go, and the 
 royal party perished in the fall. But without anything so 
 disastrous now, the traveller may mount at the cost of 
 a few bruises and some inconvenience. The lowest of 
 the tombs is upwards of sixty feet from the ground, and 
 thither Sir R K. Porter was accordingly hoisted. 
 
 The length of that cave is 34 feet; its height is 
 nine. At some of the others the chiselling is still ex- 
 quisitely delicate ; and no wonder, when we learn that 
 there can be little doubt that one of these was prepared 
 expressly on purpose for Darius Hystaspes. We are 
 thus again carried back to the founders of the Persian 
 empire, and stand beside the grave of their great- 
 ness, though even that last abode now “ knows them 
 no more.” 
 
 Other tombs in that vicinity contain some specimens 
 of art which are highly praised. They represent com- 
 batants on horseback engaged in conflict; and the 
 spear, the quiver, the mail-coat, and other implements 
 of war, display alike the skill of the artist and the 
 spirit of the age. Even in the ashes of those kings their 
 wonted fire still lived, and in their last resting-place 
 they took care to be surrounded with the insignia of 
 conquerors. The following is a description of one of 
 these sepulchral decorations : — 
 
 It consists of four figures, of which the principal is 
 obviously a Persian king. He is sculptured with his 
 left hand on the hilt of his sword, and with his right 
 
164 Ruined Cities of the East . 
 
 he grasps the hand of a person placed in front of him, in 
 a posture of submission. Beside that person another is 
 seen kneeling, with his arms extended to the king in a 
 suppliant manner. That suppliant wears the garb of a 
 Roman soldier; and both the figures in front of the 
 horse have large rings round their ankles — tokens, no 
 doubt, of slavery, or at least of capture. The whole 
 length of this excavation is thirty-seven feet, and the 
 horse alone occupies fourteen. 
 
 Now, comparing this with history, there can be no 
 doubt that the conjecture is correct which makes this 
 a representation of Shahpur I., king of Persia, who 
 triumphed over the Romans under the Emperor Vale- 
 rian, a.d. 260. That king took the emperor prisoner ; and 
 Gibbon records that Shahpur (Sapor) caused Valerian 
 in chains, but invested with the imperial purple, to be 
 exposed to gazing crowds, a continual spectacle of fallen 
 greatness. When the Persian monarch mounted his 
 horse, he did it by planting his foot on his captive’s 
 neck ; and “ when Valerian sank under the weight of 
 shame and grief, his skin, stuffed with straw, and 
 formed into the likeness of a human figure, was pre- 
 served for ages in the most celebrated temple in Persia 
 — a more real monument of triumph (Gibbon adds) 
 than the fancied trophies of brass and marble, so often 
 erected by Roman vanity.” 
 
 Besides these tombs and remains, several others of a 
 similar kind and character are mentioned by travellers. 
 But passing over these, we may advert more at length 
 to the fire-altars for the Magian worship than we 
 have yet done. — In that worship the sacred flame 
 
Persepolis. 165 
 
 was never allowed to die, except on the death of a 
 king. Great care was taken of its purity, and to 
 defend it from the breeze. It was fed with wood, from 
 which the bark was peeled. N 0 bellows might be 
 employed ; and that it might never be breathed upon by 
 man, the priests covered their mouth with a cloth when 
 they approached. Now, for that worship, altars were 
 sometimes hewn from the solid rock, and two such 
 altars are described as found in the neighbourhood of 
 Naksh-i-Kustam. The height of their bases, from the 
 level of the ground beneath, is about 12 or 14 feet. 
 The form of each altar is a square of four feet and a half. 
 Their decorations are somewhat rude, but in keeping 
 with their position and design ; and there can be little 
 doubt that, standing beside these, we behold the relics 
 of a form of idolatry which once widely prevailed in 
 our own land as well as in the East, but which seems 
 now confined to a small residue of the ancient fire-wor- 
 shippers — the Parsees of the W estern Presidency of India. 
 
 When we learn that at one period sixty men were 
 employed every day for a considerable time, in destroy- 
 ing the ruins which abounded in the plain of Merdusht, 
 we may well marvel at the magnitude of those which 
 still remain. Those who have explored the mountain 
 recesses, or examined the mounds in the plains of 
 Persia, describe sculpture upon sculpture, and ruin 
 after ruin, till we are literally wearied in the maze. 
 Jewelled monarchs, contending warriors, crowned 
 victors, or the vanquished trampled on, are all deline- 
 ated there ; and Persia appears to be so thickly strewed 
 with ruins, that a life-time might be spent in their de- 
 
1 66 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 ciphering or description. Many of these, as we have 
 seen, can be explained or accounted for only by conjec- 
 ture ; and the following record, remarkable chiefly for its 
 vagueness, will show how little can be determined re- 
 garding some portions of these ruins. Cities have been 
 engulfed or forgotten ; their very name can scarcely 
 be conjectured : — “ About half a mile westward, on the 
 plain,” writes Mr. Yaux, of some of these remains, “is 
 a large and high square platform, of perfectly smooth 
 white marble, around which, at a little distance, are 
 several heaps of ruins, probably the remains of some 
 considerable edifice, which had formerly surrounded an 
 extensive area, of which this superb platform, whatever 
 may have been its superstructure, formed the centre. 
 From the various mounds and scattered fragments 
 lying all the way between this spot and the Takht-i- 
 Jemshid, and again farther to the south-east, there 
 can be little doubt that the great capital stretched itself 
 along the whole foot of the mountain, connecting itself 
 with Naksh-i-Rustam, as its farthest limit.” One site 
 of a city — that of Shahpur — is about six miles in cir- 
 cumference; and the neighbourhood is rich in sculp- 
 tures, similar to those already glanced at. It seemed a 
 grand conception, on the part of those kings, to think 
 of engraving their achievements, or recording their 
 names, on the face of the solid rock. There, if any- 
 where, immortality might be hoped for: and what 
 were the cartoons of Rafaelle, or the colossal frescoes 
 of Michael Angelo, compared with monuments sculp- 
 tured in a very hard rock, which bears the finest polish, 
 and which is reckoned a coarse species of jasper? In 
 
Pcrsepolis . 1 67 
 
 some places the surface smoothed for the figures is six- 
 teen feet by twelve. The whole is commonly divided 
 into compartments, and each filled up with its appro- 
 priate subject. But, however gratifying to the pride of 
 those who commanded such works, their memorial has 
 perished ; and the guesses or debates of antiquaries 
 are nearly all that can now be reckoned certain in con- 
 nection with these proud remains. Shahpur was pro- 
 bably once the capital of Persia, and was founded by 
 one of its most noted kings. The province had con- 
 tained the tombs, the palaces, and the treasures of the 
 princes of the Achsemenian dynasty ; but all that now 
 remains is grassy mounds, mutilated sculptures, and 
 echoes about old kings, still lingering among their rock- 
 hewn tombs, their fire-altars, and their roofless, name- 
 less palaces. 
 
 We cannot here enter on any account of the sculp- 
 tures at Takht-i-Bostan, “ the throne of the garden,” 
 though these are spoken of as rivalling many of the 
 others. The delicious fountains and streams of that 
 region, in Northern Persia, add fresh beauty to the 
 scene, where Persian legends haunt the favourite spots, 
 and introduce us to all that is gorgeous in Oriental 
 imagery. Khosru Purviz had decided that the capitals 
 and palaces of his kingdom should rival all that earth 
 had ever beheld. Uncounted sums were lavished on 
 their erection and embellishment; and the pleasures 
 with which they were filled exhausted the powers of 
 invention. But what originated in pride perished in 
 dark crime ; and the remains of these gorgeous fabrics, 
 were they traced at length, might deepen or enforce all 
 
1 68 Ruined Cities of the East 
 
 that can be said of the retributive justice of Heaven. 
 Men live, plan, enjoy, grasp, hoard, oppress— all without 
 one thought of Him who rules over all ; and in the ful- 
 ness of time He sweeps them from their place. 
 
 Behistun, the scene of some of Sir H. Bawlinson’s 
 most important researches, might also furnish materials 
 for our brief sketch of Persia. There are sculptures 
 there which carry us back to the days of Semiramis — 
 not that any works of her age now remain, but upon 
 these rocks she also had sculptures placed. Those 
 which Rawlinson describes represent a line of nine per- 
 sons united by a cord round their necks, and having 
 their hands bound behind their backs. They approach 
 another of more majestic stature, who treads upon a 
 prostrate body ; and the whole is placed 300 feet 
 above the plain, to secure its safety and preservation. 
 The workmanship is elaborate, the labour enormous; 
 while for extent, for beauty, for uniformity, and cor- 
 rectness, the inscriptions are perhaps unequalled in the 
 world. They have resisted the weathering of three- 
 and-twenty centuries, and to that extent have conferred 
 a modicum of immortality upon Darius, their author — 
 the man who proclaims himself there to be “ Darius the 
 king, the great king, the king of kings.” Persia, Susi- 
 ana, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, Sparta, Ionia, 
 Armenia, Cappadocia, Parthia, Zarangia, Asia, Cho- 
 rasmia, Bactria, Sogdiana, the Sacse, the Sattagydes, 
 Arachosia, and the Mecians — “ the total amount 
 being twenty-three countries,”— were subject to this 
 king. 
 
 We would gladly linger for a time among the ruins 
 
Persepolis. 169 
 
 of Taklit-i-Suleiman, associated as they are with Solo- 
 mon’s name, and rich in the legends of Persian fancy. 
 After all, however, we should not have exhausted, or 
 even catalogued, the ruins of Persia. One is bewildered 
 by their extent, as well as profoundly instructed by 
 their entireness ; but all that they have yet conveyed 
 to us are only hints, in comparison of what may in 
 future years be gleaned, or garnered. Were excava- 
 tions made at Persepolis, at Shahpur, and other places, 
 light would be shed upon the past— as upon Nineveh 
 by Layard— and many a dark place would become 
 luminous, as some are already, with fresh confirmations 
 of the historical accuracy of Scripture. Considering 
 when they were written, that accuracy could origi- 
 nate only in one cause — truth; and we thus rejoice to 
 gather from all sources fresh illustrations of the word 
 of God, as the bee gathers its stores from every open 
 flower. 
 
 It is not a little remarkable that whatever country 
 we visit, this earth is strewed with ruins. Central 
 America contains some marvellous and mysterious piles. 
 The shores of the Pacific are studded with the tombs of 
 cities. The Euphrates and the Tigris, — in Babylon, 
 Nineveh, and Susiana, — see the graves of whole peoples. 
 Here Persepolis stands in the same rank ; and the 
 Crimea, we know, is a land of ruins. Greece and Italy 
 are the same. Further, the London of to-day stands 
 over the London of 2000 years ago. Even some pro- 
 vincial towns are founded on the debris of their pre- 
 decessors as much as the modern Jerusalem, or the huts 
 
170 
 
 
 Ruined Cities of the East. 
 
 at Samaria, and a hundred other places, are formed 
 of the remains of former grandeur. Even the apparently 
 inaccessible recesses of Mount Lebanon are full, we have 
 seen, of ruins. The flanks and very summit of Mount 
 Hermon are the same, — everywhere ruins, decay, and 
 death. Now, have not these things tongues, if we had 
 ears to hear 1 ? Is it not true that the whole creation 
 groaneth and travaileth together in pain? Surely — 
 
 “ There is a tongue in every leaf, 
 
 A voice in every rill ; 
 
 A voice that speaketh everywhere, 
 
 In flood and fire, through earth and air, 
 
 A tongue that ne’er is still.” 
 
 Yet while we marvel at these ruins or these works, so 
 stupendous when measured by man’s power, what are 
 they when compared with God’s ? Placed side by side 
 with his Alps, his Andes, or Himalayas, what are even 
 the palaces of Persepolis, or the piles of Babylon, or the 
 mounds of Warka, or the excavations of Petra? The 
 small dust in the balance! — nameless, puny things! 
 Here, as ever, it is ours to place in the first rank the 
 work of God’s hands ; and thus it is that we may be 
 helped to glorify him when we understand his ways, or 
 when we cannot scan, to be silent and adore.