Mi&J^Aiil^Jiii^.

DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE UBRARY

THE COMPAEATIYE GEOGEAPHY

OF

PALESTINE AND THE SINAITIC PENINSULA.

GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE.

THE COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHY

OF

PALESTINE

AKD THE

SINAITIC PENINSULA.

BY CARL RITTER.

Etrndnki) nviis ^h^Uii to t^t ^st of iiblkal Slabtnts
BY
WILLIAM L. GAGE.

VOL. II.

NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND CO.
MDCCCLXVI.

ENTERED ACCORDfNG TO ACT OF CONGRESS IN THE YEAR t866, BY
D. APPLETON & CO.,
IN THE clerk's OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF NEW YORK.

CONTENTS OF YOL. IL

CHAPTER I.
FAOB
A General Comparative View of Stria, .... 1

CHAPTER II.
Review of the Authorities on the Geography of Palestine, . 22
CHAPTER HL
The Land of Canaan, with its Inhabitants as existing previous
to the Conquest of the Country by the Israelites, 104
1. Names: Aram and Syria ; Syrians, AranMeans, and Hebrews, 104
2. The Land of Canaan and the Canaanites in relation to
Phoenicia and the Phcsnicians, .... 106
3. The Primitive Population of the Country prior to its posses
sion by the Israelites, ..... 115
4. Specification of the Tribes of Canaan in its broadest sense :
the Perizzites, Hittites, Hivites, Amorites, Girgashites,
and Jebusites, . :. - . . .119

CHAPTER IV.
Tribes living outside of Canaan, with most of whom the Israel
ites came into permanent Relations of Hostility, . . 180

CONTENTS.

PAET L

THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE JORDAN VALLEY ; THE
RIVER ITSELF, AND ITS BASIN.

CHAPTER L

PAGE

The Upper Course of the Jordan, from its Source to the
Waters of Merom, . . . . . .160
DiscuRSlON 1. The Sources of the Jordan, and Upper Course as far
as to Lake el-Huleh, .... 163
CHAPTER IL
The Middle Stage of the Jordan Basin from el-Huleh to Lake
OF Gennesareth, ...... 226
DiscuRSlON 1. The Cultivated Plain of el-Batiheh ; et-Tell; the
Two Bethsaidas in Galilee and Gaulonitis, . 226
„ 2. The Sea of Galilee or Gennesareth — Chinnereth — The
Sea of Tiberias — Names, Situation, Navigation,
Aspect of the Region adjacent — Geological Cha-
^ raoteristics — Hot and Cold Springs, Salt Waters
— Earthquakes, Winds, Climate — Nature of the
Vegetation on the Coast, . . . 235
„ 3, 4. The Shores of the Sea of Galilee, . . .253
(1.) The GalUsean or West and North-west Side of the
Lake, . . . . .253
(2.) The South and South-east Side of the Lake, . 278
„ 5. The Great Caravan Road from the East Side of the
Lake to Damascus, .... 284
CHAPTER in.
The Lower Course of the Jordan, from Sea of Galilee to the
Dead Sea, ....... 287
DiscuRSlON 1. First Attempt to navigate the Jordan to the Dead
Sea — Molyneux, ..... 287
„ 2. The first Eastern Tributary of the Jordan — the
Yarmuk or Sheriat el Mandara (Hieromax) — Om
Keis (Gadara) — The Hot Springs of Hamath or
Araatta, ...... 299

CONTENTS.

DiSCURSlON 3. The Three North-westerly Tributaries between the
Sea' of. Galilee and Beishan — Tabor and Hermon, 308
„ 4. Wadi Beisan — The City of Beisan and the Mountains
of Gilboa — Jezreel, .... 321
„ 5. The Jordan Valley- south of Beisan, with the Western
Tributaries as far as Jericho, . . .336
„ 6. Partial Corrections and Additions supplementary to
the Accounts of Burckhardt and De Bertou, . 340
,, 7. Schultz' Excursions from Shiloh to Kefr Istunah
(Alexandrium), Karn el Sartabeh, Karijut
(Koreae), Burj el Fari'a, and el-Bassalija
(Archelais), ... . . .342
„ 8. Wadi Fassail and its Palm Gardens, . . 346
„ 9. Dr Barth's Excursions between the Jordan and
Nablns in 1847,  347
„ 10. General Observations regarding the great Line of
Watershed ; the Absolute and Relative Heights
of Localities on the West Side of the Jordan, . 352

APPENDIX.
I. Geographical Positions according to C. W. M. Van de Velde, 359
II. Altitudes according to Van de Velde, . . . . 373
III. Tobler's iJeiume of Works on Palestine, . . .391
IV. Tristram's Discussion on Site of Capernaum, . . . 410
V. Tristram's Visit to Beisan, . . . . .415

GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE.

CHAPTER L
A GENERAL COMPARATIVE SURVEY OF SYRIA.
|ROM the Sinai Peninsula, which we may regard as
the vestibule of Palestine, we advance into the
Promised Land by three routes : the first aldng the
shore from Gaza to Askelon; the second on the
track of the pilgrims, over the very back of the Tih plateau,
in a path more or less trodden in the most ancient as well as
in comparatively modern and in most recent times — gradu
ally exchanging the savage waste for the deepening green of
the outlying southern eminences of the Jebel Ohalil or Hebron,
once inhabited by a thronging population, and covered with
cities; and the third by the route which has been re-opened
within our days — the most easterly one of all — that of Wadi
Musa, through the depression of the Araba and el-Ghor to the
southern extremity of the Dead Sea, where the great gorge
which runs through the whole length of Palestine finds its key,
and solves the entire physical character of the country.
Pursuing the habitual manner in which 1 have dealt with
other countries, I shall not undertake to limit myself to such
an exhaustive account of Palestine as would meet the wants of
a biblical student:^ this has been well and thoroughly done by
H. Reland and by K. von Raumer. We have to do with a
district which does not reveal itself to us in its highest interests
^ As this preliminary survey is literally rendered into English from the
German, Hitter's expression must be applied rather to his own work than
to this condensed translation, which has been prepared with express refer
ence to the wants of biblical students. — Ed.
VOL. U. X

2 PALESTINE.
when studied in its own special sections and subdivisions, but
in its relation to all the countries which surround it, and in
fact to the entire world ; and with a district, too, where all the
phenomena of national and individual life are so inextricably
mingled with those of the physical conditions of the country,
that the result is a blending of characteristics so varied and
comprehensive that there is not a land or a nation which does
not find something of itself reflected there.*
As it is nowhere mere rough power or external greatness
which gains sway in the higher departments of affairs, but the
inward force, the soul of fire, the strong heart, so is it with the
might and the authority of territorial domains. Palestine be
longs, so far as mere size is concerned, to the smallest and most
insignificant countries on the earth; but its name is one or
those most often spoken and most universally loved. Wherever
Christian men are found, there it is a hallowed name, to which
sacred thoughts, feelings, associations, and convictions cling,
and which is bound up with all that is most valued by the
judgment or dear to the heart. And wherever heathen nations
are found upon the earth, there this Holy Land is yet to be
loved, until all eyes shall rest upon it as the birth-place of the
true faith, and the scene of the grandest revelations ever made
by God to man.
And even the very banished children of Palestine, who
never advanced beyond the knowledge of God's law, and never
accepted the fulfilling of that law in the words and works of the
Saviour of mankind, are still bound to the country which their
fathers loved, and conquered, and possessed. Their circle of
ideas does not yet free itself from the land from which they
have been driven out. The patriarchal ties — the belief in
Jehovah the one God of their ancestors — the temple built on
Moriah — the splendid procession of judges, prophets, lawgivers,
psalmists, and kings — the very conquest which subdued their
nation, and the banishment which made them exiles, have con
spired to perpetuate the bond which binds the Jewish people to
their former home. Thither hundreds of Hebrews even now
wander back, after troubled and shipwrecked lives, to find in
the land of their fathers a peaceful resting-place, at least for
^ See this point finely developed in the opening pages of Stanley's and
Tristam's works on Palestine. —Ed.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 3
their bones. They come from the East as well as from the
West, longing for peace, and lay themselves down in a land
which is theirs only as they may purchase some little fragment
of it, making it their most cherished wish to die and be buried
under the sacred shadow of Mount Moriah.
Even their conquerors and oppressors, the hard and wilful
Arabs and Turks, who now possess the land, share in the same
fancy, which, though it be a folly, yet is a human and a touch
ing one. The Mohammedan places Palestine only second in
sacredness to the birth-place of the prophet; and Jerusalem
they designate as " el-Kods," or more exactly, " el-Guds," the
Holy City. The pilgrimage to the Haram, i.e. to the mosque
which the Caliph Omar erected on the site of the temple of
Solomon, is the most meritorious one which he can make,
excepting that to Mecca.
Within the narrow limits of Palestine we must look for the
foundations of that kingdom of truth as well as of error, which
has now become a subject of historic inquiry : we must trace
the latest results to their primitive causes in the geographical
conditions of the country : for even here there is opportunity
for such agents as the soil under man's foot, and the atmosphere
over his head, to have influence. If every garden plot owes a
part of the rapid progress in flowering and in fruitage to the
skilful and the careful hand of the gardener, cannot every land
in God's wide creation trace, under His wJse direction, some
measure of mutual action and reaction between the country and
the people who inhabit it ? Our historians have many things
yet to learn, and even yet they continue to fall into one-sided
speculations, which betray them and lead them astray. But here
is one elemental truth : history does not lie in a domain adjoin
ing nature, so to speak, but actually within the bosom of nature :
history and nature are at one, as God looks down upon them
from His canopy of stars. In studying the human soul, the mode
of its training, the way of its working — and that is history — we
cannot leave out of our view the outward field in which it finds
its home, the world where it meets the phenomena which it
investigates. In spite of the self-confidence of that pretence
which science sometimes makes in the person of some of her
votaries, of finding all that she needs within the soul of man,
and in a mere world of subjective realities, we may boldly

4 PALESTINE.
assert, that a close study of the outward world, as the soul's
training place, is the only true key to history.
And such a close connection between the local geography of
the place and the mental characteristics of the people, is espe
cially to be traced where there was the peculiar simplicity and
closeness to nature of the patriarchal inhabitants of Palestine :
a simplicity and an intimate communion with the fields and the
waters and the skies, traceable alike in the meadows of Meso
potamia, under the Assyrian heavens, and in the land to which
the first shepherds found their way; alike on the Euphrates
and on the Jordan, at the foot of Ararat and of Hermon. To
the same close connection can be traced the primitive settlers'
wanderings all over Canaan, their incursions into Arabian
territory, and their temporary sojourn in Egypt, then as much
a centre in respect to the fertility of its soil as to intellectual
culture. To the same may be traced the necessity which
called for the giving of the law amid the thunders of Sinai, and
the wandering of Israel through the Arabian desert. Thither
also is traceable the rise of twelve tribes in a land flowing with
milk and honey, hard by the rocky crags of Petrsea, Judsea, and
Ephraim. Here, too, we find the significance of the Jordan
valley, the deep course of the Kedron, and the gorge which,
as it opened, swallowed up Sodom, To this we must ascribe
the isolation of Jerusalem, and the towering up of Sion and
Moriah, as if to call the whole world unto them. In this, too,
we find the meaning of the harbours, the seas, the cedars of
Lebanon, the dew upon Hermon, the fruitful vale of Sharon,
the flowery plain of Esdraelon, the beautiful landscape of
Galilee dotted with lakes, and the barren deserts which gird the
plains and the palm trees of Jericho.
Who can deny that there are individual features in the physi
cal character of a country which are not to be merely grouped as
inarticulate and dead appendages to its soil, but are to be studied
in their strong reflex action on the life of the people, affecting
local traditions, affecting history, affecting the life of nations
and states, affecting religion and all thought? And if our earth
does not swing around its sun, a mere dead, inorganic planet, but
an organism, a living work from the hand of a living God, there
must be a similar close and vital connection, like that between
body and soul, between nature and history, between a land and

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 5
its people, between physics and ethics, if I may so speak. It
would certainly be impossible to conceive of the development
of such a history as that of Israel taking place anywhere else
than in Palestine, Nowhere else on the earth could that series
of events, and that peculiar training which the people of God
had to pass through, have found a theatre so conspicuous to the
eyes of all the world as that narrow land of Palestine,
To grasp such a fact as this in its more general relations,
and to hold it up ; to make every man understand how much is
involved in the individuality of each country, in what is pecu
liarly its own physical features, and how deep and wide their
influence is upon man, — is what gives to the science of geo
graphy its dignity and worth. And it would be well deserving
of much patient research, to trace the conditions and the laws
which gave character to the primitive abode of the Hebrews,
and to show how Providence led them up the steps, cut as it
were in the rocks of their own soil, to the " large place" for
which He was fitting them ; to indicate, too, the gain which the
children of Israel found in their newly won Canaan ; to show
how in that gain all races of men ever since have shared, and
how the peculiarities of the physical structure of Palestine have
come to be a kind of possession, so to speak, to men living at the
very ends of the earth. The need is great for an exhaustive
physical geography of Palestine ; and yet it must be confessed
none has yet been written, despite the reports of thousands who
have visited the Holy Land, and given us their oral or their
printed reports. It is only within the latest years that any
attempt in this direction has been made, and no thorough re
sults have yet been attained. The work which I offer must
therefore be a tentative effort, rather than such a perfect work
as can some day be expected, but for which the materials are
not yet ready.
Whoever is denied the privilege of looking upon the face
of a country which becomes the subject of his study, and which
has been the scene of great historical events, will find that
those very events, viewed in a true historical light, reflect as
from a perfect mirror the physical characteristics of the country
where they have occurred, and from which their influence has
gone forth to other parts of the world. To stand close to the
subject of our studies is not always best : the special features

6 PALESTINE.
are brought too much into view ; and the mind is in peril of
being led astray, of losing the unity of the subject, and of
being engulfed and lost in a whirl of details. The personal
observations of tourists are not therefore always pure gold to
the scientific student, because very few tourists have the acumen
needful for the highest purposes of travel. The facts which
observers bring back must be subjected to the crucible of learn
ing and thought before they become truly valuable; more
especially, they must be subjected to the touchstone of history,
and then their worth or their lack of worth appears. Often
times there are secrets which are passed over in a hurried,
superficial way for hundreds of years, before the man comes
who can bring out their meaning, and set them in a clear,
strong light.
That this has been the case with Palestine, admits of no
question. Of the hundreds of thousands who have made their
pilgrhnage thither, of the thousands who have gone for the
purpose of thorough observation and inquiry, how few there
are who, with all that they have brought away for themselves,
have added anything to the possessions of others, have aug
mented at all the sum of human knowledge about the Holy
Land ! A man cannot stand at the foot of a very lofty object,
and distinctly see the point where it touches the clouds ; and
the majority of those pious persons who visit Palestine are so
overcome by the touching associations of the place, that they
lose their cool judgment, cast away the common standards by
which they measure the objects of interest in less hallowed
spots, and give us little which in a scientific point is valuable.
One who stands farther away may be better able to discern the
summit, than one who stands at the very foot of a mountain.
On the wild crags of Switzerland, if you go too near, you are
rewarded only by the view of an inextricable tangle of brush
and confused rocks; but if you stand at a distance, you can
make out all the details, and have before you the unity of a
single combined picture.
It is not otherwise with the point of view which science is
compelled to take. Yet it has not been possible at all times for
geographical science to gain such a point of view : thousands
of preparatory steps have sometimes to be taken before it is
reached. Only by a very gradual transition could the geography

EXTENT OF PALESTINE. 7
of Palestine be brought out from the thick clouds of darkness
which have so long rested upon its records and its sources : it
was a country unknown to those outside of it, even in the re
motest periods of history : even its nearest neighbours, even the
most accomplished nations of antiquity, knew little or nothing
about it. Palestine was from the very outset a land set apart,
as Israel was a people set apart ; and for two thousand years
it remained so. No great highway led through it from nation
to nation; all went by it, over the roads which skirted it
without traversing it, and which all found their type in the
sea-line which ran from the harbours of the ancient Phoenician
cities to Egypt, along a shore which was almost devoid of
havens. The adoption of the theocracy of Jehovah prevented
all the other nations of antiquity from forming any ties of
alliance with a people so separated from them by geographical
conditions, and by mercantile, political, and religious opinions :
the theocratic idea formed a perfect cordon around Canaan,
and effectually separated all other nations from the chosen
people which inhabited it,
Palestine, considered in its connection with the whole of
Syria, extends from the Isthmus of Suez and the Sinai Penin
sula at the south, northward to the middle terrace land of the
Euphrates, where that river breaks madly through the southern
branch of the Syrian Taurus.
Syria is bounded by a great sea of sand on the east, as by a
great sea of water on the west : it is separated, therefore, alike
from the Orient and Occident, and set in a place of isolation.
Had it been longer than it is, and narrower than it is, it must
have been a mere link between the Armenian highlands of the
Taurus and Egypt, and the whole course of its history must
have been radically different from what it has been : there
must have been a free flowing in of the comparatively rude life
of the former, and with this a ready entrance of Egyptian
culture, both of which would have met and coalesced in a third
and new type of civilisation. The geographical situation and
relations of Palestine conditioned its history from the very first,
and appointed it to be a bridge arching across a double sea of
desert sands, and of waters which the want of harbours made
useless to it : it connected the Euphrates with the Nile, that
the nation which God had selected while its representative was

8 PALESTINE.
an aged Chaldee chieftain might pass safely to Egypt and
thence back to the place which He had appointed for its
possession, thenceforth to be isolated from the world, and
unimperilled by it. No other country of the ancient world
lay as Palestine, the southern half of Syria, did in this
regard : the northern portion, Soristan, was far less advan
tageously situated ; lying on the great highway from Babylon
and the Euphrates, it was early made a prey to the mighty
armies of the East. Palestine lay in the same pathway, and
yet she was spared, and for centuries no enemy came near her.
Surrounded by the six great nations of antiquity, the splendour
of whose culture is yet a marvel to the world — the Babylonians,
the Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians, the Phoenicians, and
the Egyptians — and kept apart from them all, it was able to
develop its monotheistic religion, to establish its own special
polity, to create an entirely antagonistic system of national
economy, and to arrive at perfect independence. There was
no country so situated in relation to three great continents and
five great bodies of water ; so that when the fulness of time had
come, there was no delay in sending the gospel to the very ends
of the earth. May we not see in such a wonderful display of
adaptive conditions, which have exerted a decisive effect on the
whole course of history, and on the destinies of millions, more
than the work of a mere random chance, more than the arbi
trary upheaving of the ground, the hollowing out of valleys
and gorges at another place, and the letting in the waters of
the ocean to form an arm of the sea at still another ? When
we arrive at a point of view where we command at a glance
the whole course of history, and see great causes work out great
effects — effects which work as broadly as they work deeply —
may we not recognise the working of a Divine Mind above it
all, controlling the issue as well as forming the plan ; and not
alone in the past — having done all Plis task and resting thereafter
— but still carrying on His work and perfecting it ? Is it possible
that claims can be made in the name of science to a profound
study of the earth, when its very organic character is over
looked, when it is supposed to be a dead inert mass, and when
it is compared with any of those bodies which we call inorganic
and which we invest with no life or being, and cast out from
the list of organized things ? In a hundred places, which have

POSITION OF PALESTINE. 9
exerted an evident influence on the course of history, a deeper
study can detect what I call the earth-organism, meaning
thereby a certain subtle but real organic power, which the earth
puts forth and gives to its inhabitants, not to be confounded,
however, with any life of the globe which pantheism may
claim, ¦ And even in those places where no living connection
is yet traceable between the country and the man, where the
earth seems all thrown in hap-hazard forms, — sea, and gulf,
and lake, and mountain, and plain, and desert, — having no
pre-arranged harmony of design and ultimate end as a home
for man and as a field for history, it will be found in the end
that even there God's plans were laid and His work was in
execution no less fully and manifestly than in those places
which we call the classic ground of history,
Palestine's peculiar position in relation to the rest of the
world was very early apparent. Surrounded by populous,
wealthy, and powerful nations, it and its capital remained in
their centre (see Ezek, xxxviii. 12, in umhilico terrce, accord
ing to the LXX, quoted in Jerome), but untouched by their
traffic, and made inaccessible by desert sands and by seas, —
kept secure by crags, and gorges, and mountains, — a country
without great natural charms, without wealth, and presenting
few inducements to the rapacity of outlying nations. Thus in
a truly independent way, in the undisturbed cultivation of its
rough and hard but richly remunerative soil, and unattracted
to foreign fields by open roadsteads and favouring seas, it
could develop fully the old patriarchal system, and fulfil the
whole expectations concerning the people Israel, This it could
accomplish by reason of its isolation, the faith of its people
being kept pure from the superstitions which were accepted by
the surrounding nations. And this order of things went on for
century after century, till the time came for the special mission
of the Hebrew people to terminate, and for their land to become
the temporal home of a single nation, but the spiritual home of
all. When the fulfilling of the law had come, and the outer
bounds of the country had been broken through and the enemy
had pressed in, the roads were opened at once for the dissemi
nation of the gospel all over the world ; and the veiy destruc
tion of the Jewish capital, and the scattering of that nation,
which occurred simultaneously with the fulfilling of the law in

10 PALESTINE.
the coming of the Saviour, were made means to the same
wonderful end.
This union of amazing contrasts, perfect isolation and inde
pendence, with the ability to go out from this isolation and
establish commercial relations with all the greatest nations of
antiquity — the Arabians, Indians, and Egyptians, as well as
with Syrians, Armenians, Greeks, and Romans — is the most
striking feature in the country destined to be the scene of
the history of the chosen people.
It is also an observable fact, and one which, even if it does
not spring from the same physical conditions, is nevertheless
closely connected with them, that the three great religions
which emanated from that part of the earth — Judaism, Christi
anity, and Islamism — have proved themselves the ones for the
reception of which men generally are most susceptible, and
which have the greatest possibility of endurance. And these
religions could only have gone out with the success which they
have commanded, from a central region : had they sprung up
in a country on one side, they would not have brought the dis
trict at the centre into speedy subjection. Even the realm of
spiritual ideas is subject, therefore, to geographical conditions ;
but it is none the less a free realm notwithstanding : for that
law of the Spirit, i.e. of God, although it is strong, and brings
even the thoughts of men into subjection to it, yet rules in ac
cordance with the truest and most certified principles of human
liberty. Looking now at Palestine more in detail, we discover that
its barriers are very sharply defined on the west, the south, and
the east, but that at the north it stretches away into Syria
without a specially marked boundary line. Still, sharp mathe
matical lines are to be found nowhere in a scientific use of
geography: it is connections rather than demarcations with
which we have to do ; dependence rather than'independence ; the
mutual action and reaction of nations upon each other, rather
than their isolated development. Just as little as any one limb
of an animal organism can be detached from the living whole of
which it forms a part, and studied by itself and independently of
its relations, can any part of the world be viewed by itself, and
be exhaustively studied. This has been too much the case with
the writers of our ordinary geographical text-books; and the

PHYSICAL CHABACTER OF SYRIA. 11
lands which should have been exhibited in their living relations,
have been presented as mere dead masses of rock and soil. We
see, on the other hand, in every country, only a limb whose
relations to the organic body must be sedulously traced, and
whose special functions cannot be understood till they are
studied, not in the imperfect light which a mere fragment
yields, but in the perfect light which the whole throws upon
every constituent part.
The principal character of Syria, of which Palestine forms
only the south-western portion, is determined mainly by the
direction of its mountain ranges : these, whether assuming the
larger form or the smaller one of broad-backed hills, traverse
the whole country in northerly and southerly lines. The Jordan
and the Orontes run along the main valleys in just contrary
directions — the former towards the greatest southerly, and the
latter towards the greatest northerly depression. These lines
serve to indicate the parallelism which obtains between the
mountain ranges, the valleys, and the coast line of Syria. Three
different kinds of territory are the result — three meridianal
belts traceable all the way from the sea-shore to the eastern
boundary. East of these two main streams lies the desert, a plateau
ranging from 1200 to 2000 feet in height, and stretching away
eastward in unbroken uniformity ; at the west is the coast, a
belt varying in breadth; and between the two, the country
proper, a broad mountain land, in elevation ranging from a very
moderate altitude to the alpine proportions of Hermon, which
towers 9000 feet above the sea.
The belt which runs along the eastern frontier from north
to south, travei'sing all Syria from the extreme limits of the
Taurus to the Sinai desert, is not remarkable for any marked
grandeur in its physical features, and is tolerably uniform in
its characteristics, being made up to a considerable extent of a
broad plateau of steppe land, rock and sand and debris being
freely intermingled in its formation, and forming an immeasur
able succession of high plains, whose effect is manifest in the
course of the Euphrates, which has been driven to the eastward
thereby, and removed from the immediate neighbourhood of the
Mediterranean Sea, Dotted only sparsely with places of fertility,
oasis-like, it has always been the home of wild, nomadic Beduin

12 PALESTINE.
races, who, like Israel in its shepherd days, gain their sub
sistence by a restless wandering. Lying for the most part from
one to two thousand feet above the sea, there are found here,
in addition to the dry continental climate of the neighbouring
Heja, a bright sky, hot summers, severe winters, and cutting
winds, especially from the east and north-east. Dryness, a scanty
supply of trees and of springs, are the natural result of these
physical conditions, as we know is the case along the whole
southern frontier of Palestine, Yet there are certain portions
of this tract which are very much favoured by their supply of
water. For here is the great route for caravans on their way
from the Euphrates to Arabia, passing from Zeugma, near el-Bir
and Rumkala, southward via Aleppo, Damascus, el-Belka, on
the east side of the Jordan and the Dead Sea to Medina and
Mecca. All along the way there is a succession of oases, giving
ample supplies of water for the needs of pilgrims, not lying in
the direct line of travel, however, but causing it to turn and
twist so as to embrace in its course these natural halting-places.
The pilgrimage from Aleppo to Medina usually occupies forty-
eight days, of which the half are usually consumed in Syria, the
entire distance being what is embraced between 31° and 36^°
N. lat., or about 364 miles. If we trace upon the map the chief
halting-places of these pilgrims, we gain the clearest possible
conception of their route.
From the Euphrates the caravans require two days to bring
them to Aleppo, lying 1200 feet above the sea,* and at 36° 12'
N. lat. ; thence to Homs (Emesa), on el-Aasi (the Orontes), it
is a six days' march. Thence to Damascus, 33° 32' 28" N, lat.,
and at an altitude of over two thousand feet above the sea, it
requires four days. From that point it is a nine days' march
to Belka, at the north-eastern extremity of the Dead Sea ; and
the last stage is thence to the Kalaat el Hassa or el Hossa, near
Shehak, 31° N. lat., at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea,
From that point the route lies for twenty-four days through
Arabian soil, with the exception of the first three or four,
which take the pilgrims over Kalaat, Aeneze, Maan, eastward
from Petra to the Syrian Akaba, lying east of Jebal and Jebel
Shera (Seir), through the intermediate territory of the ancient
Syria Sobal, before they leave the country at the Akaba esh
' Erdk. X. 955.

THE MARITIME BELT. 13
Shamie or el Sham, and, crossing the rocky boundary, fairly
enter the true Heja.
The second belt, running northward and southward — the
maritime one at the west, the sea-coast of Syria — is of very
moderate breadth, never over a few miles wide, and often
reduced to a mere strip along the shore by the invasion of the
rocky hills ; never uniform for any considerable way, but sub
ject to great diversities of form ; extending from Gaza along
the coast of Palestine, embracing Sephala and the celebrated
plain of Sharon, as far as Carmel. Up to that point it has not
been insignificant in its breadth ; but after leaving Carmel it
begins to narrow, sometimes being reduced to a mere fringe
between the rocky precipices and the sea, as we find frequently
to be the case in northern Soristan.
This maritime belt has therefore a certain analogy in its
formation with the Arabian Tehama, which is subject in a
measure to African influence, although it skirts the shore of the
Red Sea. Still, as a western appendage of the Syrian mountain
range, it is more abundantly watered, and is more fertile : by
reason of its more northerly situation, it is less parched by the
sun ; by virtue of its relation to the Mediterranean, it enjoys
mild, moist sea winds, and a denser foliage in consequence; and
from the great mountain chain in the background, it has more
grateful land winds, and greater diversity in the seasons. There
was, besides, in the providence of God, a great advantage in the
want of good harbours, in the unbroken sea-line which served
as a direct guide to coasters, but which offered no inducements
to them to tarry. This feature characterized the southern third
of the entire Syrian shore, that of Palestine, and was one of
the appointed means of keeping the people of that land true to
their destiny, as a people " set apart ;" while the middle third,
that which belonged to Phoenicia, was abundantly provided not
only with excellent harbours, but with large rivers, and with all
the appliances which made them the first commercial nation
of the globe, not only chronologically, but in the extent of their
resources. This completed the contrast between the Phoeni
cians and Israel, allowing them to live side by side, and yet in
perfect amity.
The third longitudinal belt, the one lying intermediate
between the two already specified, belongs in like manner to

14 PALESTINE.
all Syria, but is so variously modified, that these modifications
must have exerted a very powerful influence upon the charac
ter of the people inhabiting it. What a marked diversity
between the eastern and the western sides ! — the gradual
terrace-like ascent from the wooded and deeply green plains by
the sea, step after step to the high, rounded, grassy hill pastures
of the south, or to the steep, rocky, alpine mountains of the
centre, as well as those more to the north ; and, on the con
trary, towards the desert frontier at the east, the abrupt naked
descent into the long valley of the upper Orontes, and the yet
more wall-like valley of the Jordan, scarcely presenting a trace
of analogy to the features of the western side of this great
mountain belt. The northward and the southward flow of
these two rivers is not more in contrast in respect to direc
tion, than it is in all the natural types which are found there ;
and this despite the fact that they are cradled in almost the
same spring. The Orontes is not a marked river in the history
of the human race : the Jordan, on the contrary, more favoured
by nature with tributary lakes, and with richer and rarer gifts,
has attained to a remarkable place in its influence on the des
tinies of man. The Jordan is the leading river of the land.
As in the oriental mode of speech a spring is called the " eye"
of the landscape, so a river like the Jordan, fed by many
springs, may be called the main artery of the land, quickening
all life wherever it runs, giving occupation to all settlers upon
it, and controlling even the movements of those who settle, by
directing them to the most fruitful fields, and influencing
vitally all commerce and all civilisation. Deriving its supplies
of water from the snowy summits of Hermon and Lebanon,
fed by their rains, by the stores which pour forth from the
grottos and caves, and which are augmented by the lakes
through which the Jordan flows, it is perennial in its influence ;
and when all the other adjacent streams of the country are
dry and valueless, the sacred stream flows on, still continuino-
its bounty. With perfect naturalness, therefore, all Palestine
looks up to those beautiful snow-crowned heights, whence all the
blessings of the land flow down the Jordan vale ; and plough
man and shepherd, singer and prophet, theology and poetry
catch thence their fairest symbols and their aptest similes. The
depression of the Jordan valley is the most signal feature in

THE MOUNTAINS OF PALESTINE. 15
the geography of Palestine, and confers upon the whole country
what is most eminently characteristic of it. For the Jordan is
a river wholly unique : there is no other like it on the whole
face of the earth ; a purely inland river, having no embouchure
at the sea, and closing its course at the very deepest part of
the Old World, and far below the level of the ocean, running
parallel with the neighbouring coast, and yet never approach
ing it from source to mouth. Without the adjacent sea this
river could not have an existence : it as well as the Orontes
would totally disappear ; and the two valleys combined, with
the exception of that formed by the lower Orontes after it turns
abruptly towards the sea at Antioch, would constitute one
unbroken cleft from the far north of Syria to the Red Sea
itself. But now the Jordan, gathering its waters from snowy
mountain-tops, and from permanent subterranean enclosures,
flows over a succession of gradual terraces which are only
partially arid, and through a succession of lake basins broken
through and hollowed out of the solid rock : nowhere a true
river system, but of very heterogeneous character ; having no
tributary streams, but rolling rapidly here and quickly there,
traversing a mere cleft riven through the whole length of
Palestine. The long mountain range running from north to south, and
whose eastern base is washed by the rivers just mentioned,
consists of a number, of parallel ridges of peaks with their
adjacent spurs, containing some lofty summits and some high
rocky swells, with valleys lying between, all of which are at a
considerable elevation above the sea ; the Val Bekaa, in which
Baalbec is situated, between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, being
3000 feet above the ocean level. There is no great valley
crossing these ridges eastward and westward : for had there
been, the Jordan would not have lost itself in a small inland
sea, but would have broken through to the Mediterranean, just
as the Orontes once apparently did at the Mens Casius of the
ancients, where it takes a sharp western turn towards the sea.
The great plateau east of the Jordan valley was purposely
intended to sink at the north, and the mountain ranges west of
the Orontes also, preparatory to their rising again in the great
Aman and Taurus chains, in order to effect the complete isola
tion of northern Soristan, and to allow a free passage for all

16 PALESTINE.
the nations of Hither Asia to go from the Euphrates to the
Mediterranean. Had there been a transverse valley across
Palestine, it would have been turned to large account for this
purpose, and the whole history of the country would have been
different from what it has been.
And not only is there wanting a deep central valley from
the east to the west of Palestine, but there are also wanting
any that lie high, any which may serve approximately for the
purposes of travel or traffic. All the lines run from north to
south, and there are almost no clefts which allow free passage
between these lateral lines : the few insignificant ones which
do thus bridge the hill and mountain chains have been con
verted into places of great local importance. In the middle
third of Syria (reckoning Palestine as the southern), the Leba
non range has proved an equally effectual barrier : it has but
a single pass from Damascus to the Mediterranean ; and the
people of the whole region have made little progress, and trans
mit faithfully from generation to generation the modes and
customs and opinions of their remote ancestors. The towering
mountains, with their difficult passes, so limited the possibilities
of civilisation there, that it was nearly all centred in Damascus
at the east, and in the Phoenician cities on the seaboard ; while
on the rolling and more open and accessible hills of Palestine,
men could labour more easily, and communicate with each
other more readily ; and the result was the building of the
numerous cities of the south — Hebron, Sichem, Samaria, Jeru
salem, Nazareth, Safed, and others. Middle Syria can show
no parallel to this ; as little can northern Syria ; and the
civilisation of those regions was compelled to centre at Damas
cus, Aleppo, and Hamath, in consequence of their relation to
the Euphrates.
Although in the physical configuration of Syria, as I have
thus far pictured it, a great share of the phenomena with which
history has to deal may find its key, still there are other condi
tions, of which I must speak, which have also exerted a laro-e
influence. They are hypsometrical in their character : they
deal with lines which do not run northward and southward, like
those already studied, but eastward and westward, and which
determine much of the hydrography of Syria.
I allude to the colossal piling up within the middle third of

VALLEYS OF PALESTINE. 17
the country, of the knotted masses which compose the Lebanon,
The first result of this feature is the contrasted and divergent
valleys of the Orontes and of the Jordan, each of them from
sixty to seventy hours long (adopting the oriental method of
measuring such distances) ; and the next is the formation of
those abundant Phoenician streams which flow into the Mediter
ranean, as well as those which water the plateau of Damascus.
Between the head waters of the two great Syrian rivers
tower the two parallel ranges of the Lebanon (33° to 34^° N.
lat,), dominating over all the landscape, branching out in all
directions, and rising in some of their peaks to the height
of 9000 feet. Among these colossal- mountains we are not
restricted longer to the mere valleys which run north and south,
such as we have only found elsewhere ; but here are transverse
ravines as well, through which the abundant waters of Lebanon
flow out in all directions. Thus the Barada, which with its
tributaries flows directly from the heights of Anti-Lebanon to
the plateau at the eastern base, gives to Damascus its beautiful
girdle of gardens, and then, having no outlet to the Mediter
ranean, disappears in the Bahr el Merdj, like the Jordan in
the Dead Sea.
On the western declivities there are many deep cross val
leys also breaking through, beginning at Nahr Kasmieh (the
Leontes) at the south, coming up by Sur (Tyre), parting the
knotted group of the Lebanon, and allowing for a great part
of the year the free passage of the perennial mountain streams
which dash grandly down, and enter the sea upon the Phoenician
coast; a coast so richly supplied with harbours, and so favoured
with the abundant irrigation of these numerous streams, and
so securely protected from invasion on the land side by the
wild masses of rock which advance almost to the sea-side, and
so favoured by winds and currents and all the accessories of
navigation, that from the earliest times every natural haven
has witnessed the growth of a city upon it ; and from that coast
men were attracted in the very infancy of the world to push
out and explore other regions, and build up a commerce with
other and ruder nations.
What a contrast this presents to the lower coast of Syria,
where there is to be found scarcely a single mountain stream,
scarcely a brook even, and hardly a single harbour ; with
VOL. II. B

18 PALESTINE.
almost the single exception of the Kishon (Keisun), north of
Mount Carmel, embouching in the Bay of Acre ! Not in the
magnitude of the streams of Palestine lies their importance,
for they are all very small, none of them longer than men
march in two or three days ; not in their navigability, for they
are all inaccessible to even the lighter kinds of shipping ; but in
their terrace-formed valleys, and in the deltas and the peculiar
line of plains along the shore to which their dashing waters,
carrying down the finely crumbled detritus of the hills, give
rise. There was no lack of fertile plains along the seaboard
of Palestine, and hence the industry of the early inhabitants
won for it the fame of being a land flowing with oil, milk, and
honey ; and the Canaanitic agriculture, which converted the
terraces on every hill-side into smiling gardens, was cited as
the model of the whole Levant and southern Europe, The
great difference between Phoenicia and Palestine was this, that
the latter country retained within itself all the profitable land
which its river-courses formed, and was able to avail itself of
it. But the former country lost it in great measure ; the dashing
mountain streams swept the fine particles of alluvium out to
sea, and allowed the formation of no rich plains along the
coast. This also tended to drive the people to the pursuits of
navigation and commerce.
This great mountain chain of Lebanon, then, struggling
upwards towards the line of perpetual snow, but hardly any
where reaching it, yet gathering each winter enough of snow
and ice to serve as a sufficient supply for the summer to come,
is what proves so rich and fruitful a blessing to southern and
central Syria. Its loftiest summits are found, too, at the
southern extremity of the chain; and this especially favours
Palestine. The countries which cluster around the base of
Lebanon are supplied with constant moisture, while those at a
distance from it, the great Syrian plains, are scantily watered.
The Holy Land may be considered as a great oasis in the
desert. The entire domain of Egypt, Arabia, and Assyria is
only scantily dotted with patches of verdure, or lined with it
along the rivers' sides ; but the Lebanon once blessed all Pales
tine, and covered it with streams.
Syria is divided, as we now see, not only into the three long
belts which follow the direction of the meridian, the eastern or

DIVISIONS OF SYRIA. 19
continental, the western or maritime, and the central or the
mountainous, but it is also subdivided into southern, central,
and northern Syria by other characteristics. The central
portion is the province covered by the Lebanon, which sepa
rates as a mighty barrier the northern from the southern, and
whose branches are so far inferior to it in size, that they can
lay no claim to analogy in respect of altitude, but merely in
respect of general configuration and physical character.
Without the Lebanon, Syria would not have differed essen
tially from Persia or Arabia, and would have been utterly
unable to play that part in history which has been accorded to
her. But with the towering Lebanon to yield supplies of
moisture, Damascus could become not merely the delightful
city of gardens which she has always been, but one of the most
ancient homes of culture on the earth. The deeply indented
shore on the west, with its rivers, and the harbours which were
formed at their rocky mouths, could become the home of a great
commercial people, and an outlet for all the products jof the
busy East. The northern portion, Soristan, the country which
served as the track of travellers on their way from the most
western bending of the Euphrates to the turning of the Orontes
at Antioch, was the most meagrely supplied of all, and yet it
was not unsupplied with the waters of the Lebanon ; while the
southern third, Canaan, the later Palestine, was richly watered
from Hermon down — was kept fruitful by the influence of its
leading river — was made conscious of its own wealth, its own
independence of the rest of the world, its own security : and so
cherishing its own resources, and adding to them, it went on in
its chosen path of inward growth, without foreign wars, and
without any contact with the world without, until at last the
time arrived when it too was made a prey, and was tossed up
and down in the flooding and ebbing of battle. But that this
could happen at all was indicated by the physical structure of
the country, and by the manner of its connection through
Ccelo-Syria with Soristan. And yet despite this, and despite
all the analogies which bind the southern third of the country
to the northern third, there is enough left. to bring Palestine
out into amazing prominence as a country providentially ap
pointed as the home of a people who were to be " set apart."
Both the northern and the southern sections of Palestine

20 PALESTINE.
are effectually shut off from the central or the Lebanon pro
vince ; Palestine proper, or the land of the Jordan, is essen
tially divorced from Soristan, or the land of the Orontes.
The latter river rises in the high Lebanon range, but it
very soon leaves it, or flows as a mere neighbour to its eastern
base, the river being skirted on the east by the vast Syrian
plateau. The Jordan, on the contrary, plunges down at once
into a deep ravine, in which lies its entire course thereafter,
its eastern margin not being a vast plateau, but a towering
wall of rock, precipice-like, sometinjes rising to the height of
thousands of feet, and running back from the river in the
form of cool, breezy plains, not destitute of pasturage. This
difference in the configuration of the two river basins made a
great change in their historical influence ; for whereas the
Orontes, open on the east to the free advance of the wandering
races who came westward from Hither Asia, presented no
obstacle, the Jordan was effectually closed, and the hordes
of the Heja menaced it in vain. The destinies of Soristan
were consequently most intimately connected with those of
Assyria and Mesopotamia : the basin of the lower Orontes was
a highway for nations — a great channel for commerce, as the
history of Tadmor, Palmyra, Antioch, and Aleppo shows — a
connecting link between the East and the West, between the
Euphrates and Asia Minor. Assyrians, Persians, Parthians,
Romans, Greeks, Seleucidians, Saffanidians, Mongolians, and
Turks, pressed into the land, and at present the Turcomans
hold undisputed possession of it : wave after wave swept those
away who had for a little season possessed it, and there was never
time when any nation could abide there long enough to form a
history. But at the south, and along the Jordan valley, there
never was any commingling of races : the barrier was effectual,
and checked all invasion until that of the Mohammedans, The
traffic of the Israelites under Solomon, in the Nabathsean
period, as well as that of the patriarchs with Egypt, was not
effected through the channel by which Joshua entered the
land, but by traversing the Sinaitic desert. More temporary
yet were the transits across the land of one of the Pharaohs,
Alexander, and the Seleucidse ; while the Roman and Byzan
tine power found their limit outside of Palestine,
The greater abundance of springs, brooks, rivers, and lakes,

HEBREW TERRACE-CULTURE. 21
must also be taken into account, as adding very much to the
value of Palestine as the permanent home of a nation ; for the
great lake (Famieh or Bohaire), found on some modem maps,
between Hama and Antioch, and near Apomea, must be
struck out, being placed there only by hypothesis, to preserve a
supposed analogy between that district and that at the south,
A third difference lies in the method and skill in agri
culture among the Hebrews, who followed what I have indi
cated by the expression terrace-culture, — a method still in vogue
on the Phoenician hills. What was not found in any one
of the three divisions of Syria, were those broad fertile plains,
the existence of which is essential to the existence of any
extremely populous country. This want Phoenicia could supply
by means of its large foreign commerce, which made the then
known world a granary ; but Palestine and Soristan could not
supply it. Both of these districts were removed respectively but
a few days' march over the desert, from two countries which
could furnish them with corn in times of great scarcity : Meso
potamia to the latter, Egypt to the former. What an influence
such a dependence gave to those great centres of civilisation, is
well known : it conferred upon them their empire as well as
their culture, and caused all power, and wisdom, and luxury to
be briefly summed up, when men pronounced the names of
Memphis and Babylon.

'i wf^

CHAPTER II.
REVIEW OF THE AUTHORITIES ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF
PALESTINE.
|0 give a complete catalogue raisonn^e of the sources
whence our knowledge of the geography of Palestine
is drawn, is not one of the objects which I have
assigned to myself in the task on which I am
engaged. Although I know of no work which exhausts the
extraordinary riches of this field, yet there is an admirable
preparation made, in view of this end, in the lists of authori
ties given by Reland, Pococke, Meusel, Bellermann, Rosen-
miiller,* Berghaus,^ Hammer-Purgstall,^ and more especially by
von Raumer* and Robinson,^ which last, as far as to about the
end of the fifteenth century, is one of the most complete and
critically perfect that we possess. Others which we have from
the EngHsh and the French" are valuable.
The simple task remains to me, to refer to the original
authorities to that extent which may be necessary to help me
to exhibit in a broad and general way the manner in which I
propose to treat the geography of Palestine, in order to grasp it
completely, and to bring it up to that position where it shall be
in our power to detect and eliminate old traditional errors, and
to discover the gaps which are to be filled up in the course of
^ Rosenmiiller, Handhuch der hiblisclien Alterthumskunde, vol. i. 1823,
pp. 6-130 ; Erkenntnissquellen der hihlischen Alterthumskunde.
^ H. Berghaus, Memoir zur Karte von Syrien, Gotha 1835, pp. 1-21.
3 Rev. in the Wiener Jahrhuchern, 1836, 1889, 1843, v. 74, 87, and
1843. * K. V. Raumer, Palastina, 2d ed. 1838, pp. 2-19.
" E. Robinson, Bib. Researches, ii. 633-555.
<> John Kitto, Palestine, the Bible Hist, of the Holy Land, Lend. 1848,
pp. iv.-xxiii. ; Hunk, Palestine, Paris 1845, pp. 654-658 ; Sur les Voyages
de la Palestine.

GENTILE A UTHORITIES BEFORE CHRIST. 23
future discovery. A condensed historical survey of the course
of events in the Holy Land, and of the authors who have
recorded those events, will be the most satisfactory means of
attaining the end in view.

I. GENTILE AUTHORITIES BEFOKE CHRIST.
In times previous to the advent of Christ, Palestine did not
draw universal attention to itself, as it has done since : it
remained long unknown to the most splendid nations of anti
quity, the domain of a nation little regarded, little understood.
Nor did it hold this obscure position except in accordance with
the very will and counsel of God. Because no commerce knit
its people to other nations, and because no common religious
opinions bound them to the rest of mankind, their country
remained intact, and was only invaded in times of exceptional
disaster. As the land of Canaan, it was utterly unknown to
the world : as that of the children of Israel, it first comes into
note in the book of Joshua, during the wars which disturbed it
at the time of its conquest, and its division among the twelve
tribes. The Pharaohs had some knowledge of the people who
dwelt in Canaan, but they never entered the land. Only
Pharaoh Necho, in his expedition to the Euphrates, touched
the valley of the Jordan on his way, and slew king Josiah at
Megiddo (2 Chron, xxxv, 22), This is one of the few places
in Palestine to which Herodotus refers (ii. 159). He speaks
of it indefinitely as belonging to the territory of the " Syrians."
The Assyrians and the Babylonians overran Palestine with
their armies, but they never took the country under their pro
tection, or acknowledged it as a dependent province. The most
that they did was to subjugate it, and receive its tribute. The
people were carried away captive to Babylon, and the land
remained a wilderness, the spoil of any random settlers who
might wish to occupy and possess it, Cyrus at length gave the
people full permission to return to their own country ; but in
the opulent Susa they were in little haste to see again the hills
beyond the Jordan, Darius Hystaspis suffered them to offer
their sacrifices to Jehovah ; Darius Codomannus bound them,
after their return to Jerusalem, by an oath, never more to take
up arms against him.

24 PALESTINE.
Whatever, therefore, the inquisitive Herodotus learned in
Babylon, Tyre, Sidon, or elsewhere, regarding this unknown
land of Palestine, only related to what belonged to its west
coast, to the neighbourhood of Gaza and Askelon and the
Egyptian frontier, and is quite unimportant, valuable though
his accounts are of the people and the countries in the imme
diate vicinity. Only under David and Solomon do we find
Arabians from Sabtea and Phoenicians from Tyre entering
Judsea, in consequence of hearing of the wisdom of Solomon,
or for the purpose of assisting in the building of the temple :
there appears then that short period of maritime connection
between the people of Palestine and the remote East, of which
I have already fully spoken in the account of the Ophir voyages.
With the expeditions of Alexander the Great, the veil
which had hidden the East from view so long was lifted ; and
amid the rest that was disclosed, Palestine too was brought into
view. That, after reducing Tyre, the conqueror marched
through Samaria and Jud^a as far as Gaza, is certain ; but
whether he offered sacrifices in Jerusalem to Jehovah, as
Josephus* asserts, and as the fathers all agree — not with the
Concurrence^ of later historians, however, despite the efforts of
St Crolx^ to establish Josephus' statement — is more uncertain ;
but after that time, Palestine became a land full of interest to
Greek writers. For many Macedonians and Greeks accom
panied Alexander on his expeditions, among them Hecateus of
Abdera, probably the first of his nation who diffused correct
information regarding Palestine among his countrymen. His
writings, however, like all those of his cotemporaries who
described the country which we are now to study, were unfor
tunately lost. All that we can gather of them is to be gained
from the quotations, perhaps a little garbled, which Josephus
makes from them, or from the later compilation of Arrian
relating to the history of Alexander.* Jerusalem was then,
1 Fl. Josephi Antiq. Jud. ed. Haverc. xi. 8vo, pp. 578-582.
2 Drdysen, Gesch. Alexanders d. G. Berlin 1833, p. 197 ; Gesenius,
in Ersch's Encyclop. Pt. iii. p. 25 ; Fr. Chr. Schlosser, Universal-histor.
Uebers. der Gesch. der alten Welt. Pt. iii. Abth. 2, 1831, p. 178.
2 St Croix, Examen critique des anciens historiens d' Alexandre le Grand
sec. ed. Paris 1804, 4to, pp. 547-562. '
* Arriani, Exp. Alex. ii. 1.

GREEKS AND' ROMANS IN PALESTINE. 25
according to the statement of Agatharchides of Cnidos,^ a very
large city, well defended by nature and by art : its high priest
Jaddus opened the gates and the temple promptly to the
conqueror ; and " Jehovah interposed," says Josephus, " to save
the place from destruction," At all events, the great Jewish
capital was spared the fate which befell its proud neighbours.
Tyre, Gaza, and so many other capitals. Palestine did not
seem insignificant to the Macedonian king ; for we find him
mentioning it, in a speech delivered to the army (Arrian, de
Exped. Al. vii. 9), as one of the new provinces of his empire,
and placing a governor over the Jordan district, and Samaria
as well. After the division of his monarchy, Palestine again
fell out of notice; even the Seleucides had little to do with
it ; and almost the only contact which the Lagides had with it,
was in the taking away a hundred thousand of the inhabitants,
and colonizing them on the Nile. Pompey was the first who
made the Romans acquainted with Palestine : he destroyed the
power of the last independent king in Hither Asia, Mithridates^
of Pontus, and then withdrew with his victorious army from
¦Cilicia through Judsea to Arabia Petrsea, plundering and dese
crating the temple of Jehovah on his way. Judsea was then
disturbed by a civil war between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus :
the Romans took no further part in it than to reduce the first
to the place of a sacerdotal ethnarch, tributary to themselves,
and to annex Palestine to Syria as a Roman province. The
story is told in full by Josephus {Antiq. Jud. xiv. 3, 4),
but the Roman historians have passed over it very cursorily.
But not long after the time of Pompey, Palestine began to
be a land of interest to the Romans ; and in the reigns of
Augustus, Tiberius, Vespasian, and Titus, and particularly
during the siege of the last, it was described with a good
degree of detail.
Still it must be confessed that the country was to the
Romans nothing but a battle-ground, and its inhabitants
nothing but enemies or tributary provincials. So far as their
castra and vice militares extended, so far only did they take
note of places and make reckoning of distances. Farther
than their own garrisoned stations they did not care to go ;
' Fl. Joseph. Antiq. xii. 1.
' Joh. V. MuUer, Allg. Gesch. i. p. 290.

26 PALESTINE.
and hence we have no gradual toning down of what is
light into what grows more and more obscure, but a sharp
line between what is clear and what is gross darkness. Geo
graphy does not owe a great deal to Roman efforts : only a
few of the great men of that country — such, for instance, as
Cicero (Cic, de lege agraria contr. Hull. 25) — set any value
upon it ; and neither Polybius, Strabo, nor Claudius Ptolemy,
the great leaders in geographical science during the reigns of
the emperors, were Romans. That lustful Imperium Eomanurn
had but one great object, and that was to absorb the whole
orbis terranim within itself ; and whatever lay beyond the lines
which marked the outer frontier of the empire, troubled the
Romans as little as what lies in the outer ".barbarian" world
troubles [Mussulmen and Chinese. And when we add to this
the absurd representations and the errors which prevailed
about the Jewish nation, and found expression on the pages of
the most accomplished and wisest of the Romans, even of their
greatest historians, it is not hard to see how little we owe that
nation for a knowledge of the geography of Palestine. The
Romans derive the origin of the Jews from Crete, finding
their only reason in the resemblance between Ida and Juda :
they call Moses Bacchus, because they happen to discover a
kind of thyrsus among the sacred insignia of the temple.
Even Tacitus, who gives in his history (lib. v.) a brief compen
dium of Jewish antiquities, remarks that everything which a
Roman looks upon as holy, a Jew looks upon as profane, and
vice versa. When Pompey entered the holy of holies of the
temple at Jerusalem, he found there not a single image : a
kind of horror seized him at the atheism of the Jews. And
Tacitus gives his concurrence with Pompey in this matter,
although he does acknowledge that the Jews claim to have a
" God in their heart who is eternally unchangeable."
The so-called classic period of antiquity gives very little
light to us in studying the ancient geography of Palestine:
that which is so rich and valuable for determining the facts
and the scenes of profane history, leaves us here without help.
Yet the meagre accounts of Strabo, Diodorus, Tacitus, and
Claudius Ptolemy should not pass unread ; nor Pliny, who gave
the best compendium of the topography of Palestine (H. N.
V. 14, 15), Nor are their itineraria and tables of distances

NATIVE JEWISH SOURCES. 27
without value, difficult as they are sometimes to make out, and
compare with the results of modern travel.
II. NATIVE JEWISH SOURCES.
In great contrast with the meagre list of authorities on
Palestine which the classic writers display, is .the abundant
material which is supplied, to an extent unparalleled in any
other country of the globe, by the native writers of the land
itself. The history which they furnish fiows uninterruptedly
on like a full, freely-moving stream, watering the roots of the
massive forests of the great primeval world of human destinies.
Through the great trees the clear light of heaven can be dis
tinctly seen ; but here and there are great blots of darkness —
the passages of Jewish history which are impenetrably obscure.
The sources to which I refer are the Scriptures of the Old
and New Testament, together with many valuable apocryphal
writings. The writings of Josephus, too, are reckoned among
our prominent authorities ; but their character is of another sort.
The contents of the biblical books are not, however, to be
considered as intentionally or directly geographical : they are
so, as a general rule, only in a secondarj' sense ; and it is only in
the last two of the books of Moses and in that of Joshua that
we find tabulated lists of a topographical character. In many
of the other books of the Bible, what is geographical is merely
illustrative of the religious or historical meaning. Nevertheless
great weight is to be allowed for just those statements which in
a merely secondary sense are geographical ; for they are all the
more trustworthy in their nature, that they were given without
special design. They are of great service, too, in enabling us
to gain a conception of the land as a whole, and to set it before
us just as it was when the authors who allude casually to its
geography wrote. This gives an inestimable worth to writings
which throw an indirect light upon our path ; for those truths
which are brought to us naturally and simply, and not in the
dress of an artistic representation, are those which most com
mand our assent. We prize them most when we see them not
isolated, but woven smoothly into the fabric of history. We
have already found it so in a number of instances which met
us in our study of the geography of the Sinai Peninsula : we

28 PALESTINE.
have found that we could interpret the records of the past
best by familiarity with the nature of that land at the present
time ;^ and we have also discovered a remarkable correlation
between the events which are said to have transpired there, and
the scene where they transpired. And it is just as strikingly
the case in Palestine ; and the geography of that country, as
we find it to-day, is the strongest testimony of the truth of
that history which purports to emanate thence. The natural
scenery of Palestine speaks in but one voice in favour of the
Bible ; every word of the sacred narrative receives its best
interpretation by being studied in connection with the place
where it was recorded. No one can trace without joy and
wonder the verification which geography pays to the history of
the Holy Land. So strong is the argument drawn thence, that
the most subtle dialectician is baffled by it, and is entrapped
in the net which his own sophistry has spun.
In the biblical books, then, we have all the elements which
we need to enable us to realize the natural characteristics of
Palestine, and to set it before the mind's eye in all the glow
and reality of a perfect picture. We are transported to the
land itself, and see it for ourselves, gaining thereby a far more
satisfactory impression of it than any description taken from
without would furnish. Does not every reader, does not even
the imaginative mind of childhood, reproduce, after perusing
the picturesque narrative of Abraham's life, and form for itself
a life-like representation of the land of Canaan and the knightly
shepherd life of the patriarchs? Does any one go over the account
of the journey of Israel through the wilderness, and not picture
to himself Edom and the lofty Sinai and Horeb ? The book
of Joshua transports the reader across the Jordan to Jericho,
takes him from the camp at Gilgal to the high hills of the
Amorite princes and the other Canaanite kings ; and after the
victory is won, speaks out before the eye a bright and living
picture of the land as it lay divided among the twelve tribes of
Israel. Could any one be introduced to the country by more
competent guides? From the wilderness of Arabia, from
Kadesh-Barnea and Beersheba in the south to the sources of the
Jordan near Dan, and to the heights of Hermon and Lebanon,
the Promised Land comes out in the narrative of Joshua in all
' See K. von Raumer's Paldstina, 2d ed. p. 2,

BIBLICAL AUTHORITIES. 29
its unity, and with all its characteristic features, in the best
possible manner to aid us in our study of its geography.
From the historical books which follow, we learn the political
relations with other nations to which the geographical character
of the country led ; the Psalmist and the prophets then lead us
further on, and teach us what the people themselves thought
of their own home, and of the lands adjoining. From the two
we learn the connection between Palestine and its inhabitants
on the one hand, and 'the history of the World and the will of
Jehovah on the other. And if the Pentateuch and Joshua
give us the most important geographical data, it is not to be
denied that we owe a great deal of illustrative material to the
books of Judges, the Chronicles, the Maccabees, the prophets
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others.
The books of the New Testament give fewer detailed geo
graphical features than those of the Old; yet the graphic manner
in which mountains and rivers, special districts, popular cus
toms, climate and seasons, architecture, and the fruits of the earth
are touched, give us so clearly defined a picture, that the whole
life of Jesus, His walks through the country, His teachings, so
richly illustrated as they were by the scenes in which He lived,
are intelligible not to the people of Palestine only, but to those
of every land. And meagre as is the mere number of places
mentioned in the New Testament, yet as clearness is worth
more than number, the books of the Christian dispensation
have a priceless geographical value. The names of Galilee
and of the Sea of Tiberias enclose a whole world of hallowed
scenes and memories.
Outside of the Scripture!, Josephus holds the first and the
only place among the native authors of Judsea ; for Philo of
Alexandria, the later Talmud, and other authorities, are of
little service in understanding the geography of the country,
Josephus is, however, to be used with great care. As a Jewish
scholar, as an officer of Galilee, as a military man, and a person
of great experience in everything belonging to his own nation,
he attained to that remarkable familiarity with his country in
every part, which his antiquarian researches so abundantly
evince,^ But he was controlled by political motives : his great
1 Flav. Josephi, Opera omnia, ed. S. Havercamp, Amsterlod. fol. 1726,
T. i. ii. ; R. Traill, new translation of the works of Josephus; Phil. Chasles,

30 PALESTINE.
purpose was to bring liis people, the despised Jewish race, into
honour with the Greeks and Romans ; and this purpose under
lay every sentence, and filled his history with distortions and
exaggerations. In his Jewish Antiquities he had no authorities
but that which we enjoy in common with him — the Old Testa
ment; and in this field we can follow him, and correct many
of his misstatements. But in his accounts of the great war
which swept over his country during his life, and in the detailed
topographical descriptions which he gives in connection with it,
we are unhappily without any means of following and cor
recting him. To add to the uncertainties which perplex us in
Josephus, he wrote his books at an advanced period of his life,
and in a foreign land, and so either fell unavoidably into mis
takes about distances and like matters, or else purposely exag
gerated the simple truth. It may not be uncharitable to suspect
that the latter was the cause of many of his errors ; for he does
not conceal the duplicity of his nature in the sketch which he
has given us of his own life. Nevertheless the authority of
Josephus is great respecting the general geographical character
of his own country; and his writings are to be accepted and
used, with care indeed, but as a rich storehouse of original
material, whose want could not be supplied.
III. CHRISTIAN LITERATURE,
A third source is the Christian literature of the middle
ages, so far as it touches upon Palestine ; and with this may
be coupled some works of Moslem writers of the same period.
The list of these given by Meusel^ and others is so full, that it is
not necessary for me to give it anew, I write only to specify
one or two works which are worthy of the most careful studv,
among which is conspicuous, Blasius Ugolinus, Antiquitates
SacrcB, Venetiis 1744-1769, 34 vols., which is a vast store
house of investigations regarding our subject, made by the
most competent scholars and thinkers of many centuries. Nor
Etudes historiq. ; Schlosser, i.a.l. pp. 77-79 ; Rosenmuller, i.a.l. pp. 7-11 ;
De Wette, Lehrbuch der hebr. jiidisch. Archdologie, 3d ed. 1842, p. 7,
etc. etc.
1 Joh. G. Meusel, Bibliotheca historica, vol. i. p. 2, Lips. 1784, pp. 1-112;
Rosenmuller, Robinson, etc. etc.

CHRISTIAN LITERATURE. 31
should I pass by the celebrated Onomasticon Urhium et Locorum
Sacrce Scripturce, edited by Bonfrfere and Clericus, in which
Eusebius and Jerome^ have indicated the situation of places
mentioned in the Bible, so far as they were acquainted with it.
Eusebius died about a.d. 340, after living a long time in
Palestine as bishop of Caesarea. Yet, notwithstanding his pro
tracted residence, he never attained to that thorough geographi
cal knowledge of the country possessed by Jerome, the most
learned of the theologians of the East, The latter was born in
Dalmatia, educated in Rome, and after travelling largely,
pursued his studies so long in Palestine, that he seemed to be
almost a native of the country, Eusebius' Greek geographical
index to the Bible Jerome translated into Latin; but he did not
stop there: he added comments and corrections, producing a
result of great accuracy and value. He died at Bethlehem in .
420, after residing there for many years. Many errors which
crept in from the Septuagint translation, many different ways
of writing the same name, and the additions which have been
made by later editors, to whose care we are probably indebted
for the alphabetical arrangement, make it necessary to use
the Onomasticon with a certain degree of cafution, which is
heightened by the fact that, at the pei'iod when Eusebius and
Jerome lived, many of the localities mentioned in the Old
Testament had long been forgotten, and their site was merely
conjectural, or assigned by the voice of tradition, to which these
good fathers too easily assented. Their accounts, where they do
not palpably harmonize with the Scripture narrative, are to be
subjected therefore to careful investigation.^ A new edition of
their work, prepared with the aid of all the new critical and
illustrative material which has been recently added to our sources
of knowledge, is much to be desired ; and much light would be
shed upon the Onomasticon by the miscellaneous writings of
Jerome, in which he has made statements quite in antagonism
to those in that work, and which are far more trustworthy, as
the results of his latest and largest experience. Such a task
1 Onomasticon Urbium et Locorum Sacrx Scripturx — 1. Liber de Locis
hebraicis, etc., ed. Bonfrere, Paris ed. 1631, ed. 1659 recensuit et auxit Joh.
Clericus, Amstelodami 1707, fol. Also in Bl. Ugolini, Thes. vol. v. fol.
1-379; and Rhenfredi, Pericula critica in loca Eusebii, etc., in 0pp.
« Robinson, Bib. Research, i. 225, 226.

32 PALESTINE.
has but very recently been accomplished in connection with a
yet earlier work, the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum,^ which was
written in 333 by an unknown traveller from Aquitania (Bur-
digala, Bourdeaux), who made a pilgrimage to the Basilica
erected by Constantine the Great in Jerusalem, and whose
account of the stations and distances in Palestine is the most
ancient of all those which come under the present division of
authorities. The Itinerarium Antonini and the Tabula Peutin-
geriana give only names and measurements in Roman miles.
Stephen of Byzantium, -Kepi voXecov, writing in the beginning
of the sixth century, and the anonymous geographer of Ravenna,
who in the fifteenth chapter of the second book cites the names
of some fifty places in Palestine, which he probably culled from
various itineraria, and threw together without any arrangement,
have left us materials of only subordinate value. It is very
different, however, with the travels of the palmers or pilgrims
to the Holy Land, of whom I shall next speak.
IV. THE RECORDS OF PILGRIMAGE.
This name can be applied to nearly all the older narratives
of journeys to the Holy Land ; for those travels were almost
always undertaken with more or less regard to a religious end,
and in a desire to view the scenes of the Saviour's life, to visit
the places which commemorate the events of Old Testament
history, and to tread the ground hallowed by the steps of saints
and martyrs. Nor was this done out of a mere idle curiosity, but
in the grave conviction that to look upon those sacred scenes was
to help the soul to secure its salvation. That the ground which
had once been so ennobled should be desecrated by the temples
which Hadrian erected in honour of Venus, Zeus, or Adonis,
only increased the desire of Christians to behold the places thus
put to these shameful uses. Cyrillus^ is one of the few authors
who witnessed and described the condition of affairs in Pales
tine before the purification which followed the accession of the
1 G. Parthey et M. Finder, Itinerarium Antonini Augusti et Hierosolymi-
tanum, Berol. 1848, prxfat. xxxiv., and pp. 261-290, together with an
excellent itinerary by the editor.
2 G. C. Reischl, Theol. de Patr. Cyrilli, Hierosol. Episc. Opera quiesiiper-
sunt omnia, vol. i., Monachi 1848 ; Vita, p. xvi. etc. etc.

FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN PALESTINE. 33
Byzantine power to the control of the Holy Land; he was
born A,D, 315, and in 347 was appointed presbyter, and then
episcopus Hierosolymorum. In Catechis. xii, c, 20, he says :
Bethlehem locum ante paucos annos fuisse sylvestrem. Catech.
XV, 5: In loco, in quo crucifixus est, prius hortum fuisse, cujus
adhuc vestigia et reliquiae manent. Catechis. ib, 9 : Ante sepul-
chri exornationam a Constantino f actam, speluncam fuisse sancto
sepulchpo pro vestibulo, quae Constantini jussu erasa f uit, Porro
sancta loca post annum 326 purgari et exornari caeperunt.
When Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, after the
victory over Maxentius a.d. 312, and the adopting of the cross
as the emblem on the Greek banners, began to build Christian
churches on the sites of the Scripture scenes, the number of
pilgrims to the Holy Land rapidly increased. She herself
went thither in 326, and, according to Nicephori Histor. vili,
c. 30, erected more than thirty chapels and churches in the
country. Thousands followed her thither, many of them to
remain. Countless unfortunates, who were the victims of the
incessant persecutions of the Western Empire, fled thither to
escape the cruelty which met them at home. Especially was
this the case when, in 409 and 410, Alaric the Goth stormed
Rome and ravaged Italy, The number who fled then to
Palestine was beyond computation. Many of these put them
selves under the protection of Jerome, who was then living
tliere, and who, in his letters, tells many a touching story
of the woes of these enforced pilgrims and petitioners for
his hospitality. The same sad history was repeated in every
one of the descents of the barbarians upon the various
Roman provinces. And when the Vandals scoured Christian
Africa in 429, they drove from the land a great number of
believers, who at once fled for refuge to the Terra Sancta
near by.
Meanwhile the attacks of these northern barbarians filled
the minds of men who, though unbelievers, were yet inclined
to Christianity, with dismay. And men who were enlightened
by the gospel, saw, or thought that they saw, the hand of their
God in all those sad events : they believed that His judgments
were now poured out, and that He was pulling down all false
idols from their high places, and asserting His own unrivalled
sway. Prompted by the advice of St Augustine, the Spanish
VOL. II. c

84 PALESTINE.
presbyter, Paul Orosius,^ wrote in 420 his histoiy, in which
this thought had free expression.
Great numbers of the persecuted believers, as was said
above, found peace and rest in the Holy Land — in the countiy
of so many sacred memories. Besides, under the Byzantine
sway, this province enjoyed a season of quiet and security which
it perhaps never had before, and which it has not had since.
It was not till long after this time that the sword of the Koran
was drawn, and the soil of this land reddened with the blood of
its inhabitants. In the fifth and sixth centuries it was densely
peopled, and every part of its territory was covered with Chris
tian churches, even to the most sequestered nooks ; and it was
one of the most flourishing provinces of the Empire of the East,
In addition to the numbers of settlers and colonists who
thronged to Palestine, there was a great increase among the
clergy, the monks, and the hermits of the country ; in one word,
among all who in that epoch, when the typical life of the con
vent was just finding expression, had turned their back upon
the world, and were seeking a place of undisturbed meditation
as the best preparation for heaven. The pious liberality of the
imperial house of Constantinople, and particularly of Justinian,
gave a fresh impetus to the establishment of churches, convents,
bishoprics, and was seen at once in the edifices which arose,
conspicuous among which was the Convent of Sinai (see Pro-
coplus, de ^dificiis Imperatoris Justiniani, lib, v, c, 6-9). Every
where churches, chapels, convents, with hospices close by for
the entertainment of guests, showed the generous bounty of
the Byzantine rulers. Not only were the fruitful valleys and
hills of Jerusalem, Shechem, Nazareth, and Gahlee, covered
with luxuriance; but cisterns, baths, hermitages, and grottos,
transformed even the hitherto unpeopled desert into a home
for man. The countless ruins which are still seen testify to
the extraordinary activity and prosperity of those times. At
the place where John the Baptist had led the Saviour down to
the waters of the Jordan, the extreme sanctity of the spot was
commemorated by a pavement of marble, and hundreds of
thousands resorted thither to bathe in the sacred stream: one
' Pauli Orosii, Presbyten Hispani adversus Paganos Historiarum, libri
vii. ed. S. Havercampus, Lugd. Batavor. 1767 ; lib. i. ad Aurelium Aun-us-
tinum, p. 1 et sq.

CHANGES IN PALESTINE. 35
itinerary tells us that there was a gathering-place for all the
peoples of the earth. The valley of the Jordan was transformed
into a hermitage, inhabited by throngs of recluses. The terrors
and wonders of the Dead Sea drew so many monks to the wild
recesses on its rocky border, that about the year 600 it is
asserted that not less than twenty monasteries stood there.
Antoninus Martyr speaks of them in his itinerary, written at
about that date : at one of them 10,000 monks are said to have
dwelt ; and the grottos and caverns now observable in the neigh
bourhood of the Cbnvent of St Saba — the almost inaccessible
places of refuge for those thronging multitudes — even now fill
the traveller with wonder.
But soon there came a change, and all this fair prosperity
was brought to nought ; for in the seventh century the sword of
the Arab passed over the land, and transformed it into a waste
and a solitude, A remarkable combination of oppression, want,
superstition, and a hallowed longing to see the scenes of Bible
story, had peopled the land with refugees from Europe. But
the tide turned ; and many who had gone thither with a desire
to gain the salvation of their soul,^ were forced to flee from this
terrible power, which came up from Arabia, and to leave behind
the spiritual advantages of Palestine, bearing away with them,
however, more palpable blessings still.
To these supposed blessings, in addition to the forgiveness
of sins itself, and the absolution which the church granted for
many years in consideration of these pilgrimages, belonged also
the relics, on the retaining of which the continuance of absolu
tion hinged. Thus was renewed in the Christian scheme the
old pagan idea of the virtue contained in amulets, which, when
brought home, served as a charm to secure the pilgrim from
danger, and which could transmit their influence to others. The
virtue of these relics increased rather than diminished with age;
and their sacred power to charm away ill, descended as an heir
loom from generation to generation. The relics were, as a
general rule, articles which had had a certain relation to the life
of the Saviour, or to that of the apostles and martyrs. Earth,
wood, water from hallowed ground and from the Jordan, gar
ments dipped in that sacred river — all were esteemed precious.
1 Regarding the pilgrimages, see Wilken, Geschichte der KreutzzUge,
Leipzig 1807, Pt. 1. pp. 3-19, 32, etc.

36 PALESTINE.
In like manner, the pilgrim's staff, the shell with which he
dipped the waters from the holy wells, palm branches, thorns,
garlands, flowers like the roses of Jericho growing in the very
desert, and reputed to have been carried by Mary in her flight
to Egypt, had the odour of sanctity upon them. The balm of
Gilead, the pitch from the Dead Sea, were also esteemed very
holy; but above all relics in value, were the bones of saints and
martyrs, dragged out of their reputed graves, and given away
even to the last fragments.
Far more full of peril, and far greater the merit, when
pilgrimages were made and relics taken away after the followers
of Mohammed, the bitter enemies of all Christians, had entered
Palestine as conquerors, and swept over the whole East. It
was accounted as a deed of that poorness of spirit which Christ
extolled, when the courage was exhibited that ventured to break
through the iron bonds which the caliphs in 634 set around
Jerusalem, in the establishment of their mosques there as well
as through the Levant, Then, to make a pilgrimage to the
land of the unbelievers was equivalent to martyrdom, and
heaven was the certain reward for such a deed of daring as
to venture thither. Those who returned safely after such a
perilous undertaking, gained a high place in the estimation of
their fellows; and worldly advantages quickly followed — for
those who had ventured so far had learned to use their know
ledge to good purpose — and soon opened the channels of a
lucrative trade with the people of Palestine, Those who went
sent back to their friends full accounts of their adventures and
perils, glowing descriptions of the sacred places, and of life in
this new field of experience: these accounts furnished not only
entertainment to those who were left behind, but edification as
well ; and when transcribed, they were publicly read in schools,
convents, and churches. The many hundreds of pilgrimages
to the Holy Land gave rise to a voluminous mass of documents
of the above character; and after the Crusades the number
was so much augmented as to become literally beyond compu
tation. In their day they formed the favourite reading of the
western world, being edifying and romantic at the same time :
they were copied largely (not always without some changes
and additions), and were passed from hand to hand from
convent to convent, from school to school, from land to land.

MIDDLE AGE PILGRIMAGES. 37
Monks carefully preserved them as the most cherished memo
rials of the founders of the order or the abbey to which they
were attached, or of the knights whose patronage and protection
they enjoyed. All classes being so closely united by the ties
of the church, had an interest in these memorials of eastern
travel. Many hundreds of those documents have come down
to us ; they display even now the marks of their wide diffu
sion. Many of them have been printed and given to the world.
They generally bear some such title as — Peregrinatio in Terram
Sanctam, Hodoeporicum, or Itinerarium, and they usually have
an appendix containing the mirabilia mundi, de locis Sanctis,
or the like. Their values are exceedingly varied : in some there
is displayed the whole range of learning which their authors
could employ for the elucidation of Scripture ; in others, all the
remarkable features of the Holy Land are touched upon and
held up rather in a secular than in a sacred light: here are
some which express the outpouring of some longing pilgrim's
soul ; there, some which can only serve as guide-books for those
who wish to know the main routes of travel : here are authentic
and instructive transcripts from nature, trustworthy representa
tions of what has actually been seen and experienced; there,
mere collections of idle tales and legends, and the exaggerations
of superstition, — mere copies, it may be, and repetitions of what
had often been told before — the results of a morbid curiosity to
see what is supernatural, and to find the Holy Land still the
home of miracle. Such records as the last-named throw no
light on those subjects which concern us in our present studies.
In respect, too, to the period of time in which these accounts
were written, their value is exceedingly varied ; but the careful
use of them, taking them up in a strictly chronological order, is
by no means a useless exercise, and often leads to unexpected
light, and to results which are seen even at the present day.
The most important -of them, which were written before the
time of the Crusades, are the accounts of the unknown author
of Burdigala (Bourdeaux), of Antoninus Martyr, Arculfus,
Willibaldus Bernardus, and Altmann, I have already alluded
to the oldest of these works (a.d. 333), the Itinerarium Burdi-
galense, or Hierosolymitanum^ in connection with the condition
1 Ed. G. Parthey et M. Finder, in Itinerar. Antonini Augusti et Hierosol.
1848.

38 PALESTINE.
of the country at the most flourishing epoch of the Byzantine
power, whose architectural triumphs and energy in establishing
Christian foundations it commemorates, I have also referred
to the —
Itinerarium Beati Antonini Martyris^ written about A.D.
600, shortly before the invasion of the Mohammedans and the
sad extinction of the Christian power in Palestine. About
A.D. 700, Adamnus {ex Arculfo), de Locis Sanctis, libri iii,'
Arculfus, a French bishop, after his return from the Holy
Land, was driven by a storm to the west coast of Scotland, and
landed on the island of lona, where lived Adamnus, the abbot
of the celebrated convent, and the head of the oldest theological
school of northern Europe, He wrote down the account of
the shipwrecked wanderer, and in the year 698 presented it
to King Alfred of Northumberland, Beda Venerabilis (the
venerable Bede) has only given one extract from that narrative
in his Historia ecclesiastica. Arculfus' work displays the con
dition of Palestine at the close of the seventh century, at the
very rise of the Mohammedan sway, and is therefore of great
interest, A.D, 722. St Willibaldi Vita, seu Hodoeporicum,^ including
the story of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, is a work of
value. The author was an assistant of Boniface in circulating
the gospel through central Germany and the valley of the
Danube, and in 742 he was made bishop of Aichstadt.
A.D, 870. Bernardi Monachi Sapientis Itinerarium ad
Loca Sancta.^ In the tenth century no travels to the Holy
Land were written, so far as we now know, Bernard found
at the time of his visit the Convent of John the Baptist, to
gether with many others not specified by name, on the Jordan
near Jericho. The region could not have been the unredeemed
desert, therefore, that it now is.
1 Itinerarium B. Antonini ex Museo Menardi JuUmagi Andium (Angers),
ap. Petr. Auri typogr. 1640 ; also in Ugolini, Thes. vii. under the title
Itinerar. Antonini Placentini, fol. mccviii.-mccxxix.
2 Gretesero, Ingolstadii, 1619, in Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ord. Benedicti,
ssec. iii. P. ii. p. 499, etc.
3 Mabillon, Acta Sctor. P. ii. p. 365 ; and Acta Sanctor. ed. Bollandi,
Juli, T. ii. fol. 485.
* Mabill. ib. ii. p. 523, and more in detail in Recueil de Voy. et Memoires
de la Soc. degeogr. Paris, tom. iv. pp. 285-815.

PERIOD OF THE CRUSADES. 39
In A.D. 1065, Altmann, bishop of Passau, and afterwards
founder of the Abbey of Consecration, on the Danube, west of
Vienna, journeyed to Palestine^ under the guidance of Gunther,
bishop of Bamberg, with several thousand laymen and some
representatives of the clergy. The pilgrimage was not unat
tended with perils, and many of the company perished. This
occurred shortly before the outbreak of the Crusades (1096) ;
and the extracts relating to this -journey, scattered through
several authors, and found in the Acta Sanctorum, throw much
light upon the confused condition of affairs in Palestine during
the oppressive sway of the Seljukian Turks,^ Altmann died
in 1090.

V. THE PERIOD OF THE CRUSADES
Brings us to a more thorough acquaintance with the Holy
Land. The accounts written before that epoch are compara
tively meagre, consisting oftentimes of little else than details
of distances and the names of halting-places. But the Christian
rule over Syria, extending from 1099 to 1291 — the control of
Christian kings over Cyprus and Crete to a much later period,
in the former till 1486 — the commercial efforts of the Genoese
and Venetians — the possession of Rhodes from 1310 to 1522,
and later still of Malta by the Knights of the order of St John,
the arch-enemies of the Turks, — tended to make Palestine more
and more accessible, and to open it to the knowledge of Europe.
The historical authorities of that period, collected in the Gesta
Dei per Francos, are a rich storehouse of material illustrative
of the geography of the Holy Land. To the period of which
I now speak belong William of Tyre, Jacob of Vitri, Fulcher
of Chartres, Marin Sanudo of Venice, Saewulf the Anglo-
Saxon, and others.
A.D, 1096-1124. Fulcheri Carnotensis' Gesta peregrinan-
tium Francorum cum armis Hierusalem pergentium. Fulcher,
a monk of Chartres, accompanied Duke Robert of Normandy

1 De B. Altmann, Ep. Pataviensi apud Gottwicenses in Austria, in Act.
Sctor. ed. BoUandist. Augusti, T. ii. pp. 356-376 ; Buchinger, Geschich. des
Fiirsienthums Passau, 1816, pp. 129-137.
2 Fr. Wilken, Gesch. der KreutzzUge, Pt. i. pp. 39-41.
' In Gesta Dei per Francos, ed. Bongars, Hanov. fol. 1611, pp. 381-440.

40 PALESTINE.
in the first Crusade, His account extends as late as to the
year 1124, and contains valuable material relating not only
to Syria and Palestine, but to the northern portion of Arabia
Petrasa, A.D. 1102-1103, Saewulfi^ Relatio de peregrinatione ad
Hierosolymam et terram sanctam ; a writer, otherwise unknown,
who seems, according to D'Avezac's researches, to have been an
Anglo-Saxon, and whose name Saewulfus may mean Wolf of
the Sea Rovers, He finds three hundred monks living in the
Convent of St Saba near the Dead Sea, and three monasteries
on Mount Tabor,
A.D. 1175, Gerhardi Frederici I. in ^gyptum et Syriam
ad Saladinum Legati Itinerarium,^ The short but admirable
statement of the route taken by the close observer, Gerhard,
Vicedominus Argentinensis, which differed from the routes
usually taken by pilgrims, passing as it did from Egypt to
Sinai, Bostra, Damascus, Sidon, Jerusalem, Askelon, and to
Egypt again, is incorporated in the tenth chapter of the seventh
book of the Chronica Slavorum.
A.D, 1182-1185, Willermi Tyrensis Historia Rerum in
partibus transmarinis gestarum, libri xxiil. William, the most
learned and the most eminent of the men who wrote the his
tory of the Crusades, was elevated in 1174 to the bishopric
of Tyre, He has left us a graphic picture, full of truth and
merit, of the geographical character of the country as it pre
sented itself to him : he seems to have himself been a Syrian.
Cotemporaneous with him is the work of a Cretan pilgrim,
Phocas by name, who long lived the life of a recluse on the
island of Patmos, His treatise, bearing date 1185, and called
Joannes Phocas de Locis Sanctis {Acta Sanctor. Maji. tom. ii. 1),
is worthy of examination, as a production entirely independent
of the accounts given by the crusaders. It contains, more
over, very good notices of the sacred localities.
A.D. 1220. Jacobi de Vitriaco, Acconiensis Episcopi,
1 In Recueil de Voy. et de Memoires publ. p. la Societe de geographic,
Paris 1839, T. iv. ; Relation des Voy. de Saewulf, p. Fr. Michel, Th. Wright
et D'Avezac, pp. 817-854.
2 Chronica Helmoldi Presbyteri et Arnoldi Abbatis Lubecenses ed. H.
Bangertus, Lubecse 1659, lib. vii. c. 10, pp. 516-525,
2 Gesta Dei per Francos, I.e. i. fol. 629-1046.

PERIOD OF THE CRUSADES. 41
Historia Hierosolimitana. Capitula centum} Jacob of Vitri,
bom in the neighbourhood of Paris, took part in the Crusades,
became bishop of Akka (Acre), and ranks after William of Tyre
as one of the most eminent authors of his time. He describes
with a very free pen the scene where the wars of the Crusades
were then transpiring, and gives the first physical picture of
the country which we possess, grounded upon actual observa
tion. His description of the natural history and characteristic
geographical features is therefore not without value. See
Capit. 82-91.
A.D. 1306-1321. Marin Sanudo, named Torsellus, Liber
Secretorum Fidelium Crucis de Terrce Sanctce recuperatione et
conservatione, libri iii,' The worthy Venetian, Marin Sanudo,
after the loss of Jerusalem, spent the greater part of his life in
making efforts to assist the regaining of the sacred soil by
means of a Christian army. From, his youth up, he tells us,
he had cast his eyes towards the Terra Sancta. Five times he
traversed the Levant in person, and collected all the knowledge
that was attainable regarding the lands of the Saracens, With
Venetian ships he examined the whole coast of Palestine, in
order to discover what point would be most available for a fleet
to be sheltered, and for any army to land successfully. In
1306 he began to record the results of his observations; in
1321 he finished it, and laid it, in connection with the four
maps which accompanied it — one of the Orbis terrarum, one
of the Terra Sancta, one of the Mare Syrium, and a plan of
Acca — before Pope John xxii. and the most prominent of the
kings of Europe, hoping thereby to raise them to a new effort
to recover the Holy Land. To no purpose indeed: but his
work remains as an interesting monument of the condition of
biblical geography at that time, and the most complete mono
graph which the middle ages have given us on any such theme
as that ; very incomplete, it is true, and in the third part only a
compilation, but as a first effort, not without merit.
A.D. 1307. Haithoni Armeni Historia orientalis? Other
1 Gesta Dei per Francos, I.e. i. fol. 1051-1149. See Mensel, BiU. hist.
vol. ii. P. ii. pp. 279-282.
2 In Gesta Dei per Franco.':. See Orientalis Histories, tom. ii. Hanov.
1611, fol. 1-281.
8 Ed. 1671, quarto.

42 PALESTINE.
men of that time, too, filled with similar projects for awakening
again the spirit which had led to the first Crusade, did much
towards circulating facts regarding the Holy Land. Among
them may be mentioned the well-known Armenian Christian
Prince Haithon, who had entered a convent at Cyprus, and
who, at the request of Pope Clement v., went to France in
1307, to seek co-operation in another expedition to recover
the Holy Sepulchre, Yet, of all the accounts which have
come from men of this kind, Sanudo's is altogether the most
valuable. But all these narratives were held in high considera
tion in Europe, and they did very much to make the people
familiar with the character of the Bible lands. These narra
tives were read with great avidity, and they were of t&n appended
to works of a very different nature ; from their own law books,^
for example. 1283. Brocardi (Borcardi, Burchardi) Locorum Terrce
Sanctce exactissima Descriptio.^ This work was translated into
German.^ Robinson, who has carefully examined the many
editions of this work, remarks that it appears to have been a
labour of love, written in a convent by one who had returned
from the Holy Land, so often was it copied and annotated by
the hands of monks, and so much resemblance is there in all
the various transcripts. And the work, as Busching justly
said, was worthy of all this favour: for it gave not merely
accurate names of places and tables of distance, correct pic
tures of the country and people ; but it portrayed with fidelity
the natural productions of the land, though without giving
their names. Its special value, however, is to be ascribed to its
chronological statements ; for, as Deycks correctly remarks, his
account, coming at a time when the Christian jurisdiction over
Palestine had ceased, opened up the whole political status of
the country to view. The difficulties, chronological and bio
graphical, encountered in this author have been critically
examined by Beckmann.* The work of Brocardus has been
1 Anthon. Matthsei, Analecta veteris xvi, tom. ii. p. 25, etc.
2 Venet. 1519 ; in Simon Gryneus, Nov. Orbis, Basil 1532, fol. 298-329.
2 In the Reyssbuch des heil. Landes, Frankfort 1548, Pt. i. p. 464 ed.
of 1 609, fol. pp. 854-875 ; comp. Robinson, Bib. Researches, ii. 538.
* John Beckmann, Literatur der iiltern Reisebeschreibungen, vol. ii. p. 1,
Gbttingen 1809, No. 60, pp. 31-78.

PALESTINE AFTER THE CRUSADES. 43
frequently abridged ; the most successful effort to do so is that
accomplished in the sixteenth century by Adrichomius.^
Of the treatises on the history of the Crusades, the cele
brated work of Michaud' has contributed but little to the geo
graphy of the subject ; Reinaud's supplementary volumes are
far more valuable; and Wilken's and von Hammer's master
works on this subject are truly admirable,
VI. A^SITS TO PALESTINE I)URING THE FIRST CENTURIES
AFTER THE CRUSADES.
After the Holy Land had passed into the hands of the
Saracens, the interest felt in it did not die out in the West ; it
extended itself rather to the outlying and now opened districts
farther east. We learn from the records of pilgrimages under
taken in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, that a change
had begun : the journeys to the Orient had begun to lose their
exclusively religious character, and to be in a measure secu
larized. They extended in some instances as far east as to India,
and were undertaken sometimes in a spirit of mere romantic
adventure. 1356. Johannes de Montevilla. At the head of all the
works which come under this division, is that volume of Travels
which was written by Sir John Maundeville, composed in
English or French^ at Liege,* in the year 1356, and giving an
account of his thirty years' wanderings in the Orient. The work
was soon translated into Latin, and into many of the European
languages, enlarged by the engrafting of many idle tales from
other hands, and adopted by popular consent as one of the
most delightful books of the age, containing, in addition to its
geographical statements about the Holy Land, a whole com
pendium of mirabilia mundi. His romantic and poetical turn
^ Christ. Adrichomius, Theatrum Terrie Sanctse Colonise, 1590.
' Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, 5 vols, under his name, but elabo
rated by Reinaud ; Bibliographic des Croisades, 2 vols. ; Fr. Wilken,
Gesch. der KreutzzUge, 1807.
^ J. O. HalliweU, The Voyage and Travaille of Sir John Maundeville,
Lend. 1839, in Reissbuch des heil. Landes, 1609, i. fol. 759-812.
* Dr E. Schonborn, Bibliographische Untersuchungen Uber J. Maundeville,
Breslau 1840, p. 22 ; Rob. Bib. Researches, i. p. xxiii. ; J, Gorres, Teutsche
VolksbUcher, p. 62.

44 PALESTINE.
of mind has not injured the value of those portions which
give simple facts, as Robinson found after carefully following
in his footsteps. HalliweU and Schonborn, too, have shown
that a great many passages in Maundeville which were supposed
to be untrustworthy, are additions which have been grafted
upon the original work. Yet with all this, and notwithstanding
the closeness of his observation, he was too much possessed with
the taste of his age for the marvellous, to be always best pleased
with the simple truth. He gave a book to Europe which had
just the qualities which the public mind demanded, and he
found therefore a large and an admiring public. Yet it cannot
be denied that the chapters which relate to Palestine (vi.-xi.)
are instructive,
A.D. 1336-1341 and 1350, Ludolphi de Suchen Libellus
de Itinere ad Terram Sanctam.^ This work is declared by
Robinson to be the most truthful of all the itineraries which
have come down from the fourteenth century, notwithstanding
its touch of the marvellous. The many manuscript and printed
copies of Ludolph's work (not Rudolph), with names and dates,
have made it difficult to arrive at the simple facts of the life
of this excellent Westphalian pilgrim, the most celebrated — as
his editor, a fellow-countryman, has said' — of all the seventeen
Germans who, in those earlier days, ventured to encounter the
difficulties which lay in the road to Palestine, As mentioned
above, his name was not Rudolph; and his absence did not
extend from 1336 to 1350, as even Panzer supposed, but he
made two separate journeys : the first in 1336, and extending
over five years ; the next in 1350. This he himself states in
his dedication to Baldwin of Steinfurt, bishop of Paderborn,
the diocese to which his own parish church of Suchen belonged.
He compares many objects which he saw in the East with those
around his own home : Mount Tabor, for instance, with his own
Isenberge; the Lebanon forests with Osning wood :^ he finds
1 Robinson, Bib. Researches, ii. 540 ; Latin ed. Venet. without date ;
the oldest German edition. Von dem gelobten Lande und Weg gegen Jeru
salem, 1477. See Panzer, Annal. 1788, No. 82, p. 100.
2 Dr Ferdin. Deycks, Ueber altere Pilgerfahrten nach Jerusalem mit
hesonderer Rucksicht auf Ludolph von Suchen Reisebuch des heiligen Landes
Miinster 1848, p. 9, etc.
^ De Suchen, in Libell. c. 118.

PALESTINE AFTER THE CRUSADES. 45
rivers which remind him of the Rhine, and buildings which
suggest the cathedral of Cologne ; the Turks he compares with
the Frisians, He wrote his work originally in Latin, assum
ing the title of parochialis ecclesice in Suchen rector. In his
book he makes the open declaration, that he had not seen
all that he describes, but had drawn much from historical
sources : yet what he saw for himself is a sufficient testi
mony of his assiduous patience and unwearied pains to get at
the truth,^ The various editions in German dialects' have
called out a great deal of scholarly effort among philologists;
and the contents of his work have proved a rich mine of geo
graphical knowledge, particularly in that department which
relates to the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean,
A.D, 1336. Gulielmi de Baldensel Hodgeporicon ad Terram
Sanctam. A German of Lower Saxony. His name is more
correctly written Boldensleve or Alvensleben. According to
Beckmann,^ his pilgrimage was contemporaneous with that of
his countryman Ludolph. His account is not without value,
but less instructive than that one to which I have just alluded.
There follows a long list of records of travel to the Holy
Land, whose worth is not such as to make it necessary to refer
to them in detail. They are the productions of men of great
diversities of gifts, as well as of social standing. Some of them
have been incorporated in the Reissbuch des heiligen Landes ;
some in other collections, those of Ramusio, Hackluyt, Ugolinus,
Bergeron, Paulus, etc. ; some have appeared separately. Among
the latter may be included that of Frescobaldi, 1384, which
Robinson has omitted in his list. They mostly repeat the
statements of travellers who had preceded them ; and for geo
graphical purposes they have no special value, although from a
literary and antiquarian point of view they are not without
interest. It is possible that one of these, which has never been
traced — the narrative of a certain Roberto, who visited the
Holy Land in 1458 — would have been more valuable; but
although Count Giulio Porro states expressly that it is deposited
1 Reissbuch des heil. Landes, 1609, i. fol. 813-854, falsely called
Rudolph. " In Deycks, p. 28, etc. to 61.
' Respecting him, see J. Beckmann, Literatur der allern Reiseheschr. ii.
2, pp. 226-237.

46 PALESTINE.
at Milan, it has been sought for in vain. Its title was, Itineraria
facta per lo Magnijico Cavaliere Signor Duo Roberto de San
Saverio, Capitano da Jerusalem a Sancta Katerina del A', 1458,
It was only at the close of the fifteenth century that we have
accounts of really great excellence, such as those of Tucher
1479-80, Breydenbach 1483-84, and Fabri of the same date,
whose records I have already had occasion to refer to in the
description of the Sinai Peninsula. They have the same value
for Palestine as for Arabia Petrsea, To the list already cited
I must add, with special commendation, the account of Felix
Fabri of Ulm, which Robinson considers preferable in point of
exactness to the well-known work of Bernard de Breydenbach,
Dean of the Mayence Cathedral, A new edition of Fabri's
narrative was published in Stuttgard in 1843 by the Literary
Association of that place. The work in its new form was en
riched by the laborious care of Professor Hasler^ of Ulm, who
also read an admirable paper on Fabri and his work, at a meet
ing of German philologists held at Dresden in October 1844.

VII, VISITS TO PALESTINE IN THE SIXTEENTH, SEVENTEENTH,
AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.
Subsequently to the epoch in which the works hitherto
alluded to fall, there came a change in the character' of visits
made to Palestine.^ They not only lost a portion of that pious
simplicity which had marked them, and that belief in the expia
tory value of the pilgrimage to those shores; but they began to be
affected by the altered political relations of the Eastern Powers,
and especially by the possession of Constantinople by the Turks,
and the gradual encroachment of the Ottoman Empire upon
European soil. Necessity and curiosity both prompted men to see
what were the manners and institutions of this new and formid
able race, and what the condition and character of the country
1 Fratris Felicis Fabri, Evagatorium in Terrx Sanctx, Arabix et Egypti
Peregrinationem, edidit Cunradus Dietericus Hasler, Gymnasii Regii Ulmani
Professor, vol. i. ii., in Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, 1843,
vol. ii. pp. 1-480, and iii. 1-545.
2 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 541 ; F. Deycks, p. 25.
3 The English reader wiU find the characteristics of the various epochs
of travel to the Holy Land graphically summed up in the opening pages
of Pressense's Land of the Gospel. — Ed.

PILGRIMS OF THE LAST THREE CENTURIES. 47
where they held sovereign power. This induced great numbers
of knights, lords, and princes to make pilgrimages to the East ;
and their accounts — those, for instance, of the Count Palatine ;
the Count of Nassau, 1495; the Duke of Pomerania, 1496; the
Prince Radziwill, 1583 ; and Baron Graeben, 1675 — accumu
lated in number, yet without a proportionate increase in value,
owing to the complete ignorance of their authors about what
had been seen and reported by preceding travellers. The period
of the Reformation seems to have given a spur to pilgrimages
to the Holy Land among those who remained faithful to the
Catholic Church, The complete ascendancy of the Venetian
marine, and the extensive commerce of Venice with the East,
contributed to the ease and the security with which travellers
could penetrate the Orient; and we find, accordingly, that there
were many who, actuated by curiosity, sailed from Venice direct
for places as remote as India and Persia even. The travels of
men of an adventurous turn of mind do not seem to have been
restricted to the Levant, to the well-known and often-traversed
scenes of Bible story ; but in a larger scientific spirit than had
as yet been applied to Palestine and Egypt, they ventured to
explore a much wider field. We find Italians, Frenchmen,
Englishmen, and especially Germans, making extensive travels
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the East, in
the course of which they usually touched Syria and Palestine,
without paying any special attention to those more familiar
lands. Among these I may mention the names of Pierre Belon,
1546-49; L, Rauwolf, 1573-76; Delia Valle, 1614; Olearius,
1635; Thevenot, 1652 ; Tavernier, 1665; Chardin, 1664; and
Tournefort, 1700, This brings us down to the time when
Pococke, Hasselquist, and Niebuhr opened a new era in the
geography of the Holy Land. Among those worthy of parti
cular enumeration are the following, which I cite to the exclu
sion of many whose contents are meagre, and whose value is to
be appreciated by the bibliographer solely,
1507-1508, Martini a Baumgarten Peregrinatio; according
to Robinson, a collection of brief papers from the hand of a
competent observer,
1546-49. Pierre Belon du Mans, Observations de plusieurs
singularith et choses memorables trouv4es en Grlce, Asie, Judie,
etc., en trois livres, Paris 1554, 4to, In this work (livr, ii, ch.

48 - PALESTINE.
Ixxiii.-cxii, fol. 135-151) are to be found a good topographical
description of Palestine, and a trustworthy account of its natural
history, P. Belon, a French physician, is well known as a
learned and close observer,
Bonifacii a Ragusio Liber de perenni cultu Terrce Sanctce,
Venetiis 1573, 8vo, The work of the Franciscan monk, now
only known by Quaresmius'^ quotations, is mentioned by
Robinson, who failed to find any traces of it, Quaresmius
says of its author, " Vir insignis Apostolicus Prsedicator, post
Stagni Episcopus, qui per novem annos Guardianus officio in
sancta civitate Jerusalem magna cum laude functus est," etc.
Tobler has also sought in vain for this work, in order to use it
in his own zealous and exhaustive studies on Palestine ; and I
have searched for it in the Library of St Mark in Venice, In
the Imperial Library of Vienna, and in that of Wolfenbuttel,
which is so rich in Italian works. Its great rarity seems to
have precluded any further use of it than that made by
Quaresmius, who speaks of its great value. It is suggested,
therefore, as a fit object of future search,
1573—76. Leonharti Rauwolfen, der Artzney Doctorn und
bestellten Medici zu Augsburg, Aigentliche Beschreibung der
Raiss, so er von dieser Zeit gegen Auffgang in die Morgenldnder,
etc., selbs volbracht, 3 Parts, Augsburg 1582, 4to,' The con
clusion of the second part, chap, xii, fol. 273, and the whole
of the third part of this excellent work, is to be specially
recommended. Rauwolf's investigations into the natural
history of Palestine, and especially his botany, have placed
him very high; and he well prepared the way for the later
efforts of Tournefort and Hasselquist. Many who have fol
lowed him have drawn largely from him. Breuning's ^ work
is an example. I pass over the enumeration of his copyists,
1616-1625. Francisci Quaresmii, Historica theologica et
moralis Terrce Sanctce elucidatio, 2 tom. fol. Antwerp 1639.*
This work is of less value in attaining a knowledge of the
1 Fr. Quaresmius, Terrx Sanctx elucidatio, etc., Antwerpiee 1639,
tom. i. ; Prsef. p. xxxv. See Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 542.
2 J. Beckmann, Literatur der iiltern Reisebeschreibungen, Pt. i. 1, pp. 1-21.
' J. Beckmann, i.a.l. ii. pp. 269-288.
' Robinson, Bih. Research, ii. 544 ; K. v. Raumer, Fed. p. 8 ; J. Beck
mann, i.a.l. i. p. 232.

MODERN TRAVELLERS IN PALESTINE. 49
country than of the history of the Catholic Church there ;
and although very circumstantial and diffuse, yet not to be
taken as a work of sufficient importance to be the standard of
comparison for other works of similar ecclesiastical scope, such
as those of Zuallart, 1586; Dandini, 1596; Cotovicus,^ 1598;
and Doubdan, 1651. Of these I need not speak in detail,
and will only say that that of Doubdan,' canon of St Denys,
although overpraised by Chateaubriand, is a work of great
learning ; and that by Dandini, a Papal legate to the Maronites,^
is valuable in the portions which relate to the Lebanon.
Zuallart has interesting original drawings, charts, and maps,
which have not seldom been closely copied by his successors,
Cotovic among them : even in the single Spanish itinerary of
any importance — that of Castello, 1656, published at Madrid —
Zuallart's drawings are reproduced.
1614-26. Pietro della Valle, Viaggi, etc. Sufficiently well
known as a highly esteemed oriental traveller, whose researches
in Egypt, Persia, and India have been praised even by Goethe,
but whose account of Palestine is confined to a single letter
written in 1616.* Robinson speaks of him as light and super
ficial ; von Raumer as soundly catholic in his faith, and yet
frivolous. I have already made use of his valuable data in
treating of the Sinai Peninsula. In respect of learning,
literary excellence, and artistic character, his merits are not
small. He brought to Europe the first copy of the Samaritan
Pentateuch which was known there — the one now in the
possession of the Imperial Library of Paris.
1646-47. Balth, de Monconys, Journal des Voy., Paris
1695 ; sec. Partie en Syrie, etc. In this instructive work, the
eminent author, well known as a mathematician and a physicist,
describes his journey through Palestine.
^ II devotissimo Viaggioda Gerusalemme fatto e descritto, in sei Libri dal
Sign. Giovanni Zuallardo, Cavaliero del Santissimo Sepoloro I'anno 1586,
Roma 1587, iv. ; Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum et Syriacum, auctore Joanne
Cotovico, Antwerpise 1619, iv.
^ J. Doubdan, Voyage de la Terre Sainte, Paris 1657.
3 Jerome Dandini, Voyage du Mont Liban, trad, de I'ltalien, Paris 1675.
See Beckmann, i.a.l. ii. 2, pp. 355-368.
* P. della Valle, German ed. Geneva 1674, Pt. i. fol. 132-174 ; original
ed. Viaggi, Roma 1650-1653, 4 vols.
YOL. 11. D

50 PALESTINE.
1655-59. Jean Thevenot,^ Relation d^un Voyage fait au
Levant, Paris 1665, containing an admirable account of the
author's stay in Palestine and Syria. The works of D'Arvieux,
1658, and la Roque, 1688, relate— the valuable portions on the
Lebanon excepted — rather to the Arabs and to the political
condition of the Levant. I must except the journey of the first
through Palestine,' which, however, embraces only twenty-
seven chapters in the second book of his collected works.
The Travels of C. le Brun, 1672, are very valuable on account
of the drawings which the author, a Flemish artist, had an
opportunity of executing in the East. Their contents in other
respects are not of equal worth. Nor are the accounts of Nan,
Surius, 1644, and others, deserving of special consideration.
1697. Henry Maundrell, Journey from Aleppo to Jerusa
lem, Oxford 1703 ; the sixth edition, enlarged and enriched,
with appendices, Oxford 1740. Robinson says of him :
"Maundrell was chaplain of the English factory at Aleppo.
His book is the brief report of a shrewd and keen observer,
and still remains perhaps the best work on those parts of the
country through which he travelled. His visit to Jerusalem
was a hasty one." Von Raumer says of his book that it is very
instructive, calm, and trustworthy. The unpretending author
had the intention of merely giving his countrymen a supple
ment to the travels of his predecessor Sandys,^ 1610-11, who
enjoyed the entire confidence of his countrymen in consequence
of his great accuracy. The friends of Maundrell caused his
work to be published at Oxford.
1697-98. A. Moi'ison, Relation historique d'un Voyage au
Mont Sinai et a Jerusalem, Toul. 1704, A cotemporary of the
preceding, who, although not to be placed as his equal, gave us
many valuable facts in our study of the Sinai Peninsula, The
work of Robert Clayton, bishop of Clogher,* is not to be passed
1 Thevenot (i.e. Jean, nephew of Melechisedek Thevenot), Reisebeschrei-
bung in Europa, Asia, und Afriica, etc., Frankf. 1693, iv. ; after his Relation
d'un Voyage et Suite, Paris 1674, iv.
2 Laur. D'Arvieux, Voy. dans la Palestine, etc., pub. par la Roque,
Paris 1717 ; see the Ger. translation, Kopen. and Leipsig 1853, Pt. ii. 1-426
from his Memoires du Chevalier d'Arrteux, Paris 1753, 6 vols.
' George Sandys, Travailes, etc., Lond. 1615.
* Robert, Lord Bishop of Clogher, Journal from Grand Cairo to Mount

MODERN TRA VELLERS IN PALESTINE. 51
without mention, although it confines itself exclusively to
Arabia Petrsea. The learned Paul Lucas, who made a hasty
run through Palestine in 1714, has also left a record of his
journey.^ 1722. Thomas Shaw, Travels in Barbary and in the Levant.
This work, which was originally in the form of special treatises,
is of especial value in connection with the antiquities, as well
as the physical character of Syria, Phoenicia, and the Holy
Land, and forms an admirable supplement to the work of
Maundrell. 1700-23. Van Egmond en Heyman, Reizen, Leyden 1757 ;
English translation : Travels, London 1759, 2 vols. Egmond
was the Dutch ambassador at Naples; John Heyman was a
professor of oriental languages in Leyden. They united their
accounts, and produced in their conjoint work one of the best
treatises on Palestine ever written,
1737-40, Richard Pococke,' Travels in the East, Lond.
3 vols, fol. Only the second part of this work relates to Syria
and Palestine, Michaelis, and after him Rosenmuller and
Robinson,^ have charged it as a fault in this thorough classical
scholar, that he was not as well versed in Hebrew as he should
have been; and they have with justice complained of the
mixing up of what he personally saw with what he knew merely
by report, or extracted from preceding authors. This is the
more reprehensible in one who must have known how carefully
Herodotus shunned that confusion which has so much marred
Pococke's work, and brought it into bad repute. Yet there is
considerable value, notwithstanding, in those parts of his book
which are palpably the result of his own observation,
1749-53, Fridr, Hasselquist, Reisen nach Paldstina, edited
by Linnseus, Rostock 1762. As the work of a naturalist and
a disciple of Linnseus, this book is valuable, particularly for the
light which it throws on the plants and the animals of Palestine.
Sinai, translated from a manuscript by the Prefetto of Egypt, etc., Lond.
1753. 1 Paul Lucas, Voyage fait en 1714, dans la Turquie VAsie, Syrie,
Palestine, etc., Amsterdam 1720-8, tom. i. liv. iii. pp. 200-273.
2 Rich. Pococke, Travels in the East, Lond. 1743-1748, 3 vols. fol.
3 J. D. Michaelis, Oriental. Bibl. Pt. viii. p. Ill ; Rosenmiiller, Bibl.
Alter, vol. i. p. 85 ; Robinson, Bib. Research, i. p. 37.

52 PALESTINE.
The editor appended a supplement on the natural history of
Palestine, which Robinson is inclined to think the most com
plete scientific treatise on the subject which has ever appeared.
With the help of Hasselquist, who completed what Rauwolf ^
and Tournefort began, and with A. Russell's' carefully prepared
list of the oriental names applied to the flora of the East,
augmented by the later researches of Olivier, the identity of
the native appellations and the modern scientific terms can be
established, so far as is necessary in the study of the geography
of the country. The Flora Palcestina^ may be also consulted,
and the later works of von Schubert,
1754-55. Stephen Schultz, Leitungen des Hochsten durch
Europa, Asia, Africa, Halle 1771-75. This author belongs
to the small class of pilgrim devotees who have sprung from
the Protestant ranks, in contradistinction to the many earlier
Catholics who wandered to the mysterious East. Most of the
Protestant travellers who explored Palestine with any care
during the time now under review, were actuated by scientific
and scholarly considerations, more than by religious impulse.
It is only in the most modern period that religion and science
have combined, as with Laborde, Robinson, von Schubert, and
others, to prompt to an exploration of the scenes of biblical
history. 1760-68. Abb^ Mariti, Voyages dans Vlsle dj Chypre, la
Syrie, et la Palestine, Paris 1791, T, i, and ii. This work
contains, with many repetitions of what had been told before,
particularly in relation to the island of Cyprus, some useful data
regarding Palestine.
1761-67. Carsten Niebuhr's* Travels in Arabia have often
been drawn from in the preceding volume. This work on
Palestine appeared about a half century subsequently to the
^ Vergleichung der Rauwolfschen Pflanzennamen mit denen in Linnt Hist.
gen. plant, in Beckman Lit. der altern Reisebeschr. Pt. i. pp. 13-15.
2 A. Russell, Natural History of Aleppo, by P. Russell, trans, into
Ger. by Gmelin, Gottingen 1797, Pt. i. sec. 3, pp. 83-117.
3 D. Benedicti Joh. Strand, Sudermanni, Flora Palxstina, in Giov.
Mariti, Viaggio da Gerusalemme par le coste della Syria, ed. Livcrno 1787
tom. ii. pp. 191-240.
« C. Niebuhr's Reisen durch Syrien und Palastina nach Cypern. This
includes Niebuhr's astronomical observations and minor papers. Hamburgh
1837,

MODERN TRA VELLERS IN PALESTINE. 53
works which I have hitherto cited, and has been skilfully edited
by Gloyer and Olshausen. What Robinson says of Niebuhr
is perfectly true: "He is the prince of eastern travellers;
exact, judicious, and persevering." He gives the details of his
journey through Syria and Palestine, with a series of plans of
the cities of the country, not all of them new to us, not all of
them correct now, owing to the changes of time ; and yet' his
work, with all its defects, is far more valuable than the hasty
productions of many modern tourists.
1783-86. Volney,^ Voyage en Syrie, Paris 1787, 2 vols.
This work is universally known for the fidelity, the apprecia
tive illustration with which it points the moral, political, and
religious condition of the people whom he visited. It is in the
form rather of a series of treatises than of a journal of travel,
or a detailed description of local geographical features ; and
in this it differs from the most of its predecessors. The high
position where he stood to survey the East, and the consequent
breadth of his view, made his work deeply instructive, and
enabled him to present the mutual relation of nature and history
there in a striking light. His great modesty caused him to
keep himself very much in the background, and his work con
sequently lacks those details regarding his personal route, whose
absence is always regretted by the careful reader.
1792-98, W. G.Browne,' Travels in Africa, Egypt, and
Syria, London 17^9. This work, admirable as it is, yet con
tains only a few brief chapters relative to the author's journey
through Palestine,
Alexander Russell's Natural History of Aleppo, a true
classic on Syria, and valuable in its Palestine portion also, was
edited by Patrick Russell, and translated into German by Gmelin
of Gottingen, It closes the works of the eighteenth century
relating to this subject in a worthy manner,
1 E. F. Volney's Reise nach Syrien und JSgypten in 1783-1785, Ger.
ed. Jena 1788.
2 W. G. Browne's Reisen in Afnka, JEgypten, und Syrien, 1792-98,
Berlin 1801.

54 PALESTINE.
VIII. CONTRIBUTIONS OP OTHER ORIENTAL WRITERS, PARTI
CULARLY ARABIAN AND JEWISH, TO THE GEOGRAPHY
OF PALESTINE. BRIEF COMPENDIA ON THE SAME
SUBJECT.
Before we pass to the consideration of the Christian writers
of Europe who have made Palestine the. object of their inves
tigations during the present century, it is necessary to refer
briefly to a certain class of works, which, although not referring
directly to the results of personal investigation, are yet valuable,
as digests of what had been observed by others, and as studies
preparatory to the prosecution of personal inquiry. In many
cases I need mention them merely by name. They comprise
such authors as Mohammed el Fergani,^ the astronomer, who
wrote A.D. 833 ; Isstachri, his contemporary ; Ebn Haukal and
Masudi, dating from the tenth century ; Edrisi and Abdallatif,
middle of the twelfth ; Boahedin ' and his learned editor, end
of the twelfth century ; Gakuti, middle of the thirteenth ; Ebn
Batuta, 1324 ; Ibn el Wardi at the beginning, and Abulfeda
at the middle, of the fourteenth century ; and Macrizi ' in the
first half of the fifteenth century. These writers have all of
them furnished more or less valuable geographical details ; but
the most complete in that respect is the Syrian prince of
Hamath,* in the Lebanon. Mejr ed-Din's History of Jerusa
lem, translated from the Arabic into French by the accom
plished J. von Hammer, and published in the Fundgruben des
Orients, vol. ii. pp. 81, 118, 375, is praised by Robinson as the
most complete description of the Holy City ever written in the
Arabic language.
^ Muhamedis Alfergani, Elementa Astronomica, arabice et latine cum
notis, etc., Opera Jacobi Golii, Amstelodami 1669.
2 Bahaddini Vita Saladini, ed. Alb. Schultens, ejusdem Index Geo-
graphicus, Lugdini Batavor. 1732.
3 In Taki Eddin Ahmed Makrizi, Histoire des Sultans Mamelouks de
VEgypte, trad, de I'Arabe par Quatremere, Paris 1837, iv., contains very
important contributions to the knowledge of Palestine.
* Abulfedse Tabula Syrix, ed. B. Koehler, etc. Lips. 1765 ; cum
excerpto geographico ex Ibn el Wardii Geographia et Historia naturali.
See also Rosenmiiller, Handb. d. Alterthumsk. i. pp. 41-58 ; above all, see
Reinaud, in Geographia d' Aboulfeda, textus 1840, et traduct. Paris 1848,
tom. i. Introd.

ORIENTAL SOURCES. 55
New works upon Palestine, from the hands of Arabian and
oriental writers, either do not exist at all, or are of very
little importance. The second improved edition of Abulfeda's
Tabula Syrice, which was to have appeared at Oxford under
the editorial care of Koehler, has not appeared, Koehler's own
work, the manuscript of which remained in the library of
Lubec, his birth-place, contains, according to Hartmann,^ very
little useful material. Reinaud's translation of Abulfeda, en
riched with notes, and with the text, as given by H. Slane,
1840, Paris, is far more valuable. It is to be regretted, that
as yet we have no translation of the Turkish geography con
tained in the Jihannuma of Hadji Chalfa, a monk, which
must be included among the most valuable that relate to the
East ; yet we have to express our obligations here to the illus
trious orientalist, von Hammer,' for the admirable selections
which he has made from this very inaccessible, very important,
and yet universally neglected geographical authority.
In the earlier volumes of the Erdhunde, we have often had
occasion to refer to the Spanish traveller. Rabbi Benjamin of
Tudela' (1162-1173), the most valuable of all the Jewish
writers. I entirely agree with Robinson's judgment of the
worth of this writer. Robinson says that A. Asher's edition is
the best of all. It has been asserted that this book is full of inac
curacies and idle stories, and that the author never visited the
scenes described by him. But the first-named fault is often
met in writers of that period ; and I have found in his treatise
on Palestine,* that so far as he goes, he bases his statements on
his personal observations, and is quite as exact and trustworthy^
as any of his cotemporaries. A long way behind him is the
work of Rabbi Petachia" of Ratisbon (1175-1180). Very much
is" to be expected of the learned and appreciative criticism of
1 Leipsig Lit. Zeit. 1822, No. 235.
2 Wiener Jahrb. 1836, vol. Ixxiv. pp. 39-96.
^ A. Asher, The Itinerary of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela — Text, Biblio
graphy, and Translation, London and Berlin 1840, vol. i. pp. 58-89.
Compare Anmerkungen, von Tudela.
* Robinson, Bibl. Researches, ii. 536.
5 Bullet, de la Soc. de Geogr. Paris 1848, T. ix. p. 66.
* Rabbi Petachise Peregrinatio, etc., Altorf 1687 ; Hebrew and French,
by El Carmoly, Paris 1831. in Nouv. Journ. Asiat. 1831, T. viii. pp.
257-308, 353-413, an interpolated passage.

56 PALESTINE.
Selig Cassel on Rabbi Benjamin ; and doubtless his efforts
will contribute much to do away with the perplexing want of
uniform excellence^ in the matter and manner of the celebrated
Hebrew authority.
The distinguished Jewish scholar, Dr Zunz, has lately
made us acquainted with a work very highly praised by him
self, the production of another Jewish author, Esthori Parchi
of Provence, who, being banished from his native land by Philip
le Bel in 1313, went to the East, travelled largely in Palestine,
and after a long stay there, produced his valuable work,
Caphtor wa pherach, 1332.' The visit of this author to Bisan
(Scythopolis) and to Galilee is particularly interesting, and a
translation would be desirable.
The Itinera Mundi sic dicta Cosmographia, autore Abraham
Peritsol, a Jewish Rabbi of Avignon, edited by Thomas Hyde,
Oxon. 1691, contains in various chapters only material of a
very general character on the Terra Israel. A whole series
of Jewish pilgrims to Palestine exists, including such names as
Samuel ben Simson de France, 1210; Jakob de Paris, 1258 ;
Ishak Chelo de Laresa, 1334; Ellas de Ferrare, 1438 ; Gerson
ben Moseh Ascher de Scarmela, 1561 ; Urie de Biel, 1564.
These, with an index of their routes, and with an interesting
map, prepared by J. Lellewel, are to be found in the very
recent and erudite work of Carmoly :' for Jewish details, and
for localities especially interesting to Jews, these works are
valuable. I must not omit to mention the travels of the
celebrated Jewish convert, Joseph Wolff,* made in 1823 and
1824, With the assistance of that rare work, Caphtor wa ferach,
.Jacob Raplan of Minsk has prepared his General Biblical
Geography, Erez. Kedumin 1839, of which a German edition,
1 Historische Versuche, von Selig Cassel, Berlin 1847, pp. 1-24.
2 Dr Zunz, Nota 62 ; Essay on the Geog. Literature of the Jews, in Asher's
ed. of Benjamin de Tudela, voL ii. pp. 260-262.
* E. Carmoly, Itineraires de la Terre Sainte des xiii. a xvil. Siecle,
traduits de VHebreu et accompagnes de Tables, de Cartes, et d'eclaircisse-
mens, BruxeUes 1847.
* Rev. Jos. Wolff, missionary to the Jews, Missionary Journal, vol. ii.,
comprising his second visit to Palestine and Syria, in 1823-4, London
1828.

ORIENTAL SOURCES. 57
in lexicon form, was announced as in preparation by Dr M.
Freystadt of Konigsberg.
In 1845 there appeared from the pen of the distinguished
German scholar. Rabbi Joseph Schwartz of Jerusalem, a work
bearing the title, Sefer Tebuot Haarez, a. 5605, i.e. a new
description of Palestine, This is a work based upon personal
observation. It has been of some service to me ; and yet, in the
description of the country and its physical features, I have not
found much that has not been long known. In learned illus
trations this author does not lack at all. And I may say in
general, that in most of the systematic treatises on the geo
graphy of Palestine, there is no lack of learning, both in the
departments of biblical literature and oriental scholarship ; but
unfortunately there is a great deficiency in positive facts, which
are gained by personal inquiry and observation. This method
of treatment has led to very unqertain results, and to many
statements which are purely hypothetical : these could only be
corrected by the direct personal observation which characterizes
the researches made in the present century. Among the works
of untravelled scholars, may be mentioned the following : —
Samuelis Bocharti Hierozoicon, and his Geographia Sacra
seu Phaleg. et Canaan, in 0pp. Lugdun, Batavor. ed. 3, 1692,
3 vols, fol, first edit. 1646. The editio of the Hierozoicon sive
de Animalibus sacrce Script, ed. Rosenmiiller, Lips. 1793. At
about the same time there appeared J. H. Ursini Arboretum
Biblicum, Norimb. 1685 ; then Matth. Hilleri Hieropliyticon,
Trajecti ad Rhenum 1725, and Olavi Celsii Hierobotanicon,
sive de Plantis Sacrce Scripturce, Amstelod. 1748 ; Scheuchzeri
Physica Sacra, h. e. Historia naturalis Biblice, Augsb, 1731, 4
vols. These writers preceded Hasselquist and Linnseus,
Johannes Lightfoot Horce Hebraicce et Talmudicce ; a choro-
graphical century ; searching out, chiefly by the light of the
Talmud, some more memorable places in the land of Israel
{Works, vol, X. 1825), 0pp. Omnia, Roterdami 1686, fol. in
vol. ii, 169-940.
Christ. Cellariusin Notitice Orbis antiqui, etc.. Lips. 1706, in
Libri iii, cap. 13, pp. 464-470 ; on Palestine, particularly in con
nection with classic authors : the most learned work of its time.
Hadrian Relandi Palcestina ex monumentis veteribus illus-
trata, Trajecti Batavor. 1714, and ed. Norimberg 1716, the

58 PALESTINE.
first thorough basis of all the modern scientific works on the
geography of the Holy Land. I may refer also to another
work of the same distinguished scholar. Professor of Ancient
Languages and Antiquities at Utrecht, Dissert, de Mart Rubro,
de Monte Gerizim, de Samaritanis, de Ophir, etc., in his Dis-
sertationes Miscellanece, Pars i. et ii. Trajecti ad Rhenum 1706
and 1707. He was the first to make available the mass of
materials collected by his countryman Olfert Dapper (Am
sterdam 1681, folio), and other works which had been prepared
by men who had never visited Palestine.
Edward Wells' Historical Geography of the Old and New
Testament, Lond. 1712.
J. Chr. Harenberg, Supplementum in Hadr. Relandi recen-
sionem Urbium et Vicorum Palcestince, in Miscell. Lips. vol.
iv. V. and vi. This author also produced the first valuable map
of Palestine, Nurenberg 1744 and 1750.
Joh. M. Hase, Professor of Mathematics in Wittenberg,
Regni Davidici et Salomoncei descriptio geographica et historica,
Norimb. 1739, fol. A work prepared with great care, both in
the text and the maps.
Joh. Jac. Schmidt's biblischer Geographus, Ziillichau 1740.
The work of a German scholar; a better compend than the more
comprehensive and eminent work which preceded it, from the
pen of the Benedictine Abbot, Augustine Calmet, Paris 1730.
This treatise does not seem to have been known to Schmidt,
versed as he was in literature. Its title is Dictionnaire Histor.
Chronolog. Geographique, et Littoral de la Bible.
W. A. Bachiene (mathematician and astronomer in Maes-
tricht), historische und geographische Beschreibung von Palcestina,
with twelve maps ; intended to be a supplement to Reland, and
a tedious work, Leipsig 1766, 8 vols.
Ysbrand van Hamelsveld, Aardrigk-hmde des Bibelse, trans
lated into German, Hamburg 1793.
A. Fr. Blisching's Erdieschreibung, Pt. ii. bbth. 1, 3d ed.
1792 ; Palestine, from pp. 374—510, The first author who in
corporated the results of Niebuhr's observations in the East.
His work, in accuracy, closeness, and the authenticity which
results from the use of original documents, far surpasses all
that had preceded it, and remains even to this day, and will
remain, a master work in the department of geography.

UNTRAVELLED WRITERS ON PALESTINE. 59
Conr. Mannert, Geographic der Griechen und Romer, in Pt.
vl. B. 1; Arabia, Palestine, and Syria, Numb. 1799.
J. J. Bellerman, Biblische Geographic, 3 Pt, 2d ed, Erfurt
1804. A manual of biblical literature, condensed, and pre
pared by a master of oriental languages.
C. F. Kloden, Landeskunde von Paldstina, Berlin 1817.
This admirable work, which displayed the mutual relations of
history and geography in a more marked and excellent manner
than even that of Volney had done, appeared after the impulse
was felt which was occasioned by the discoveries of Niebuhr
and Seetzen, for Burckhardt's were not published till 1822.
Kloden's work was accompanied by a carefully prepared map
(the first after Reland' s), which was indebted for a part of its
excellence to the skill of the French artist, Ch. Paultre. An
essay on the flora and fauna of Palestine, written by Ruthe,
and contained in the same work, is worthy of examination ; it
is only to be compared in point of value with the production
of Hasselquist already referred to.
E. F. K. Rosenmuller, Geographic von Paldstina, in the
second volume of his Handbuch der biblischen Alterthumskunde,
Leipsig 1826, This work is characterized more for the
breadth of the ground which it covers, and the extent of the
materials which it comprises, than for the originality and depth
of its own researches,
F, G, Crome, Geographische historische Beschreibung des
Jjandes Syrien (in its connection with Palestine), Gottingen
1834, A thorough work, based on Burckhardt and Bucking
ham : the topography of Jerusalem is treated with an exhaustive
fulness. Paldstina^ by K. von Raumer, Professor in Erlangen, 2d
ed. Leipsig 1838 (1st ed. 1835). As a manual for biblical
students, this work is a classic. The compactness of its matter,
the clear arrangement, the scientific method, the completeness
of the references to the Old and New Testaments, place this
work far in advance of all compends of its kind. The rapid
progress of modern investigation leaves something to be desired
in the present value of the work ; but in high tone, delicacy of
feeling, and fidelity, as well as in a large acquaintance with the
1 In addition to this : Beitrdge zur biblischen Geschichte, von K. v.
Raumer, Leipsig 1848.

60 PALESTINE.
relations of general science to his theme, the author is hardly
to be surpassed.

IX, TRAVELLERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY,
To these we are indebted, as will soon be seen, for invalu
able additions to our knowledge of the Holy Land. The
works which our own age has produced are mostly the pro
ductions of eye-witnesses, and form a worthy supplement to
those whose authors have already passed under review. In
my previous researches, I have felt it a duty connected with
the performance of the task which I had assigned to myself, to
survey the entire literature of my subject, and to give such
hints in relation to the value of all works of any importance, as
would be of service to future students ; but in the field which
now opens, it is doubtful how far such an attempt would be
possible of completion. The majority of the works hitherto
cited have had value rather to general scholars than to geo
graphers ; and in order to obtain even single grains of gold, it
has often been necessary for me to pull to pieces great heaps
of rubbish. But with the opening of the nineteenth century
there is a great change. The amount of geographical material
becomes then overwhelmingly abundant, and the facts which
have been elicited (although repeated, it may be, again and
again) are so embarrassingly numerous, that to examine them
all requires an extent of time and an amount of strength so
great, as to cause one to almost succumb and retire from the
task. If, when Biisching wrote, 1781, he could say tiiat it
required whole months of preparation before he felt qualified
to enter upon his account of Palestine, I may say that, after as
many years of toil as he spent months, I do not feel ready to
undertake a " Comparative Geography of the Holy Land "
which shall be worthy to be regarded as a finished work. With
all my effort it must be incomplete. It is only the conviction
gained by experience, that even imperfect works may serve as
a bridge to conduct future investigators to more ripened results,
which gives me courage to enter upon this difficult field of my
subject. In the following list I shall do little more than refer to
the authorities which are best known, without any attempt to

RECENT TRA VELLERS. 61
characterize them,^ In the course of our future studies these
will pass so closely under review, that the reader will be under
no doubt of their comparative degrees of excellence. Mean
while the recapitulation of their titles ' in full will save much
trouble In future, in preventing the necessity of restating them
with troublesome repetition,
1800, E, D, Clarke, Travels in various Countries, vol, iv,
4th ed. Lond. 1817 ; Holy Land, chap, iii,— ix. He was only
seventeen days in Palestine, His work displays more general
scholarship than positive acquaintance with the country. He
advanced hypotheses, and went to extremes in his judgments,
which have been much modified and corrected by those who
have come after him,
1807. Ali Bey (the anonymous Spanish Domingo Badlals
Leblich, who for a while was erroneously considered to be
Burckhardt, and. who, as a Mohammedan, attracted much in
terest in Europe), Travels, vol. ii. pp. 140-59, London 1816.
His exact, though not voluminous narrative, has been of ser
vice to Berghaus^ in constructing the map of Syria. Ali Bey
was fortunate enough to gain access to the mosques.
1805-1807. Ulr. Jacob Seetzen, Reiseberichte. In May
1805, Seetzen,* who was known in the East as Sheikh Musa,
reached Damascus ; in March 1806 he travelled through the
district of Belkah, on the east side of the Jordan ;^ in January
1807 he traversed the country east of the Dead Sea as far as
Kerak, being the first who explored this region ; and in the
following year he passed from Jerusalem through the Desert
of et-Tih, and thence to Cairo. In von Zach's Monatliclie Cor-
respondenz,^ his valuable papers, which for a long time were
scattered widely, were printed ; ' but up to the present time no
' J. V. Hammer-Purgstall, in Rev. of 18 works on Syria in the Wien-
Jahrb. der Literal, vol. xlv. and xlix. ; again in 1836, vol. Ixxiv. pp. 1-102;
also in 1839, vol. Ixxxvii. pp. 1-203 ; again in 1843, vol. ciii. pp. 1-68.
2 H. Berghaus, Geogr. Memoir zur Erlduterung und Erkldrung der Karte
von Syrien, Gotha 1835, pp. 1-21.
' Berghaus, Syria Mem. p. 508.
^ Von Zach, Monatl. Correspond. 1806, May, p. 508.
« The same, 1807, xvi. July, p. 79.
6 Die Kartographische Benutzung, in Kloden und Berghaus, Syria Memoir,
pp. 7-9.
' The same, 1807, vol. xvii. Feb. p. 132.

62 PALESTINE.
collection of this eminent German traveller's documents, jour
nals, and the like, has been published, to serve as the worthy
monument of a zealous and eminent martyr to the cause of
science. Less fortunate than his follower Burckhardt, himself
a German, who traversed the same region, and who alone can
be compared with him, Seetzen's writings are but little known
to the worid of scholars ;^ while Burckhardt's, under the auspices
of the London Society, have been largely disseminated. I do
not give up the hope, however, of seeing justice done to Seetzen
in this regard. The reader has already noticed the large
extracts which I have made elsewhere from his scattered
papers, and needs no words of mine, I trust, to convince him
that, despite the rapid progress made since Seetzen lived, much
may still be learned of him.'
1802. Lieutenant-Colonel Squire, Travels through part of
the ancient Ccelo-Syria. From his literary remains. The in
structive tour in Middle Syria was made in company with W.
Hamilton and W, M. Leake.'
1806-7. F. A. Chateaubriand, ItinSraire de Paris a Jeru
salem, Paris, 3 vols. Written with enthusiasm, in the spirit of
the old pilgrimages, more brilliant than instructive, and full of
historical errors. See Munk, Palestine, p. 657.
1810-1816. Johann Ludwig Burckhardt of Basle, Travels
in Syria and the Holy Land, published by the Association for
promoting the Discovery of the interior parts of Africa, with
preface by W.- M.Leake, London 1822.* This work contains
the record of his various travels in Syria, which were intended
to serve as preparative to his labours of discovery in Inner
Africa. His premature death at Cairo in 1817 disappointed his
hope, as well as that of the world. The journey from Damas
cus to the Lebanon took place in the autumn of 1810, shortly
' Respecting Seetzen's papers and journals, see a letter from Prof.
Kruse in the Monthly Gazette of the Berlin. Geog. Soc. New Series, vol. i.
pp. 296-300.
^ It may interest the reader to know, that since the above words were
written, Seetzen's writings have been collected and published in Germany
— the result largely of Ritter's personal influence. — Ed.
^ Robert Walpole, Travels in various Countries of the East, London 1820,
pp, 292-352.
* German Translation, with critical remarks, by Dr Gesenius, Weimar
1823, 2d Pt.

RECENT TRAVELLERS. 63
after the visit of Seetzen, as also did that to Hauran ; jn the
winter of 1812 he went from Aleppo to Damascus ; in the
spring, through the valley of the Orontes to the Lebanon, and
again through Hauran to Tiberias and Palestine ; then in the
summer of the same year, from Damascus through Arabia
Petrsea to Cairo, thence to make that journey of 1816 to Sinai
on which we have already accompanied him. Burckhardt is
recognised as one of the most admirable observers, and one of
the most instructive travellers who have visited the East. His
works have enjoyed the advantage of the editorship of Leake
and Gesenius.^
1814. H, Light, Travels in Egypt, Holy Land, etc., London
1818 ; and (1815) William Turner, Journal of a Tour in the
Levant, London 1820, 3 vols.
1815-1816, Otto Friedrich von Richter, Wallfahrten im
Morgenlande, herausgegeben von J. P. G, Ewers, Berlin
1822, These three works contain important topographical
details, all of which have been turned to profitable service by
Berghaus, 1818. Thomas Legh, Excursion from Jerusalem to Wadi
Musa, in William MacMichael's Journey from Moscow to Con
stantinople, London 1819, The fourth chapter contained the
sketch of his tour from Jaffa to Kerak from April 2 to May
17, 1818 ; then follows the journey to Petra and back. His
course next is from Kerak northward along the east shore of
the Dead Sea to Damascus and Aleppo, His narrative is brief,
but of some value on account of the newness of his route.
The narratives of his companions in travel, Irby and Mangles,
were unfortunately not available to Berghaus in constructing
his masterly map of Syria and Palestine,'
1817-1818. Charles Leonard Irby and James Mangles,
commanders in the Royal Navy, Travels in Egypt, Nubia, Syria,
and Asia Minor, printed for private distribution, London 1823,
Robinson has expressed his regret that the valuable record,
though very hastily written down, of these remarkably obser
vant travellers has never been published to the world. They
had for companions, in the valley of Lake Tiberias, Mr Wil-
1 See Leake respecting the chartographical importance of the work in
the preface ; also Berghaus, Syria Mem. pp. 9-12.
2 Berghaus' Syria Memoir, p. 18.

64 PALESTINE.
Ham John Banks, and in Kerak Mr Legh, whose brief narra
tive was referred to just above. The newness of the routes
which they took,^ particularly in the region east of the Dead
Sea, has given their work a value altogether disproportionate
to its humble pretensions. The fact that Irby and Mangles'
book was never published,' in the booksellers' sense, deprived
von Raumer among others of its service : he had only the
briefer narrative of Legh. And a yet greater subject of regret
is it, that Mr Banks, after his many years of travel in the
East, and with his very extensive information, should be so
stubbornly reticent, at least in regard to the district east of the
Jordan, rich as it is in places of the greatest interest to the
historian and the antiquarian.
I have alluded in the preceding volume to that part of
Irby and ^Mangles' work which relates to the route from Kerak
to Petra; and may now refer to Letter ii. pp. 174-236, the
account of the journey from el-Arish and Gaza to Aleppo,
including the excursion in 1818 to Palmyra ; Letter iv. pp.
285-334, describing the route from Damascus through the
valley of the Jordan to Nablus and Jerusalem ; and Letter v.,
describing the journey along the west coast of the Dead Sea
to Petra, thence back to Kerak, and so up the east shore,
and by a route which embraced Heshbon, Rabbath-Amman,
Jeraj, and Tiberias, to Acre. The map which records
their wanderings has received valuable corrections from, the
hands of Lord Belmore, Capt. Corry, and Lieut.-Colonel
Leake.' 1818. Robert Richardson, Travels along the Mediterranean
and parts adjacent, in company with the Earl of Belmore, 1816-
1818, London 1822, 2 vols. These gentlemen spent only a
hundred and two days in Syria, traversing the more familiar
routes of Palestine, as far south as to the reffion west of the
Bahr el Huleh,' Dr Richardson has been called by English
men, in consequence of his accuracy, the Maundrell of the
nineteenth century.
1 Irby and Mangles, Trav. pp. 183, 232, 333 et seq.
2 When this was written, Ritter was not aware that Mr Murray of
London had published the travels of Irby and Mangles, 2 vols. 16mo.
1844.— Ed.
2 Berghaus, Syria Memoir, pp. 19, 20.

RECENT TRA VELLERS. 65
1816. J. S, Buckingham, Travels in Palestine, through the
countries of Bashan and Gilead east of the river Jordan, includ
ing a Visit to the Cities of Geraza and Gamala, London 1822,
2d ed. 2 vols.; with Travels (by the samey among the Arab
Tribes inhabiting the countries east of Syria and Palestine, 1825.
The last named is a continuation of the first, which closes with
the author's stay in Nazareth during February 1816. The
second narrative takes up the story where the first drops it,
and in the form of a somewhat tedious and disconnected
journal of travel, takes the reader along the east valley of the
Jordan as far as Antioch and Aleppo. Notwithstanding the
bad repute into which this traveller has fallen in consequence
of his appropriation of a part of the honour due to Burckhardt
and Banks for their discoveries, and for abusing their confidence
in his honour by publishing what was not confided to him with
that view, and in spite of the great inaccuracy of Buckingham
in matters which require historical and philological attainments,
yet it would be unjust to deqy him the credit due to a bold and
ardent explorer, and a man whose careful measurements of
angles, distances, levels, and the like, have served as very impor
tant data in enabling Berghaus to complete his admirable map,^
and to insert many particulars which must otherwise have been
omitted. Less important and noteworthy are the unpretending narra
tives of some travellers who visited the Holy Land at almost
the same time with those last mentioned : the observant Swiss
J.' G. Mayr,' 1812-13; T, R, Joliffe, 1817, whose work is a
valuable help to biblical students; Coinpte de Forbin, 1817-18,
enriched with copper-plate sketches ; F, W, Sieber,' 1818 ; Sir
F. Henniker, 1820-21 ; John Came, 1821 ; and Berggren the
Swede, 1821, who paid special attention to the topography of
Jerusalem, The works of all these writers are worth looking ¦
into, and are by no means destitute of merit. In relation to
missions, the condition of the Jews resident in Palestine, and
the religious state of the country, the writings of the mission-
^ Berghaus, Syria Memoir, pp. 12-16.
2 Joh. G. Mayr's Pceise, St Gallen 1820. Only the fourth and fifth
books need be consulted, pp. 301-432.
' F. W. Sieber, Reise von Cairo nach Jerusalem, Leipsig 1823 ; with a
few botanical remarks.
VOL. II. E

66 PALESTINE.
aries, W. Jowett, Pliny Fisk, and Joseph Wolff, are the chief
authorities ; in what pertains to the Catholic foundations of
the land, Dr M. A. Scholz, 1820-21, Reise nach Paldstina und
Syrien, is the most competent guide. The writings of Ruppell,
Laborde, and others, who have confined their researches entirely
to Arabia Petrsea (so far as the country known in the broadest
sense as the Holy Land is concerned), I need not allude to
here. 1829. A. V. Prokesch, Reise ins heilige Land, Vienna
1831. Like all the writings of this author, interesting and
instructive. A, Daldini, Viaggio di Terra Santa, Milano 1830. A work
with which I am as yet unacquainted.
1830-31. Michaud et Poujoulat, Correspondance ^Orient,
Paris 1833, 7 vols. The distinguished name of the historian
of the Crusades is not a correct voucher of the value of this
work, which is of inferior value, and owes what excellence it
does possess to the hand not of .Michaud, but of Poujoulat.
After the History of the Crusades was finished, its author went
to Palestine, in order to study the ground of which he had
written so much. The gentleman above named was his travel
ling companion. So meagre were the results, that, according
to von Hammer,^ a most thorough critic, there are many inac
curacies in the parts which relate even to the country most
closely connected with the sites made famous by the deeds of
the crusaders. More recently still, 1836-39, Poujoulat's bro
ther Baptistin' has visited the country to fill the gaps which
existed in the earlier correspondence. His contributions will
be found in vol. ii. pp. 1-508.
1832-33, Edw. Hogg, Visit to Alexandria, Damascus, and
Jerusalem, London 1835, 2 vols. The influence of the power
ful sway of Ibrahim Pasha in Egypt led to such a degree of
security even in the adjacent Syria, that many travellers. English
men in particular, were induced to visit Palestine. It is true
they often took the old familiar paths, they often dashed hastily
through the country, they often repeated what had been told
before, and yet they have contributed much that was new.
1 In Wien. Jahrh. 1836, Ixxix. pp. 5-102.
" Baptistin Poujoulat, Voyage de VAsie Mineiir en Mesopotamie, a
Palmyre en Syrie, en Palestine et Fjjynt, etc , Paris 1841 2 vols.

RECENT TRAVELLERS. 67
It is unnecessary to name them all : only a few of the most
eminent names need be cited here; among them Dr Hogg,
whose work only touches upon Palestine in the second part ;
John Madox,^ who has contributed some new topographical
data regarding rivers, mountains, and celebrated places ; Rev.
Vere Monro,' whose instructive work has many points of ex
cellence ; Major Skinner,' 1833, who in his journey to India
passed through Palestine as far as Damascus. Soon after
these there followed J. L. Stephens, 1836, an American ; Pax-
ton, 1836-38 ; Rev. C. B. Elliot,* 1836, who, in consequence of
the valuable companionship of G. Nicolayson, a missionary of
great experience and long residence, ought to have made valu
able contributions to our knowledge of Palestine, but whom a
showy pretence to learning and etymological skill often led
into gross errors. Palestine is in the second volume of his
work. Lord Lindsay's^ narrative, written in 1837, and full
of youthful life, has been fully drawn from in the previous
volume. Charles G. Addison and G. Robinson^ are instruc
tive in many particulars, especially in relation to the political
condition and hydrography of the country.
1831-33. At about the same date, two Frenchmen of
deeply religious nature, and of distinguished talents, visited the
Holy Land in the spirit of the devoted pilgrims of the middle
ages, full of an earnest longing to receive a higher consecration
of life amidst the sacred scenes of Bible story, and at the same
time, while strengthening their pious feeling, to do good service
to art and learning. Their model was the brilliant and fanci
ful work of Chateaubriand, their eminent countryman and
predecessor. One of them, the experienced and accomplished

1 John Madox, Excursions in the Holy Land, London 1834, 2 vols.
Reviewed in Wien. Jahrb. vol. Ixxiv. p. 39.
2 Rev. Vere Monro, A Summer Ramble in Syria, Lond. 1835, 2 vols.
' Maj. Skinner, Adventures during a Journey overland to India, etc.,
London 1837.
* C. B. Elliot, Travels in the Three Great Empires, 2 vols. London 1838.
See Wien. Jahrb. vol. Ixxxvii. p. 41, etc.
^ Lord Lindsay, Letters on Egypt, Edom, and the Holy Land, Lond.
1839, 3d ed. in T. ii. pp. 50-232 ; together with letter of Mr Farren.
* C. G. Addison, Damascus and Palmyra, Lond. 1838, 2 vols. ; G.
Robinson, Travels in Palestine and Syria, London 1837, 2 vols.

68 PALESTINE.
Father Marie Joseph de Geramb,^ a clergyman of the order of
Trappists from the Abbey Mont des Olives in Alsace, had been
driven by the Revolution of July from his peaceful home, and
forced by the stormy waves which surged around him, and the
wounds which his native land had received, to find a refuge for
his simple nature in that holy city and home of his faith, for
whose future in his mind, as well as in that of the young and
glowing Alphonse de Lamartine,' there burned a noble hope,
which uttered itself in the fiery language of poetry and patriotic
enthusiasm, De Geramb's work is the edifying and unobtru
sive description of what he had witnessed in the Holy Land
as well as in Egypt,' Not so unpretending, however, are the
Souvenirs of Lamartine, As the title indicates, they do not
propose a scientific treatment of the theme ; and the language
of a thorough orientalist is just, that nothing of a geographical
nature is to be learned from Lamartine's work ; and quite as
little that is authentically historic, since he, like Chateaubriand,
has fallen into many an error. His work, which is universally
known, is valuable for its rich poetic fancies, and its artistic
delineation of the beauties of nature. With Father Geramb's
work we must couple one which followed almost immediately
after, written by Joseph Salzbacher, Prebendaiy of St
Stephen's Church in Vienna, 1839, 2 vols. This work is an
excellent contribution to our knowledge of the present position
of Catholic institutions in Palestine.
1834. Marmont, Due de Raguse, Voyage en Hongrie, etc., en
Syrie, en Palestine, etc., BruxeUes 1837, 4 vols. This work con
tains a very compact account of Palestine, the record of a very
observant mind, and is particularly valuable in its political and
military details. Its contributions to our knowledge of the
physical character of the country are not unimportant, as his
instruments were all trustworthy.
We close this list of authorities on the general character of
the country as a whole, by citing the three most noted works of
all, whose authors followed each other in quick succession, and
1 Rev. Pere Marie Joseph de Geramb, Religieux de la Trappe, Pilgrim
age a Jerusalem et au Mt. Sinai en 1831-1833, Tournay 1836.
2 Souvenirs, Impressions, Pensees, et Passages pendant un Voyage en
Orient, par Lamartine, de I'Academie Francfaise ; Oeuvres, Brux. 1838.
» Wien. Jahrb. 1836, vol. Ixxiv. pp. 4, 15-21.

RECENT TRAVELLERS. 69
traversed all parts of this inexhaustible country, everywhere
bringing new and interesting facts to light. In the preceding
volume, I have so fully quoted from their works, that their
most striking characteristics are already familiar to the reader ;
and it is not necessary here to repeat formally, that they stand
altogether in advance of those who preceded them. Von
Schubert, Robinson, and Russegger, noble, honoured names,
are by a happy fortune my own personal dear friends ;
and 1 cannot forbear returning them my warmest thanks for
the free use of the records of their leisurely journeyings and
unwearied researches in the Holy Land, without which it would
have been impossible for me to have ventured on the prepara
tion of the present work, which owes its best and most impor
tant parts to the results of their patient efforts.
Of Russegger's researches I have spoken so fully in the
preceding volume, that it is unnecessary to recapitulate in this
place, 1836-37, Dr G. H, von Schubert, Reise in das Morgen-
land, Erlangen 1839, of which vol, ii, pp. 462—591, and vol, iii,
pp, 1-390, contain the portion relating to Palestine and Syria.
One of the most learned critics has said as truly as finely, that
Schubert has caught the genuine spirit of the East as almost
no one of his predecessors has done, and reproduced it with a
fidelity and a heartiness which is quite unique, proceeding from
that religious point of view, from which alone the philosophy,
morals, customs, and mode of life in the East can be correctly
appreciated. Without hunting after what is paradoxical, as so
many who went before him have done, and without losing
sight of what is essential and vital by reason of the abundance
and multifariousness of his learning, this author, who undertook
the difficult journey at the age of fifty-six, has accomplished
his task with so much spirit and such signal success, and repro
duced his own impressions with so much freedom and life, and
enriched the mind of his reader with so much that is new
regarding the natural history of the Holy Land, that even
where he recounts what is old and trite, his charmingly written
narrative finds favour ; and everywhere, where he undertakes
to depict the scenery of the country, he does it with a master's
hand, 1838, E, Robinson and E, Smith, Biblical Researches in

70 PALESTINE.
Palestine, Mount Sinai, and Arabia Petrcea in 1838, drawn up
from the original diaries, with historical illustrations by Edward
Robinson, Professor of Biblical Literature in the Union Theol.
Seminary, New York ; with new map and plans in five sheets ;
London, J. Murray, 1841, 3 vols. The same title in the Am.
ed. : Boston, Crocker and Brewster.^
This work, which was originally written in English in
Berlin, was translated into German partly by the author him
self, and wholly under his personal supervision ; and the two
editions, published simultaneously in London and Halle, as
well as that which appeared in Boston, are the author's own.
The only difference is in the dedication : the English edition
being inscribed to Lord Prudhoe [the late Duke of Northum
berland] ; the American, to Rev, Moses Stewart, Professor of
Sacred Literature in the Andover Theological Seminary ; the
German, to the author of this work. The maps, which were con
structed with the rare skill of Dr Kiepert from the voluminous
data furnished by Robinson, the result of his innumerable
measurements, and which were lithographed in the most faith
ful and beautiful manner by H. Mahlmann, raised the charto-
graphy of Palestine one step higher even than Berghaus had
placed it ; and they remain perhaps the very finest efforts of
skill which have appeared either in or out of Germany, and
are inserted on account of their great value in the English,
American, and German editions of the work.
The union of that very close observation of the topogra
phical features of the countiy which characterizes the work of
Burckhardt, with many preparatory studies, particularly with a
thorough familiarity with the Bible, and with philological and
historical criticism, and the thorough acquaintance with the
colloquial language of the country enjoyed by Mr Smith, who
had long been a missionary there, make this work, prepared
as it was after the severest toil, a classic in its own field, — a
production which has already set the geography of the Holy
Land on a more fixed basis than it had ever had before, and
which will ensure its continued advance. No previous work
had collected a greater store of new and important discoveries
of a historico-critical character, says the competent judge,
1 It is hardly necessary to tell the reader that a later and enlarged
edition, with subsequent researches, has been since pubhshed. — Ed.

RECENT TRA VELLERS. ' 71
J. Olshausen ; and the admirable principles of investigation
which are unfolded in Robinson's work, will serve as a beacon
for all future explorers, who shall endeavour to read the word
of God by the light reflected from the scenes amid which it
was recorded. The work has marked an epoch in biblical
geography. The universally recognised merits of its author^ —
who has been, as becomes a true scholar, not grudging in his
commendation of worthy predecessors in the same field, but
who has had at times, in his eager search after truth, to be the
open foe of convent legends, the light tales of tradition, and the
gross historical errors which lay in his way — have not prevented
his being attacked by all kinds of adversaries, some of them
men of superficial attainments, some of them men actuated by
base motives or by passionate animosity.' But Robinson was
not engaged in defending a set of opinions, but in attaining
the truth ; and knowing that every human work has its imper
fections, he did not pretend, as his own pages show, that his
book was a completed production, but rather a careful essay'
towards a result which he believed other men would come to
fulfil in a more perfect ¦ manner than lay within his power.
The task of his life, first to last, lay before him rather than
behind him ; and the German editor of his later researches
(Rodiger) very justly says that Robinson's greatest merit lies
1 Quarterly Review, vol. Ixix. Art. v. pp. 150-185. Wien. Jahrb. der
Literatur, 1842, vol. xcviii. pp. 126, 159, and 1843, vol. cii. pp. 214-235,
von J. Olshausen ; Hallische Allg. Literatur Zeitung, 1842, Nos. 28, 29,
pp. 218-240 ; Nos. 71-73, pp. 561-583, 1843 ; Nos. 110, 111, pp. 265-280,
by Rodiger ; Gross of Wurtemburg, in the fourth No. of the Theol. Stud. u.
Krit. 1843, in Raumer, Beitrage, 1843.
^ Bulletin de la Soc. Geogr. de Paris, 1840, T. xiii. pp. 156-161, in Leon
de Laborde, Commentaire geogr. sur VExode, Paris 1841, in App. i. ; Rev.
Geo. Williams, The Holy City, or Hist, and Topogr. Notices of Jerusalem,
1845. * Bibliotheca Sacra, or Tracts and Essays, etc., editor B. Robinson, New
York, 1843. In this are Researches in Palestine, compiled by the editor
from various communications from Eli Smith and R. S. Wolcott, with a
map, pp. 9-88. The Reputed Site of the Holy Sepulchre, pp. 184-202 ; The
Druzes of Lebanon, pp. 205-253 ; Bibliotheca Sacra and Theol. Review, by
Edwards and Park, New York, 1844, vol. i. ; E. Robinson, Notes on Bibli
cal Geog. pp. 217-221, 598-602, 794-800, vol. ii. pp. 398, 400, vol. v.
1846, pp. 184-214, and Nos. xi. and xii. Of the latter there is a German
translation, Neue Untersuchungen uber die Topographic Jerusalems.

72 PALESTINE.
in his kindling into life that great interest in the topography
of the Bible scenes, which has prompted a very high class of
minds to explore the region with exhaustive skill, — men like
Schultz, Krafft, Tobler, and Gadow, whose works I shall have
occasion further on to use so largely, that I forbear speaking
of them in detail here.
The readers of the preceding volume have already had occa
sion to observe, that in some cases, where the progress of recent
discovery would seem to justify it, I have not hesitated to draw
different conclusions from those reached by my honoured
friend. Instances will occur in connection with Mount Sinai
and Kadesh-Barnea, The superficial and not seldom bitter
criticism which has fallen upon him from prelatical England
and from Catholic France, and the unworthy efforts which
have been made in those two countries to undermine the results
gained by the distinguished American, are in strong contrast
with the thorough and impartial reviews of his work which
have appeared in Germany, Such assaults would never have
been made by men who stopped to consider what were the
fundamental principles of Robinson's method of investigation :
they are such as would be impracticable in many pilgrimages
to the Holy Land ; but in one whose object was confessedly
scientific, they are only to be spoken of highly, and are to be
used as the correct standard of measuring all the works on
Palestine which have been already cited in these pages.
The two fundamental principles which Robinson and Smith
have laid down for their guidance in determining the historical
value of the traditions of Palestine, were these, that different
weight is to be attached — (1) to the later traditions which have
arisen since Constantine's time, and which, springing from the
changed ecclesiastical condition of the land, have been largely
diffused by those who were not the primeval inhabitants of the
country, but resident aliens, so to speak; and (2) to the primi
tive and indigenous traditions, rooted deeply in the Semitic
character, living in the mouths of the common people, and
perpetuating themselves in the local names of places, since the
Arabic now spoken is so akin in its general features to the
Hebrew which it has supplanted, that it changes but slightly
the old words, and leaves the roots visible; while the Greek
never took a firm or lasting hold, and never grafted itself upon

RECENT TRA VELLERS. 73
the national life of the land. The names Diospolis, Nicopolis,
Ptolemais, and Antipatris, have long since disappeared; while
the still older names of Lydda, Emmaus, and others which will
readily recur to the reader's mind, are still found in the Ludd
and Amwas of the present day. These indigenous words were
never regarded as important by the Byzantine ecclesiastical
authorities ; nor were they observed by the earlier travellers,
who surrendered themselves unreservedly to the guidance of
monks, and contentedly received whatever they told them. But
the more ancient tradition both Robinson and Smith found
never to deceive them ; while that which was more modern
continually appealed to other sources of testimony in confirma
tion of itself, especially the Bible, while it very often stood in
direct antagonism even to that to which it appealed. Seetzen
had even earlier called attention to the value of the primitive
Semitic traditions ; for he too had found, in the neighbourhood of
the Dead Sea, and in the lower valley of the Jordan, many words
which carried him back to the remotest antiquity, and which
since the time of Jerome had never found a record in literature.
Of such names Robinson collected a vast number, all of them
of the utmost importance in enabling him to exhume, as it were,
the ancient topography of Palestine.
In order to gain unbiassed results, the American travellers
shunned all the convents on their route, which had before been
the almost exclusive lodging-places of pilgrims (Burckhardt and
Ruppell being the only exceptions). They abjured the com
panionship and the guidance of monks, shunned the usual
routes of travel ; but when their materials were collected, they
compared them with the often-told ecclesiastical traditions, only
to the manifest falseness and untrustworthiness, be it said, of
the latter. Three periods are to be discriminated, however, in
the gradual formation of these discarded traditions; and, as a
general principle, their value grows greater as we recede from
the present time. The first period is that of the fourth century,
whose representatives are the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum and
the Onomasticon of Eusebius and Jerome, and the other writings
of the last-named divine. In these works there is a blending
of ecclesiastical hypotheses and of popular words which dis
appear in the later literature, but which Robinson found to
survive in the mouths of the common people. The second

74 PALESTINE.
period is that of the Crusades, whose traditions are the most
fully portrayed in Brocardus, 1283,— a work of far greater
value, in consequence of its compact topographical descriptions,
than the two thick folios of Quaresmius, written in the middle
of the seventeenth century. In him the follies of the eccle
siastical traditions come to their height.
Following their uniform plan of travel, Robinson and Smith
did not lodge in the convents, but in the open air, or in the
houses of the people, employed the Syrians as their guides,
and struck across the country through the most retired and un
explored byways. Nor did they ask direct questions, which
usually get the answer which the Arab thinks the questioner
wants ; but by the most indirect inteiTogatories and cross
questions, and by comparing the answers gained from different
persons, they at last felt, in most cases at least, that they had
in some measure attained the actual facts. The services of Mr
Smith, who had for many years been a missionary in Syria,
and was perfectly familiar with the popular speech, were indis
pensable. Each traveller kept his own journal, but there was
no comparison on the way: it was only when the work was
composed, that the whole material was canvassed, and the results
established. With these remarks, which seemed a necessary preliminary
to the free use of Robinson's materials, I close my review of
the published authorities on Palestine, I must not withhold
the very cordial thanks which I owe, however, to those gentle
men who have not published the record of their travels, but
who have favoured me with the free use of the manuscripts.

X. CRITICAL AND FRAGMENTARY CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE
PAST TEN YEARS TO THE PARTIAL CORRECTION OR COM
PLETION OF THE ABOVE WORKS.
The accumulation of material in the works mentioned above
has awakened a lively interest in Palestine, and prompted the
desire to explore more in detail what had been left for others
to examine. The spirit of these investigators is a delightful
one, and the results are in many cases very valuable, probing
the subject to the depths without losing themselves in its
breadth. And I must here acknowledge the value of the

FRAGMENTARY CONTRIBUTIONS. 75
monographs, special papers, and briefer notes in some cases,
which have been communicated in both printed and manuscript
form, and in some cases by word of mouth. I can only cite
the most important of them; for they are, in most cases, so
scattered as to be inaccessible for reference should the reader
desire a nearer acquaintance with their contents.
Upon the hypsometrical observations made on the Isthmus
of Suez, in the valley of the Jordan, and in the basin of the
Dead Sea :
Letronne, sur la Separation primitive des Bassins de la Mer
Morte et de la Mer Rouge, et sur la difference de niveau entre
la Mer Rouge et la Miditerranie, Paris 1839, The same, in
.Journ. des Savons, 1835, Aout et Oct.; and Col. Callier,
Lettre in Journ. des Savans, Jan, 1836 and Aout 1838. Com
pare Callier, Note in Bulletin de la Soc. Geogr. Paris, Aout
1838, Letronne, VIsthme de Suez; le Canal de jonction de deux
mers, sous les Grecs, les Remains, et les Arabes. Revue de deux
Mondes, 15 Juill, 1841,
J, Vetch, Inquiry into the Means of a Ship Navigation
between the Mediterranean and Red Seas, London 1843,
Von Wildenbuch, Memoire uber das Nivellement der I^ancl-
euge Suez von Negrelli; and Dr Abeken, Uber die Landenge
Suez in Beziehung auf ihren friihem Zustand, nach Localunter-
suchnngen. Both in MS.
Compte Jules de Bertou, ItinSraire de la Mer Morte par la
Ghor a Akaba, et retour a Hebron, 1838, in the Bulletin de la
Soc. de Geogr. de Paris, T. xi. Paris 1839 ; also Capt. Callier,
Note T, X. 1838.
Compte Jules de Bertou, Memoire S2ir la Depression de la
Valine du Jourdain, et du lac Asphaltite; in the Bulletin above
quoted, tom. xii, 1839, i. pp. 133-135, and P, ii, Nivellement
du Jourdain, pp. 135, 136, with maps,
J. Russegger, Uber die Depression des Todten Meers und des
ganzen Jordanthals vom See Tiberias bis zum Wadi el Ghor,
in Poggend, Annal. vol. liii. No, xvi, pp, 179-194.
E. Robinson, Appendix xxxvii. on the statements of Bertou.
G. H. Moore and W, G. Beke, on the Dead Sea and some
Positions in Syria, in Journ. of the Roy. Geog. Soc. of Lond.
1837, vol. vii.; and in Bibliotheca Sacra, New York 1843.

76 PALESTINE.
Dr G, Parthey, Uber die Einsenkungen unter das Niveau des
Meeres, 1838, MS.
Dr Daubeny, The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,
occasioned by Volcanic Action, in Jameson, Edinburgh Phil.
Journal, Nov, 1826.
Alex. V. Humboldt, Uber die Depression des Jordanthales,
in his Central Asia, also in his Cosmos. [Ritter's references
are to the German edition.]
Von Wildenbruch, Routiers in Paldstina und Syrien, in
Monatsberichte der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde, Neue Folge, Pt. i.
1843; his Vertical Section from Joppa to the Dead Sea by way
of Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem to Lake Tiberias and the
Sources of the Jordan, Pt. iii.; the Vertical Section from Beirut
to Damascus, Pt, iv. ; and the same on the Climatology of
Palestine, Pt. i.
Dr De Forest, Contributions to the Climatology of Palestine,
in Bibliotheca Sacra, New York 1844,
K, V, Raumer, Das ostliche Paldstina und das Land Edom,
in Berghaus' Annalen, Feb. 1830 ; the same, das ostjordanische
Judda, 1834, in Litterarischer Anzeiger fiir Christliche Theo-
logie und Wissens. 1834, Nos. i. and ii.; the same, Beitrdge zur
biblischen Geographic, Leipsig 1843 ; the same, Abhandlung
der tertiaire Kalkstein bei Paris und der Kalkstein des westlichen
Paldstina. To these may be added many new topographical discoveries
on new routes or in special localities, some of the most important
of which are:
Major Robe, Country about the Sources of the Jordan, in
Bibliotheca Sacra, New York 1843.
Sam, Wolcott, Excursion from Jerusalem yIsL Nazareth to
Sidoti and Beirut, in a letter to Eli Smith, in Bib. Sacra, 1843.
Eli Smith, Visit to Antipatris, 1843, in Bib. Sacra.
Sam. Wolcott, Excursion to Masada, in the same; also,
Excursion from Sidon to Baalbek and I^ebanon, in the same ;
also. Excursion to Mar Saba, in the same,
W. M, Thompson, TJie Sources of the Jordan, the T^ake el-
Hiileh, and the adjacent Country, in Bib. Sacra, New York
1846, W, M. Thompson, Journal of a Visit to Safet and Tiberias,
in the Missionary Herald, Boston, Nov. 1837, xxxiii,; Noll

FRAGMENTARY CONTRIBUTIONS. 77
and Moore, in the Journ. of the Roy. Geog. Soc. of Lcmdon,
vol. vii.
E, Robinson's monographs on the following subjects: —
Eleutheropolis, in Bib. Sacra, 1843; on Eleutheropolis, in Bib.
Sac. 1844 ; on Arimathcea, in Bib. Sac. 1843 ; on Ramah
of Samuel, Bib. Sac. 1844; on Legio, Megiddo, Maximian-
opolis, in the same, vol, ii, 1844 ; on Gibeah of Saul, RacheTs
Sepulchre, in B. Sac. 1844, vol, i, ; on the City of Ephraim, the
same, vol, ii,
C. Gaillardot, Carte approximative der Ledja et des contrees
environnantes, dressh pendant la campagne d' Ibrahim Pacha
centre les Druzes, 1838, Taf, ii, in Berlin Monatsber. d. Geogr.
Gesellsch. N. Folge, 1846, vol, iii,
E. G, Schultze, Prussian Consul, Tlie manuscript Record of
Six Visits made to Districts of Palestine very little known, from
1845 to 1847, containing some discoveries, contained in a letter
dated Beirut, Jan. 29, 1848. I may be permitted to add, that
very important investigations are now going on under the direc
tion of Mr Schultze, and that the account of his journey through
the whole province of Galilee, with the original documents
relating to the Knights of St John, and their possessions there
during the Crusades, in his hand, will be received with great
interest, I may also express my personal obhgation for extracts from
letters written by Baruch Auerbach in 1828 ; Dr Jost, 1830 ;
Shwebel Mieg, 1832; A, Bram, 1834; W. G. Beke, 1837;
E. Gross, 1844 ; as well as for the use of the journals of Dr
W, Krafft 1845, Dr Barth 1847, and Mr Gadow,^
J, V, Hammer-Purgstall, Syrien, nach dem Dschihannuma
des Hadschi Chalfa, in Wien. Jahr. d. Literatur, 1836, vol. Ixxiv,
pp. 1-102,
In the Journ. of the Roy. Geog. Soc. of London, vol. xviii.
p. 2, 1848, are three important papers relating to the hydro-
graphical character of Palestine : Robinson, Depression of the
Dead Sea and of the Jordan Valley; Augustus Petermann, on
the Fall of the Jordan; Lieutenant Molineux, Expedition to
the Jordan and the Dead Sea, March 1848, The last contains
1 H. Gadow, Ausflug von Jerusalem uber Jericho au den Jordan, das
Todte Meer und nach Mar Saba, in Zeitsch. der d. morgenl. Gesell. vol. ii.
1848, pp. 52-65.

78 PALESTINE.
the record of the first successful navigation and sounding of
Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea,
A great store of special observations relating to the upper
valley of the Jordan, and particularly its inhabitants, the people
of the Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon, and Hasbeiya, is contained in
the uncommonly valuable, and in original authorities very rich.
Missionary Herald, Boston, U.S., in vols, xxxiii, 1837, and xliii.
1847, for whose welcome use during the years indicated I wish
here to avow my deepest thanks and great obligations to the
Board of American Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and to
the editors of the Herald. These thanks will only be confirmed
in the course of this work by the evident service which I have
drawn from the valuable writings of such men as Eli Smith,
W, Thompson, De Forest, Van Lennup, Calhoun, Whiting,
Hurter, Lanneau, Van Dyck, Beadle, and Hinsdale, among
many others.
Other authorities regarding Jerusalem and northern Syria
will be cited further on, but now I will only append a list of
some of the most serviceable maps of Palestine,

SOURCES.
There exists a mass of old maps of the Holy Land, so vast
that I cannot undertake to survey them all and to report upon
them; but the most of them are of interest only to the anti
quarian, or, at the highest, serve to explain the older volumes
cited above, which, in fact, they were generally intended to
accompany. But the efforts of Seetzen and Burckhardt gave
a new impetus to the chartography of Palestine, which had
necessarily to grow slov/ly up into its present fair proportions,
rejecting the false and fanciful sketches with which our prede
cessors had to be content, and gradually giving the true physical
and topographical character of the land. Much is lacking even
yet, however, and much will be lacking so long as we are desti
tute of accurate astronomical, trigonometrical, and hypsometrical
observations taken over the whole country.
That in the present condition of affairs in Palestine there
is not much ground for hope that this will be accomplished, is
evident; but it is much to be regretted in behalf of science, that

MAPS OF PALESTINE. 79
the results of the trigonometrical survey of the Jordan valley
and of the coast of Palestine, undertaken by the English
Admiralty, and completed in 1841, have not yet been published.
I am very far from wishing to blame the officers of this branch,
above all praise of mine as it is, and which has undertaken such
varied enterprises, and carried them on with such energy and
with so liberal outlay, and to which I am personally under so
great obligations; for I know well what are the difficulties which
must attend the work, engaged as the Admiralty is with eiiter-
prises which extend to every part of the globe. But I have to
regret, nevertheless, that I have not been able to use the results
of that survey as the basis in part of the present volume,
Molineux's Memoir, already cited, is a proof of the cordial
good-will which the English Government^ bear to the progress
of geographical science, as well as that of Sir Francis Beaufort,
whose name is held in such estimation, and to whom I am
under such a weight of obligations that I might venture to call
him with pride my honoured patron.
With Seetzen's manuscript map of the district from Damascus
down the valley of the Jordan to the Ghor at the southern
extremity of the Dead Sea, published in 1810 as a supplement
to the Gotha Monatliche Correspondenz, and engraved and con
structed under the care of Lindenau,'* began the correct know
ledge of the district lying within the basin of the Jordan,
After this appeared the work of the engineers Jacotin and
Paultre,' constructed under the auspices of the French Govern
ment, The possession of Egypt and south-west Palestine by a
European power occasioned the preparation of that great topo
graphical atlas called the Description de VEgypte, whose last
five plates, on a scale of ro o o'^^ of the true size,* comprised the
very valuable maps of Western Palestine. On these the coast
roads from Gaza over Carmel and to Tyre and Sidon are laid
down with praiseworthy detail ; the survey towards the interior
1 W. J. Hamilton, Address to the Roy. Geog. Soc. of London, May 22,
1848, p. 16.
2 Von Zach, Monat. Corresp. vol. xxii. 1810, pp. ^ii-hh'i.
2 Paultre, Carte de la Syrie, Paris 1803.
* Carte topographique de la Egypte et de plusieurs parties des pays
Umitrophes, levee pendant VExpedit. de Varmee Frangais, etc., construite par
Jacotin, Colonel; publ. par ordre du Gouvernement.

80 PALESTINE.
of the country extends only as far as Jerusalem, Nablus, and
Lake Tiberias, and northward to the neighbourhood of el-Hiileh
and to the lower course of the Leontes ; beyond these limits
the power of the French arms did not extend. Unfortunately
the lack of astronomical observations, and a complete ignorance
of the longitude, caused the whole coast between Gaza and Akka
to be set one-third of a degree too far eastward. This led to
much uncertainty, which was only removed, as far as the northern
coast of Syria is concerned, by Captain Gauthier's observations,
1816-20, but which remains in the southern half to the present
day. It will only be removed when the results of the recent survey
undertaken by the English Admiralty shall be published,^
Whatever could be accomplished by acuteness, and the power
of combining the materials at hand, was effected in a really
masterly way by C. F, Kloden,' in his map published 1817,
which, however, he called, in consequence of its small scale, a
mere first effort. With this may worthily be compared the chart
constructed by Dufour,' which ought to bring into harmonious
combination Gauthier's topography, Jacotln's surveys, Paultre's
measurements, Burckhardt's routes of travel, and some still more
recent observations.
The rapid progress of geographical discovery in Palestine,
due to Burckhardt, Buckingham, W, Turner, Richter, Ehren-
berg, Legh, and Henniker, made it possible, ten years later,
for Berghaus to display his well-known chartographical talent
in the construction of the map of Syria (Gotha 1835), to
accompany his masterly atlas of Asia, This work must be
reckoned among the most beautiful and most excellent models
of modern geographical skill; and the admirable explanation
furnished by the author corresponds happily with the value
of the map which it accompanies. We have no need to speak
of the value of this work in full, for Berghaus* has indi-
1 Mr Hamilton, Address to the Roy. Geog. Soc. of London, May 22, 1848
p. Ixxiv. ; and Murchison, Address, May 26, 1845, p. cxxiii. in vol. xiv.
and p. cvii. in vol. xv. [The English maps are now issued.]
2 C. F. Kloden, Landeskunde von Palestina, Berlin 1847. See Preface
to the Map, pp. 125-140.
' A. H. Dufour, Carte de la Palestine adoptee par le Conseil Roy. de
V Instruct, publ. Paris 1825; together with Analyse geographique, etc.
* H. Berghaus, GeograpMsches Memoir zur Erklarung und Erlanterung

MAPS OF PALESTINE. 81
cated in the most complete manner his sources and his principles
of construction, and collected a rich store of authentic and well-
arranged data. His work opens a new era in the chartography
of Palestine and Syria.
I may remark of Berghaus' map, however, without entering
into detailed panegyric, that one great excellence consists in
the clear and accurate portrayal of the routes taken by such
travellers as Burckhardt, Buckingham, Richter, and others, as
well as by the artistic and yet very natural manner in which
it displays the varying elevation of the land, and fills in, in a
manner which would hardly be suspected, and in accordance
with his own fancy, controlled by the analogies of place and cir
cumstance, a mass of conjectural details to supply the deficiency
of personal knowledge. This, although not warranted by all the
circumstances, is the best thing that can be done until the whole
country shall be thoroughly explored; for it prevents that sharp
contrast between those parts of the map which display regions
accurately examined, and those with which we are as yet unac
quainted, and serves to bridge over the necessary blank space.
And how accurately Berghaus has done this conjectural work,
may be seen by comparing his map with the statements of E.
G. Schultze, made after his journey of discovery in 1847, when
he traversed the country between Jebel Safed, north-west of
Lake Tiberias, and Belad Bjerre, south-east of Sur (Tyre), and
south of the Leontes ; a region which that traveller describes
as poetry itself.
If the absolute meagreness of personal observations made it
imperatively necessary to fill in his map with the fancies which
Berghaus' own imagination suggested, another want has impaired
its accuracy in another respect. The mathematical observations
which had been taken when it was constructed, were so few in
number, that no minute triangulation of the whole country could
possibly be effected; and it was impossible to calculate the angles
and estimate nicely the distances without making some errors.
Yet the thorough manner in which the work was done, so far
as the larger triangulation is concerned, is so remarkable that
minor corrections can easily be entered, and the whole attain
an accuracy which is not at all possible in one of those most
der Karte von Syrien, Gotha 1835, pp. 1-48. See a review of this by von
Raumer, in Jahrb. fur wissenschdft. Kritik, Feb. 1836, No. 27, p. 211.
VOL. n. p

82 PALESTINE.
inaccurate and superficial productions which the mere map-
makers turn out so abundantly to mislead the public. The
weakest point of Berghaus' work, however, is one that has been
referred to by others^ — its great deficiency in what relates to
biblical geography.
Yet the map of Palestine prepared still later by von Raumer
did not, with all its accuracy, surpass its predecessor. It is,
however, a work of great merit ; and in its mechanical con
struction and its historical character it did much to pave the
way for a subsequent map,' smaller in scale, but very thorough
and very satisfactory to Bible students. I must not omit to
refer to one prepared by the accomplished J. L. Grimm, very
valuable in its character, but lithographed in a hard and taste
less manner.' Its scale was ^snoso ^^ ^^^ natural size; its
date of publication was 1830.
Like geology, geography is a young and progressive science :
it knows no pause, and with each year it gains new ground,
and pierces to new depths ; and hardly five years had passed
after the efforts last referred to had culminated in their great
perfection, when rich material had gathered itself so profusely
in this field, that it was necessary to construct a new and inde
pendent map of Palestine, which should, so far as the eastern
shore of the Jordan is concerned, do little more than repeat
¦what Berghaus had already given, but which in all that makes
up Palestine proper, should be an original work. This task,
which was to illustrate Robinson's Biblical Researches, was
accomplished by H. Kiepert in so masterly a manner, and in
every respect so thoroughly scientific a spirit, as to win the
applause of all scientific judges, and to be the model for all
following works of its kind. The thousands of aneles and
measurements taken down by Robinson and Smith in their
journeys by highways and byways, though lacking to a cer
tain extent the perfect accuracy of astronomical observations,
have been applied so acutely and with such fine appreciation
1 See HiUer's excellent review of von Raumer's Palestine, and of Berg
haus' map, in Anzeiger der Kbniyl. Bayr. Akad. der Wissenschaften, Munich
1836, No. 236, pp. 837-936.
" Karte von Palastina nach zuverldssigsten alten und neuen Quellen, von
K. V. Raumer und F. v. Stulpnagel. Gotha, J. Perthes.
* Paldstina, von J. L. Grimm, Berlin 1830,

MAPS OF PALESTINE. 83
of the meaning of his guides by Kiepert, that I need only refer
to his own memoir for the best and yet most modest eulogy of
the work,^ It is enough to say, that accurate and close as were
the descriptions and measurements of Burckhardt, those of
the American travellers surpass even his. The two maps of
Palestine are on the scale of jonaoo^ of t^e size of nature, that
of Arabia Petrsea only one-half of that. But in order to meet
the universal want of a good map of Palestine for general use,
and to still keep true to the latest discoveries and the highest
scientific character, while shunning the shallowness and imper
fection which the works of mere tinkers display, Kiepert pub
lished, in 1842, a map of Palestine of reduced size,' on the
scale of g(jg\)^n of the natural size. This came to a second
edition in 1843. In this work, not only did he retain the clear
display of elevation which characterized the larger maps, but
he published a new and original map of the country east of the
Jordan, not following Berghaus any longer, but using still more
recent materials than his predecessor had enjoyed. And at the
time of my writing these words, Kiepert is engaged in revising
the last-mentioned map, and in adding the results of the very
latest investigations, involving a labour of which the copyists of
copyists have no conception, — the men who follow their own taste
and fancy, and think that a medley of names, thickly sown, and
handsome colouring and artistic engraving, constitute a valuable
map. They confuse dates, names, and varieties of spelling in
the most irregular manner, and do more to perplex than to
enlighten the student who consults them. Among the most
noteworthy of these, which I purposely forbear to speak of in
any fulness, is unfortunately to be reckoned a map of Palestine,
drawn by the estimable Jean van de Cotte,' and published at
Brussels by the Vandermaelen establishment ; a very attractive
work, but of which it is enough to say in a single word, that,
as the accompanying memoir indicates, though claiming to
' Atlas in filnf Bldtt. zu Robinson's Palestina, construirt von Heinrich
Kiepert, und lithographirt von W. Mahlmann, Berlin 1840-41.
^ Karte von Palestine nach Robinson und Smith, bearbeitet von H. Kiepert,
herausgegeben von C. Ritter. Berlm, Schropp, 1843.
3 Carte topographique de la Palestine, dresser d'apres la carte topo-
graphique de Jacotin, beaucoup augmentee par Jean van de Cotte, cur6.
BruxeUes 1847,

84 PALESTINE
be the product of five years' labour, it com.pletely ignores the
labours of Robinson and Kiepert, and while using the works
of Berghaus and Jacotin, yet appeals to the very earliest
chartographical efforts relating to Palestine, and places the
maps produced in the middle ages — those of Brocardus, Adri
chomius, etc. — in the same rank, and by the side of those which
have incorporated the discoveries of Malte Brun, Chateaubriand,
Lamartine, and Geramb, serving up the whole legendary
medley under the name of a topographical map of Palestine,
Far more faithful are the two American works just published,
that of Colton in New York, and of Tracy in Boston, who have
followed the latest and best authorities, much as they have left
to be desired,*
To the fresh contributions which have been made to the
materials available for chartographical purposes, in addition to
the recent routes opened across the et-Tih desert by Russegger,
Callier, and Abeken, there are the following to be appended :
A very valuable map of the whole western section of the
upper valley of the Jordan has been prepared under the
auspices of the French Government, but which has unfortu
nately not yet been published. The scale is s-ffo'injff of nature,
I possess this work through the kindness of Col, Callier, and I
can only regret that it is not accompanied by letterpress, which
would add so much to its value. This is, in a certain measure,
supplied by the hasty sketch' which he has given of his wander
ings' through Syria, which extended from Gaza and Hebron to
the sources of the Jordan and the Orontes, as far northward
indeed as to Tripoli, Callier's map gives also the routes of
Beaufort de Hautpouls and of A, de Caramans,
Major Robe, Country around the Sources of the Jordan, from
1 Samuel Wolcott, in Bibl. Sacra, vol. iv. 1845, pp. 588-590.
2 Carte de la Syrie meridionale, et de la Palestine, dressee en 1835, d'apres
les ordres du Directeur du Depot General de la Guerre, Lieut. -Gen. Pelet,
p. CamUle Callier, Chef d'Escadr. au Corps Roy. d'Etat Major, d'apres
ses observations et reconnaissances faites en 1832 k 1833, a I'Echelle de
* Camille CaUier, Voyage en Asie Mineure, Syrie, etc., Memoire in Bidl.
de la Soc. de Geogr. de Paris, Jan. 1835, 2 ser. T. iii. pp. 7-22. Com
pare C. Callier et Poulain de Bossay, Note sur quelques explorations a faire
en Syrie, en Palestine, et dans V Arabic Petree, in Bullet, etc. T. ix. 1838,
pp. 40-49.

MAPS OF PALESTINE. 85
the Bibliotheca Sacra, 1843 ; a map accompanying an article
already referred to.*
Plate V. to accompany the text of L. von Wildenbruch's
article already mentioned, contains his routes in Syria and
Palestine, very carefully detailed.
E. Gaillardot's Map of the Ledja, 1838 ; in the Monatsb.
1846. A small sketch prepared by S. Wolcott to illustrate the west
coast of the Dead Sea, and giving the situation of Masada.
The publication of the Admiralty survey of Syria would
revolutionize the existing state of knowledge, and would make
it necessary to reconstruct the maps of Palestine de novo. It
is to be hoped that that event will take place,' and that the
world will be enabled to enjoy the valuable results of that
expedition which owes so much to the liberality of the English
Government. The results of this survey will embody the trigonometrical
observations and the vertical measurements between the Medi
terranean Sea and the valley of the Jordan, and will establish
the height of its lakes as compared Avith the sea-level. The
points of triangulation embraced Jaffa, .Jerusalem, and the
Dead Sea, at the south ; and Cape Blanco, Safed, and Lake
Tiberias, at the north.' Valuable as have been the labours of
von Schubert, de Bertou, Russegger, Moore, Beke, De Molineux,
and von Wildenbruch, they can be regarded as merely pre
liminary to the perfected efforts which have been made under
the auspices of the English Government.
It may not be unprofitable to specify some of the illustrated
works which have contributed to our more complete knowledge
of the Holy Land.
Eighty very beautiful views of the most striking landscapes
in Palestine, executed on steel by the celebrated artist Bartlett.*
1 Berlin Monatsber. der geograph. Gesellsch. das 4 Jahrg. 1843, Tab. 1,
p. 125. 2 Murchison, Address, etc. 1844, p. cxxiii.; and 1845, p. cviii. [It
should be added that Ritter's wish has now been accomplished. — Ed.]
3 W. R. Hamilton, Address, etc. 22d May 1843, p. Ixxiv.
4 The Christian in Palestine, or Scenes of Sacred History, Historical and
Descriptive, by H. Stebbing ; illustrated from sketches taken on the spot
by W. H. Bartlett, London.

86 PALESTINE.
By the same artist, in folio form, Comparative View of the
Situation and Extent of ancient and modern Jerusalem; from
sketches taken on the spot by W. H. Bartlett, and lithographed
by J. C. Bourne, London.
The views taken by the Scotch painter, David Roberts,* are
of the very highest order of merit, giving a faithful representa
tion not only of the landscape, but also of the architecture of
the country.
In addition to these excellent authorities relating to the
geography of Palestine, there is another class to be added, the
same which is met in all the other ancient homes of civilisation,
namely that derived from architecture, inscriptions, and coins,'
although such are less common here than in many other coun
tries where the arts once fiourished. They will be referred to
in subsequent pages, for the study of them has progressed to
a considerable extent. The architecture of the Romans is dis
criminated from that of the Saracens and Crusaders, and a
large number of inscriptions have been successfully deciphered.'
[Taking up this point where Ritter has left it, I subjoin a
list of all works, important papers, and maps relating to the
Holy Land between the commencement of 1852 and the close
of 1865, It is believed that the catalogue is nearly perfect. —
Ed.]
De St jMartin : Les vieux Voyageurs k la Terre Sainte d'en
xiv"^ and xvi"« Siecle. Nouv, Annal. d. Voy. 1853.
Strauss, F. A. : Sinai und Golgotha.
Recentes explorations faites en diveres parties de la Palestine
depuls le voyage de Smith et Robinson : 1. Recherches du
1 La Terre Sainte, Vues et Monuments, recueillis par David Roberts de
I'Academie Roy. de Londres, avec une description historique sur chaque
Planche, edit. BruxeUes, Soc. de Beaux Arts, folio, 1843-1845, 10
Livraisons. 2 A. Boeckh, Corpus Inscript. Grxcarum, vol. iii. Fascic. i. Berolini
fol. 1844 ; Pars xxvi. Sec. v. Palxstina, Trachonitis, et Auronitis, fol. 244-
274, from No. 4537 to 4666, ed. by J. Franz.
3 Theatrum bellorum a cruce signatis gestorum, quo scriptores illorum
temporum, prxsertim Archiepisc. Will. Tyrensis facilius intelUgerentur, man-
dafu Regix Inscr. et humanior. Letter. Academ. disposuit et xri incidit
J. S. Jacobs. 1842.

MOST RECENT WORKS ON PALESTINE. 87
Capt. Newbold aux environs de Jerusalem, Nouv. Annal,
de Voy, 1852-53.
Schwartz, J. : Das heilige Land nach seiner ehemaligen und
jetzigen geographischen Beschaffenheit.
Plitt, Th. : Skizzen aus einer Reise nach dem heiligen Land,
Schiferle, J, : Reise in das heilige Land,
Gehlen, F, J, : Aus den Erlebnissen und Forschungen eines
Pilgers zum heil. Lande.
Gossler, H, : Pilgerreise nach Jerusalem,
Rathgeber, A, : Palastina,
Robinson, E. : Abriss einer Reise in Palastina in 1852.
Zeitschr, d. deutsch. morgenland, Gesellsch, 1853,
FIsk, G, : A Pastor's Memorial of the Holy Land.
Cox, F, A. : The Geography, Topography, and Natural His
tory of Palestine,
Guest, J, C, : Geographical and Historical Dictionary of
Palestine,
Macdougal, T, St C, : Outlines descriptive of Modern Geo
graphy, and a Short Account of Palestine.
Bannister, J, T, : A Survey of the Holy Land.
Churton, H. B. W. : Thoughts on the Land of the Morning.
Cox, F. A. : Biblical Antiquities.
Wilbraham, C. P. : Description of Canaan.
Anderson, J, : Wanderings in the Land of Israel and the
Wilderness of Sinai,
Three Weeks in Palestine and Lebanon.
Hahn-Hahn (Countess) : From Jerusalem.
Terwecoren, E. : BethMem, D'apres les notes in^dites de deux
Voyageurs Beiges,
An Excursion from Jericho to the Ruins of the ancient Cities
of Geraza and Ammon,
Lynch, W, F. : The Narrative of the U, S, Expedition to the
Jordan and the Dead Sea. Review in the Journal d.
'Savants, Sept, 1851 and Aug, 1852,
Lynch, W, F. : Official Report of the above,
De Saulcy, F, : Voyage autour de la Mer Morte et dans les
terres bibliques, execute de Decembre 1850 a Avril 1851,
The same, translated and edited, with notes, by Count Edw.
de Warren. Reviews of the same in the Dublin Rev. Oct.
1853, and the Athenaeum, 1853.

88 PALESTINE.
De St Martin : Sur le Site de Tzoar on Segor.
Delesserti, E. : Voyage aux villes maudites, Sodome, Gomorrhe,
etc.
Tobler, T. : Denkblatter aus Jerusalem.
The same : Topographic von Jerusalem.
Zimpel, C. F. : Neue orthche topographische Beleuchtung
der heilig. Weltstadt Jerusalem.
Bartlett, W. H. : Walks about Jerusalem.
Mariti : Etat present de Jerusalem.
Michon : Authenticity du Saint-Sepulchre.
Bartlett : Forty Days in the Desert.
Berggren, J. : Fl. Josephus, der Fiihrer und Irrfuhrer der
Pilger in alten und neuen Jerusalem.
Note sur un voyage inedite k la Terre Sainte en 1470. Nouv.
Annal. d. Voy. 1854.
Hllber, J. : Pilgerreise in das heil. Land in 1851-2, pub. in
1854.
Beiling, C. : Der Christliche Fiihrer in das heil. Land.
Gosse, P. H. : Ancient and Modern History of the Rivers of
the Bible,
Newbold : On the Lake Phlala. Jour. Roy, Asiat, Soc, 1864:
Fallmeyayer : Das Todte Meer, Abhand. der hist. Class, der
K. Bayer, Akad, d. Wiss. 1853,
The Dead Sea and Its Explorers. No. 3 in Library of Biblical
Literature.
Ritter, C. : Mer Morte et ses bords : cours du Jourdain. See
rinstitut. ii. sect. 1853.
De Saulcy : Voy. autour de la Mer Morte. Noticed in Nouv.
Annal. d. Voy. 1853. (See above.)
Lynch's Work, translated into German by Meissner.
Isambert : Rapport sur les voyages de Lynch et Saulcy. Bullet.
de la Soc. de Geog. 1853.
De Saulcy : La Palestine, etc. Revue de I'Orient, 1854.
Allen, W, : An attempt to account for numerous Appearances
on the sides of the Basin of the Dead Sea, Jour, of the Roy,
Geog, Soc, 1853,
The Jordan and Idum^a. From the Monthly Vol. of the Rel.
Tract Soc,
La Condamine : Jerusalem et les lieux Saints, Revue de
I'Orient.

MOST RECENT WORKS ON PALESTINE. 89
Allen, W. : On the Watershed of Wadi el Araba. Jour, of
Roy. Geog. Soc. 1853.
Notes on Syria. Putnam's Monthly, 1855.
Von Kremer : Topographic von Damascus. In Zeitschr. d. K.
Akad. d. Wissensch. vol. vi, 1855,
La Syrie et la Palestine, In Revue de I'Orient, 1855,
Experiences in Mount Lebanon, Putnam's Monthly, 1855,
Seetzen, U, .T, : Reisen durch Syrien, Palastina, Phoenicien, etc.
Strauss, F. A, : Sinai und Golgotha,
Enault, L. : La Terre Sainte, The same, reviewed by Malte-
Brun in Nouv. Annal. de Voy. 1855.
Pfeiffer, J. : Reise einer Wienerin in das heil. Land.
Konig, J, : Palastina.
Schultz, E. W. : Reise in das gelobte Land.
Bassler, F. : Das heilige Land, etc.
Roberts, D. : Sketches in the Holy Land, Syria, Idumsea,
Egypt, and Nubia.
Bernatz, J. M. : Album des Heiligen Landes.
Allen, W. : The Dead Sea, a New Route to India.
Kenrick, J. : Phoenicia. The same, reviewed in the Nat. Rev.
1856.
Wortabet, G. M. : Syria and the Syrians.
Gicquel : Destruches, Beyrouth ; Situation, Commerce, Ac-
croissement. Rev. de I'Orient, 1856.
Porter, J, L, : Five Years in Damascus ; including an account
of the history, etc., of that city, with travels and researches
in Palmyra, Lebanon, and the Hauran.
Fragmente aus einer Reise nach Syria und Palastina, In Aus-
land for 1856, No, 11.
Westhaus, Th, : Palastina oder das heilige Land zur Zeit Jesu.
Rathgeber, A, : Palastina, Land und Volk.
Azais : Pelerinage en Terre Sainte,
Ritchie, W, : Azuba, or the Forsaken Land.
Stanley, A. P, : Sinai and Palestine,
Van de Velde, C, W, M. : Reise durch Syrien und Palastina,
The same, in English and Dutch.
Les Corrieres de Jerusalem. L'Athenseum Fran9ais.
Reiseskizzen aus Syrien und Palastina. Ausland 1856, No. 24.
Gu^rin, V. : De ora Palastinae a promontorio Carmelo usque
ad urbem Joppam.

90 PALESTINE.
Des Ritters Bernard v, Hirschfeld im J, 1517 unternommene
und von ihm selbst beschreibene Wallfahrt zum heil. Grabe.
Herausg. von Mencwitz. In Mitt, d, deutsch. Ges. in
Leipsig, 1856.
Hahn, H. : Die Reise des heil. Willibald nach Palastina,
Loritz, P, M. : Blatter aus dem Tagebuch meiner Pilgerreise.
Cinq Annees de voyage en Orient par Israel Joseph Benjamin
II,
Resebeskrifningar ofwer Palestina och Egypten, etc.
Beaumont, W. : A Diary of a Journey to the East.
Robinson, E, : Bib. Researches in Pal, etc, 3 vols.
Rosen : Ueber die Lage des alten Debir in Stamme Juda.
Zeitsch. der d. Morgend. Gesell. 1857.
Dupuis, H. L. and J. : The Holy Places.
Hoffman, A. G. : Ein Gang durch Jerusalem. Ausland, 1856,
No. 43.
Tobler, T. : Die Baumwollenhohle in Jerusalem. Petermann's
Mitthell. 1856,
Wendt, R. : Der Teich Hiskias und der obere Gihon, Bullet,
de r Acad. de. St Petersbourg.
Sinai, Palestine, and Mecca. A rev, in Ed, Rev, 1856,
Syriens Schiffahrt und Handel in 1855,
Delatre, L. : Esquisse de la Vie Syrienne. Rev. de I'Orient,
1856.
Reiseskizzen aus Syrien und Palastina, Ausland, 1856, No. 40.
Farman, S. : Damascus and some of its Recollections.
Conrad, G. : Das heilige Land.
Aus den Briefen der osterreicheschen Pilger nach Pal, Bote
f. Tirol, 1856.
Poole, H. : Report of a Journey in Pal, Jour, Rov, Geog,
Soc, 1856,
Stewart, R. W. : The Tent and the Khan,
Tobler, T, : Neue Forschungen in Jerusalem. In Petermann's
Mitthell, 1857,
Hoffman's Gang durch Jeru, Rev, in Ausland, 1856, No. 43,
Guerin, V. : Description des mines d'Ascelon. Bullet, de la
Soc, de Geog. 1857,
Poole, H. : On the Determination of the Shores of the Dead
Sea, Proceed, Roy. Geog. Soc, 1857,
Marktscenen in Damascus. Ausland, 1857, No. 35.

MOST RECENT WORKS ON PALESTINE. 91
Asneung, X, : On the Druses of Mt, Lebanon. Athenaeum,
Apr. 25, 1857.
Van Dale, J. H, : Beknopte aardrijkskunde von Palestina,
Van Osterzee, H, M. C. : Karte Schets der bijbelsch-aardrijks-
kunde.
Van de Velde, C. W. M. : Le Pays d'Israel.
Wylie, J. A, : Ruins of Bible Lands.
Georgi, Otto : Die heiligen Statten der Christenheit.
Stanley: Sin. and Pal. Reviewed in Nouv. Annal. de Voy. 1857.
Roth, J. B. : Reise von Jerusalem und dem Todten Me(jr durch
die Araba. In Petermann, Mittheil. 1857.
Prime, W. C. : Tent Life in the Holy Land.
Bassi, Aless. : Pellegrimaggio storico di Terrasanta.
Passuello, Ant, : Viaggio a Gerusalemme,
Clements, H. G, J. : Reminiscences of Pilgrimage,
Strigl, J. : Getreue und umstandliche Beschreib, der Zweit,
Pilgerfahrt, etc.
Petersen, Th. E, : Et Besag i Jerusalem og Omegn.
Wolff, P. : Jerusalem (an illustrated work).
Salzmann, A, : Jerusalem (a collection of photographs taken
in the Holy Land),
Petermann, A. : Die Meereshohe des Wady el Arabah. Pet,
Mittheil. 1857.
Bonar, H. : The Desert of Sinai.
Hamilton, James : Sinai, the Hedjaz and Soudan, etc.
Lottin de Laval : Voy, dans la Peninsule Arabique du Sinai,
etc. Noticed also in Zeitschr, d, allg. Erdkunde, 1857,
De Belgiojoso : Asie Mineure et la Syria.
Malan, S. C. : The Coasts of Tyre and Sidon.
Graham, Cyril C. : His discoveries noticed in Petermann's
Mittheil, 1858,
Wetzstein : Ueber die Wiisten Stadte im Hauran. In Zeitsch.
d. allge. Erdk. 1858.
De Caumont : Voyaige d'oultremer en Jh^rusalem, etc.
Bodemann, F. W. : Das heil. Land.
Garbs, F, A, : Land und Volk des alten Bundes.
Bonar, H. : The Land of Promise,
Sacred Places : A Series of Ten Views,
Toblers Wanderungen. Noticed in Petermann's Mittheil. 1858,
Hatala, P. : Vezerlapok a szent foldre.

92 PALESTINE.
Hovanyi : Nehany Het a szent foldon.
Valentiner, F. : Beitrag zur Topogr. des Stammes.
Benjamin : Z. d. deutsch. morgenland. Gesell. 1858.
Barclay, J. T. : The City of the Great King,
Roth, J, B. : Reise nach Palastina. In Petermann's l\Iitt. 1858
and 1 859. Same vols, contain other collateral articles.
Porphirig, A, : Das Christliche Morgenland, Egypten und Sinai.
Marsh, G, P. : Briefliche Bemerkungen iiber Petra. Z. der
deutsch. Morgenland. Ges, 1858.
Murray's Handbook for Syria and Palestine,
Fearley, J. L. : Two Years in Syria.
Kitto, J. : Palestine.
Russell, M. : Palestine.
Johnson, S. B. : Hadji in Syria.
Azais et Domerque, C. : Journal d'un Voy. en Orient.
On a new Survey of Palestine. Petermann Mitt. 1858.
Loth's Travels, etc. P. Mittheil. 1857 and 1858 ; Zeits. d. all.
Erd. 1858.
The River Jordan, pictorial and descriptive.
Rosen, G. : Ueber das Thai, etc. Hebrons. Z. d. deutsch.
morgenl. Ges, 1858.
Graham, C, C. : Explorations in the Desert east of the
Hauran. Pro. of Roy, Geog, Soc, 1858.
Ritter, C. : Zwei Entdeckungsreisen durch Wetzstein und
Graham. Z. f. allg. Erdk. 1858 ; Monatsber. d. k. Preuss.
Akad. d. Wissen, 1858.
Guys, Ch. : Considerations sur les Maronites et sur les Druses,
Rev. de I'Orient, 1858,
Graham, C, C. : The Ancient Bashan and the Cities of Og.
Cambridge Essays, 1858,
Graham's Discoveries noticed in Z, f, allg. Erdkunde, 1858.
Ritter's Report on Wetzstein's and Graham's Explorations.
Trans, and pub. in New York Observer, May 1859.
Bridges, G, W. : Palestine as it is. Photographic views,
Thompson, W, M, : The Land and the Book,
Soffr, F, : Palsestlna neb Zeme swata.
Osburn, H. S, : Palestine, Past and Present,
Present Condition of Palestine, discussed in Ausland 1859,
No. 10.
Lorenzen, F. R. : Jerusalem.

MOST RECENT WORKS ON PALESTINE. 93
Mayer, Ph. : Erinnerungen aus Jerusalem und Palastina.
Altmuller, H, W. : Jerusalem nach seinem ortlichen Lage.
Graham's Explorations, Jour, Roy, Geog, Soc. 1858,
Rey, E, G, : Une Visite aux Ruines de Kannaouat, dans le
Hauran, Nouv, Annal, de Voy, 1859,
Wetzstein, J. G. : Reise in den beiden Trachonen und um das
Hauran Gebirge, Z, d, allg, Erd, 1859.
Wetzstein, J. G. : Mittheilungen iiber Hauran und die
Trachonen. Same journal and same date.
Tobler, T, : Dritte Wanderung nach Palastina,
Birdcatching in Palestine, Chambers' Journ. 1859.
Sallmann, E. : Wandkarte des heil. Landes.
Nablus und die Samariter, Grenzboten 1860.
Guys, H. : Beyrout et el Liban.
Guys, H. : Voyage en Syrie.
Documents sur la Religion des Druses. Rev. Orient, et Amerlc.
1859.
Geog. and Geo!, of the Eastern Districts of Syria. Ed. New
Phil. Journ. 1860.
Rey, E. G. : Voyage dans le Haouran.
Wetzstein, J. G. : Reiseberichte iiber Hauran.
Von Raumer, Palastina.
De Zwart, A. C. : Handleiding bij de aardrijkskunde von
Palestina,
Granlund, V. G, : Palsestlna,
Unruh, G, : Der Zug der Israeliten,
Cubley, L. M, : The Hills and Plains of Palestine,
Bourasse, J. J, : La Terre Sainte,
Isambert, E, : Une Visite au Temple de Jerusalem, Bull, de
la Soc. de Geog. 1860.
Dornis, A. W, C. : Geschiedkundige geograf. statisticke schets
outrent het Syrische rik, etc,
Ponjade, E. : Le Liban et la Syrie.
Dubois, Th. : Des populations du Liban, et principalement des
Druses, In Rev, Germanique, 1860,
Urquhart, D.: The Lebanon, Reviewed in Athenseum, 1860.
Cowper, B. H. : Sects in Syria.
Die Maroniten, In Ausland, 1860, No. 37.
Carnarvon : Recollections of the Druses of the Lebanon. Re
viewed in Athenseum, I860.

94 PALESTINE.
Documents sur la th^ologie des Druses. In Rev. Orientale et
Americaine, 1860.
Nachricht fiber die Reise des Consul Wetzsteiin's von Damascus
nach Kal. Z. f. allg. Erd. 1860.
Der Hauran, etc. In Ausland, 1860, No. 48.
Hogg, J. : On Jebel Hauran. In Rep. of Brit. Ass. for the
Ad. of Science, 1859.
The Druses of the Hauran. In Colburn's New Monthly Mag.
1860,
Von Kremer: iiber Damascus, etc. In Ausland, 1860, No. 31,
Ein Ausflug von Damascus nach Sekka und Gassub. Z. f,
allg. Erdk. 1860.
Bellew, J. C. M. : Over the Lebanon to Baalbek. In Tem. Bar,
1860,
Description de Baalbek, In Nouv, Annal. de Voy. 1860.
Kitto, J. : Phys. Geog, of the Holy Land.
Granlund, V, G. : Paljestina,
Kuthner, A. : Geografie von Palastina.
Analysis of the Geog, of Palestine.
Ludolf von Suchen : Reisebuch ins heil. Land.
Gondek, F. : Wspomnlenia z. Pielgrznki d. Ziemi Swetey,
odbytej w. 1859, roku.
Scherer, H. : EIne Oster Reise ins heilige Land.
Flledner, T. : Reizen in het heil. Land.
Voyages en Palestine. In Le Tour du Monde, 1860.
Messmer, J. : Das heil. Land,
Tobler's Dritte Wanderung, Reviewed in Ausland, 1860, No.
49 ; and in Nouv. Annal. de Voyages, 1860.
De Bertou : Le mont Hor, le Tombeau d' Aaron, etc.
Kent, Ch. : Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Golgotha. In Colburn's
New Monthly, 1860.
Threte, H. : Jerusalem, seine Lage, etc.
Rosen, G. : Topographlsches aus Jerusalem, Z. d, deutsch,
morgen, Gesell. 1860.
The same: Ueber Nablus und Umgegend, Same journal,
same year.
Der Stand der Dinge zu Jerusalem. In Ausland, 1860, No. 31,
Du Couret, L. : Life in the Desert,
Heyd: Die italienischen Handelscolonlen in Paliistlna. In Z.
f, d, ges. Staatswissenschaft.

MOST RECENT WORKS ON PALESTINE. 95
Aucapitaine, H. : Notes de Voyage. In Nouv, Annal, d, Voy,
1860.
Screiben von Skene : Ueber die arab. Beduinen in Syrien, In
Ausland, 1861, No. 15,
Die Drusen nach Berichten eines Drusen, Grenzboten
1860,
Bourquenond, A. : Memoire sur les ruines de Seleucie.
Spall, A, : Souvenirs d'un voyage au Liban. In Le Tour du
Monde.
Wetzstein's Journey into Trachonitis and the Hauran. In New
York Observer, 1861, No. 1969.
Doergens, R. : Wetzsteins und Doergens Reise. In Z. f . allg.
Erdk. 1860,
Rey, G. : Voyage dans le Haouran. Reviewed in Nouv. Annal.
d. Voy. 1861.
Meen, J, A, : Histor. and Descrip, Geog. of Palestine.
Tobler, T, : Das heil. Land, etc. In Ausland, 1861, No. 1.
The same : Die Omar Moschee in Jerusalem. Same journal.
No. 14.
Renan, E. : Mission scientifique en Orient. In Nouv. Annal. d.
Voy. 1861.
Desjardins, E. : La Phenicie orientale, et Occident. In Rev.
Orient, et Americ. 1860.
Poulain de Bossay: Recherches sur la Topog. de Tyr. In
Bullet, de la Soc. de Geog. 1861.
Aucapitaine, H.: Notes sur le Belad Haouran. In Nouv.
Annal. de Voy. 1861.
Doergens, R.: Astronomische Ortsbestimmungen und baro-
metrische Hohemessengen in Syrien und Palastina. In Z.
f. allg. Erdk. 1861.
Harvey, Mrs : Our Cruise in the " Claymore."
A Visit to the Cedars of Lebanon, In Naut. Mag. 1861.
Beaufort, E, A.: Egyptian Sepulchres and Syrian Shrines.
See also Athenaeum, 1861.
Wetzstein : Lebensbilder aus der Beduinen und Drusenwelt.
In Ausland, 1861, No, 30,
De Bossay, Poulain : Recherches sur la Topog. de Tyr,
Mongel Bey : Port de Said.
Verzeichniss einer Sammlung von Reisen ins heil. Land, In
Petzhold, N, Anzeiger fiir Bibliographic, 1861.

96 PALESTINE.
Strauss, F. A, und Otto : Die Lander und Statten der Heiligen-
schrift,
Tobler, T.: Analecten aus Palastina. In Ausland, 1861, No. 37.
Zimmermann, C: Geog. Analyse zu dem Versuch einer Con
struction der Karte von Galilaa.
Ein Rundgang um Jerusalem. In Ausland, 1861, No. 32.
Steudner: Die deutsche Expedition bei den Moses Quellen.
In Petermann's Mittheil. 1861.
Churchill : Mount Lebanon.
Churchill : The Druses and the Maronites.
Aucapitaine, H.: Etude sur les Druses. In Nouv. Annal. de
Voy. 1862.
Renan, E.: Mission arch^ologique de Phenicie. In I'lnstltut
Sciences hist. 1862.
Mission de Phenicie. Rev. archeol. 1862.
Poulain de Bossay : Observations sur I'un des rapports de !M.
Renan. In Bullet, de la Soc. de Geog. 1862.
Beke, Ch.: Harran of the Columns. In Athenseum, 1861, No.
1778.
Ainsworth, W. F. : Haran of the Bible. In same journal, No.
1779.
Porter, J, L.: Site of Haran. Same, No, 1780,
Beke, Ch. : .Jacob's Route from Harran, Same journal, No.
1790,
Beke, Ch.: Harran of the Bible. Same journal. No. 1792.
Jukes, J. B.: Harran of the Bible. Same journal. No. 1796.
Tischendorf, C: Aus dem heil. Lande.
Sepp : Jerusalem und das heil. Land.
Von Noroff, A.: Meine Reise nach Palastina.
Travels In the Holy Land. Colburn's New Monthly, 1862.
Unruh, G.: Das alte Jerusalem,
Besuch einlger alten Todesstatten. In Ausland, 1862, No, 22,
Ceremonies de la Semaine sainte a Jerusalem, In Le Tour du
Monde, 1862, No. 119,
Ein Besuch des Judenquartiers zu .Jerusalem, Ausland, 1862,
No. 1.
Die Juden .Jerusalem, In Ausland, 1862, No, 19,
Zwei Ausfliige in die nahere Landschaft bei Jerusalem, Same
journal, 1862, No, 17,
Von Raumer, K. : Bemerkungen bezuglich der neuen Reise, etc.

MOST RECENT WORKS ON PALESTINE. 97
Reise van de Veldes nach der Sinit. Halbinsel. Petermann's
Mittheil. 1862.
Edwards, R.: La Syrie, 1840 to 1862.
Desmoulins : Renseignments hydrographiques et statistiques sur
la Cote de Syrie.
Guys, H. : Esquisse de I'etat politique et commercial de la Syrie.
Louet, E.: Expedition de Syrie.
Wetzstein : Ueber die Reisen des frans. Waddinston in Syrien.
In Z. f, allg, Erdk, 1862.
Beke, Ch. T,: Excursion to" Harran in Padan-Aram. In Pro
ceed, of Roy. Geog, Soc. 1862,
Beke and Porter : Site of Haran, In Athenseum, 1862, No.
1804.
Ten Days on Mount Lebanon. In Tem. Bar, 1862.
Hooker, J. D.: The Cedars of Lebanon. In Athenseum, 1862,
No. 1830.
Wilkinson : same subject. Athenseum, No. 1829 ; and Ausland,
1862, No. 51.
Redslob, G. M. : Ueber die Namen Damask und Damast. Z.
d. deutsch. morgen. Gesell. 1862.
Damascus, In Ausland, 1862, No. 23,
Bovet, F, : Reis door het heil. Land,
Gerdes, E.: Naar Jeruzalem en het heil. Land,
Garbs : Land und Volk des alten Bundes,
Isaacs, Ab,: A Pictorial Tour in the Holy Land,
Tobler, T,: Analekten aus Palastina, In Ausland, 1862, Nos.
26 and 52.
Mansell, A. L. : Coast Survey of Palestine. In Naut. Mag
1862.
Bartlett, W. H.: Jerusalem Revisited.
Souvenirs de Jerusalem.
Jerusalem. In Ausland, 1862, No. 45.
Ceremonies de la Semaine sainte k Jerusalem. In Le Tour de
Monde, 1862, No. 119.
Ein Osterf est in Jerusalem. In Gelzer's Protest. Monatsblatter,
vol. xix.
Grove, G.: Nabloos and the Samaritans. In Vacat, Tourists,
1861,
Prout, T. J. : Ascent of Um Shaumur. In Proceed, of Roy.
Geog. Soc. 1S62.
VOL. II. G

98 PALESTINE.
Forster, Ch. : Sinai Photographed.
Tischendorfrs Third Journey reviewed in Ausland, 1862, No. 33.
Der Berg Sinai und sein Kloster, Europa, 1862, No. 35,
Lockroy, E.: Voyage en Syrie, In Le Tour de Monde, 1863.
Renan's work on Phoenicia, reviewed in Z. f. allg. Erdk. 1863.
Note on the Phoenician ruins of Amrit. Same journal.
Communication de M. le Comte de Vogues, In Rev, archeol,
1863,
Die geographisch. Lage von Damascus. In Petermann's
Mittheil. 1863.
Macgowan, D. J. : The " Keswick River " an Aqueduct, In
Jour, Roy, Geog, Soc. 1862,
Die Secten in Syrien, In Ausland, 1863, No. 40,
Stahelin : Localitat der Kriege Davids, Z. d, deutsch, mor
genl. Ges. 1863,
Wortabet, J.: The Hermon, In Jour. Roy. Geog, Soc, 1862,
Beke, Ch, T.: Notes on the Excursion to Harran, In Jour,
Roy. Geog, Soc, 1862,
Mansell, A. L.: Surveying Trip through the Holy Land, In
Naut. Mag. 1863.
Richardt, Ch.: Dagbogsblade fra det Heilige Land i paasken
1862, In Nordisk, Universetels Zidscrift. 1863.
Gerdes, E.: Naar Jeruzalem en het heil. Land.
Busch, M. : Eine Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem.
Tobler, T.: Analekten aus Palas. In Ausland, 1863, Nos. 13, 38.
From Jaffa to Jerusalem, In Dub, Univer. Rev. 1863.
Reise von Klein nach Gaza. In Ausland, 1863, No. 31,
Die Osterwoche in Jerusalem, Globus, 1863.
De Saulcy, F, : Deux Villes Beth-sayda et Capharnaoum. In
Rev. archeol. 1863.
Die Colonic Artas bei Bethlehem. In Ausland, 1863, No. 9.
Rosen, G.: Die Patriarchengruft zu Hebron, In Z, f. allg,
Erdk, 1863.
Topographlsches aus Nazareth. In Ausland, 1863, No. 42.
Ackerbau der Franciscaner in Galilaa. Same, No. 10.
Reise des Herrn Zeller von Nazareth in den Hauran. Same,
No. 41,
Smith, S.: What I saw in Syria, etc,
Maunoir, C: Sur I'exploration historique, etc., par M. de
Saulcy. Bull, de la Soc. de la Geog. 1864.

MOST RECENT WORKS ON PALESTINE. 99
Rambles in the Deserts of Syria,
Ausflug von Beyrout. In Ausland, 1864, No. 18.
Guys, H.: La Nation Druse, son histoire, etc.
Beyrout. In Ausland, 1864, No. 3.
Sprenger, A.: Geographisches der Norm Baal in Syrien, In
Z, der deutsch, morgenl. Ges. 1864,
Baur, C: Palastina.
Volter, L,: Das heil. Land, etc,
Pelgrimsreise naar het heil. Land,
Tuch : Ueber den Ursprung des todten Meers, In Ber. fiber
d, Verhdl, d. K. Sachs Ges, d. Wiss. 1863.
News from the Holy Land. In Athenseum, Nos. 1901, 1904.
Saudi, G. : Horeb und Jerusalem.
Pierotti, E. : Jerusalem Explored.
Chronologische Zusammenstellung der Baudenkmaler Jerusa
lems. In Ausland, 1864, No. 2.
De Vogues : Le Temple de Jerusalem,
Eine Neue Entdeckung in den Konigsgraben Jerusalem. In
Ausland, 1864, No. 7.
Zur Emmaus Frage. Same journ. 1864, No. 19.
Eaton, F. A. : A Journey from Nazareth to Bozrah. In Pro
ceed, of the Roy. Geog. Soc, 1864,
Noldeke T, : Ueber die Amalekiter und einige andere Nach-
barvolker der Israeliten,
Tischendorf's Journey, reviewed in Globus, 1864.
Bida et G. Hochette : Excursion au Mount Sinai. In Le Tour.
du Monde, No, 209,
Bewegung des syrischen Handels in 1863, In Austria, 1864.
Ausflug von Beyrut nach der Via Antoniniana. In Ausland,
1864, No, 28.
Rambles in the Des. of Syria, Reviewed in No, Brit. Rev. 1864.
Ein Besuch bei Daud Pascha, In Ausland, 1864,
Cortambert, R. : Aventures d'un artiste dans le Liban.
Gaillardot, C. : Relation de la Campagne des Egyptiens dans
le Hauran. In Nouv, Annal. d, Voy, 1864,
Voyage de Jerusalem et autres lieux by Rosel, decrit en 1664.
^Mission scientifique de M. Victor Guerin en Palestine. In
Nouv, Annal. de Voy. 1864,
Palestine and its Population, In Church Missionary Intelli
gencer, 1864.

100 PALESTINE.
Rosen, G. : Zur Geog. PaljEstlnas. In Z. d. allg. Erdk. 18G4.
Hohebestimmungen einlger Punkte Palasstinas. Same journal,
1864.
News from the Holy Land. Athenaeum, 1864, No. 1911.
Rosen, G. : Das palastinische Felsengrab. In Z. f . allg. Erdk.
1864.
Zwei alte arabische Schriftsteller fiber Jerusalem. In Ausland,
1864.
Roux, B. : Analyse de I'eau de la Mer Morte. In Archives de
medecine navale, 1864.
De Vogues : Ruines d'Araq-el-Emlr. In Rev. Archeol. 1864.
Clowes, G. : The Western Shore of the Dead Sea. In Proceed
of Roy. Geog. Soc. 1864.
Blaine and Greenwood : East of the Jordan. In Athenseum,
1864, Nos. 1913 and 1917.
De Damas : En Orient, Voy. au Sinai.
Mordtmann, A. D. : Gerstdorfs Reise in Syrien. In Peter
mann's Mittheil, 1865,
Die Umgebungen von Damascus, In Ausland, 1865, No. 42,
Schick, C. : Von Banias nach Damascus, In Ausland, 1865,
No. 43,
Von Beyrut nach Damascus, Ibid. No, 34,
Rey, E. G. : Sur son Exploration de la montagne des Ansaries
en Syrie, In Bull, de la Soc. de Geog, 1865,
Physical Geog, in the Holy Land. Colburn's New Monthlv,
1865.
Meen, J, A. : Geography of Palestine,
Robinson, Edward : Phys. Geog. of the Holy Land.
Pierotti, E. : La Palestine actuelle.
Hergt, C. : Palsestlna.
Dixon, W. H. : The Holy Land.
Tobler, T,: Analekten aus Palastina. In Ausland, 1865, No. 19.
Pilgerfahrt eines Augsburgers, Ibid, No, 35,
Vier alte Pilgerschaften. Ibid, No, 4,
Cassini, F, : Un Viaggio in Terra Santa.
Riant, P. : Expedition et pelerinages des Scandinaves en Terre
Sainte,
Tristam, H, B. : The Land of Israel.
Note sur le voyage de M. le due d. Lynes. In Bull, de la Soc.
de Geog. 1864.

MOST RECENT MAPS OF THE HOLY LAND. 101
Neuere wissenschaftliche Reisen von Mansell und Luynes. In
Ausland, 1865, No. 14.
Furrer, K. : Wanderungen durch Palastina.
De Saulcy, F. : Voyage en Terre Sainte.
Recent Travels in the Holy Land. In Colburn's New Monthly
Mag. 1865.
Van der Velde's letzte Reise. In Petermann's Mitth. 1865.
Discours de Van de Velde sur la Palestine. In Rapport du
Pres. de la Soc. de Geog. de Geneve,
De Pressense, E. : The Land of the Gospel. The same in
French (original),
Schlegel, Th, : Reise nach dem heil, Lande,
Robertson and Beato : Jerusalem Album Photographique,
Schick, C, : Die Gewolbe unter dem Gerichtshausen Jerusa
lem, In Ausland, 1865, No, 37.
Schick, C. : Die Zionsquelle zu Jerusalem. Ibid. No. 38.
Bertrand, A. : Les Ruines d'Araq-el-Emir. In Rev. archeol.
1865.
Guerin, V. : Le mont Thabor, etc. In Bull, de la Soc. de
Geog. 1865.
Vignes, L. : Extrait des Notes d'un Voy. d'Exploration a la
Mer Morte.
Lartet's Untersuchungen des todten Meers. In Ausland, 1865,
No. ^2.
Wetzstein, J. G. : Nord Arabien und der Syrisch. Wuste. In
Z. f, allg, Erdk. 1865,
D' Avril, A. : Le Peninsule Arabique depuis cent ans. In Rev.
de Deux Mondes, 1865,
A LIST OF RECENT MAPS OP THE HOLY LAND.
Hughes, E. : Atlas of Bible Lands,
Das heil. Land aus der Vogelschau.
Handtke, F. : Wandkarte von Palestina.
Barklay, J, T. : Map of Jerusalem,
Jung, G,: Atlas zur Geschichte des Alten Bundes,
Lionnet, A.: Bibel Atlas,
Van Senden: Bijbel Atlas,
Van der Velde, C, W, M. : Map of the Holy Land, with Memoir,
Van der Velde, C, W. M.: Plan of Jerusalem,

102 PALESTINE.
White, A. T.: Tabular Views of the Geog. and Soc, Hist, of
Palestine.
De Bruyer, ^M. D. : Ueber die Cartographie von Palastina.
Leonhard, P. III. : Skolekart von Palestina,
Rey, G.: Examen de quelque parties de la Carte de la Pal. de
Van der Velde. Bull, de Soc. de Geog. 1859.
Altmuller, H, W.: Relief plan von Jerusalem.

LIST OF MAPS OF THE HOLY LAND PUBLISHED BETWEEN 18j2
AND THE CLOSE OF 1865.
De Bruyer, M. D.: Palastina ex veteris sevi monumentis ac
recentiorum observationibus illustrata,
Hughes, E.: A School Atlas of Bible Lands,
Handtke, F.: Wandkarte von Palastina,
Scheidel, J.: Maps of Palestine.
Carte de Palestine portagee en 12 tribus.
Eltzner, A. : Das biblische Jerusalem.
Hornung, D. : Biblische Geschichts Karte.
Beiling: Karte von Palestina.
Bayne : Panoramic View of Palestine.
Garbs, F. A.: Special Karte von Palestina.
Reeive, F. : Wandkarte von Palastina.
Holy Land. A Series of Views.
Audriveau, J. : Carte de la Palestine.
Porter, J. L. : Memoir on the Map of Damascus, Hauran, and
the Lebanon. Jour. Roy, Geog, Soc, 1856,
Kiepert, H.: Karte von Palastina fur Schulen,
Kiepert, H.: Wandkarte von Palastina,
Beck, E. : Relief von Palastina.
Audriveau, J. : Palestine ancienne et moderne,
Sallmann, E.: Wandkarte des hell, Landes.
Kiepert, H,: Carte de la Syrie Meridionale, comprensjit les
montagnes du Liban, etc.
Kaart von Syrie en aangrenzende landen.
Van de Velde: The Lebanon,
Plan von Palastina und der See Genezareth.
Mediterranean, Syrian Coast, Saida, 1860, Issued by Hydrogr,
Office. The same, 1861, Syria, Ruad Anchorage.
Tripoli Roadstead, and Iskanderun to Markhab.

MOST RECENT MAPS OF THE HOLY LAND. 103
Berghaus, H.: Karte von Palestine.
Scon6, S. H.: Typographische Kaart von Palestina.
Garbs: Karte der biblischen Lander.
Winckelmann, E. : Wandkarte von Palestina.
Carte du Liban, etc., dress6 au Depot de la Guerre, etc. Comp,
Bullet, de la Soc, de Geog, 1862,
Hergt, C: Wandkarte von Palsestlna.
Publications du Dep8t de la Marine. No. 1971, Cote de Syrie;
Plan du mouillage de Sour. No. 1977, Plan, etc. de Tripoli.
No. 1980, Plan, etc. de Saida. No. 1973, Carte de la Cote
de Syrie, entre Ruad et Carmel. No. 1976, Plan, etc. de
Ruad.
Kiepert: Karte von Palsestlna.
Riess, R. : Die Lander der heil. Schrif t.
Syria and Jerusalem. Hydrographic Office Map.
Plan de Jerusalem, hebraique et chretienne.
Syria, Ras en Nakura to el-Arish. Hydrographic Office series.
Van der Velde, C. W. M.: Carte de la Terre Sainte.
Carte des Pays explores par la Mission de Phenice, dresse au
Depot de la Guerre.
Maps in Tristram's Land of Israel.
Maps in Thompson's Land and the Book.

CHAPTER III.
Sec 2. THE LAND OF CANAAN WITH ITS INHABITANTS, AS
EXISTING PREVIOUS TO THE CONQUEST OF THE COUNTRY
BY THE ISRAELITES.
I. NAMES: ARAM AND SYRIA; SYRIANS, ARAM^ANS, AND
HEBREWS.

ITHOUT entering largely into an investigation re
garding the universality of the appellations Aramsea
and Syria, — the question being one eagerly disputed,
the etymologies involved being very uncertain,* and
the applications of the words themselves varying largely, — yet
there are certain explanations to be made regarding the ancient
names of places and people used in the country which now
bears the name Palestine. For those names are in themselves
historical documents of great value in acquiring a knowledge of
the land and its inhabitants; and they cannot be passed over with
neglect in this course of study, whether looked at from the point
of view which I assume, or with reference to the facts which are
drawn from a study of them. Although the name Shur, as the
designation of a definite desert territory in the Sinai Peninsula,
was brought to our knowledge particularly in connection with
the transit of the children of Israel through it (Ex. xv. 22),
and although Shur (giving rise to Shurians, Surlans, or Syrians,
who .trace their descent through Aram from Nahor, Abraham's
brother. Gen. xxii. 20-23) was the broader appellation given
1 Hadr. Relandi Palxstina, I.e. viii. 43-48 ; G. Wahl, Vorder und Mittel
Asien, 1795, Pt. i. pp. 299-327 ; Mannert, Geog. d. Gr. und Rom. Pt. vi.
1, 1799; Palxstina und Syrien, pp. 203, 432; Rosenmuller, Syrien oder
Aram, in Handbuch Bib. Alth. vol. i. 232-321 ; G. B. Winer, Biblischer
Realworterbuch, 3d ed. 1847; Aram. i. pp, 79-81 ; Syria, ii. pp. 555-559 ;
Assyria, i. pp. 102-108.

CANAAN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 105
to the whole country lying between the Euphrates and Egypt
(Gen. XV. 18), and especially the eastern part of that broad
tract, the scene of David's fierce battles (1 Sam. xxvii. 8), —
the name, apparently, one indigenous in that region, — ^yet at a
later period it was applied by foreigners, and especially by the
Seleucidse, the Greeks, Romans, Saracens, and Turks, to the
country farther north, and under the form of Xvpia, Syria,
Suristan, Coele-Syria, came into general usage. The name
Aramsea, on the contrary, as a mere genealogical appellative,
applied to the same territory, derived from Aram, a son of
Shem, and always used in connection with people of Semitic
stock, is altogether less prominently brought forward, and never
was adopted by foreigners, although Strabo used it once, and
although it is not absolutely unknown among Arabian authors.
The name Land of the Hebrews, or Ebrews, has only come
into vogue since the time of Josephus {Antiq. Jud. vii. 9, 6, etc.),
although Heber or Eber is mentioned as one of the descendants
of Shem (Gen. x. 21), who is spoken of as a father of all the
children of Eber, among whom are included the sons of Joktan
and the sons of Abraham. He is spoken of (Gen. xi. 16) by
many in our day as a merely mythical personage, like so many
others who are mentioned in heathen records. It is thought
that the etymology of the expression Land of the Hebrews indi
cates a country of wanderers,* and maj' indicate a time when the
people were immigrants ; and such a name could only have been
given them by the Canaanites, and may refer to their former
residence beyond the Euphrates, the Mesopotamian Aram, the
Haran whence Abraham came. Yet this view of the origin
of the name Hebrews or Ebrews is a subject of dispute ; and
Ewald has conjectured' an ingenious etymology, connecting it
with the Iberians found among the Caucasus, One ground
of this hypothesis is, that the name of Arphaxad, the father
of Eber, is still connected with the most northern province of
Assyria, on the southern frontier of Armenia, and seems to
point back to a northern home of the common stock, whose
primitive name, dating from a most remote antiquity, was not
supplanted when the children . of Israel had conquered the
country, and changed the entire character of the population,
I Rosenmiiller, i.a.l. i. p. 69.
2 Ewald, Geschichte des Volks Israel, Pt, i. 1843, pp. 332-335,

106 PALESTINE.
It is a noteworthy fact in corroboration of this, that in the oldest
records the name Land of the Ebrews or Hebrews is very rare ;
it occurs in Gen, xl, 15, where Joseph is telling the story of
his coming out of his own country. The expression is shunned
in the Bible, even when the primitive Hebrew people, writings,
and language are spoken of.
Of far greater geographical and ethnographical import is
the name the Land and People of Canaan, which takes us back
to the gloomy vestibule of Palestine proper and its histoiy, and
to its condition before the children of Israel became the pos
sessors of the country, and while the struggle was still going on
in which the name of Israel had even to struggle for existence.

II. THE LAND OF CANAAN AND THE CANAANITES IN RELATION
TO PHCENICIA AND THE PHCENICIANS.*
If Aram, or Aramsea, used in the strict sense of the most
ancient period, was the term employed to designate the regions
north and east of Lebanon, and towards the Euphrates and
Mesopotamia, the name Canaan or Cenaan is the one generally
employed to designate the district farther south.
The country received its name from Canaan, the fourth
son of Ham (Gen, x. 6, 15-19) ; and it is mentioned specifi
cally for the first time in the account of the coming of Abra
ham from Ur of the Chaldees first to Haran, and then to
Shechem and Hebron. Among the expressions used in the
Bible (Gen, xi. 31, xii. 6, xxiii. 19), we find this one, " And the
Canaanite dwelt then in the land." The oldest specification of
the limits of the country is that which is given in direct con
nection with the names of the various tribes (Gen. x. 15—19) :
" And Canaan begat Sidon his first-born, and Heth, and the
Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, and the Hivite,
and the Arklte, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the
Zemarite, and the Hamathite : and afterward were the families
of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the border of the
Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto
Gaza ; as thou goest unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah,
and Zebolm, even unto Lasha" (later Kallirhoe, on the north
eastern side of the Dead Sea). The southern border indicated
1 H. Relandi, i. 1-8.

CANAAN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 107
here is the one which in the former volume I showed is the
one formed by nature between Palestine and the deserts of
Arabia Petrsea.
When the children of Israel approached this country, and
were about to divide it among the tribes, its boundaries were
more definitely laid down (Num. xxxiv. 2-13). The corner
towards the south or south-east was to begin at the desert of Zin
near Edom, and to run along the eastern coast of the Dead Sea
up to Akrabbim and through Zinna ; and the " going forth "
was to be from the south to Kadesh-Barnea, Adar or Arad or
Addar, a place variously spelled, through Azmon, and thence to
the river of Egypt, or brook which ran into the sea at el-Arish.
The western border was to be the Mediterranean. The northern
frontier line ran from the sea to Mount Hor (not the mountain
of Aaron named in Num, xxxiii, 38, but Hermon or Lebanon),
thence to Hamath and Euan (Enan, terminus Damasci :
Hieron, Onomast.), therefore in the neighbourhood of Damas
cus, The line then ran to Sepham, to Riblah on the Orontes,
the place where king Jehoahaz was taken captive by Pharaoh
Necho ; and then to Ain, between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon,
on the watershed between the Orontes and the Litani, Both
of these last places have been recently discovered by Thomson,*
From that point the boundary ran along the east side of the
sea of Chinnereth, i.e. Tiberias, then to the Jordan, and lastly
to the Dead Sea. The Jordan was therefore the natural
boundary of Canaan ; and, as Reland showed, the country to
the east was not confounded with it. We have a proof of this
in Num. xxxiii. 51, " When ye are passed over Jordan into the
land of Canaan ;" and in the account of the use of the manna
as food (Ex. xvi. 35), " They did eat manna until they came unto
the borders of the land of Canaan." See also Josh. v. 12 :
" And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten
of the old corn of the land ; neither had the children of Israel
manna any more ; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of
Canaan that year."
According to this extension of the boundary of Canaan as
far as to Sidon, the territory of the oldest son of Canaan, the
1 W. M. Thomson, Letter on the Antiquities on the route from Baalbek
to Hamath and Aleppo, in Bib. Sacra, vol. iv. 1847, pp. 404, 405, and
Note, p. 408.

108 PALESTINE.
country of the Phoenicians must be embraced under the same
general limits; and Chna, the Old Testament form of the
name of Canaan, was in use among the Phoenicians, whose
original founder's name — Phoinix (whence Phoinike and
Phoenike) — closely corresponds to the word Chanaan, Chanaina,
Chananaioi, Canaanites, from Ghana.*
The land and the people bearing this double appellation
came therefore, from the very first, into the closest mutual re
lation, which extended itself so far as to influence the condition
of the children of Israel, whose lot it was to take possession of
one portion of the country, to be united by some ties of alliance
to a part of its inhabitants, and to overthrow and annihilate
another part.
The Phoenicians, considered by Herodotus, Strabo, Justinus,
and many other Greek and Roman writers, to be descended
from the Persians, and to have entered the country by the way
of the Red Sea, looked upon themselves as aboriginal to the
soil, and considered their gods the primitive deities of the place.
Their first cities and their first ships they claimed to have built
on the shores of the Mediterranean. Their most ancient history
did not pretend to extend beyond the name Chna or Phoenix,
which was attached to their country, entirely in contrast to the
Hebrews, who traced their lineage to the district beyond the
Euphrates. This popular view of the Phoenicians, about which
historians have striven' from the earliest to the present time,
and which cannot be settled for want of sufficient evidence,
harmonized at least with the view of the Israelites regarding
the primitive inhabitants of Canaan. Movers, to whose ad
mirable investigations in this department we are so much
indebted, suggests as a very important point, that there is one
very certain source of evidence in favour of this view, namely
that traced in the manifest traditions of the people of Canaan at
the time of the Israelitlsh conquest, when the story of an ancient
emigration to Canaan, and the consequent banishment or extir
pation of those taking part in it, could not. have been extin-
1 Movers, Wurdigung der Berichte uber die Herkunft der Phonizier in
Achterfeld and Braun, Zeitsch. fur Philos. und Kafhol. Religion, N. S. 1844
Jahrg. V. p. 7 et sq. ; Buttmann, Mythologus, i. 223.
2 Hengstenberg, de Rebus Tyriorum, Berol. 1832 ; in opposition to Ber-
theau, Gesch. der Israeliten, p. 163.

CANAAN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 109
guished, had the effort failed. For the Mosaic records, and the
books of Joshua, Samuel, and Judges, which occasionally touch
upon this view, date from a period when a great |)ortion of the
population of Canaan lived in such close contact with the
Israelites, that the history of the country prior to its capture
must have been freely imparted to them. According to these
authorities, the Canaanites west of the Jordan constituted a
single nation, occupying the country from the time of the
flood, and broken up into various tribes, whose primitive ancestor,
a descendant of Noah, took possession of the country with his
sons, of whom Sidon was the oldest. They are a distinct stock,
therefore, from the later immigrants, the Philistines, Ammonites,
Moabites, and Edomites, and must be discriminated from them.
Their primitive claim to the land of Canaan was recognised by
the old Israelitish patriarchs, by Abraham at Hebron, by Jacob
at Shechem (Gen, xxxiii. 19), and was testified by the regular
purchase of land. As for the races of giants, such as the sons
of Anak and the like, who once in a while appear upon the
scene, and who have been considered by some as a more
ancient race of possessors still, there is no proof, even if they
were not true mythic Titans, that they preceded the immigra
tion of the Canaanites, although they gradually disappeared
before them. Yet other races are named as occupying the
country in the primeval period of its history, who were probably
extirpated at the time of the conquest effected by the sons of
Eber or Heber.
On the eastern frontier of Canaan, for example, the Emims,
Zamzummims, and Horims, are spoken of as destroyed by the
Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites (Deut, ii. 10-12, and
19, 20), and upon the wpst side the Avims at Hazerim were
compelled to yield to the Philistines (Deut. ii. 23) ; but we
never hear of Canaanitish tribes in this connection. The
existence of Canaanites on the Mediterranean — that is, of
Phoenicians — and of the same race in the interior, as confirmed
by the views of the Israelitish invaders, is an important his
torical fact in connection with the relation between the land
and the people. The Phoenician, like the Hebrew name Chna,
written in the Alexandrian form Chanaan, Canaan, signifies,
according to its etymology, terra depressa, lowland,* — an expres-
* Rosenmiiller, Bibl. Alterthumsk. i. pp. 75, 76.

110 PALESTINE.
sion in contrast with Aram, high land (probably along the upper
Euphrates), and harmonizing, it may be, with the nature of the
country thus named ; especially as a third form in common use,
O-Chiia (Ochna), designated the coast of Canaan, a lowland
district corresponding to the strip of plain running the most of
the way from Gaza to Sidon, and on which lay the great
commercial cities of the land.
Movers,* in his admirable investigations regarding the land
of Canaan, remarks, however, that in profane writers Phoenicia
extends beyond the two cities of Tyre and Sidon, and embraces
the territory of Aradus, Byblus, and Berytus, at the north, and
extends towards the interior as far as Lebanon. If this is true,
the signification of the name Canaan as lowland by no means
corresponds to the physical character of Phoenicia, and is still
less adapted to describe the interior of Palestine, which is rather
a mountain land than the reverse. Moses has well depicted
its character (Deut. xi. 11), where he says : " But the land
whither ye go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys, and
drinketh water of the rain of heaven." The conjecture is
therefore a very natural one, that the name Canaan was origi
nally applied to a very much smaller district than at a later
time, as was the case with Argos. The primitive name,
boundaries, and condition of Canaan throw much light upon
the state of the country just prior to its conquest by the
Israelites, and lead to a far more certain knowledge of its
geographical character than we could otherwise attain. This
method is the most secure guide between the past and the
present of Palestine.
The application by Isaiah of the term " cities of Canaan "
to Tyre and Sidon; the modern identification of the word
merchant with Canaanite, which must have referred to the
ancient commercial importance of the Phoenician cities ; the
allusion in Gen. x. 15 to Sidon, the oldest son of Canaan;
and the constant pre-eminence which is given to the name
Sidon, all through the Old Testament, in respect to age, power,
and splendour, show that in the primitive use of the word the
term Canaan was closely connected with Sidon and Sidonian
Tyre. And this view is confirmed by the etymology of the word,
1 Movers, Uber die Bedeutung des Namens Canaan, in the journal quoted
above, v. pp. 21—43.

CANAAN AND ITS INHABITANTS. Ill
which in its rudimentary form signifies a plain, and probably
refers to the tract of level land ten or eleven hours' journey
long, and an hour's joumey broad, which follows the shore,
lying between the Promontorium Album, three hours south of
Sur (Tyre), and Nahr el Auli (Bostrenus), an hour north of
Said (Sidon).
Yet the name Canaan never was confined for any length
of time to this contracted district, but was applied at different
times to a tract of such varying extent, that incorrect ideas
regarding it rose naturally, which we must understand if we
would comprehend the character of the different classes of
population which inhabited it.
The northern frontier of Canaan — which was never more
exactly laid down than in the account given in Num. xxxiv. 7,
already referred to, and which, excepting during the reigns of
David and Solomon, was never free from strifes between Israel
and the adjacent nations — we are only able to trace in full from
the records of Persian and Roman writers, while the boundary
line on the east and south is fully described in the Jewish
records. During the time of the Persians, according to Herodotus,
Phoenicia, with Cyprus and with the Palestine portion of
Syria, made the fifth department in the Persian Empire. It
began in the north, on the southern border of the Cilician
territory, at Poseidon * (Poseida in Pococke, now Cape Busselt,
south of the mouth of the Orontes), a place founded by the
colonists from Argos, and extended southward as far as to the
Egyptian frontier. As the Persians continued to the Phoeni-'
clans their former rights and privileges, it is but natural to
suppose that they retained intact the ancient boundaries ; and
if so, Phoenicia extended northward as far as to the mouth of
the Orontes; and Laodicea (now Latakieh) and many other
places ^Gobala, Heraclea, Paltus, Balanea, Karne — were
reckoned as belonging to Phoenicia, yet are now known to have
been also considered as a part of Canaan.
At a later period, after the accession of the Seleucidse, and
during the triumph of the Roman power, the river Eleutheros,
now Nahr el Kebir, between Aradus and Tripolis (Ruad and
¦ Tarablus), became, according to Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy,
1 Mannert, Geogr. de Gr. und Rom. vol. vi. ; Upper Syria, p. 452.

112 PALESTINE.
the northern frontier of Phcenicia, which may have continued
to be so regarded subsequently to that ancient period when
the Phoenician inhabitants of Aradus pushed their territorial
limits far beyond that stream. Yet, however old that extension
towards the north may have been, it had no relation to the
"low land" of Phoenicia, nor to the primitive limits of Canaan,
from which, in the Old Testament, the three northern cities
of Phoenicia— Aradus, Berytus, and Byblus— were expressly
excluded. According to Gen. x. 19, no tribes of Canaanitish or
Phoenician blood lived along the sea-coast north of Sidon. The
inhabitants of the Lebanon too, the Giblites (Josh. xiii. 15), who
lived in the domain under the control of Byblus and Berytus,
were never spoken of as Canaanitish in their origin, — a fact
which explains what has been learned but recently regarding
their religious and social condition.* The independent exten
sion of the Phoenician territory northward, beyond the limits
of the ancient " lowland of Canaan," is indicated in the
Mosaic record, in connection with Aradus (Arvadi), Arka
(Arki), Sin (Sini), Simyra (Zemari), Hamath (Hamathi), by
the expression. Gen. x. 18, "And afterward were the families
of the Canaanites spread abroad." The Sidonian colonies
worked northward, and planted themselves at Arad, Botrys,
Tripolis, and elsewhere,^ carrying the name of Phoenicia with
them, but not the name of Canaan.
The Southern and Eastern Boundaries.
If the northern limits of Canaan seem somewhat unsettled,
and enlarge themselves somewhat indefinitely, in the south they
have a compensatory construction, through the violent entrance
of foreign tribes, who remained in possession of the country,
and who had in some cases, as in that of the Philistines for
example, taken possession prior to the Israelitish conquest.
That region was taken into the reckoning at the time of the
division by lot among the tribes, because it was included among
the districts which had previously belonged to Canaan (Deut.
1 F. E. Movers, Die Phonizier, Bonn 1811, vol. i. p. 3 et seq.
2 Bochart, Geogr. Sacr. P. ii. ; Chanaan, s. de Coloniis Phcenicum,
0pp. 1692, fol. 351; Hamacker, Miscellanea Phcenic. Lugd. Bat. 1828,
lib. vi. 116-307 ; 0. G. Tychsen, Geogr. Verbreitung phUnieischer Munzen,
in T. Hartmann, Bremen 1820, Pt. ii. p. 496 et seq.

CANAAN AND ITS LIMITS. 113
ii, 23). In Joshua's time, however, when he was " old and
stricken with years," the country extended from the brook el-
Arish, known as the river of Egypt, over the whole district of
the Pentapolis, Gaza, Ashdod, Askelon, Gath, and Ekron (now
Akir, south of Joppa and east of Yabna, Jamnia), according
to Robinson'.* The Philistines could claim, therefore, to be con
sidered as Canaanites, although they did not extend so far north
as to the Phoenician territory, which, according to the classic
authors, Josephus, Pliny, Ptolemy, and others (Strabo not in
cluded), reached as far southward as the place where Csesarea
was afterwards built, but no farther, since the little known
patch of sea-coast between Csesarea and Ekron, in which the
harbour of Joppa alone excited the attention or interest of
foreigners, was reckoned as a part of Syrian Palestine. Pliny
says, V. 14 : Cgesarea . . . finis Palsestlnse . . . delude
Phoenice. Carmel is called in Josephus a Tyrian, and in
Hesychius a Phoenician, mountain ; older references to this
lower district are lacking both in sacred and profane writings ;
and nothing definite can now be settled regarding it, excepting
that the northern border of the Philistines seems never to have
met the southern border of the Phoenicians. The people who
lived in the intermediate district, and whose wars and aggres*-
sions are recounted in the book of Judges (see iii, 3), can only
be reckoned among the Canaanites. And although the places
lying more to the south — Joppa, Jamnia, Askelon, and Gaza
— are spoken of by writers, from Pliny to Stephen Byz,, as
Phoenician, yet it is only in that broader use of the word
which confounded Phoenicia with Canaan as the one land
promised to Israel (Num. xxxiv. 5 ; Josh, xv, 4, 47). Pro-
copius,' who wrote long afterwards, used language in a general
way {Bell. Vandal, ii. 10, 449), when he says that in the
most remote antiquity (he means the time of Joshua) Phoenicia
extended from Sidon to the Egyptian frontier. It may be
assumed as certain, that the people who lived on the coast
received the name of Canaanites from the same physical pecu
liarity which has been mentioned as giving rise to it farther
north, — namely, its low, plain-like character; and along the
whole coast there are no tribes mentioned which were not of
' Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 227.
' Hadr. Reland, Pal. p. 50.
VOL. II. °

114 PALESTINE.
Canaanitish origin, with the exception of the Philistines, who
had broken into the country by violence, and settled there.
It is very different with the eastern from the southern and
western frontier : there can hardly be a true eastern boundary
definitely spoken of, unless it be the great Jordan valley.
There is no ground for believing that the aboriginal inhabitants
of the central mountain region ever used the name Palestine,
which, as has been already shown, was applied to the lowland
district alone, and was first used by foreigfiers in connection
with the level region along the coast, and especially by the
Egyptians, in consequence of their commercial relations with
the cities on the shore. It may be considered equally certain,
that the Phoenicians never applied the name Canaan to the
interior country : there is no proof that they did so ; and had
they given it a name which was used in connection with their
own domain at all, they would have called it Phoenice, which
corresponded completely to the word Canaan, and applied that
designation to the whole of Judsea. I may remark incidentally,
that what was called the Paralia, answers only to the designation
Palm-land, receiving its name, according to Calisthenes,* on, airo
^oiviKtov Trj<; Xvpia<; t&v TrapaXiav oI/covvtojv, to ^vtov eXa^e
Trjv Trpoa-TiyopLav ; and Reland adds : Quod ad nomen attinet
Phoenices, id a palmis esse ductum, mihi videtur verisimile.
It is not at all supposable that the aboriginal inhabitants of
that Palestine mountain-land called themselves Canaanites, i.e.
Lowlanders, even although they may have been of the same
primitive stock; and all the less that they we}'e divided into
countless tribes, having no unity of purpose, as is evident from
the manifest want of a common purpose and of combined
counsels at the time of the Israelitish conquest. And if the
whole country this side of the Jordan is sometimes designated
as Canaan in the Old Testament Scriptures, it must be ex
plained by some special circumstances, unless it be a sufficient
explanation that the etymological signification of the word had
long disappeared, and the use of the word prevailing in Egypt
had been arbitrarily transferred to the whole of Palestine.
But Movers' has shown, that in all the Bible passages the
1 Aristotelis de mirab. ausc. ed. J. Beckmann, Gott. 1786, p. 292 • H.
Reland, Pal. p. 50.
' Movers, f.a.?. p. 41.

THE PRIMITIVE POPULATION OF CANAAN. 115
word Canaan was applied as an obsolete name to the territory
this side the Jordan, and was used by the Israelites before
they became familiar with that fact ; and after their conquest
of the country it was employed only archaically, to designate its
previous condition. All the Hebrew writers, from Josephus
back, speak of the land of Canaan only when they refer to the
primitive inhabitants of the land, or refer to the wanderings of
the old patriarchs in it, or recount the promises of God, and
their fulfilment. Where these conditions do not exist, they
employ other names, like the land of Israel, and the land of
Jehovah. It was impossible for the old name to remain after
the physical condition of the country was understood ; and we
find, accordingly, that at an early date the Israelites learned the
etymological signification of the word Canaan : for in speaking
of the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwellers in the
mountains were referred to ; while the Canaanites are said to
have dwelt by the sea and by the coast of Jordan (Num. xiii,
29), So, too, Joshua (xi. 3) speaks of "the Canaanite on the
east and on the west," referring to the people on the coast and
in the Jordan valley ; and in most of the noteworthy passages
in the book of Joshua, the low district near Jericho stands in
close connection with the term Canaan, and in contrast with the
mountain land of Gilead. We find the same in the allusions
to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh,
in Num. xxxiii. 51 and Josh. xxii. I need not tell the reader
that the later fathers, and the whole ecclesiastical literature
which followed, have given to the name Canaan a signification
entirely different from its primitive one,
III, THE PRIMITIVE POPULATION OF THE COUNTRY PRIOR TO
ITS POSSESSION BY THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,
Exactly in accordance with the reputed origin of the word
Canaan, as the Lowland of the region now called Palestine, is
the traditional account of the first settlement of the sons of
Canaan directly after the Flood, Their names were borne by
the cities which they built, — for example, Aradus, Arke, Sin,
Simyra, Hamath, — while other personal appellatives were given
to local districts, like Shechem, Eshcol, and Mamre, On the
contrary, whole tribes — like the Giblites, the dwellers in moun-

116 PALESTINE.
tains; the Sidonlans, or the race of fishermen— bore names
which were indigenous, and had gods* — Baal, Astarte, Baaltis,
Cosmos, Aion, Protogonos, Casius, Lebanon— of their own, and
not imported from abroad. This was in strong contrast with
the Hebrews and Israelites, who traced their history, theii
origin, their God even (who had already been the God of
Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees), and all their traditions, to
Inner Asia. And so we have two successive populations of
one and the same land, both connected with the Semitic stock,
yet displaying the greatest antagonism, and living in lasting
hatred and contention. The want of all traditional information
regarding the connection of the people of Canaan with the
other Semitic tribes, seems to display itself very early in the
genealogical record of the Canaanites as the descendants of
Ham.' I refer to the well-known Mosaic list of races, accord
ing to which the Hebrews traced their relationship through
Eber to Shem, and yet the Hebrews and the Canaanites speak
the same dialect. The Hebrews identified no close ties between
these two races, as they did between the Aramsean and the
most of the Arabian tribes — the sons of Joctan, HImyarltes,
for example. The mention of Canaan as brother of Mizralm,
the head of the Egyptian race, and of Cush, the head of the
Cushites, could not probably be made without some reference
to the Canaanitish ideas of their national origin ; for if the sepa
ration of the Canaanites from the more eastern Semitic tribes
had been of very early origin, all trace of the primitive unity
would have been lost. The kindred tribes descended from
Eber, and those who afterwards became the nomadic Hebrews,
preserved the Aramsean dialect of the Semitic language, from
which the Arabian had already broken loose ; but the Canaanites
must long before have lost sight of the connection which bound
them to the common stock, since the Hebrews, who emigrated
to Palestine in the time of Abraham, found the Canaanites
thus early a people claiming to have been long resident there,
independent of the Aramsean and Arabian dialects, and pos
sessing a language which passed over more or less fully to the
Hebrew patriarchs, as we find demonstrated by the real unity
existing between the Hebrew and Phoenician lano'uages, A
' Movers, Die Phonicier passim, and Zeitschr. i.a.l. p. 4 et sq.
2 Movers, Die alten Canaaniter, in Zeitsch. N. F. Jahrg. vi. pp. 59-88.

THE PRIMITIVE POPULATION OF CANAAN. 117
very remarkable exchange of a mother tongue at so early a
period, and one which would be hard to explain and hard to
believe possible as happening to a whole people, but which
probably resulted, as Movers* has shown, from the speedy and
complete transfer of a closely united community like that of
Abraham into a new atmosphere of language. To this un
doubtedly the frequent marriage relations entered into with
the people of the country contributed (Gen, xxxviii., xxxiv. 2;
Judg, xxi. 12 ; Ezra x. 18-44).
In order to understand the character of the primitive popu
lation of Palestine, and the really unequal nature of the contest
which brought the countiy into the possession of Israel, it is
important to observe, that the so-called Canaanites cannot be
regarded as a body of tribes closely united from the very
beginning, but, so far as we can now ascertain, they were
rent up into countless factions, and presented an instance of
unexampled want of nationality. The very want of a common
name to call them by is a remarkable phenomenon ; for Canaan,
a term given by foreigners, is merely one drawn from the
lowlands of the country, and is applied to those tribes which
were not of Semitic origin, and were connected with the
Egyptians, without any pretence to a proper application to
those which did not belong to the Lowland, or Canaan, in the
most limited use of the term. According to this, the descend
ants of Jehus (the Jebusites of the mountain land around
Jerusalem), of Amor (the Amorites on the east side of the
Jordan), of Girgas (the Girgashites on both banks of the
Jordan), of Hiv (the Hivites in North Galilee), and of
Hamath (on the east side of Anti-Lebanon), have only a
nominal connection with the Canaanites, and are not to be
understood to be of the same stock.
This view is supported by the fact, that every king was
the possessor of his own little domain. In northern Canaan,
.Joshua mentions thirty-one kings by name ; and the book of
Judges (i. 7) speaks of seventy kings of the Canaanites Avho were
conquered by the tribe of Judah. Countless fortresses and
armed bodies of men, compelled to yield before the advance of
the shepherd race of Israel, without any knowledge of war,
had for centuries been engaged in mutual contest ; and yet one
1 Movers, Die alten Canaaniter, in Zeitsch. N. F. Jahrg. vi. p. 62 et sq.

118 PALESTINE.
kingdom after another was reduced, and the whole country
brought into subjection, in consequence of the want of a com
mon head, and a common bond of unity against the general
foe, to which there seems to be no exception, save among the
Philistines and in the case of .Jabin king of Hazor, who sum
moned his neighbours, and met Joshua at the waters of Merom
(Josh, xi, 1-6), This hasty combination, however, was to no
effect, for there was no deep central principle of unity that
could give security in time of danger.
It is only from the violent convulsions which rent the
Canaanite tribes in the most j'emote antiquity, that we can
understand how widely sundered they were at the time of the
invasion of their territory by the Israelites, and how scattered
were single tribes in some cases, — as, for example, the Hivites,
a portion of whom lived in the north, another in the middle,
and another in the south of Palestine, as we gather from the
scattered notices of them in the earliest books of the Bible. The
Kenizzites, too, were found in various parts of the south, rent
by internal faction, and scattered through Judsea and Edom.
The Geshurites, whose boundaries extended from Hermon to
Bashan (Josh, xii. 5 ; Deut. iii. 14), appear also in the south
country near the Philistine territory (Josh. xiii. 12 ; 1 Sam.
xxvii. 8), near the Egyptian frontier, where David met and
overcame them. It is just so with the Girgashites and with
the powerful tribe of the Amorites, who possessed a large terri
tory beyond the Jordan (Deut. ii. 24), and at the same time
occupied a domain in the mountain land around Jerusalem,
and sent out the five kings who were overthrown at Gibeon
(Josh. x. 5).
Among all these Canaanitish tribes there existed no genea
logical tradition giving rise to a general belief in a descent from
a former patriarchal head, as there was among the other
Semitic tribes, who called themselves sons of Ammon, of
Edom, of Moab, of Israel, and the like. Even among the
descendants of Sidon this was not the case ; and they did not
speak of themselves as children, of Sidon, but as SIdonim, and
made no more mention of Sidon as the founder of the city and
state, than of Hierosolymus or Carchedon as the founders of
.Jerusalem and Carthage. The Hittites alone form an excep
tion to this general rule : they traced their lineage back to Heth

THE TRIBES OF CANAAN. 119
(Gen. X. 15), were called sons of Heth by the Israelites, and
were held in a good degree of respect (Gen. xxiii. 5, 7).
From what has now been said, it will readily be seen,
although the data are very incomplete regarding these so-
called Canaanite tribes, that they cannot be distinguished bj'
any special characteristics of language, religion, or govern
ment from the neighbouring tribes, and not even by physical
boundaries, since they occupied in some cases — that of the
Amorites, for example — ^both sides of the Jordan. Yet, notwith
standing such, occasional exceptions, the district east of the
Jordan was never reckoned as belonging to Canaan ; nor were
its inhabitants ever included among the Canaanites, although
their names are mentioned as such in the list found in Genesis.

IV, SPECIFICATION OF THE TRIBES OF CANAAN IN ITS
BROADEST SENSE: THE PERIZZITES, HITTITES, HIVITES,
AMORITES, GIRGASHITES, AND JEBUSITES,
The circumstances already mentioned show how important
it is to gather up what historical facts we can regarding the
various tribes which possessed Canaan, in order to understand
the nature of the country in which Israel found its permanent
home. We know as little of the immigi-ation of the tribes which
inhabited the interior highland region of Palestine, as of those
which settled the lowland, or Canaan proper ; but there are so
many passages in the Old Testament which hint at their con
dition, that we are not without the means of determining with
a considerable degree of accuracy, what subdivisions those
tribes were broken into, and what successive processes of con
quest and extermination they were subjected to : for the
gathering up into the record which we now possess of the
incidents which occurred in the time of the patriarchs, took
place at a period when the recollection of the successive
changes in the character of the country and its population
could not have been wholly lost.
The condition of the inhabitants of Canaan at the time
of the patriarchs must have been very different from what it
was five hundred years later, at the time of Moses. The land
was sparsely covered with dwellings, and but thinly populated :

120 PALESTINE.
herdsmen with their families wandered through it freely from
one end to the other. When Abraham took up his abode near
Bethel, he said to his nephew Lot, at parting with him, " Is not
the whole land before thee ?" Abraham went to the south, to
Pharan, and dug wells for himself at Beersheba ; and at a later
day, Jacob went with just as little hindrance along the east side
of the Jordan to Gilead, crossing the Jabbok at its ford, and
set up his huts or booths in Succoth (Gen. xxxi. 47, xxxii. 22,
xxxiii. 17).
At the time of Abraham there existed but very few of
those cities with which Canaan was covered at the time of
Moses ; and the few which were standing received their names
from persons then living, such as Shechem, from the chief of
the Hivites (Gen. xxxiv, 2) ; Mamre, from the brother of
Eshcol and Aner, the Amorite (Gen, xiv. 13, 24). Plebron
alone seems to go back to the remotest antiquity. It is men
tioned as the place where Sarah died (Gen. xxiii, 2). It was
built seven years before Zoan (San, i.e. Tanis in Egypt), and
kept its primitive name, while other places lost thein when a
new people took possession of them, — as, for example, Luz,
whose name Jacob changed to Bethel (Gen. xxviii, 19),
There is not a trace to be found in the old patriarchal
records, of those warlike cities, and those bold, well-armed, and
defiant tribes whom Joshua encountered five hundred years
later : for after Lot had been taken captive by Chedorlaomer,
we find that Abraham was able, with the three hundred and
eighteen servants who were born in his house, to pursue the
enemy of his kinsman, to overcome him easily, to pursue him
to Dan and Hobah near Damascus, and to take from him all
his goods (Gen. xiv, 15). The inhabitants of the land at that
early period appear to have been a peace-loving people, from
whom the early Hebrews received no injury, but only kindness,
as in the case of Melchisedec king of Salem (xiv, 18, xxxiv, 8),
The Philistines, on the contrary, were a hostile race, and in
Jacob's time closed the wells, that the Hebrew patriarch mio-ht
have no water for his flocks (Gen. xxvi. 15, 16), The princes
of the country were then not at all the warlike kings whom
the Israelites encountered, and they made no objection to the
peaceful entrance of the nomadic Hebrews who chose to settle
among them.

THE TRIBES OF CANAAN. 121

1, The Perizzites.

According to the biblical account, there were, at the time of
the patriarchs, but two radically different primitive classes of
population — the Canaanites and the Perizzites, In the account
of the parting of Abraham from Lot, we read, " The Canaanite
and the Perizzite dwelt th6n in the land." This sharp distinc
tion is repeated in two subsequent passages (Judg. i, 4, 5),
where, after the death of Joshua, these two different races are
named as existing in southern Judea, The omission of the
important tribe of the Perizzites in the enumeration of the
jjeoples of Canaan, Gen. x., is therefore not accidental, as they
were regarded as radically different from them, and as such
had their own special place in the list of tribes, after the most
important Canaanitic names (Ex, xxxiv, 1 1 ; Judg. iii. 5). The
Perizzites seemed to be distinguished from the Canaanites, who
lived in cities, by their nomadic habits; and even the etymology
of their name, which signifies the separated, affords proof that
they were the Beduins of that time, and shows that in the most
remote periods there existed the same contrast which we now
find among Arabs and Syrians.
Besides the Canaanites, who are distinguished from the
wandering Perizzites by their more regular and settled habits,
their political condition, and their residence in towns, we find
mentioned only two important races living in the countiy at
the time of the patriarchs — the Hittites and the Hivites : there
is no mention as yet of the Amorites, who afterwards became
so powerful and important, and who pushed their way north
wards from the desert of Paran (Gen. xiv. 7, 13; Judg. i.
34, 36). 2. The Hittites}
These are the oldest, and probably, at a remote period, the
only inhabitants of the interior of Palestine. The coupling of
their founder's name Heth (Chet) with that of Sidon in the list
of tribes contained in Genesis, indicates their extreme antiquity;
and in almost all successive enumerations, they take the first
place after the Canaanites proper — that is, the Phoenicians — and
only in two places are the Amorites named before them. Never,
> Ewald, Gesch. i. p. 281,

122 PALESTINE.
as Movers shows, are other tribes — such as the Girgashites,
Jebusites, Hivites, and others — ranked before them. And yet
at the time of the conquest of Canaan they were by no means
the most formidable warriors, for the Amorites were the most
powerful tribe. Indeed, at the time of Moses, they were quite
insignificant : no cities are mentioned as belonging to them ;
they are not named separately as enemies of Israel, but always in
connection with other tribes; while the cities of the Canaanites,
Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites, are often spoken of as waging
war independently against Israel, But the old place of honour
was always assigned to this ancient and powerful tribe, notwith
standing Its subsequent want of importance.
The Hittites played an important part at the time of
Abraham, when they were lords of the district around Hebron,
They were a people of gentle habits, living in well-regulated
communities; and their intercourse with the ancient Hebrew
]5atriarch was marked with the greatest courtesy during the
negotiations for Sarah's buiying-place (Gen. xxiii.). We read
that Abraham displayed the greatest reverence before them
(Gen. xxiii. 7) : " He bowed himself to the children of the land,
even to the children of Heth ; and he communed with them,"
The rest of the chapter relates in full the history of the trans
action. It is a remarkable fact that it was the Hittites who
were in possession of Hebron, the most ancient city in the land,
and a place built even before the oldest Egyptian city. The
connection by marriage of Esau, the founder of the Edomites,
with the daughters of the Hittites (Gen. xxvi. 34), confirms the
high antiquity and the early importance of the tribe. They
were the oldest, and in the beginning probably the only, lords
of the land, the nomadic Jebusites excepted, since the people
named second to them — the Hivites — settled only subsequently
in the interior of the country. In the single place (Josli. i. 4)
where the whole land of promise, " from the wilderness and
this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates,
all the land of Euphrates, and unto the great sea toward
the going down of the sun," is connected with the tribe of
Hittites, the language appears to be used archaically, and to
refer to the primitive power of the tribe. At a very remote
period* the Hittites seem to have been divided, and to have
' Gesenius, Comment, zu Jesaias, i. p. 722.

THE TRIBES OF CANAAN. 123
sent* one colony to Cyprus, if that be the island of Chittim
(Ezek. xxvii. 6), or the land of Chittim (Isa. xxiii. 1),
At the time of the conquest of Palestine by Israel, the
Hittites do not appear as the lords of the land. Scattered
remnants of the tribe, however, are mentioned as late as the
time of David; for Uriah (mentioned in 2 Sam, xi, 3, xxiii. 39)
•was a Hittite, Solomon brought all the remnants of the
conquered tribes into bondage (1 Kings ix, 20) ; and the kings
of the Hittites mentioned in x, 29 are not to be connected
with Palestine, but with Cyprus or Chittim, And the passage
in Judg. i. 26, which speaks of the building of Luz, in the
land of the Hittites, refers to the same island ; for that tribe
was never found so far north as Bethel, and " the man " who
" went into the land of the Hittites" must have removed from
Palestine to Cyprus. 3. Tlie Hivites.
This tribe, the second of the primitive Canaanitic ones, was
a mountain people, and had its true home in the Lebanon.
Josh, xi. 3 locates the Hivites near Mount Hermon, in the land
of Mizpeh, i.e. between Jebel Sheikh and the sources of the
Jordan ; and Judg. iii. 3 is more definite still in its language :
" The Hivites that dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount
Baal-hermon unto the entering in of Hamath." They are
mentioned as living there as late as the time of king David
(2 Sam. xxiv, 7), and it is possible that in this northern moun
tain land they were a powerful people (Josh, ix. 1) ; but in the
southern part of the country, conquered by the Israelites, they
were not strong. Their geographical location readily explains
the fact, that in the enumeration of the tribes of Palestine the
Hivites always have the last place but one, and come just before
the still weaker tribe of Jebusites, and that in the full list
contained in Gen. xv. they are not mentioned at all. Yet they
appear sometimes in connection with localities at the south,
and removed a long distance from their real mountain home, —
as at Shechem, for example, where they had had a settlement
for a long time, and where Jacob bought a piece of land of a
Hivite, in order to build a habitation upon it (Gen. xxxiii, 19,
xxxiv, 2). They had another city still farther to the south,
1 -Movers, vi. pp. 80-84.

124 PALESTINE.
and in the territory subsequently assigned to Benjamin — Gibeon,
now Djeb, three hours distance north of Jerusalem (Josh. ix.
3, 7, 15), Ewald* suspects that the name signifies a "com
munity" in the Canaanitish language. This city, which was
independent, preserved its existence, but was brought into
vassalage to Israel, and compelled to be hewers of wood and
bearers of water for the temple of Jehovah, There were also
Hivites farther south, who connected themselves by marriage
ties with the Edomites, as the Hittites had done. They seem,
therefore, to have been a race of powerful mountaineers, who
embraced every opportunity to force their way southward, and
were able in some instances to take up and hold a position
surrounded by other and perhaps hostile tribes, and even to
maintain themselves against such enemies as the Israelites them
selves, as they did in the case of Gibeon, The greatness of
this city, the warlike training of its citizens, their republican
constitution,' while all the surrounding cities were under the
rule of kings (Josh, ix. 1, x, 1, 2), were peculiar to the Hivites ;
while their religious rites in the tower of Shechem, in the
house of the god Berith (Judg. ix. 46, ix, 4, viii. 33), or El,^
their highest divinity, show their connection with the Canaan
itish stock. 4. The Amorites.*
Although mentioned in the list of Gen, x. in connection
with the other Canaanitic tribes, the Amorites do not appear to
have been an independent people in the primitive patriarchal
times. It is only later that they become important, and they
are always mentioned as secondary in note to the sons of Heth,
or Hittites. But in the Mosaic period they stand forth as the
most powerful and most warlike tribe of the Canaanites,
Although, with regard to the races already mentioned, we have
only faint glimpses of their early history, and only discern their
settlements scattered over the country, and surrounded by a
1 Ewald, Gesch. i. p. 283, ^ -pt^g g^^g^ p_ 282.
2 Movers, p. 79 ; and die Phonizier, pp. 255-316.
* Movers, vi. pp. 84-87 ; Rosenmuller, Bibl. Alterthums. ii. p. 255 ;
Gesenius, in Ersch. Eucycl. iii. p. 382 ; Winer, Bibl. Realw. i. 54 ; Ewald,
Gesch. des Volks Israel, ii. 204, 208, etc.
^ Winer, Bibl. Realworterbuch, 3d ed. 1847, i. and ii.

THE TRIBES OF CANAAN. 125
still more ancient race of Anakim and Rephaim, yet, says
Movers, it is very apparent that the Amorites entered the
country not long before the Israelitish conquest, and took
possession of both sides of the Jordan, They probably came
from a country at the south-east. In the oldest mention of
them they are always connected with the Amalekites, who came
from Arabia Petrsea, and were overcome by Chedorlaomer at
the time of Lot in the valley of Siddim, at the southern ex
tremity of the Dead Sea (Gen, xiv. 7). They dwelt at that
time at Hazazon Tamar, or Engedi, according to 2 Chron. xx. 2.
The account in Num, xiii, 29 makes the Amorites possessed of
all the mountain land of the south : even the whole range of high
lands from Horeb to Kadesh-Barnea, which Israel traversed, is
called in Deut, i. 19 the mountain of the Amorites ; and Ewald*
conjectures that the name Amorite itself signifies the inhabitant
of an elevated region. The passage (Gen. xlviii. 22) in which
Jacob speaks of a lot of land which he had taken with sword
and bow from the hand of the Amorites, can probably only
be understood in connection v^'ith southern Canaan, as the field
at Shechem had been purchased from the Hivites, The
Gibeonites, however, who were a remnant of the Amorites, are
spoken of (2 Sam, xxi, 2) as inhabiting the land, though their
home was pretty far to the north. The Canaanitic tribes of
the south, who blended in course of time their stock with that
of the Amorites, assumed gradually that name as their common
designation, and in the last days of Joshua the name Amorite
was given to all the enemies of Israel (Josh, xxiv. 17, 18), They
had also taken possession of the countiy east of the Jordan
(Judg, -T, 8), the same district to which the Ammonites had
long laid claim (Judg. xi. 13),
This region, which Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of
Manasseh received as their portion, had formerly been two
great kingdoms, the southern one of which, and of Sihon king
of Heshbon, lay between the Jabbok and the Arnon, and
extended from the desert on the east to the Jordan on the west
(Judg. xi. 22 ; Num. xxi. 13, 34). The northern kingdom, that
of Og, whose most important cities were Ashtaroth and Edrei,
in Bashan, lay between the river Jabbok and Mount Hermon
(Num. xxi. 33 ; Josh, xii. 5). In this kingdom of Og there
^ Ewald, Gesch. i. p. 280, note.

126 -PALESTINE.
were sixty strong cities with high walls, gates, and bars, and
many other towns without walls (Deut. iii. 5).
Shortly before the invasion of the Israelites, Sihon the
king of Heshbon had plundered and laid waste the territory of
his southern neighbours as far as to the Arnon (Num. xxi. 26) :
he had forced his way southward as far as Akrabbim, and the
Edomlte city of Petra, where was the rock Selah (Judg i. 36).
Yet both of these kingdoms eariy fell under the power of
Israel; and the most formidable battle, the most triumphant
victory, which preceded their taking possession of the land,
stirred the Hebrews to songs of triumph, and gave them a fresh
impulse in their career of conquest.*
The Amorites had likewise become very powerful in Judah,
on the west side of the Jordan, at the time of the Israelitlsii
invasion ; stronger indeed than they had been before, when
they lived at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, On the
so-called mountains of the Amorites the Israelites met five of
their kings. It required fierce conflicts to subdue them, such
as those in which Joshua engaged at Gibeon, near Beth-horon,
and the valley of Ajalon north-west of Jerusalem (Josh, x,
1-14). The Amorite kings of that period ruled over Jerusalem,
Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon, as the Scripture ex
pressly informs us. Although the nation was subdued, yet its
power remained unbroken near the sea-coast ; for they pressed
afterwards as far north as Dan and the mountains, and did not
suffer the people to come down into the valleys (Judg. i, 34),
They even began to inhabit Mount Heres in Ajalon and Shaal-
blm (Judg. i. 35) ; yet the power of the tribe of Joseph was too
weighty for them, and they were compelled to succumb, and had
to pay tribute. At length, under Samuel, peace was made be
tween the Israelites and the Amorites (1 Sam, vii, 14) ; and with
the increase of the Hebrew power, the strength and importance
of the earlier inhabitants continually waned (Josh. xvi. 10).
Thus we see that the Amorites were comparatively late
invaders, whether they entered the central country of Palestine
from Gilead at the east, or from the hill country of .Judah at
the south. Other tribes had previously occupied the places
which they seized and possessed — the Moabites, Hittites, Danites,
and Jebusites, unless the latter be considered a subordinate
1 Ewald, Gesch. ii. p. 211 et seq.

THE TRIBES OF CANAAN. \'il
tribe of the Amorites. They cannot be reckoned among the
primitive tribes of the land, although, on account of their long
abode in the midst of the so-called Canaanites, they can be
said to have belonged to them.
The very places which they occupied show that the Amorites
were a race of invaders ; for, like the Israelites, they took pos
session of the hill-tops, where their personal valour could give
them the opportunity to rush down upon their enemies, and
then safely withdraw; but the cities built in the plains were
well equipped for war, and were so familiar with all its arts,
that they were not so easily overcome as some of the strong
holds on the lower hills. The book of Judges hints at this
when it speaks of the tribe of Judah, which had been able to
subdue Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron, but was checked by even
more formidable foes (i. 19) : " And the Lord was with Judah ;
and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain, but could
not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had
chariots of iron." It was such a resistance as that implies
which Hazor offered to Joshua on the plain of Merom (Josh,
xi. 1-12). 5. Tlie Girgashites}
These belong to the least important of the Canaanitic tribes,
and seem to have immigrated into Palestine from the territory
east of the Jordan. In the original promise given to Abraham
(Gen. XV. 21), the Girgashites and the Jebusites have the last
place, and in most of the successive enumerations of the original
tribes of Canaan they are omitted. No mention is made of them
after the conquest. It is possible, however, that the Gergesenes,
mentioned in Matt. viii. 28, may refer to the descendants of the
Girgashites,' and that the term may be perpetuated for that of
the old hostile tribe, Jerome and Eusebius speak of a city
Girgasa, and Origen locates it near Lake Tiberias ; but nothing
more is known regarding it, excepting that at the time of
Jerome the name was ascribed to a little village on a hill ; from
which Ewald^ acutely draws the suspicion that the place was
1 Movers, i.a.l. vi. p. 87.
¦ Mayer, Note v. in N. Test. Frankf. a. M. 1813, p. 13 ; compare Winer,
Bibl. Realw. art. Gadara, p. 384 ; Note to v. Raumer, Paldst. p. 303.
» Ewald, Gesch. i. p. 278.

128 PALESTINE.
once the stronghold of the Girgashites, which in .Tosh, xi.
bears the nam.e of Hazor, itself signifying a castle, or fortified
hill. The place alluded to by Jerome lies near enough to the
Sea of Galilee to correspond with the statement of Matthew ;
but it does not harmonize with the conjecture that the Gir
gashites were a very unimportant tribe,
6. The Jebusites.
These always close the list of the Canaanitic tribes. Their
hostile relations to their neighbours, and the express statement
that Adonibezek the king of JebusI, afterwards Jerusalem
(Josh, xviii. 28), was an Amorite prince (Josh. x. 1, 5), show
that the Jebusites were originally a branch of the Amorites,
and that their king was properly included among the five
Amorite kings who went out against Israel (Num. xiii. 29 ;
Josh. ix. 1). They are probably mentioned as an independent
tribe in consequence of their eminent bravery, displayed in the
stubborn resistance which they offered to Israel. It was only
at the time of David that they were thoroughly conquered, and
even then they were not exterminated. The tribe was over
come by Joshua at the battle of Ajalon ; but he could not
prevail against their stronghold, afterwards Jerusalem, which
towered above the valley of Hinnom (Josh. xv. 8), It is true
that there was a temporary capture of the lower city, but the
conquered possession was not held long, and we are expressly
told (Josh. XV. 63) that the rnen of Judah were not able to take
Jerusalem from the Jebusites.
It was only after the accession of David to the throne of
Israel, who resided for seven years at Hebron, the ancient
capital, that war was carried on so successfully under the
leadership of Joab, that the Jebusites were compelled to sur
render their stronghold of Jerusalem, including the mountain
of Zion,* which became thereafter the residence of David, and
the capital of the kingdom of Israel. The name Jerusalem,
which only afterwards became common, in taking the place of
JebusI, which had been the current appellation before, seems
to have been in use to a certain extent even before this time.
It does not seem to have been given by the Israelites, but to
have been a name foreign to them, conferred upon the place by
' Ewald, Gesch. Pt. ii. pp. 228, 583.

TRIBES OF CANAAN. 129
the earlier population of the land. The etymology of the place,
the " Inheritance of Salem," or the " Dwelling of Salem," in
dicates the same thing ; and the natural character of the spot is
such that it must always have been a position of importance as
a stronghold. Even after the capture of Jerusalem there remained some
Jebusites there, like Araunah (2 Sam. xxiv, 16-25), who made
peace with David, and were allowed to live quietly in their old
home, Solomon reduced this remnant, as he did all that were
left of the old tribes, into the condition of tributaries (1 Kings
ix, 20), After the captivity, the Jebusites are brought into
notice again (Ezra ix, 1), the old hatred having so far disap
peared, that marriages were negotiated between them and the
Israelites.

VOL. ir.

CHAPTER IV.
Sec. 3. TRIBES LIVING OUTSIDE OF CANAAN, WITH THE
MOST OF WHOM THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL CAME INTO
PERMANENT RELATIONS OF HOSTILITY,
|LTHOUGH I have sought to give in the above pages
a tolerably definite idea of the limits of the territory
of Canaan, and the character of its population prior
to the time of the Israelitish conquest, because that
early population exercised s6 great an influence over the whole
subsequent history of the Hebrew nation, even down to the
present time, yet I have by no means exhausted the ethnographi
cal and geographical character of the country in the earliest
epochs of its history, the influence of the tribes of which I have
spoken having extended far beyond the Canaanitish frontier, in
the same way that David's domain reached southward as far as to
the Red Sea, northward to Damascus and Sidon, and westward
to Philistia ; and just as the kingdom of Herod, the Roman and
Byzantine district of Palestine, and the territory held by the
Moslems and the Crusaders, extended not simply to the west
bank of the Jordan, but embraced the illimitable wastes east of
the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee, expanding at times till
it reached to the Euphrates, and at times contracting to the
former limits.
In the preceding volume I have had occasion to refer to
the southern approaches to Palestine: it now remains for me to
speak of the primitive inhabitants of the country immediately
contiguous to Canaan, since these people commanded the roads
which led into the Promised Land, and had to be subdued or
annihilated in order that Israel might have free entrance to
Palestine, and might be kept separate from other nations.
The materials for gaining our knowledge are, however, very
scanty: there is very little that is trustworthy in the accounts

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 131
which have come down from the remote period with which we
have now to deal, yet they do not justify us in passing over
without a single glance what they do not describe in full.
The most uncertainty is felt with regard to what I must
speak of at the outset, and what may be called the beginning
of the beginning of the subject, — namely, that which relates to
the so-called race of giants which dwelt in the lands outlying
Canaan.

I. THE REPHAIM OR GIANTS; THE SONS OF ANAK.
Most histories of nations in their primitive state begin with
the story of a race of giants. Among the Mandshurlans, how
ever, Indians, Pehlvi, Persians, Kurds, Arabians, and Israelites
also, we do not fall in with such stories; and we meet as little
with the graves of giants among those nations as among the
Trojans, the Homeric Laestrygonesof the south, or the Huns
of the north.
The Rephaim or giants, the sons of Anak as they are called
in the earliest* narratives, seem to have been a race of men of
much larger proportions than the Hebrews, who, like the Arabs
of the present day, were probably small in stature (Num. xiii,
33), In one of the oldest biblical narratives, that of Chedor-
laomer's overthrow at the time of Abraham, and his repulse
to the south as far as Mount Seir and the desert of Paran, we
are told that this Syrian king slew the Rephaim at Ashtaroth
Karnaim, the Zuzims at Ham, and the Emims at Kiriathaim;
the two last being probably subdivisions of the first (Gen, xiv,
3-6), The Emims are probably that strong and high-spirited
people who had inhabited that region before the time of Lot,
and had been so called by the Moabites, After they were sub
dued their country was called the land of Moab (Deut. ii, 10,
11). The Zamzummims — that is, the men of evil counsel (Deut,
ii, 20) — are probably the same as the Zuzims, for they lived in
the same region, between the rivers Jabbok and Arnon, and,
like the Emims, were a powerful tribe, as were the Anakims,
who had previously lived in the country, and been conquered
and robbed of their territory.
This story, which dates from an exceedingly ancient period,
1 Keil, Commentar uber d. Biich Josua, pp. 229-231.

132 PALESTINE.
appears to rest on at least this basis of truth, that in this same
district north of the Jabbok in Bashan, king Og — that is. Long-
neck — who lived at Ashtaroth, is spoken of as the last king of
the race of giants.* His iron bed, corresponding to his size,
was exhibited as a memorial of him at Rabbath (Deut. iii. 11),
possibly a basaltic sarcophagus' like those which are still to be
seen in the country, — Noah's in the Lebanon, Nimrod's at
Damascus, Hosea's at Szalt, and Aaron's on Mount Hor,
Yet it by no means follows, from the existence of these
giants, that the Canaanitic tribes were in any way related to
them, or resembled them in stature: there is no mention made
anywhere of Amoritic giants.
There are traces of the existence of Rephaim on the west
side of the Jordan ; and it is possible that the valley of Rephaim,
west of Jerusalem, bounded on the north by the rocky valley
of Hinnom (Josh, xv, 8), received its name from them at a
very early period.* Yet what we know of them Is mostly
mythical; they are connected in the Septuagint and in Josephus
in a general way with Titans and with giants. According to
Joshua, they withdrew north of Mount Ephraim, among the
Perizzites (Josh, xvii. 15). Three of them were named as sons
of Anak, and as living at Hebron. Their ancestor Arba, the
greatest of his race, had once given his name, Kiriath Arba, or
the city of Arba, to Hebron (Josh. xiv. 15);* yet it was but a
temporary appellation: it appeared subsequently at the time of
Abraham, and disappeared at the time of Joshua, when the
three sons of Anak were driven from Hebron by Caleb (Josh.
XV. 14),
It still remains a subject of dispute, whether that almost
unknown and only fragmentarily mentioned race of Anakim —
always designated as the sons of Anak, which, as dwellers in
cities, may be held to have been among the earliest inhabitants
of the land, and to be reckoned in the same category with the
nomadic Perizzites, who were driven out at the same time — is
to be considered as Canaanitish in its character; or whether It
1 Von Lengerke, Kenaan, p, 181 et sq.
2 Burckhardt, Reise, Gesenius' ed. i. 42, 101, ii. 600, 716.
3 Robinson, Bib. Pusearch. i. 219.
* Keil, Commentary on Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, p. 150, Edin. 1864 ;
Ewald, Gesch. i. p. 276.

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 133
is not, with a higher degree of probability, to be held as a still
more ancient race, holding the country prior to its possession
by the tribes with whom the Israelites came mainly in conflict,*
But this is certain, that it was a tribe of very tall and imposing
men, filling the hearts of the Hebrews with a causeless fear;
for they were not so dangerous as they seemed, and were con
quered by Joshua, and compelled to take refuge among the
hostile Philistines along the sea-coast at the south-west. In
the time of Saul, who was himself a man of gigantic stature,
and David, there appeared one of these colossal men, Goliath,
among the enemies of the Israelites (1 Sam, xvii. 4). In
.Tosh. xi. 21, 22, we read, "And at that time came Joshua,
and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron,
from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah,
and from all the mountains of Israel : Joshua destroyed them
utterly, with their cities. There was none of the Anakims
left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath,
and in A.shdod there remained." These are the men who, at
the time of David, entered the field against Israel in the service
of the Philistines, and under the name of children of Rapha
(2 Sam, xxi, 15-22).

II. THE AVITES, OR AVIMS.
This tribe is spoken of only twice as a very ancient conquered
people (Deut. ii. 23 ; Josh, xiii, 3), who lived at Hazarim, and
extended as far as to Gaza, but who were early exterminated
by the Philistines. Nothing further is known regarding them.
Among the cities of Benjamin, Joshua (xviii. 23) speaks of one
called Avim,

III, THE HORITES, OR DWELLERS IN THE ROCKS,
Very little more has come down to us about the Horites, the
neighbours of the Canaanites on the south-east, and who dwelt
in the mountains of Seir, i.e. hairy, rough. From this circum
stance they are sometimes called Seirites; for their designation
Horites seems merely to signify troglodytes, since they built
their houses in the clefts of the rocks (Obad. 3), From the
» KeU, i.a.l. pp. 229-231.

134 PALESTINE.
mention made of them in Gen. xxxvi. 20, they seem to be an
independent and indigenous tribe, and not to have immigrated
into the region as the children of Israel did into Palestine, and
as the sons of Esau did into the mountain land farther south.
It was here, according to the very oldest records — those which
date from the time of Abraham — that they were attacked by
Chedorlaomer on his way from Elam, after he had conquered
the giants on the east bank of the Jordan. In Gen. xiv, 6 we
read, " And Chedorlaomer smote the Horites in their Mount
Seir unto El-paran, which is by the wilderness; and they re
turned and came unto En-mishpat, which is Kadesh," In Gen,
xxxvi. 20-29 the names are given of the sons of Seir the Horite,
all of them princes. They are — Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,
Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan ; the name of the second is pre
served in the designation Syria Shobal, The son of the seventh
was called Uz, a name which is familiar to us from its con
nection with the book of Job.* The Mosaic document which
relates the lineage of these Edomlte princes must be the most
ancient record of that mountain people ; for in Deut, ii, 12
we find this allusion, " The Horims also dwelt in Seir before-
time, but the children of Esau succeeded them when they had
destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead : as
Israel did unto the land of his possession which the Lord gave
unto them," Whether in the book of Job (xxiv, 5-9) the de
pressed condition of these Horites or Horims is pictured in
terms which would describe the status of Indian pariahs or a
tribe of gypsies, as Ewald' has conjectured, is uncertain ; but
von Raumer^ has very successfully shown the remarkable con
nection between Edom and Uz, in his comments on Lam, iv.
21, "Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest
in the land of Uz." But of this I shall speak more fully in a
subsequent place.
1 Onomast. Euseb. s.v. Idumxa ; Reland, Pal. p. 72.
* Ewald, Gesch. i. pp. 273, 274; Winer, i.a.l. Horites, i. 512; comp.
V. Lengerke, Kenaan, p. 184.
' K. V. Raumer, Das ostliche Palastina und das Land Edom, in Bergh.
Annalen 1830, vol. i. p. 563, etc.

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 135
IV, EDOM, EDOMITES, IDUMiEANS,*
Esau, the son of Isaac, the first-born twin-brother of Jacob,
is best known by the name Edom, the red, and in connection
with his descendants the Edomites, who settled in Mount Seir,
and drove out the Horims, who had dwelt there before. This
ethnographical name is the one distinctively given in the Old
Testament to the race of Esau ; for in Gen, xxxvi, 9 we read,
" These are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites,
in Mount Seir," His marrying into various Canaanite tribes,
whom his parents esteemed as heathen, his withdrawal from
Canaan when there was no longer room for his flocks as well
as those of Jacob to subsist in the same country, the well-known
enmity between the two brothers, and the mistrust which per
petuated itself in the next generation, affected for centuries the
destiny of those two neighbouring but never allied nations, the
Edomites and the Jews, and resulted at last in a settled national
hatred (Deut, ii, 4, 8).
At the first Edom must have pastured his flocks and herds
just on the southern conflnes of Canaan, where, at the time of
Joshua, the borders of the two countries met (Josh. xv. 1) ; and
that northern position must have been the one early occupied,
since the Horites were the prior possessors of Mount Seir, and
the Amorites held the southern portion of the Dead Sea (Gen.
xiv, 6, 7). The Edomites, at a later period, forced their way
south-eastward into the mountain region of the Horites, or
Horims, where they found a more advantageous dwelling-place,
and at last became lords of the whole territory. They were
dwelling there at the time that Moses passed northward with
the children of Israel to Kadesh-Barnea at the north-west,
where the desert of Zin, which lay north of Paran and Edom,
terminated. Kadesh, we are told in Num. xx. 16, was the city
on the northern frontier of Edom, and in its neighbourhood
the old name of the mountain ("Serr") is still found in use
among the Beduins. In consequence of the refusal which the
1 H. Relandi, Pal. cxii. de regione Edom, pp. 66-73. Gesenius, Gesch.
der Edomiter, in Comm. to Isaiah, Pt. i. Leipzig 1821, pp. 904-913 ; ii. p.
261. Rosenmuller, Bibl. Alterthumsk. iii. pp. 65-77 ; Winer, Edom, i. p.
292 ; K. V. Raumer, i.a.l. i. pp. 553-566 ; E. Robinson, Bib. Research.
ii. pp. 108-116.

136 PALESTINE.
Edomites gave to the passage of Israel through their territory,
Moses was obliged to turn back again to the ..^lanltic Gulf,
to make a circuit round the Seir range, and to pass into the
district of Moab from the east (Deut, ii, 1, 8), The Seir range,
which was in the possession of the Edomites, extended from
the Dead Sea to the eastern arm of the Red Sea ; for the Seir
of the Bible, with which the subsequent Mohammedan name,
Jebel Shera, is allied, embraced a far larger tract of territory
than that which was embraced by the word Seir as used by
Arabian writers, who meant, when they used the word, only
a subordinate part of the whole countiy to which the bibli
cal writers refer under the name of Seir, It is now a well-
settled fact, too, that the Arabic word Shera, i.e. extent of
land, has only the accidental resemblance of sound to the name
Seir, and cannot be considered identical with it or traced back
to it. Sherak and Alsherak are the names given at the present
time to the mountains north of Edom, and near Kerak: the
brook el-Hassa, or Ashy, was the southern boundary of Moab,
where the land of Edom began, and the region from that point
on has taken the usual name of Jebal (Gabalitis), South of
Wadi Ghoeir, the country is generally called Jebel Shera,
extending as far as Tor Hesmah, and passing Petra, At the
time of Moses, the power of Edom must have extended far to
the south, and to the neighbourhood of the Red Sea : for we
read in Deut. ii. 4, 8, that Israel was obliged to pass bj' the head
of that sea; and as this way could easily be closed against them,
the injunction was especially valuable, that they should " take
good heed unto themselves,"
At the time of the transit of the Israelites, the heads of
Edomlte families had been made kings; and we learn from Gen.
xxxvi. 31-43, that they had reigned in this country long before
kings had been appointed in Israel. By this are not meant
hereditary rulers of the same dynasty; but they appear to be
princes chosen by lot, since the eight who are mentioned by
name appear to have come from entirely different families and
from entirely different places : compare 1 Chr, i, 43-54, Their
names were Bela, the son of Beor ; the name of his city was
Dinhabbah : after him came Jobab, a son of Berah of Bozrah :
in his place Husham of the land of the Temanites : after him
Hadad, a son of Bedad, who conquered the Midianltes in Moab ;

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 137
his city was named Avith: after him came Samlah of Masrekah:
then Saul of Rehoboth by the river : after he died, Baalhanan
the son of Achbor reigned ; and then king Hador, whose city
was called Pal. Then follows a list containing eleven other
names of Edomite princes, mentioned without any specification,
excepting that they lived each in his own domain; whence the
conjecture seems plausible, that there was at that time a party
of the Edomites living towards the north-east, who had connected
themselves with the chief princes* descended from Esau, and
had remained in possession of Seir.
Almost nothing is known regarding the cities ruled over by
the above-mentioned Edomite princes, Dinhabbah we do not
know at all, if it be not one' of two places mentioned by Eusebius
under the name Dannaba, one of which was eight Roman miles
from Areopolis, as one goes towards the Arnon.
Bozrah, in Edom — a place whose name has been written
variously, Eusebius giving it as Bosor, but whose real position
had never been known — has been confounded very often with
the Bostra of the Greeks and Romans, in the plain of Moab. Its
location was discovered by Burckhardt to be that of the modern
Bussira ; and it is supposed by von Raumer,* on satisfactory
grounds, to have been the place figuratively called the Rocky
Nest of the Edomite eagle. It was afterwards visited by
Robinson, and identified almost beyond the chance of mistake.
Teman, unquestionably near the well-known caravan station
of Maan, east of Petra, but not identical with it, as Colonel
Leake supposed, belonged to the Temanites, whose seat seems
to have been around the present Petra, in the very centre of
Edom. Teman was celebrated throughout that whole region
for the wisdom of its inhabitants. It was praised by the pro
phets Isaiah and .Jeremiah, and some idea of its character can
be gained from the words of Eliphaz the Temanlte in the book
of Job,* Whether Shuak, Burckhardt's Szyhham, is the
city of Bildad the Shuhite, as Raumer suspects, must be left
undetermined, although these ruins lie in the land of Edom.
Naamah, the home of Zophar, is wholly unknown ; nor can
1 Rosenmiiller, Bibl. Alterth. iii. pp. 69-71.
* Winer, i. p. 270.
* K. V. Raumer, Das ostliche Palcist. i.a.l. i. p. 565.
¦* Gesenius, Comm. zu Jesaias, ii. 674.

138 PALESTINE.
Buz, the city of Elihu, be identified on strict grammatical prin
ciples with Bosta,* south of Petra, or with the more northern
Bosor, or Bozrah, Avith, the home of Hadad, is entirely
unknown to us, as also is Pai. Whether Rehoboth by the
river, the home of the Edomite Saul, was the Rehoboth of the
Euphrates, or the Errachaby of Rauwolf near the mouth of
the Chaboras, can only be determined by knowing whether this
king came from a region outside of Edom ; for the domain of
Edom never extended at that early date to the Euphrates,'
The location of Masrekah, the city of Samlah, is unknown,
although Eusebius cites the name of a city in Gebalene under
the name Masreca, Among the best known of the cities of
Edom, although not becoming eminent till in the later wars of
the kings of Judah, are Selah (Joktheel), or Petra (2 Kings
xiv, 7; 2 Chron. xxv. 11-14); Wadi Musa, and the harbours
of Elatli and Ezion-geber, By the want of any history of their
own, the Edomites are lost in obscurity during the successive
centuries, and we obtain only the most casual glimpses of them
during their wars with Judah and Israel. Saul, the first of
the Hebrew kings, waged war with the Edomites, and slew a
number of that race, who had pillaged a portion of his territory
(1 Sam, xiv, 47) ; king David smote the Edomites in the
Valley of Salt (1 Chron, xviii. 12), and gained so complete a
victory over them, that he took possession of their cities ; and
Solomon employed Elath and Ezion-geber as the ports whence
to send his fleets to Ophir, The effort of one of the Edomite
princes, who, while a mere boy, had fled to Egypt during the
reign of David, been received with honour at the court of
Pharaoh, and returned during the reign of Solomon powerfully
supported to re-establish the dominion of Edom (1 Kings xi.
14-22), was only transitory, and without results; for in the year
914 B.C., when the second fleet was built by king Jehoshaphat
in the harbour of Ezion-geber, we read expressly, " And there
was then no king in Edom,"
The reception of Hadad in Egypt, the honour paid him by
Pharaoh in giving him the queen's sister as his wife, and in
1 K. V. Raumer, Pal. p. 273 ; Winer, Bibl. Realw. i. p. 205.
- Rosenmiiller, Bibl. Alterth. i. p. 270, and Note, p. 313 ; Winer, ii. p.
308, Rechoboth hannabar. In Notitia Dignitatum, ed. Booking, cap. xxix.
ad p. 78, Note 17, ad p. 346, is unfortunately defective.

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 139
educating his children as of equal rank with his own, show the
importance of Edom in the eyes of its powerful neighbours.
Although, soon after this, .Jehoram king of Israel, and Jeho
shaphat king of Judah, in the course of their war against the
rebellious king of Moab, were compelled to take their course
through the desert of Edom, and form an alliance with the kino-
of that country ; yet the latter was probably a mere deputy, or
a real vassal, bearing the name of the king (2 Kings iii, 9),
Under the son of Jehoshaphat, Joram king of Judah, the
Edomites revolted utterly, and chose for themselves a king (2
Kings viii. 20-22) ; after that time they remained in Selah or
Petra (2 Kings xiv, 7), till after Amaziah attacked them, and
Uzziah rebuilt Elath (2 Chron, xxvi, 2), and Rezin king of
Syria had driven all the Jews out of the last-named port (2
Kings xvi. 6), From that period they were wholly freed from
the attacks of their now weakened northern neighbours.
The Old Testament is from this time silent regarding the
Edomites ; but in consequence of the downfall of the kingdom
of Judah, Edom must, as we gather from some hints in the
prophetic writings, have extended its borders farther towards
the east and north* than ever before. At the destruction of
Jerusalem the Edomites were enabled to obtain vengeance for
their former subjection. They leagued themselves with the
Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar, and, in sympathy with the
powerful Syrians, they rejoiced with songs of triumph over
the downfall of Judah (Ezek. xxv. 8-14). The domination of
the Chaldeans, however, swept away the Edomites too in its
course (Jer. xxvii. 3).
Although they appear thereafter in connection with wars, yet
they no longer are an independent people. The unextlnguish-
able hatred of the Hebrews rested more heavily upon this
nation of kindred stock, than it did upon the Chaldeans them
selves. In the cursings poured out upon Babylon, Edom is
seldom' forgotten (Ps. cxxxvii, 7-9) ; and all the prophets
struggle for pre-eminence, as it were, in hurling their evil wishes
against it. During the captivity, and after it, as well as in the
time of the Maccabees, the Edomites pressed up into Palestine
as far as to Hebron ; and it is natural that an Edomite should
1 Gesenius, i.a.l. Comm. i. 906.
« Gesenius, i.a.l. i. pp. 907, 911, 912, ii. p. 2C1.

140 PALESTINE.
seem to the embittered Hebrews a representative of natural
hatred, and that the prophets should have made the judgments
of Jehovah upon the wicked synonymous with His judgments
upon Edom (Isa, Ixiii,),
During the period in which the histoiy of the ancient
Edomites is hid from us in entire obscurity, there begins to
be developed within the rocky fastnesses which had protected
them another great power, that of the peaceful Nabathseans,
whom the successors of Alexander, Antigonus, and Demetrius
tried in vain to drive from Petra, their central stronghold. It
is hardly a matter of doubt that the rude Edomites were driven
from their old home by the Nabathseans, or at least compelled
to do menial service in behalf of this great commercial people,
while Petra rose, under its Meleks and Obodas, to independence,
and to a splendour which roused the jealousy even of the
Romans, The Nabathasans had no share in the hostile under
takings of the Edomites, and entered into close alliance with
Palestine as little as with Phcenicia, and accepted only at a late
period in their history the proffered friendship of the Roman
emperors. Contemporaneously with the rise of the power of the
Nabathseans, i.e. in the time of the Maccabees, the second
century before Christ, the custom arose among historians of
designating the northern Edomites, many of whom had settled
in Judah, by the term Idumseans, and their countiy Idumsea,
This name was used by Josephus even, and was in general
use among the Romans, who, in fact, applied it to the whole
of Judsea. The Idum^ans proper were subdued by John
Hyrcanus, 120 B.C., and were only permitted to remain in the
country on condition of being circumcised. He hoped by this
to incorporate them into the Jewish people, and he' even placed
.Jewish rulers over them ; but the old national hatred was by
no means lessened,
Antipater, one of these prefects who were set over the
Idumseans, took advantage of the internal dissensions of the
Maccabsean kings, and of the Roman influence, to strengthen
his own power ; and his son Herod is well known in history as
the first king of the Idumsean dynasty who took the place of
the Edomite archon. How little the hatred and the desire of
revenge existing among the Idumseans against the Jews had

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 141
been extinguished, is shown shortly before the siege and capture
of Jerusalem by Titus, when the party of Zealots summoned
20,000 Idumseans into the city to plunder and murder the
party opposed to them ; and this great army of robbers made
good their escape before the Romans had attacked the place.
Subsequently to that time we have more mention of
Edomites, or of Idumseans ; and the names Gebalene, Palsestlna
Tertia, Arabia Petrasa, and others, come into more frequent
use to designate the region. The old land of Edom is utteriy
forgotten, and the Idumasans, with so many other tribes of that
early time, are lost in the ocean of Arabs and Saracens,

V. AMALEKITES.*
This tribe is spoken of by Balaam as one of the oldest in
the world (Num, xxiv, 20) : " Amalek was the first of the
nations ; but his latter end shall be, that he shall perish for
ever," — a passage which briefly characterizes the whole history
of the Amalekites, According to Gen, xxxvi, 12, they are of
Edomitic origin, descending from Amalek, a grandson of Esau,
although this statement does not seem to agree with the account
in Gen. xiv. 7, according to which Chedorlaomer, after attacking
the Horites in Mount Seir at the time of Abraham, turned
northward towards Kadesh, and smote the whole land of the
Amalekites, and also overcame the Amorites, who were then
dwelling at Hazazon Tamar (Engedi). This account har
monizes better with the statement of the great antiquity of the
Amalekite tribe, and also with the earliest Arabian records
(though relatively very modern), which speak of an AmMq or
Aml^q, a son of Aad, and a grandson of Chan, and ascribe to his
very ancient family a residence at Jaman, but later a violent
invasion northward. This race belongs, therefore, to that South
Arabian stock which has no affinity with Abraham, as sons of
Ham or Joktan (Gen, x, 7, 26-30), Gesenius held them to
be connected with the Canaanites and the Carthaginians, of
the latter of whom the Arabians used to say that they were an
1 H. Reland, Pal. cxiv. de Amalacitide, 78-82 ; Gesenius, Amalikiler, in
Ersch's Encycl. Pt. iii. p. 301 et sq. ; Rosenmuller, i.a.l. iii. pp. 90-94 ;
Ewald, Gesch. i. 299, 300; Winer, Bibl. Realw. i. p. 51; J. Lengerke,
Kenaan, pp. 200-207.

142 PALESTINE.
Amalekite colony in North Africa, Reland has noticed it as a
remarkable fact, that during the wandering of the Israelites
through the Peninsula, the two nations, the Edomites and the
Amalekites, are always spoken of in different terms; the latter
being invariably alluded to as a natural enemy, the former as
a race hostile to the Israelites indeed, but connected with it by
old ties of blood.
From the oldest records it is determined, with a great deal
of certainty, that the oldest dwelling-place of the Amalekites
was between Seir and Engaddi, and therefore on the south
west side of the Dead Sea ; but according to 1 Sam, xv, 7, their
country had become mjich more extensive, and reached to the
Egyptian frontier ; for Saul smote them " from Havilah until
thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt." This
Havilah is unknown* to us, though it must be looked for in the
southern part of Judsea, although we have exactly the same
expression just quoted applied to the dwelling-place of Ishmael,
whose Havilah must be located farther eastward, Sur, or more
correctly Shur, on the contrary, the desert on the way to
Egypt into which Hagar was driven (Gen. xvi. 7), and where
Abraham dwelt (Gen. xxv. 18), is the Desert el Jesar of the
Arabs, and the real Egyptian boundary ; and Josephus could
say with perfect truth, that the Amalekite territory extended
from Pelusium to the Red Sea. Samuel says, in express
confirmation of the great antiquity of the tribe, that the
" Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites, were of old
the inhabitants of the land as thou goest to Shur, even unto
the land of Egypt."
We can now understand how it was that this ancient and
powerful tribe was the first to attack the Israelites at Rephi-
dim, on their way through the wilderness ; in which they were
not the conquerors, however, but were overcome by Joshua
(Ex. xvii. 8-13). Soon after that event, however, Israel was
again attacked by the same tribe, which had allied itself with
the Canaanites along the southern border of Palestine ; and
this time the united forces were successful, and the Hebrews
were driven back from the hills of Arad as far as Hormah
(Num. xiv. 45). They formed, therefore, a powerful popula
tion in the southern part of Canaan at a very early date, and
1 Rosenmiiller, Bibl. Arch. iii. p. 157.

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 143

extended westward as far as to the territory of the Philistines,
where David overcame them (1 Sam, xxvii, 8), They even
reached as far as to Gaza, and in conjunction with the
Midianites, became so numerous, that "they came as grass
hoppers for multitude," The extreme eastern border of their
territory, in which they are once named in conjunction with
the children of Ammon, was Jericho, the city of palms, on the
lower Jordan (Judg, iii, 13), According to the statement of
Josephus {Antiq. ix, 9), the Amalekites joined the Edomites
and the Gabalites in their war against Amaziah king of Judah,
and were conquered in the Valley of Salt : yet in the accounts
of 2 Kings xiv, 7, and 2 Chron. xxv, 11, there is mention only
of the Edomites, Uzziah the son of Amaziah is thought by
Ewald to have continued the war against them (1 Chron. xxvi.).
These Amalekites, although they may have been at a very
early period a very powerful nation, of settled habits of life,
five hundred years after the time of Abraham, and during the
life of Moses, were evidently a nomadic tribe, having all the
ways and habits of -wanderers. It seems probable that, after
being driven from their central home in the Valley of Rephi-
dim (the modern Feiran), they were compelled to adopt new
modes of life ; and being too weak to attack Israel singly, that
they allied themselves with other powerful tribes, and swept
from place to place, as the Beduins do now, with no central
spot to call their capital, and with no attachment to any special
place. One of their kings, Agag, fell into the hands of Saul,
taken in the very act of sacking and plundering the country
along the Egyptian frontier. They were looked upon as a race
of robbers (1 Sam. xv. 2-7) ; and it was thought right in the
time of David and Saul to exterminate every man, woman, and
child of the race. It was even laid as a great reproach on the
good name of the latter, that he had showed any mercy to
them ; and in Samuel that tenderness is mentioned as " evil in
the sight of the Lord."
After the Amalekites had sacked Ziklag, a city on the
southern border of Canaan, and had taken away every valuable
thing, in revenge for their own former troubles at the hand of
the Israelites, and had even taken captive David's wives, they
were pursued by six hundred men of war, and utterly routed
near the brook Besor (?) while they were indulging in their

144 PALESTINE.
revelry. Only four hundred escaped, fleeing on camels (1 Sam.
XXX. 1-22).
After David had entirely subjected the country of Edom,
there is no more mention of the Amalekites. Only once again,
under Hezekiah, is there an allusion to a remnant of the tribe
living in Mount Seir, In central Palestine, at the time of the
judges, there is a trace of their name; for we read of a moun
tain district in Ephraim possessed by the Amalekites, in which
one of the judges of Israel, Abdon the son of Hillel, a Pira-
thonlte, was buried (Judg, xii, 15). Nothing further is known
of this branch of the tribe; but even this explains the passage
in the song of Barak and Deborah, " Out of Ephraim was there
a root of them against Amalek," There is no city of Amalekites
mentioned in the very oldest records (Gen, xxxvi. 12, 16),
although there was a " city of Amalek" subsequently, to which
Macrizi alludes, and which, I think, must be identified with
the Ptolemaic Pharan.

VI, THE KENITES.
Kenaz, the founder of this tribe, and Amalek, are named
as brothers, grandsons of Esau, sons of Eliphaz, but by different
mothers (Gen, xxxvi, 11, 12), The Kenites* are spoken of in
another passage as of equally great antiquity with the Amalek
ites (Gen. XV. 19, 21); and in Saul's time they were encamped,
in company with the Amalekites, in the desert of Shur (1 Sam.
XV. 2-7). They seem, therefore, to have been a small tribe
tributary to that of Amalek. Yet their relations with the
Israelites were far from hostile, even as early as the days of
Moses. This is evident from the request which Saul made to
them to withdraw from the Amalekites, and save themselves
the slaughter which would otherwise have engulphed them all.
It will be remembered that Moses, after his wlthdrawinrf
from Egypt into the land of Midian, married one of the seven
daughters of the priest of Midian; and at a later period, when
Pharaoh his persecutor had died in Egypt, he tended the sheep
of Jethro, his father-in-law, at the mountain of Horeb (Ex, ii,
15-22). From Judg. i, 16, compared with iv, 11, it appears
that the father-in-law of Moses was really a Kenite ; for his son
1 Rosenmiiller, i.a.l. ii. p. 250.

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 145
Hobab, the brother-in-law of Moses, and his immediate connec
tions, are called the sons of the Kenite, and are spoken of as
having gone out from Jericho into the wilderness of Judah, south
of the city of Arad, and as living there among the people of
Judah, Another Kenite, Heber, separated himself from these
sons of Hobab, and set up his abode at the oaks of Zaanaim,
near Kadesh.
This tributary of the great tribe of Amalek was therefore
linked by old ties to the Jews, and mingled freely among them,
as the Midianites had formerly done, for Midian was the son
of Abraham by Keturah (Gen, xxv, 2), It may therefore be,
that although the Midianites and Amalekites were formerly
bound together by close ties, yet that now they were separated
from each other by the interposition of Jethro in favour of
Israel, The Amalekites lost their power; the Midianites, re
moving to the more eastern part of Arabia, existed for many
centuries; and the words of Saul (1 Sam, xv, 6) were well
founded, when he said to the Kenites, " Go, depart, get you down
from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them : for
ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came
up out of Egypt," Jethro had welcomed Moses with kindness,
had been amazed at the great deeds of Jehovah, and the won
derful deliverance of Israel, and had given excellent counsel
regarding the government of the people (Ex, xviii.). He had
even brought an offering to Jehovah, the highest proof of a
kindly interest that he could offer, and one which was subse
quently renewed by the kindly offer of Hobab, his son, to con
duct Israel into the Promised Land (Num. x, 29-33),
In the very early connection of Moses with Jethro's house,
in the blessing given by Jethro to Moses, and on other grounds,
Ewald* finds reasons for suspecting an old alliance between the
Kenites, Midianites, and Israelites, descended as they all were
from Abraham, He also thinks that, during the journey of
Israel through the Sinai Peninsula, these three tribes were so
closely thrown together, that they in some cases constituted but
a single body. This would explain the existence of so great
a number of men as 603,550, the number of the Israelites,
exclusive of women and children, — a number which would seem
too large for the land of Goshen, but which might easily be
^ Ewald, Gesch. ii. p. 32 et sq., and i. p. 450.
VOL. II. K

146 PALESTINE.
formed around Sinai by the aggregation of kindred tribes, and
which would be needful to subjugate a land so thickly peopled
as Canaan, From the last mention of the Kenites, it appears that they
were living in Judsea on terms of friendship with Israel, and
that, like the Israelites, they had gone over from a tent-life to
a residence in builded houses ; and when David had conquered
the Amalekites in Ziklag, he sent a portion of the booty to the
cities along the southern frontier that were friendly, and among
them to the cities of the Kenites (1 Sam, xxx, 29),
Not all the Kenites, however, could give up their free tent-
life, and accustom themselves to the restraints of a house and
the culture of the soil. In this respect they were not unlike
the Beduins of to-day.
Hundreds of years before the time of the prophet Jeremiah,
Jehonadab, a son of Rechab (2 Things x. 15, 33), and a de
scendant of the Kenites,* who lived near Samaria in middle
Palestine, had enjoined this simple tent-life upon his descend
ants in these words (Jer, xxxv, 6, 7) : " Ye shall drink no wine,
neither ye, nor your sons for ever: neither shall ye build house,
nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your
days ye shall dwell in tents." The rigid adherence which this
sect, that always bore the name of Rechabites, showed to the
injunctions of their founder, was held up by the prophet Jere
miah as worthy of high praise, and was commended to Israel,
which had so often been untrue to Jehovah, as an instance of
remarkable fidelity. This injunction against the use of wine
was also observed among the Nabathseans ; and the Rechabites
of Assyria, as well as those of southern Yemen, who boast of
their descent from Hobab and Rechab, still adhere to it. Among
the Mohammedans, too, the use of wine is forbidden,
VII, THE KENIZZITES.
This is a tribe of very little importance, as it is mentioned
only once in connection with the foregoing, and with the Kad-
monites, of whom equally little is known (Gen. xv. 19). We
only learn this about them, that a part of them were scattered
over the southern portion of Judsea at the time of the conquest
1 V. Lengerke, Kenaan, pp. 107, und 203, 204.

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 147
of Canaan, surrounded by other more important tribes, and that
they were in some sense connected with Israel ; for Caleb, who
was so efficient a helper in the work of bringing the land into
subjection, and to whom the city of Hebron fell as his share, is
spoken of as a Kenizzite, This tribe seems to have pressed into
Palestine from the south, as the Amalekites and the Kenites
had done, A part of them seems, from such circumstances as
Caleb's marriage with their daughters, to have been favourably
disposed towards Israel, while another portion appears to have
formed an alliance with Edom.*

VIII,
who are mentioned only in connection with the foregoing in
Gen, XV, 19, seem to be a still less important tribe. They are
spoken of rather as the " sons of the east" (Judg, vi, 3; Isa. xi,
14), and seem, like many other tribes of similar character, to
have forced their way westward from the district lying farther
east, as the Ishmaelites and Katurians did in ancient times, the
Saracens during the middle ages, and the Beduins in modem
times. The name does not indicate, therefore, a specific tribe,
as those heretofore cited do. Among the rude nations which
came from the district east of the Jordan, and from the south,
those who leagued themselves with the Moabites were the most
dangerous at the time of Moses (Num, xxii. 4, 7) ; and among
them the Midianites were the most formidable,' for their num
bers were so great that they are likened in the sacred narrative
to grasshoppers. Their power was so great,«that they actually
gained such ascendancy over the Israelites as to hold them in
subjection for seven years, till Gideon released his countrymen
from the yoke. The Midianites here mentioned are to be dis
criminated from Jethro's friends, who came from the neighbour
hood of the -Silanitic Gulf to meet Israel at Sinai : the former
lived in the district north of the Amorite and Moabite territory,
and had paid tribute to the Amorite king, till freed from his
yoke, they had allied themselves with Balak king of Moab. With
the victory of Gideon, all allusion to their name disappears from
,1 V. Lengerke, Kenaan, p. 204 ; Ewald, Gesch. i. p. 298 ; Winer, art.
Kenisiter und Caleb, pp. 207, 634.
« Gesch. der Volks Israel, ii. pp. 327-329.

148 PALESTINE.
history. Coupled with these Arabian races which pressed in
from the east, the Maonites are mentioned in Judg. x. 12 and in
2 Chron. xxvi. 7, but it is only casually.* The home of this
tribe is unknown ; it is conjectured to have been the locality
represented by the Maan of the present day, and there seems
to be some probability that this was the case.'
IX. THE MOABITES:* THE COUNTRY AND PLAINS OF MOAB.
There still remain the two tribes which lived on the east
side of the Dead Sea and of the Jordan, and which were re
motely allied by blood to Israel — the Moabites and the Ammon
ites. The territories were originally contiguous, and extended
from the northern boundary of Edom to the fords of the lower
Jordan. The country becomes specially interesting in connec
tion with the passage of the Israelites through it.
After their long circuit round the unfriendly land of
Edom, In the course of which they came as far south as to the
head of the eastern arm of the Red Sea, they reached the
three stations Zalmonah, Punon, and Oboth, which indicate to
us with considerable exactness the southern limits of Moab,
over which the Hebrews passed (Num. xxxiii. 41-44). Jour
neying from Oboth, the record tells us, they encamped in Ijim,
at the mountains of Abarim, " in the wilderness which is be
fore Moab, toward the sunrising" (Num. xxi. 11); or, as it
Is stated in Num. xxxiii, 44, " And they departed from Oboth,
and pitched in Ije-abarim, in the border of Moab." In this
neighbourhood, and on the road from Kadesh-Barnea, thirty-
eight wretched years were passed (Deut. ii, 14), during which
most of the serious difficulties which beset the Israelites were
encountered, and during which also the whole generation of
warriors who left Egypt passed away. Here, at the brook
Zered, Moses laid his injunction upon the people not to trouble
or wage war with the Moabites, for their countiy was not to
1 Hengstenberg, Die Geschichte Bileams, Pt. i. 1842, pp. 32-35.
2 V. Lengerke, Kenaan, pp. 204, 205 ; Ewald, Gesch. i. p. 284, ii. p.
220, i.a.l.
3 H. Relandus, cap. xx. Moabites; Gesenius, Philolog. crit. und histor.
Commentar zur Isaias, Pt. i. sec. 2, Leipsig 1821, pp. 500-507 ; Kurze, Gesch.
des Moabitischen Volks und Staats.

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 149
fall into the possession of the Israelites. We have in this con
nection the allusion already cited (Deut. ii, 10), that the
Emims were the former occupants of the countiy usually
called Moab in the Bible, whose inhabitants were descendants
of Lot. In Deut. ii, 13 occur these words: "Now rise up,
and get you over the brook Zered." It is uncertain whether
the stream here alluded to is the Wadi el Ahsa, the " brook of
meadows," or the wadi of Kerak, farther north ; but a descrip
tion of the course is given in Judg, xi. 18 : " Then they went
along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom,
and the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon,
but came not within the border of Moab ; for Arnon was the
border [that is, on the north] of Moab."
This makes us acquainted with the boundaries, but not
with the land itself, of the Moabites ; for the Israelites did not
enter it : for their road lay to the eastward of it, as the great
Arab caravan road lies east of the same territory at the present
day. But though we gain no special insight into the character
of the country, yet the biblical narratives, and later history
also, shed some light upon the character of the people who
inhabited it.
From the account in Gen. xix., we learn that the Moabites
were descended from Lot, who fled to Zoar after the destruc
tion of Sodom and Gomorrah ; but not daring to remain even
there, withdrew to the mountains, and lived in a cave with his
daughters, where the oldest bore, to her own father, a son
whose name was called Moab, and the youngest one who was
called Ammi, and from whom the Ammonites sprang. The
consciousness of a primitive relationship with these races, as
with the Edomites, lived on in the minds of the Israelites for
five hundred years, although, in telling the story of the impure
origin of the Moabites and Ammonites, it is hardly to be denied
that the descendants of Abraham displayed a certain scorn and
loftiness, as if the heirs of a nobler name. For as it is stated,
in the account of the warlike expedition undertaken by Che
dorlaomer (Gen. xiv, 5 ; Jer, xlvin, 1), that he conquered
the Emims in Kiriathaim, i.e. in the land subsequently known
as Moab, and as Moses asserts (Deut, ii, 10) that in former
times the Emims lived in this country, it is very probable that,
even prior to the emigration of Israel from Canaan to Egypt,

150 PALESTINE.
the Moabites were the permanent possessors of the soil, and
had been there fully five hundred years when the Hebrews
returned. Nor was it otherwise, it would seem, with the
kindred nation of the Ammonites on the north, who had dis
possessed the Zamzummims as far as the Jabbok (Deut. iii.
16 ; Josh. xii. 2). This river was the boundaiy of the sons of
Ammon. Although the Israelites originally passed outside of the
Moabite frontier, yet, as they advanced towards the north
eastern part of the territory, they were permitted free transit
through it, and even to make encampments within it.* This is
shown from the list of halting-places, as well as from the story
of Balaam : indeed, there are not wanting plain indications
that Israel tarried a considerable time in this country ; con
nected itself by close ties with the people of Moab ; and at a
subsequent period, when it had taken possession of Canaan,
that it looked back upon the period spent there with great
satisfaction. This was the brilliant era of the victory over the common
enemy of Moab and Israel, the two Amorite kings, whose sub
jugation was effected on the north frontier of the Moabites,
and gave a fresh impulse to the success of the Israelites, The
pleasure with which the Hebrews looked back upon that most
splendid' of their early victories, shows itself in, some frag
ments that remain of a triumphal song (Num, xxi. 14, 15),
in the hymn which celebrated the conquest of Sihon (Num,
xxi, 27-30), and in the refrain of cheerful melodies like that
sung at the wells dug with the staves of kings (Num. xxi, 17,
18). The allusions* to Ijim, Dibon, Gad, and Diblathaim
(Num. xxxiii. 45-47) — places which are not in the desert, but
in the heart of a fruitful countiy — show that Israel was not
confined entirely to the wilderness, although it held firm to the
command of Jehovah not to do injury to Moab, The Hebrews
were even permitted to purchase food and water of the
Moabites, The reason of the mutual kindness of feeling between the
1 Ewald, Gesch. ii. pp. 207-214.
2 Hengstenberg's Erlauterung der wichtigsten und schwlerigsien Ahschiitte
des Pentateuchs, Berlin 1841 ; Geschichte Bileams, p. 235.
' Ewald, Gesch. ii. pp. 209, 210.

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 151
Israelites and Moabites, and which did not exist in the case of
the equally nearly related but defiant Edomites, lay in the
oppressed condition of the Moabites under the superior power
of the Amorites, The reason that they did not undertake any
hostile enterprise against Israel, was not so much because they
supposed that the powerful Amorites would drive back the
invaders into the desert, as from the hope that the victory of
Israel would free them too from these new oppressors.
For, as we have seen above, the Amorites, with their king
Sihon at their head, had, shortly before the Israelitish invasion,
set themselves against the Moabites, and against Chemosh the
god of Moab, and had taken away all their territory between
the Arnon at the south and the Jabbok at the north, Thev
had converted He-shbon also into their own capital.
This act of robbery* was all the more fraught with peril to
Moab, that an Amorite kingdom had now thrust itself between
it and its northern ally, the Ammonites ; for Ammon confined
its exertions thereafter simply to the holding its southern fron
tier, the Jabbok, against the Amorites (Num. xxi, 24),
This intermediate territory, which had been wrested from
the Moabites, had to be crossed by the Israelites, in order that
they might reach the fords of the Jordan, and enter the Pro
mised Land, The new possessors, the Amorites, would not
permit a peaceful passage through it ; the sword was appealed
to, and that great victory was won which was fraught with
such momentous interests to Israel,
Moses sent messengers from his camp, then in the wilder
ness of Kedemoth, i.e. the eastern country, to Sihon king of
Heshbon, and bade them greet him with friendly -words (Deut,
ii, 26-37 ; Num, xxi, 21-26) : " Let me pass through thy land :
I will go along by the highway, I will neither turn unto the right
hand nor to the left. Thou shalt sell me meat for money, that
I may eat ; and give me water for money, that I may drink ;
only I will pass through on my feet," Sihon did not grant the
request, however : he collected all his armed men, and attacked
the Israelites at Jaazar, He was overcome, and his land taken
from him, from the Arnon to the Jabbok — that is, from the
boundary of Moab to that of Ammon, All his cities were
wrested from his hand, all the inhabitants destroyed, all the
1 Ewald, Gesch. ii. p. 210,

152 PALESTINE.
cattle taken away as booty : " From Aroer, which is by the
brink of the river of Arnon, and from the city that is by the
river, even unto Gilead [on the south side of the Jabbok],
there was not one city too strong for us : the Lord our God
delivered all unto us." This was the occasion which called
forth the Song of Victory contained in Num. xxi, 30, full of
exultant scorn over the downfallen Amorites, who had lately
tyrannized so despotically over the weaker Moabites : " We have
shot at them : Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we
have laid them waste even unto Nophah [Nobah of Judg. viii.
11], which reacheth unto Medeba."* This was before Hesh
bon, afterwards rebuilt by Reuben, had become the important
city which it afterwards was (Num. xxxii. 37).
The result of this brilliant victory is seen in the emphasis
which is always afterwards laid upon the Arnon as the boun
dary of ISIoab, Israel claiming in behalf of Reuben the right
to possess the territory southward as far as to that stream. Nor
have we any reason for supposing that Moab made an effort
to recover of the Israelites the territory which had formerly
been theirs. It was not strong enough, indeed, to enforce any
such claims ; but it is evident that the people of the country
had not forgotten that their territory formerly extended much
farther to the north : for the name of the level district at the
north end of the Dead Sea, opposite to the plains of Jericho
(Josh. iv. 13, V. 10) and north of the Arnon, the northern
boundary of Moab after the Amorites had taken away a part
of their territory, long bore the name " the plains of Moab." '
This title shows how fresh was the recollection of the former
possession ; and at the time of Moses the Amorite invasion had
by no means caused it to fade. After the apportioning of the
territory to Reuben and Gad, however, the tribe could not
sustain itself ; and the last allusion to it occurs in the book of
.Joshua, in connection with the allotting of the district to the
Israehtes (xiii. 32) : " These are the countries which Moses did
distribute for inheritance in the plains of ]\Ioab, on the other
side Jordan, by Jericho eastward."
The locality known as the plains of Moab, although no
1 Ewald, Gesch. ii. p. 212.
2 Hengstenberg, Die tvichstigsten Abschn. des Pentateuchs, Pt. i. 1842;
Gesch. Bileams, pp. 226, 230 ; comp. Ewald, ii. p. 217.

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 153
longer belonging to the former possessors, became subsequently
a place of great interest and importance to Israel. It was from
it that the expedition against the Amorite king of Bashan pro
ceeded ;* it was in its immediate vicinity that the effort of Balak
to secure Balaam's curse upon Israel took place ; it was in these
plains of Moab that Moses issued the laws which were to serve
for the governance of Israel (Deut. i.) ; it was there that the last
retaliatory war was waged against the Midianites (Num. xxxi.) ;
it was in the district closely adjoining that Moses died ; and
lastly, it was thence that Israel marched victoriously across the
Jordan into Canaan (Josh. iii.).
It appears, therefore, that after the success in the conflict
with Sihon, Israel dwelt for a season in the land of the
Amorites (Num. xxi. 31-35). During this time Moses despatched
messengers to Jaazar [in the upper Jabbok, near the Ammonite
boundary and that of the Amorite kingdom of Bashan], The
Israelites then turned (probably towards the north-east, leaving
the country of the Ammonites at the west), and proceeded
along the road to Bashan. Here they were met by Og, and a
battle took place near Edrei, afterwards Adraa, in which the
Israelites were victorious. The Amorite king, his sons, and all
his followers, and sixty cities, were captured (Deut. iii. 4, 5).
We then find the. Hebrews encamping in the plains of Moab,
just across the Jordan from Jericho. The name Shittim, i.e.
place of acacias, is elsewhere given to the place (Num. xxv. 1,
xxxiii. 49).
From Josh. xii. 2, it appears that the Amorite rule proper
extended northward beyond the Jabbok as far as to the Sea of
Chinnereth, i.e. Galilee ; while the power of the Amorite king
of Bashan reached from Ashtaroth and Edrei, extended north
ward as far as Mount Hermon {i.e. to the foot of the Lebanon),
and to the territory of the Geshurites and the Maachathites.
It is not surprising that the power of Israel, exhibited in
two such victories over the great Amorite kings Sihon and Og,
should infuse a spirit of fear and dismay into the timid heart
of the Moabite king Balak (Num. xxii. 23, 24), Uniting him
self to the elders of the Midianites, and in the true spirit of a
shepherd race, comparing the conquering march of the Israelites
to an ox that " llcketh up the grass of the fields," he did not go
1 Hengstenberg, i.a.l. p. 25.

154 PALESTINE.
boldly forth to meet and overcome the invader, bitt turned for
help to the priests, invoking the special assistance of the most
renowned of them — Balaam, a Syrian prophet or seer, who was
living near the Euphrates* (Num. xxii. 5, xxiii. 7). He sum
moned this man from his distant home to his own capital on the
Arnon, and soucht to induce him to curse Israel : " Come now
therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people ; for they are too
mighty for me : for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed,
and he whom thou cursest is cursed." The story of this emi
nent seer, summoned from a place far away that he might blight
Israel with his curse, unblinded with the honours paid to him
by Balak, and stedfastly refusing to change his blessing into a
curse, is declared by Gesenius' to be a genuine epic, a delineation
worthy of the greatest poet of all time. It gives, too, a very clear
insight into the spiritual condition of the people then living,
particularly of the Moabites. More than this, it affords a most
trustworthy picture of the geographical* features involved in
these historical events, whose mutual relations have of late
been so carefully traced by European commentators, while the
localities involved have been made the subject of the most
careful search, as I shall have occasion in another place to
show. For the present it is enough to say, that although the tribes
of Reuben and Gad, which were especially rich in cattle,
desired very eagerly to enter upon the possession of the territory
wrested from the Amorites, and which was remarkable for its
excellent pasturage, yet the formal permission was not granted ;
for it was suspected that the two tribes would be unfaithful in
the great work of subjugating the country on the other side of
Jordan, and would quietly settle down, leaving their brethren
to fight without their assistance (Num, xxxii. 6, 16-18), It is
clearly shown by the biblical narrative, that a portion of the
early population of the country remained until its subsequent
possession by the Gadites in the north and the Reubenites
in the south (Num, xxxii, 33-38), while the half tribe of
Manasseh, i.e. the descendants of Machir, were compelled to
^ Hengstenberg, i.a.l. p. 234.
2 Gesenius, in Jesaias Commentar, Part i. p. 504.
3 Hengstenberg, i.a.l. pp. 4, 235-251 ; comp. Ewald, Gesch. ii. pp.
215-217.

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 155
struggle stiU with the Amorites for the possession of the pasture
land which subsequently became theirs.
Even after Israel had crossed the Jordan, warfare* with the
former lords of the territory east of that river did not wholly
cease ; for what Balak wished, but did not dare to do, was after
wards undertaken by Eglon, one of the subsequent kings of
Moab (Judg. iii, 12-30), He attacked the city of Jericho, and
compelled Israel to pay tribute to him for two years. This
yoke was at length cast off by the bravery of one of the
Hebrews; and so much were the mutual relations of the Israelites
and the Moabites changed after this, that for a long time, as we
learn from the book of Ruth, such a friendly spirit existed, that
Moab became a refuge for exiled Hebrews, or those who chose
to live among foreigners rather than in their own land. But
this condition of affairs was not permanent. Saul, David, and
the kings of Judah as well as of Israel, were engaged in constant
encounters with the Moabites, in which they sometimes had the
advantage, and were sometimes worsted. David, however,
subjugated them completely (2 Sam. viii. 2, 12, xxiii. 20), and
compelled them to pay tribute ; and after the formation of the
two rival kingdoms of Judah and Israel, a hundred thousand
lambs, and as many rams, were exacted of the Moabites. After
the death of Ahab (897 B.C.), however, they refused to pay
tribute ; and the year after, during the reign of Jehoram, they
had grown bold enough to send predatory expeditions through
Canaan itself. At the time of Isaiah, the cities of the Amorite
portion of Moab had come entirely into the possession of the
Moabites. The tribes of Reuben and Gad had already been
overpowered by the Assyrian Pul, Tiglath Pileser, and Shal-
manezer, and carried into exile ; and the primitive occupants
of their domain could press in and possess it again, as the
Edomites did in Judah. It is very probable, too, that many of
the places within the territory assigned to Reuben, Gad, and half
Manasseh, never fairly came under the real dominion of the
Hebrews, and always remained a nominal possession. This was
very often the case with fertile tracts mentioned in the book of
Joshua, lying in the territory of the Tyrians, Sidonians, and
Philistines, and which, though spoken of as captured by Israel,
1 Gesenius, Gesch. des Modbit. Volks, in Jesaias Comment. Pt. i. pp.
501-507.

156 PALESTINE.
yet never could be strictly said to be held by their captors for
any available use.
The Moabites next appear as the allies of Nebuchadnezzar
and the Chaldeans (2 Kings xxiv. 2). They were unable to
suppress their joy at the downfall of the Israelitish power,
notwithstanding the old ties of blood which connected Moab
and Israel (Ezek. xxv. 8-11). Their later fate is unknown to
us. It is possible that it was the same as that of the Amorites,
who were attacked by Nebuchadnezzar five years after the
destruction of Jerusalem, and carried into exile.
The national hatred between the Hebrews and the Moabites
had meanwhile mounted to the highest point : it uttered itself
among the Israelitish people in the language of extreme scorn
at the ignominious extraction of the Moab race. The prophets
expressed the same in the curses which they heaped upon Moab.
The Moabites responded not only in hostile and predatory
attacks, but in words of derision and of boastful pride.
Amos foretells the downfall of Moab as the result of its
cruelty ; Zephanlah predicts the same as the penalty of their
scorn and contempt ; Jeremiah turns against the Moabites
afresh the curses of Balaam ; Isaiah does the same ; and Ezekiel
condemns sternly their exultation at the downfall of Judah
(Ezek. xxv. 8-11).
In no ideal picture of brilliant victories, and of a golden
future for Israel, was there wanting a scene depicting the
subjection of Moab. The apparent drawing together of both
races after the captivity, and the alliances by marriage which
took place, led to nothing permanent ; and even this connec
tion was speedily checked by the theocratic zeal of Ezra and
Nehemlah (Ezra ix. 1 ; Neh. xiii. 1). During the epoch of the
Maccabees the Moabites are scarcely mentioned, .Josephus
speaks of some Moabite cities as existing between the Arnon
and the Jabbok at the time of Alex. Jannseus {Aniiq. xiii. 15).
Since that day, however, the name of that nation has dis
appeared, losing itself, like that of the Edomites, Midianites,
Ammonites, and others, beneath the flood of Arabian tribes
which set in from the east and covered all that land.

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 157

X. THE AMMONITES,
This tribe, of similar descent with that of Moab — like that,
too, the conqueror of the primitive people of the land, and sub
sequently the objects of Amorite rapacity — experienced a fortune
similar in all respects to that of the Moabites,
At the outset Israel did not interfere with the southern
boundary of the Ammonites, the river Jabbok (Num, xxi. 24),
but were contented, so far as the country east of the Jordan is
concerned, with the territory which the Amorites held, and which
they had wrested from the Moabites and the Ammonites. This
occasioned many quarrels, especially since, during the time of
Joshua and the first centuries of the judges' rule, the children
of Israel paid idolatrous worship to the gods of their neighbours,
including the Ammonites (Judg. x, 6), and contracted marriage
alliances with their daughters. The Ammonites not only
attacked the Hebrews on the east side of Jordan, but they
passed over the river and attacked Judah, Benjamin, and
Ephraim, carrying confusion wherever they went. At last,
however, the Hebrews gained possession of Gilead, Jephthah
at their head, and passed triumphantly through Manasseh and
Mizpeh (at the foot of Hermon, including Banias and el-Huleh).
Judg, xi, 33 : "And he smote them from Aroer [the northern
place of this name near the head waters of the Jabbok, not the
southern one on the Arnon], even till thou come to Minnith,
even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a
very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were
subdued before the children of Israel."
Their subsequent boldness in attacking Gilead, and the
threats which they expressed against the city of Jabesh in
especial, drew down the wrath of Saul upon them, who, by his
victory over Nahash the Ammonite king, gained that recogni
tion as a warrior and a deliverer which subsequently placed
him on the throne. At a later period, the treatment of the
messengers whom David sent to the new king after the death
of Nahash, with messages of kindness and consolatory words,
led to a fearful retaliatory war, from whose destructive effects
not even the prompt assistance rendered by the troops of
Pladadezer the king of Syria could preserve the Ammonites,
Terrible slaughters ensued: Rabljah (Rabbath Ammon) was for

158 PALESTINE.
years in a state of siege, and at last captured, the crown torn
from the brow of the king, all valuable property contained in
the cities of Ammon taken away, and their inhabitants cruelly
destroj'ed. New risings followed new subjections ; the same national
hatred as in Moab inflamed Ammon against Israel, The
Ammonites fought against Judah under Nebuchadnezzar; and
after the captivity they bound themselves to prevent the re-
erection of the walls of Jerusalem, They were impelled to this
by the command of Moses (Deut. xxiii, 3), " An Ammonite or
Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even
to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congre
gation of the liord," At a later period, however, some of the
Israelites, and among them Solomon, broke through this edict,
and married Ammonite wives.
Under Antiochus Epiphanes the king of Syria, who by his
tyranny and scornful behaviour in the temple made his name
hateful in Jerusalem, the Ammonites, his allies, found their last
opportunity to avenge themselves on the Jews, This occurred,
too, at a time when they -were suffering greatly from injuries
experienced at the hands of the last king of Syria, Antiochus
III., who had despoiled their capital, Rabbath Ammon, after
wards known as Philadelphia, With the rise of Mattathias the
Asmonsean, who, in conjunction with his heroic son Judas
Maccabseus, opposed the invasion of Antiochus Epiphanes, a
new era of victory was introduced for Israel : the Ammonites
were permanently driven out from the territory west of the
Jordan, and in that east of the river their name disappeared
like that of the Moabites before the new Arabian appellations
had forced their way. The worship of their god Moloch found
more favour west of the Jordan than that of the Moabite
Chemosh, After this review of the tribes dwelling outside of Canaan
and upon its borders, but not partaking of the strict Canaanite
character, the Philistines alone remain to be spoken of. But
as this people was entirely without close relations to the inland
tribes already mentioned, and was a maritime nation of colonists,
dwelling only on the south-west coast, and having peculiar
institutions, a peculiar histoiy, and great independence of other
nations, and then disappearing, their influence on Palestine and

TRIBES OUTSIDE OF CANAAN. 159
its fortunes was closely linked with certain definite localities,
whose geographical relations we must understand before we
can deal intelligently with the Philistines. I shall treat of
these places in detail when I come to speak of the coast of
Palestine. Meanwhile we pass to the special geographical
character of the interior.

PART I.

Sec 4. THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE JORDAN VALLEY ;
THE RIVER SYSTEM ITSELF, AND ITS BASIN.
[IS our preliminary sketch has made us sufficiently
acquainted with the general character of this most
striking feature in the physical geography of Pales
tine, we will pass without further delay to study the
river in detail — studying it in its upper, middle, and lower
course.

CHAPTER I.
I. THE UPPER COURSE OF THE JORDAN, FROM ITS SOURCES
IN THE LEBANON RANGE TO THE WATERS OF MEROM,
OR THE LAKE EL HULEH.
On the southern slope of the eastern Lebanon (Anti-Lebanon,
or more correctly, Anti-Libanus, Ptol. v. 15, 8, etc.), which
sends out two high spurs, one eastward towards Damascus,
the other south-westward towards Hasbeya, lies intermediate
between the two, a third and higher spur running southward,
and forming the northern boundary of Israel — the majestic
Hermon, known by the Sidonians as Sirion, and by the Amor
ites as Shenir, — names which indicate a bastion, or strong
military post* (Deut. iv. 48, iii. 9). Its scarped sides, which
as early as the time of Solomon used to supply the inhabit
ants of the valley at its foot, Jerusalem, Tyre, and Sidon, with
the luxury of snow, Abulfeda, a native of the district, spoke
1 Rosenmiiller, Bibl. Alterth. i. p. 235.

ROAD TO DAMASCUS. 161
of as nive immortali opertus ;* and even now it is the friendly
custom of the Jews in Hasbeya to offer their guests a draught
of freshly melted snow water from Hermon. It is these ice-
clad heights which feed the springs of the Jordan, flowing as
they do above and below the surface to supply the great stream
of Palestine. The passages in Joshua — for example, xiii. 5,
"All Lebanon toward the sunrising, from Baal-gad under Mount
Hermon [i.e. from Panium, or more probably Hasbeya'], unto
the entering into Hamath " — show clearly that the present
snow-capped summit of Jebel es Sheikh (the Chief), with the
southern appendage Jebel Heish, first thoroughly explored
by Burckhardt and Seetzen early in this century, correspond
precisely in situation to the Hermon of the Mosaic period. •
We are indebted in part to the two travellers just named,
and in part to their successors in the same field, for a satisfac
tory account of the country in which the sources of the Jordan
are found, so far as it could be explored without the help of the
best mathematical survey.
Between Hermon and the Anti-Lebanon of Hasbeya is the
fountain-head of the longest western arm of the Jordan, Nahr
Hasbany. This, although alluded to by Furrer von Haimen-
dorf in 1566, who passed through a portion of the Jordan valley,
yet was first described by Seetzen with great accuracy in 1806,
as the most northerly, and at the same time the most affluent,*
branch of the river. This was a new view, for in ancient
times it was not regarded as the chief source. Burckhardt,*
who followed the course of this mountain stream from its
fountain-head directly southward to its entrance into the plain
of el-Huleh, confirmed Seetzen's view, and then turned his
course eastward around the southern foot of Hermon to the
celebrated spring of Banias or Paneas (Csesarea Philippi),
which, as at Herod's grotto of Pan, adorned with a temple in
honour of Csesar Augustus, was known to Josephus {Antiq.
XV. 10, 3). In two other passages {Antiq. v. i. 22, and Bell.
Jud. i. 21, 23) he repeats the statement, that the source of the
1 Abulfedse Tdbul. Syr. ed. Koehler, p. 96, Note 96.
2 Keil, Commentary on Joshua, etc., on ch. xi. 16-23.
3 V. Zach, Man. Corr. xviii. 1808 ; Letter from Acre, 1806, pp. 340-344,
* J. L. Burckhardt, Trav. in Syria and the Holy Land, Lond. 1822,
pp. 30-37.
VOL. II. L

1C2 PALESTINE.
Jordan was under an arching rock, at the southern base of the
mountain, and adds that the Napthalites had possession of upper
Galilee as far as to Lebanon, and the springs of the Jordan,
which issue from Hermon.
Here, in a charming spot on the southern extremity of the
mountain range, according to the old account, the head waters
of the sacred river made their appearance, where a dark grotto
led to unfathomable reservoirs concealed within the limestone
cliffs. This whole region, together with the neighbouring forest,
and the peak towering above all, was in ancient time sacred to
Pan, guardian protector of woods and of herds ; and his name
seems to have given rise to the old appellation which, in a
somewhat changed form, remains to the present time.
According to this, there is no doubt as to the identity of the
celebrated source of the Jordan, among the ancients and among
natives of the country who have lived in comparatively recent
time ; but Josephus speaks of yet another locality, Phiala, east
of Paneas, which he held to be the true source of the Jordan ;
and in four other places he alludes to minor springs that fed
the river, and which he supposes to be connected with Dan
and the setting up of the golden calf. Regarding both of the
statements respecting the sources of the Jordan, there was
for a long time a great deal of uncertainty ; and there must
have continually been doubts and hypotheses, until there was
a thorough personal examination of that richly watered and
variously diversified landscape. The exact Burckhardt* ex
plored the region in an admirable spirit of discovery, but with
merely partial results, in his journey from the Hasbeya Valley
to Banias ; and on his return along the north side of the
Lebanon to Damascus, in October 1810, as well as upon his
second journey in June 1812, from Damascus via Kanneytra
and BIrket Nefah (which he erroneously held' to be Lake
Phiala) to Jacob's Bridge, below Lake Huleh.
Burckhardt was followed, of course with some deviations
from the routes taken by himself, by several travellers whose
observations are valuable: Banks, Irby, and Mangles* in 1818;
Buckingham and Schubert,* 1837 ; Captain Simonds and
1 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 43. 2 T]jg g^me^ pp_ 3ii_3i6.
' Irby and Mangles, Trav. pp. 285-291.
* Schubert, Reise, iii. pp. 260-270.

THE SOURCES OF THE JORDAN. 163
Robe* in 1840 ; the American missionaries, Wolcott and Thom
son, 1 843 ; and lastly, by the very careful observer Dr Wilson,'
in 1843 and 1844. To Wolcott and Thomson* I wish to ex
press a special obligation.
In the following pages I shall gather up the results already
gained, and endeavour to depict the physical character of the
country where the Jordan rises, and to trace all its tributaries,
thus far known, to their confluence in el-Huleh, We shall
be obliged in the search to follow the explorers just named
through highways and byways, and shall hope to find much
light shed upon the connection of histoiy and geography in
this remarkable locality, DiSCURSlON I.
THE SOURCES OF THE JORDAN, AND THE UPPER COURSE OF THE RIVER AS F.4E
AS TO LAKE EL-HULEH.
1. The mountain system of Hermon {Jebel es Sheikh), or of
Southern Anti-Lebanon, with Jebel Safed and Jebel Heish.
From the central group of Hermon or Aermon (as Jerome*
heard it called), which towers above every other object, the
study of the entire landscape proceeds. It is therefore a
matter of regret that no one has as yet ascended its highest
peak, which bears the common name of Jebel es Sheikh, or the
Chief. All travellers have admired its majestic height, which
was supposed by Russegger,^ looking from Tabor, to be about
9500 Paris feet. He describes the mountain as towering up
sublimely into the clear blue sky, and as being covered with
snow as far down as the Jebel et Teltsh. Previous travellers,
who had approached from the south and the south-west sides, had
1 El. Smith and W. Wolcott, in BiUioth. Sacra, ed. b. E. Robinson,
New York 1843, pp. 11-15.
" J. Wilson,. The Lands of the Bible, Edin. 1847, vol. ii. pp. 111-325.
3 W. M. Thomson, The Sources of the Jordan, the Lake el Huleh, and the
adjacent country, with notes by Robinson, in Bibl. Sacra, vol. iii. 1846, pp.
184-214. 4 Onomastic. s.v. Aermon ; Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 425.
* Russegger, R. in Pal. vol. iii. 1847, p. 130.

164 PALESTINE.
observed only one peak ; but Wolcott, who looked at it from
many points, discovered that it had two, the northern one of
which bears the name of Bint Jebeil.* Robinson ' even saw
from Tabor only one summit, since the two which can be else
where seen, appear, when looked at from that point, to blend
in a huge pyramid. He was baffled, as Pococke had been,
with the plural form which the Psalmist had used, not without
reason (Ps. xiii. 6) : " O my God, my soul is cast down within
me : therefore will I remember Thee from the land of Jordan,
and of the Hermonites," i.e. Hermonim, instead of the singular
form Hermon. Wilson* observed this double peak as he
passed through the south-west corner of el-Huleh, and has
given a sketch of it in his Lands of the Bible.
A far better point whence to observe the entire group of
which Hermon is the centre, is at the northern end of Lake
Tiberias, especially on the high plateau of Benit, a half-hour's
distance north-east of the well-known city of Safed, which
itself lies 3000 feet* above the level of el-Huleh. Towards
the north-east may be seen, perched upon a rocky eminence, the
castle of Banias ; and twice as far away towers in all its majesty
the lofty Jebel es Sheikh, with its long narrow glaciers, which
stretch like white glistening bands from the crown of ice on
the summit far down, and shimmer in the midsummer sun.
The uncommon clearness of the atmosphere affords a distinct
view of the whole mighty Lebanon range running from north
west to south-east, and of the Anti-Lebanon with Hermon at
the south ; the two systems separated by the long and elevated
\alley of Bekka® (Coele-Syria), through a great part of which
the Litany dashes towards the south-west. How far the
fructifying dews of Hermon, whose effects are very visible
in the rank vegetation of the meadows, fields, and forests of
the immediate neighbourhood, may extend their influence, is a
1 Mr Porter discovered in 1852 that Hermon has three summits, the
loftiest one of which is the most northern. The highest point has been
ascertained by Maj. Scott to be 9376 Eng. feet. — Ed.
2 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 250 ; Bibl. Sacra, 1843, p. 13 ; Abulf.
Tab. Syr. ed. Koehler, p. 18, Note 78.
3 J. Wilson, The Lands of the Bible, vol. ii. p. 161.
* Robinson, ii. 441.
^ Dr Steinheil, Hiihen-messungen auf v. Schubert's Reise, Bayr. Gel.
Aug. 1840, No. 47, March, p. 382.

THE SOURCES OF THE JORDAN. 165
subject on which we cannot now enter. It is enough to re
mark, however, that the passage (Ps. cxxxili, 3), " As the dew
of Hermon, and as the dew which descended upon the mountain
of Zion," is only a simile, and that it can hardly be meant that
the effect of the dews of Hermon were felt as far as Jerusalem ;
for in Deut. iv, 48 (compare iii, 9) the name Zion is used with
reference to Hermon itself.
The Anti-Lebanon, or Jebel esh Sharkie, as it is called,
meaning the east mountain, divides into two parts at the lati
tude of Damascus, which lies at its eastern base. Between
these two divergent spurs is the Wadi et Teim, opening to
wards the south, and completely parallel with the basin of the
Litany, The more easterly of these two side ranges extends in a
south-westerly direction, and is the real continuation of the
Anti-Lebanon, Its loftiest peak is the Jebel es Sheikh, or
Hermon, lying between Rasheya and Hasbeya, and, according
to some, towering higher than even Jebel Sanin, the highest
peak of the Lebanon,
South of Hasbeya this chain begins to lose its height, which
comes to its maximum in Hermon, arid diminishes more and
more till the Wadi et Teim, which is traversed by the Has
bany arm of the Jordan, opens north-west from Banias, and
expands into the plain of el-Huleh, whither the Hasbeya
branch continues its course, also following a generally southern
direction. The more westerly of the two divergent branches of the
Anti-Lebanon, the one lying on the western side of Wadi et
Teim, pursues a general south-westerly direction, and is lower
and longer than the other : it runs along the south-east side of
the basin of the Litany, separating the Hasbany branch from
it, but without having any distinctive appellation. South-west
of Hasbeya, at the point where the Litany dashes in the wildest
manner through the south-western Lebanon, this parallel spur
of the Anti-Lebanon seems to press so hard upon it, that only
a narrow ravine, as it were, is left between the perpendicular
crags ; and through this ravine the Litany urges its tortuous
way, its dominant course being north-west towards Tyre. The
Jordan branch of Hasbeya, on the contrary, runs south-easterly
from this low spur of the Anti-Lebanon, its course being away

1 66 PALESTINE.
from the sea, and ffivlnff the first hint of the existence of that
/CO
great sunken inland basin of the Jordan.
With this double, and even triple, breaking of the Litany
in a place whose geological peculiarities seem to indicate a
violent convulsion in the mountain chain,' the lofty Leba
non, the western chain of the two parallel ranges, comes to
its maximum elevation. It continues its course for some dis
tance toward the south, a long broad line of hills traversing
northern Galilee, and bounding the basin of el-Huleh on the
west. These sometimes rise to a considerable elevation, and
sustain plateaus even 3000 feet above the level of the sea, —
those of Benit, Hunin, and Safed, for example. The range
comes to an abrupt termination in the hills of Nazareth, which
decline steeply to the plain of Esdraelon, Here the Lebanon
system may be said to close.
The mighty Jebel es Sheikh or Hermon, in like manner,
does not abruptly terminate the Anti-Lebanon range, but
serves as a point of transition to a row of low broad-backed
hills running directly southward, shutting in the Lake Huleh
lowlands on the east, as Jebel Safed does on the west. This
row of hills, which Burckhardt traversed throughout, is called
Jebel Heish,* It is separated by the plateau of Jolan (Gau-
lanitls) on the south-east by a patch of stony land, an hour's
distance across, in which the Arabs often take refuge from the
exactions and impressments of the pashas, Jebel Heish runs as
far southward on the east of el-Huleh as Jebel Safed on the
west (as Abulfeda stated* with entire accuracy), terminating at
the northern extremity of Lake Tiberias, the Tell el Faras, three
and a half hours north of the Sheriat or Hieromax, being the
last eminence of the range. Here, with the steep crags north
of Om Keis, the open country of .Jolan (Gaulanitis) terminates,
and Bashan (Batauea) begins. The commencement of the
Batanean uplands is indicated by the southern chain of Wostye,
and yet farther south el-Adjelun, regarding which Burckhardt
' E. Robinson, in Bih. Sacra, New York 1843, p. 14 ; together with
the sketch entitled, Country around the Sources of the Jordan.
2 C. de Bertou, Mem. sur la depression, etc., in Bulletin de la Soc. geog.
de Paris, 1839, T. xii. p. 140.
» Burckhardt, Trav. p. 287.
4 Abulf. Tub. Syr. ed. Koehler, p. 103.

THE HERMON SYSTEM, , 167
remarks that it would be entirely incorrect to connect these
southern ranges with the more northerly one of Jebel Heish.*
We have as yet but meagre details regarding the altitude of
the ranges and separate mountains alluded to above ; but the
practised eye of my friend Russegger' has determined approxi
mately the height of some of the leading points. From him I
quote the following details : — Feet.
Height of Jebel es Sheikh (Anti-Lebanon), . . , 9500
,, Ajlun, east of the Jordan valley, . . . 6000
„ Jolan (in Gaulon),  5000
„ Plateau of Hauran,  2500
„ Valley of Hasbeya,  1800
„ the Peak of Jebel es Sheikh, seen from Tiberias, 8500
Highest Peak of Jebel el Druz,  6000
We have now closed our sketch of the mountain land
adjacent to and connected with Hermon, or Jebel es Sheikh,
From this diversified district flow the various streams which
feed the upper Jordan, all of them advancing towards a common
centre, the basin of el-Huleh, and that portion of the sacred
river which lies north of Lake Tiberias,
2. The east side of the Hermon system, with the two main roads
ichich lead from Banias to Damascus.
Burckhardt has displayed the physical character of the
district indicated in the above heading. The central point
which he selects to group the objects of geographical interest
is Kanneytra, which lies on the main caravan route from Lake
Tiberias to Damascus, one hour's distance east-south-east from
Banias, and the residence of an aga. It gives its own name,
el-Kanneytra, to all the country south of Hermon.
There are two main roads* which lead from Banias to Damas
cus, along the eastern slope of Hermon and the Anti-Lebanon
system. The more southerly one of the two runs by way of
Kanneytra and Sasa, and is the one selected by all caravans of
pilgrims going from Jerusalem to Damascus and Aleppo, al
though it is exposed to the incursions of the Arabs, from its more
1 See the corrected drawing in Berghaus and Kiepert's Atlases.
' Russegger, Reise, iii. pp. 211-217.
« Burckhardt, Trav. pp. 43-47.

168 PALESTINE.
open character. The more northerly lies closer to the mountains,
and is in part overhung by them. Burckhardt speaks of them
both in detail, as he took the northern one on his way to
Damascus, and the southern one on his return two years later.
The Northern Route.— He found it a three days' journey
from Banias to Damascus, Leaving the former city and its
plain, he passed behind its old fortress, and ascended the
mountain ridge of Jebel Heish, going by a number of huts
belonging to the fellahs of Banias, who in summer tend their
herds upon the uplands, and make cheese for the Damascus
market, but in winter withdraw into their villages again.
After the first hour and a half he reached a spring, a short
distance beyond which lies the ruined city of Hazuri, which
had never been visited by any traveller.* The mountains,
covered with pasture land and forests of oak, run north
easterly for another hour's distance, to the village of Jubeta,
where live fifty Turkish and ten Greek families, which sup
port themselves by cultivating olives and tending cattle, and
which belong to the domain of Hashbeya, Here Burckhardt
spent the first night. The neighbourhood abounded in wild
swine ; but wolves, bears, wild goats, and the common panther,
were not seldom seen.' The skin of the latter is very much
prized by the Arabs for saddle-covers, Burckhardt heard that
there were many ruins in the neighbourhood, but left it to some
future traveller to explore them. Their names are Dara,
Bokatha, Bassida, Aluba, Afkerdowa, and Hauratha. These
seem to be the largest, and still exhibit walls and arches. Less
important ones are Enzuby, Hauarit, Kleile, Emteile, Meshe-
refe, Zar, Katlube, Kfeire, Kafua, and Beit el Berek.
The second day's march brought Burckhardt, after three-
quarters of an hour's joumey, to the village of Mejel, in
habited by three or four Christian families, while the remainder
of the population consists of Druses. These affiliate in part
with the Christians and in part with the Mohammedans, keep
ing the fast of Ramadan, and imitating closely the example of
the Druse emir of the Lebanon, whose plastic faith permits
him to keep a Latin confessor in his house, and to visit the
1 Gesenius' ed. of Burckhardt, i. p. 98.
2 Von Schubert, Reise in Morgenl. iii. p. 119. See Gesenius' note to
Burckhardt, i. p. 99.

ROAD TO DAMASCUS. 169
mosques when he is in Damascus. The village lies upon a
small plain, which crowns one of the moderately high hills.
The place is well suited to building, and has an abundance
of springs. After an hour's journey Burckhardt passed the
highest point of the eminence, which is in part composed of
limestone and in part of a porous tufa, softer than that in the
valley of el-Huleh. Oak is the prevailing wood ; but there is
a tree — Khukh ed dib, i.e. Bear-plum — whose fruit is very
refreshing. An hour and a quarter farther towards the north-east he
came to the Beit el Janne, i.e. House of Paradise, situated in
a narrow wadi, at a place where the valley opens a little ; on
the west side of it, several sepulchres are hewn out of the
chalky cliff, A quarter of an hour farther on is a copious
spring, called by the name of the village, and supplying water
enough to turn a mill, A half-hour's walk eastward brings one
to the foot of the mountain land.
From this point the way bore east-north-east, having the open
land of Jolan on the right, and the chain of the Heish on the
left, along whose base Burckhardt continued his journey for the
rest of the day, to the village of Kfer Hauar, On the eastern
slope of the range lie a number of villages. The road passes by
a pile of stones twenty feet long, two feet high, and three wide,
bearing the name of Nimrod's tomb. In the time of Pococke,*
who travelled from Damascus hither in order to examine this
monument, there seemed to have been some walls like those
of a temple, fifteen feet square. At each end there still stands
a great stone, and the whole structure did not seem to Burck
hardt different from Turkish graves in general. On the right,
an hour and a half's distance away, lies Sasa,' a station on the
southern route to Damascus, A half-hour's distance from
Kfer Hauar, and after passing a couple of little towers, the first
one of which lies upon a hill, is the Druse village of Beitima,
where Burckhardt spent the second night. Cotton is cultivated
throughout the entire neighbourhood. On the third day's
march an hour brought him to the village of Katana, The
road winds along by the side of Jebel Heish, but subsequently
bears away from the Damascus road northward. The stream,
1 Rich. Pococke, Description of the East, Ger. trans. 1771, Pt. ii. p. 187.
2 Koehler, Note 111, in Abulf ed. Tab. Syr. p. 100.

170 PALESTINE.
whose source is found near the village above mentioned, where
it waters extensive gardens, runs eastward from the chain to the
great plain of Damascus, At the north-east the range receives
another name, Jebel el Jushe ; but in the neighbourhood of
Damascus Jebel Salehie takes its place, or rather serves as a
western link to bind it to Jebel es Sheikh. At Kefer Susa the
gardens of Damascus begin.
The southern road from Damascus, by way of Lasa and
Kanneytra to Jacob's Bridge, below Lake el Huleh.* — This route
was traversed quicker than the former, in two days' journeys,
or rather in twenty hours.
The first day's march. — From Kefer Susa, south-west to
Sasa, six hours. After the first hour he passed the village of
Dareya, where the celebrated gardens of Damascus cease. It
was the time of the corn harvest, and the season also for irri
gating the cotton fields, whose plants were to be seen through
out the whole extent of the broad plain.'
In two hours and a half, after passing the little stream
flowing from the west of Katana, the village of Kobab, lying
at the western extremity of a low range of hills, was reached :
eastward, towards the high plain, are the villages of Moat-
taneye, Jedeide, and Artus; while west of the road, and in the
direction of the distant mountain chain, are el-Ashrafe and
Szahbnaya. Beyond Kobab the plain was cultivated for some
distance. Farther on, in the neighbourhood of the Seybarany river,
which flows from the s.w. and w. of Jebel Heish and es-
Shelk N.E. towards Damascus, Burckhardt found a khan
erected for the accommodation of the great caravans which go
from Jerusalem and Akka through this district. When the
naturalist Bove* arrived at this khan on the river, he was sur
prised to see a grove of willows and poplars, and states that it
was the only instance of arboriculture which he had noticed in
his whole journey from Gaza to Damascus, The road follows
the bank of the river, traversing no green meadows however,
1 Burckhardt, Trav. pp. 311-316.
2 Edrisi in Jaubert, i. pp. 349-355 ; Abulfedse Tab. Syrix, ed. Koehler,
p. 100. 5 Bove, Naturaliste, Recit. d'un Voyage a Damas, etc., in Bulletin de la
Soc. Geogr. de Paris, 1835, T. iii. p. 389.

ROAD TO DAMASCUS. 171
but a stony -tt-ilderness bearing the name of War-ez-Zaky, and
used as a place of refuge by Arabs when closely pursued. An
hour and a quarter farther on, several gravestones indicate
the murders committed on travellers by Druses, who rush down
from the neighbouring heights of es-Sheikh, and plunder and
destroy all who come in their way and are too weak to resist.
The Seybarany here runs through a deep bed of black feldspar,
which is so prevalent eastward in Hauran. A half-hour's dis
tance farther, a firm bridge crosses the stream, and the road
runs on to Sasa, a well-built village at the foot of a solitary
hill. It has a good mosque and a spacious khan, in which
Burckhardt spent the night.
Second day's march. — From Sasa to Jissr Beni Yakub,
i.e. Jacob's Bridge, thirteen hours. According to Schubert's
measurements,* who took the road leading from Damascus to
Sasa in April 1837, we learn that a seven or eight hours'
march is taken along a moderately elevated plateau, traversed
by a range of low hills, rising but about six hundred feet,
Schubert estimated Damascus to lie 2186 Par, feet above the
sea, and the Khan el Sheikh 2455 feet, and Sasa 2788 feet,
— about six hundred feet, therefore, higher than Damascus.
Burckhardt advanced with his little caravan from Sasa
south-westward, and soon passed- a little stream called the
jMeghannye, which does not flow as one would expect to find
it doing — north-eastward to Damascus — but south-eastward,
probably pouring its waters into the Sheriat or Hieromax, and
thus into the Jordan in its middle course, A bridge spans it,
and then there follows a long reach of rocky land, at the end
of which there is a growth of oak, above which Jebel Heish is
seen towering. According to the observations of Bove,' these
oaks are found mixed with pistachio trees, often from nine to
twelve feet in circumference, whose branches the Arabs burn
for charcoal, A half-hour's distance farther the road passes a
solitary hill. Tell Jobba, and a tract of uncultivated land ; and
some distance farther on a ruined khan called Kereymbe, where
begins the ascent to the mountain called Heish el Kanneytra.
This peak is the true southern continuation of Jebel Heish,
and seems to attain no special prominence in comparison with
1 Dr Steinheil, Hohen-messungen, p. 382.
* Bove, i.a.l. iii. p. 389.

172 PALESTINE.
the neighbouring heights, the loftiest one of which, crossed by
Schubert, was 2815 Par. feet above the level of the sea. A
prominent isolated eminence one and a half hour's distance
from the road bears the name Tel Hara. After seven hours
Burckhardt reached Kanneytra, which had been deserted by its
inhabitants in consequence of recent attacks by Turkish troops.
It is surrounded by stout walls, and has a good khan and a
handsome mosque, tastefully ornamented with granite columns.
Copious springs are found in the neighbourhood, and on the
north side of the village there were some ruins which caused
Burckhardt to conjecture that the place was the ancient
Canatha. Schubert* doubted the truth of this hypothesis, as
he was not able to discover any traces of really antique struc
tures. According to him, the khan of Kanneytra lies 2850
feet above the sea, on the Jebel Heish, which seems to sink
rather than rise as it runs north toward Jebel es Sheikh. After
a few hours' rest, a direction was taken towards the south-east,
where the Tel el Khanzyr, and to the south Tel el Faras, rise
as isolated peaks above the average level of Jebel Heish,
without attaining any important altitude, however. An abun
dance of pasturage is found to supply the herds of the Beduins
who range through the neighbouring country, and who during
the heat of summer ascend the heights of Jebel es Sheikh,
A low growth of Valonia oaks, accompanied by terebinths,
covers the soil to an altitude of two thousand feet above the
sea,' Only a half-hour's distance from Kanneytra, Burckhardt
passed Tel Abu Nedy, with the grave of the sheikh of the
same name, A good hour s.w, of Kanneytra, he saw very
near the road a pool of water called Birket er Ram, a hundred
and twenty paces in circumference, and fed by two perennial
springs. Huge heaps of stones in the neighbourhood seem to
indicate the former existence there of a city a quarter of an
hour's circuit. Five minutes' walk farther on, and behind a
clump of oak trees, there is another basin or pool excavated
in the black basaltic stone, but filled only with rain-water.
Beyond this the road begins to assume a striking grade down
ward, leaving the mountain as it now does : nine and a half
hours' farther on there comes into view on the left a swampy
^ Von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 269. 2 Ibid. pp. 172, 262, 270.

ROAD TO DAMASCUS. 173
lake, Birket Nefah or Tefah, two hundred paces in circum
ference, near which are to be seen the traces of a former canal,
probably connected with it, Burckhardt considered it to be
the Phiala of Josephus, Schubert, who passed over the same
road, only in the opposite direction, appears not to have seen
this lakelet or pool : he speaks of descrying, an hour and a
half's distance to the north-east, one bearing the name of Abu
Ermeil, which seemed to be a kind of gathering-place for the
peasants of the neighbourhood.* This Schubert thought to be
Josephus' Phiala, Both travellers were mistaken, however : the
true Phiala lies much farther north of this southern caravan
route:' it too bears the name Birket er Ram in the mouths
of the local peasantry,* I shall have occasion to allude on a
future page to the description which Thomson, as well as Irby
and Mangles, have given of it.
No subsequent traveller" has alluded to the Birket Nefah,
although the great Tell el Khanzyr, a half-hour south-west of
it, has been mentioned by both Burckhardt and Schubert,
The ground is described by them as covered with the flnest
pasturage ; the grass was so high as to be almost impassable.
Southward, and towards Lake Tiberias, the hilly country from
Tell et Taras to Fik or Feik, was intersected by several wadls
running down to the lake : the caravan road turned from the
hill of Khanzyr westward past some springs to the ruins of the
city Nowaran,* which is named in the history of the Crusades,
and of which there still remain some walls and massive hewn
stones. These are found near a flne spring surrounded by walnut
and oak trees ; from this spot a fine view is gained of the
snow-covered Hermon, At Tell Nowaran begins the scarcely
perceptible ascent over the basaltic formation,* which, however,
cannot be said to assume the definite features of a mountain
chain. This district, covered with the finest pasturage east
ward to the river Meghannye already named, only one hour
west of Sasa, the ^nezeh Beduins seized in 1843, and over
ran it with their flocks and herds, which, according to Wilson's
' Von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 265.
" See its true position in Kiepert's map.
^ Seetzen in Mon. Corresp. xviii. 1808, p. 343.
* Wilken, Gesch. der KreutzzUge, ii. p. 687.
» Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. pp. 318-324.

174 PALESTINE.
estimate, comprised thirty-five thousand camels. This multi
tude, greater than he had ever seen, and which called forth
from the Turkish guard at Jacob's Bridge the comparison of
them with swarms of grasshoppers covering the land (com
pare ,Judg. vl. 5), reminded Wilson of the promise contained
in Isa. Ix. 6, whose fulfilment seems to lie in a still remote
future. From this plateau, which Schubert estimated to be 2800
feet above the sea, Burckhardt descended* to Jacob's Bridge
(Jissr Beni Yakub), where the Jordan flows through a narrow
bed. The road at first winds gently down, till, at about a
quarter of an hour's distance from the bridges, it plunges
suddenly into the valley. This account agrees well with that
given by Schubert,' From Jacob's Bridge, which, according
to the latter authority, lies three hundred and seventy-eight
feet beneath the level of the Mediterranean, the ascent to the
top of the steep cliffs on the east side of the Jordan is extremely
difficult, requiring three-quarters of an hour's toilsome climbing
to reach the plateau bearing the name of Medan, which lies
875 feet above the sea, and therefore more than 1250 above
the surface of the Jordan at Jacob's Bridge,
These very exact and instructive particulars receive new
interest from some observations of Dr Schubert, who crossed
Jebel Heish on his way to Jolan and Iturea, On the highest
peaks of this accessible range, covered everywhere with ver
dure, he found an abundance of Salvia Indica, sheddine its
' ' O
delightful perfume all around, and blooming in all its beauty :
in the azerole thorn-bushes which flourished between the oaks
and the terebinths, the nightingales were singing their songs
of spring. In the direction of .Jolan, his eye feasted on the
green of fair clumps of trees, and on the snow-white summit
of Hermon at the north.
On the following morning, the sky being remarkably clear,
the massive mountain just named was so distinctly discerned,
that it did not seem credible that it could be eight hours'
distance away, as it really was, A cold wind swept up from
Lake Tiberias, confirming the estimated height of Kanneytra
above the sea, 2850 feet.
1 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 315.
" Von Schubert, Reise, iii. pp. 261-2G5.

ROAD TO DAMASCUS. 175
The caravan road to Sasa offers no special object of interest,
with the exception of a frightful barren tract of basalt rock, over
which a broad highway has been constructed, probably since
Burckhardt's time. This crosses a stone bridge before enter
ing the castellated village of Sasa, supplied with its khan and
bazaar. The place, lying among willows, poplars, and walnuts,
bears the marks of a comparatively recent earthquake. The
last-named tree {juglans regia), which is found all the way
from the plains of central Europe eastward, through southern"
Turkey, Asia Minor, and to the district east of the Aral,
thrives in this part of Palestine at a height of from 2000 to
3000 feet.
Farther on the road from Sasa to Damascus, along the
shore of the Seybarany, in the region where cotton is cultivated,
the poplar groves were filled with swarms of bee-eaters (merops
apiaster), nightingales filled the air with their song, and beetles
were creeping over the ground. The wind was cold, the ther
mometer had fallen as low as 3° R. ; and even as late as the
26th of April, the young walnut sprouts were touched with
the frost in the gardens of Khan es Sheikh, on the shore of the
Seybarany, 2455 feet above the sea.
3. The intermediate Cross Road, that of the ancient Via Romana,
from Damascus to Banias, passing Lake Phiala. Gathered
from the accounts of Irhy and Mangles, Tipping, and
Thomson.
Had it not been for the discovery In February 1818, by
Irby and Mangles,* of a third and more direct route still
between Banias and Damascus, we should have still remained
in doubt regarding the locality of Phiala. Their discovery,
supported as it has been by the statements of subsequent tra
vellers, has put the question almost beyond a doubt.
Irby and Mangles left Damascus on the 23d of February,
and at the end of their first day's march reached Sasa, a place
already alluded to. From this point they took a road to which
Burckhardt had made no allusion, lying between the two taken
and described by him, and entering Banias on the south side of
tlie old castle.
1 Irby and Mangles, Travels, London, Letter iv. ; comp. Robinson,
Bib. Research, ii. pp. 437-440.

176 PALESTINE.
The second day's march from Damascus, from Sasa to
Banias. — The first part of the journey followed a winding stream,
unquestionably the Meghannye, alluded to by Burckhardt,
through a fertile plain, watered by several brooks, and dotted
with the ruins of a number of mills. The ascent then began
over a rough, rocky, and barren tract, displaying in some places
the remains of a paved road, which seemed to be a Roman
via militaris, once extending in a direct line from Damascus to
Csesarea Philippi, and built perhaps by the tetrarch Philip, to
whose activity in that part of the country Josephus alludes.
West of Banias, Professor Hanel* discovered in 1847 traces of
an ancient road running to the chief seaports. The loftiest
peak of Jebel Sheikh is seen towering in the distance. Snow
was on the ground at the time of Irby and Mangles'
visit, and in such depth that it was difficult to traverse the
country with horses. Yet by and by the road became more
passable, the rocky district began to assume a smoother aspect,
the stones being piled up in heaps, in order to reclaim the
pasture land, on which flocks of goats were seen feeding : the
first bushes displayed themselves, increasing in number, si?e,
and grace as the travellers went westward, and descended into
a small but fruitful plain, lying exactly at the foot of Jebel es
Sheikh. The grave of a Mohammedan saint was seen lying
in the basin of a little stream, which seemed to rise in the
mountains, and to run from east to west. It was plain, there
fore, that the travellers had passed the watershed of Jebel
Heish (the southern continuation of es-Sheikh), between the
valley of Damascus in the east and Jordan in the west.
Yet it was necessary to ascend from this plateau to the
higher land at the south. On the way they soon passed a little
village, and were almost immediately afterwards surprised by
the discovery close by them, on the left, of a little round lake,
very picturesque in situation, about an English mile in circum
ference, surrounded by wooded cliffs, without any apparent
outlet, the water very clear, still, and covered with water birds,
recalling at once the Phiala of Josephus, and his conjecture
that it is the true source of the Jordan. This, however, it
cannot possibly be.
1 Dr G. Hanel, Reisetagebuch, in Z. d. deutsch. morgen. Ges. vol. ii.
p. 430.

THE ROUND LAKE PHIALA. 177
A short distance from the round lake,* a brook was crossed,
which flows into a stream of some length, along whose bank the
travellers proceeded a considerable way, till they reached the
old fortress of Banias, a lofty Saracen citadel. Their eyes were
soon gladdened by the sight of the noble valley in which the
city lies, and of the distant Lake el Huleh. Descending into
the vale, beautified with its diversified kinds of shrubs, covered
with a thick carpet of grass, and displaying here and there
blooming fields of beans and corn, they passed from winter to
spring. The climate was entirely unlike that which they had
lately experienced on the Damascus plateau, on the heights of
Jebel Heish, and the elevated plain of Jolan, and the soft air
itself testified that the travellers had reached the deep valley of
the Jordan, They reached the city about five in the afternoon;
but before entering, they had to follow for some distance a
little stream ' which came from Jebel es Sheikh at the north,
and which played and roared along in the wildest manner
imaginable.
Note. — Phiala the true source of the Jordan, according to
Josephus : Seetzen's Birket el Ram. No Jordan source
according to the observations of Thomson.
Had it not been for the results of the most recent investi
gation, many doubts would rest upon the locality of Lake
Phiala, which has been the subject of so many discussions
since the time of Josephus, — Burckhardt assigning it one place,
Schubert another, and Seetzen still another ; but the latest
inquiries have made it certain that it was the round and
nameless lake which is mentioned in the narrative of Irby
and Mangles, Kiepert* has, with his usual exactness, placed
it in its true position upon his map of Palestine ; but he has
been unable to give it any name, saving that which Josephus
assigns. The latter states {de Bell. Jud. iii. 10, 7), that the true
source of the Jordan was at Lake Phiala. He describes its
exact position in relation to Csesarea Philippi, and its distance
¦ See representation of this in Kiepert's map.
2 See Burckhardt ; also Thomson, Bib. Sac. iii. p. 187.
* Kiepert's Mem. to his map.
VOL. II. M

178 PALESTINE.
from it. Its name he derives from its circular or wheel-like
form. Its water, he asserts, never rises or falls. He also
states that Philip, the tetrarch of Trachonitis, threw chaff
into the lake, in order to ascertain whether it had a subter
ranean outlet, and that it appeared at Panium, and proved the
existence of such a passage. Thus much for the account of
Josephus. W. M. Thomson,* while examining the country in the
neighbourhood of the castle of Banias in 1843, learned from
his guide's statement, made without any questioning on his
side, that a conspicuous group of trees, six or eight miles to
the east, indicated the position of a little round lake, about two
miles in circumference, which has no outlet, and whose waters
never change their height. He assured Mr Thomson that he
had often seen it. It was too late in the day to visit the place ;
but from the spot where he stood, the physical impossibility of
any subterranean communication between this little round lake,
which his guide called Birket er Ram, and the grotto at Panium
was apparent.
His guide went on to point out to him, up the sides of
Hermon, and five hours' distance away, a place called Sheba,
not very far from the snow masses of the great Jebel es
Sheikh, a rock cavern, through which the Banias river runs :
he asserted, moreover, that chaff had been thrown in there, and
that it had appeared at the Banias spring. There was no im-
j^ossibility in the way of this story, which probably is some often-
repeated tradition of the place. Mr Tipping,' a landscape painter,
who was taking sketches in the year of Thomson's visit, for
the purpose of illustrating an edition of Josephus, visited this
place, called Sheba, and found it as described, far up the sides of
Jebel Sheikh, and just below the masses of snow which always
cover its summit. It was a little basin, only about two hundred
and sixty paces in diameter, filled not by springs, but by the
melting of snow water. In the summer it is dry. All the
circumstances showed him that it could not be the source of the
perennial Panium, He also visited the other basin, Birket er
Ram, and found its position to coincide exactly with the state-
1 Thomson, The Sources of the Jordan, I.e. Bib. Sacra, vol. iii. p. 189.
• 2 Smith and Wolcott, communication to the Bib. Sac. 1843, pp.
13, 14.

THE ROUND LAKE PHIALA. 179
ments of Irby and Mangles, and Seetzen, and with the location
assigned it upon Kiepert's map.
A subsequent visit of Thomson to the Birket er Ram, con
vinced* him that it was unmistakeably the Phiala of Josephus,
but that it cannot be the source of the Jordan, He took his
way thither over a high mountain, and then across a plain
covered with lava, traversed by a brook which ran south-west-
wardly, and flowed into el-Huleh. The distance of the Birket
from the old fort of Banias is about three miles, and the direct
distance from the Banias spring is about a three hours' walk.
The round form of the pool or basin suggested the thought
that it had been formed by volcanic agency. The edge is
about eighty feet above the water line. The lakelet is about
three miles in circuit. It was very difficult to clamber down
the steep sides ; but having done so, he found the water in
many cases full of rank reeds, seemingly shallow, and covered
with ducks. There was neither inlet nor outlet to be perceived,
and the water-marks seemed to indicate that its height does not
vary through the year. The water cannot be drunk, whereas
that of the Banias spring is cool, clear, sweet, and delicious.
The pond is full of leeches ; and fishermen have taken from
six to eight thousand during a single day. This creature is
unknown, however, at the Banias spring. The amount of water
which emerges at the latter place would exhaust the Birket er
Ram in a single day.
The tracing of the Jordan source to the little mountain pool
of Sheba is just as absurd, since the latter, when swollen by
the melting of the snows of Hermon, discharges its waters
through a visible outlet, traversing the valley of the Hasbany,
and after running a three hours' distance, falls into the gorge
of Suraiyib. A subterranean channel running southward is a
physical impossibility.
The collections of snow water on all sides of the ice-clad
summit of Jebel es Sheikh have given rise to a number of
popular stories, of which those cited above regarding the casting
of chaff into them, and finding it again at Banias, are but
specimens ; but this much is certain, that the account of Lake
Phiala's being the trae source of the Jordan, told by Josephus
almost two thousand years ago, and remaining current up to
1 Thomson, I.e. iii. pp. 191, 192.

180 PALESTINE.
our own day, is now disproved for all time. Still, notwithstand
ing the foolishness of many of the popular traditions regarding
these water-basins around Hermon, the investigation into their
character promises to be veiy useful for agricultural purposes,
and is highly to be recommended.
4. The west and the south-ioest side of the Hermon system : the
Wadi et Teim and the Nahr Hasbany, as far as Ard el
Huleh and Lake el Huleh.
This mountain region exercises so great an influence over
Lake el Huleh (the waters of Merom), that it is necessary for
us to enter into a considerable extent of details regarding this
valley of the upper Jordan, which derives new interest, if it be
connected, as it not improbably may be, with the expedition
undertaken by Abraham against Chedorlaomer, after that king
had overcome Lot and carried away all his goods. We are told
in the sacred narrative (Gen. xiv, 15), that "when Abraham
heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained
servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen,
and pursued them unto Dan ; and he divided himself against
them, he and his servants by night, and smote them, and pur
sued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus."
Dan lay at the southern entrance of the valley of Hasbeya,
through which a mountain road leads in three short days'
marches over the chain of Anti-Lebanon (Jebel es Sheikh) to
Damascus, The caravan road runs from Banias along the
eastern base of Hermon. The expression, " unto Hobah, which
is on the left hand of Damascus," affords the greater proba
bility that Abraham followed this mountain path, since the
village of Hoba or Choba, which Troilo* visited in 1666, lay on
the north-east of Damascus,' and if one took the eastern road,
must have been on the right hand ; while in coming down the
mountain path of the Anti-Lebanon pass, and following the
Barada in a south-easterly direction, it must lie " on the left
hand of Damascus," as the Scripture indicates.
This mountain road, which Abraham probably followed on
his w^ay to meet Chedorlaomer at Hobah, was ascended in the
reverse direction by Seetzen and Buckingham, who left the
1 Von Troilo, Reisebeschr. p. 584.
' See this laid down on Berghaus' map.

RASHEYA AND HASBEYA. 181
usual north route to Baalbec, and the west route to Beirut, and
turned south-westerly into the deep valley of Rasheya and
Hasbeya, which, before Seetzen's journey* in January 1806,
was almost wholly unknown to Europeans, and which he desired
to examine on this very account. His narrative is brief, but
its deficiencies have been amply made good by subsequent
travellers. Rasheya and Hasbeya, says Seetzen, lie at the western base
of the majestic Hermon, which, under the name of Jebel
Sheikh, lifts its snowy head above all the neighbouring moun
tains. This peak, which in winter time is inaccessible, he found
to be composed of the same limestone which formed the whole
Anti-Lebanon range. In passing over the chain on his way to
Rasheya, he saw in the distance the Mediterranean, and oii the
west slope of the range he found in the first village of Druses
and Christians the ruins of a Roman temple. One Ionic
column alone, of the most beautiful construction, remained
standing.' In Rasheya, where he arrived on the evening of the
second day's march, he was detained by rain for several days.
He found it situated upon the steep slope of a rocky mountain,
the seat of an emir, under whose control were twenty villages,
and in whose territory the whole of Hermon lay. On the
23d of January he continued his march southward to Hasbeya,
five hours' distance away. In the mountain districts adjacent
to both Hasbeya and Rasheya, he found agriculture much
neglected. The range consists principally of limestone, through which,
however, there are dykes of a black porous rock, which Seetzen
called trap. But the most remarkable geological feature
seemed to him to be a pit of asphaltum, and which, though
used for centuries, appeared never to have come under the
observation of professed mineralogists. It lies on the slope of
a limestone mountain, and discloses a number of shafts or pits,
which widen as they descend, and from which immense veins
of asphaltum run into the mountain. These have been partially
excavated, and pillars have been allowed to stand, — a provision
'^ Seetzen, Letter from Acre, June 16, 1806, in Mon. Corresp. xviii. pp.
340-343. 2 J. S. Buckingham, Travels among the Arab Tribes in East Syria,
Palestine, Hauran, etc. p. 393,

182 PALESTINE.
all the more necessary, since there has never been any division
of the mine into compartments. The roof is an ash-grey slate,
eighty feet in thickness. Seetzen let down a string a hundred
feet long into the shafts, but could not touch the bottom ; he
was assured the depth was twice as great. The -asphaltum was
broughl to the surface by a windlass turned by oxen and men.
The stratum of asphaltum had never been bored through ; it
appeared to be of great dimensions. The mineral was used as
a wash for grapes, to guard against insects, but the greatest
part was sent to Europe, After two days' stay there, Seetzen
went on to Banias.
Buckingham pursued the same route, not in the winter, as
Seetzen had done, but in the eariy spring, April 1816.* Leaving
the 'paradisaical valley of Damascus, where everything was in
the perfection of its bloom, he passed north-westerly over the
outer range of Roboch to the Anti-Lebanon, His course was
up the gorge-like valley of the Barada, and the whole of the
first day was spent in the ascension of the north-westerly range,
with its wild crags, as far as Deir el Ekfaire el Felte, where
he spent the first night. The view of Damascus, with its four
charming rivers, as he saw it from the lowest part of the range,
he mentions as indescribably beautiful.
On the second day's march he left the regular north road
running to Baalbec, and turned south-westward, traversing
the vale formed by the mountain brook Mesenun, passing
Demess and Keneisy, in order to enter the long valley running
south-westward from Rasheya and Hasbeya, This consumed
the day until two o'clock. It required fully three hours to
cross the north-eastern extremity of the long Jebel Sheikh, and
reach the western descent. From the highest point in the pass
he could see the great westerly chain of the Lebanon, often
called, on account of the number of Druses inhabiting its sides,
the Jebel el Druse ; and he could discern the whole Anti-
Lebanon, north-east of Damascus, and south-westerly to the
extremity of Hermon,
At the highest point of this pass, too, only an hour west
ward of the source of the Mesenun, and in the depth of the
defile, Buckingham discovered a small dark-red patch of the
limestone, elsewhere so common, in direct contact with a group
^ Buckingham, Travels, chap. xix. pp. 384-399.

RASHEYA AND HASBEYA. 183
of loose masses of the dark porbus rock which is often met
with in Hauran, and by the shores of Lake Huleh and the
Sea of Tiberias. This volcanic rock seems to have been thmst,
dyke-like, through the whole superincumbent mass of limestone,
and to have left these traces of the former convulsive powers
of nature. It wears down in process of time into a fertile loam
of a dark-red colour, which can always be discerned from a
distance by an experienced eye. Buckingham remarks * that,
independently of this basaltic rock found in this gorge-like
cleft, the whole appearance of the place was such as to leave
no doubt in his mind that the mountain had once been rent by
internal volcanic action.
Near the village of Keneisy he found a small round basin,
girded with a wall constructed with considerable artistic skill.
The pool which had once been there was apparently used for
the purpose of irrigating the valley, which begins at this point,
and descends in a gentle slope and in a south-south-westerly
direction to the farther side of Hasbeya and the plain north of
Lake el Huleh. It bears the name Wadi et Teim (on Berghaus'
map Etteine). Its upper portion forms the valley of Rasheya, its
lower one that of Hasbeya. In it the Jordan begins its course.
An Arabian author, el-Chulil, who wrote in the fifteenth
century, speaks of the Wadi et Teim as a district belonging to
the province of Damascus, having three hundred and sixty
villages, and a dense population. This is confirmed by the
numerous ruins which are found through the whole neighbour
hood. Between the eleventh and the thirteenth century this
valley was first settled by the Druses, whose doctrines found
their first recognition in the valley of Hasbeya.' Prior to the
diffusion of the peculiar doctrines of these people, the place
was called Teimallah, and Temin in the Jihannuma of Hadji
Chalfa.* Three or four hours brought Mr Buckingham down as far
as Rasheya. The spring had already begun to exert its infiu-
ence even there upon the corn-fields, the olive plantations, and
1 Buckingham, Travels, I.e. p. 391.
2 Rosenmuller, Anal, Arab. iii. p. 22 ; and in Robinson, Bib. Research.
ii. p. 438.
' Von Hammer-Purgstall, in Journ. Asiat. 3d ser. T. iv. p. 483, sur les
Pruzes.

184 PALESTINE.
the vineyards which adorn the valley. The European cuckoo
sounded forth its spring song : the inhabitants of the mountain
call it by the name of Jacob's bird,* believing that it is pro
claiming the praises of a canonized sultan Jacob, whose grave
on a neighbouring mountain was visited by Burckhardt.
Whether the tradition regarding this holy man has any con
nection with the patriarch Jacob, is undetermined.
Kefr el Kuk, a city of three thousand Druse and Christian
inhabitants, ruled over by an emir, has a round walled water
basin, of a kind peculiar to the Anti-Lebanon, and often met
by travellers on both sides of the range. Within the basin or
pool there stands an upright Doric column, whose use seems
to have been to show the depth of the water, and evidently of
more ancient date than other antiquities of the place, whose
pillars, architraves, and arches display Greek inscriptions indi
cating the dense population which once inhabited this range.
Rasheya — which is built in a terrace-like form up the sides
of the steep and rounding summit, the great castle crowning
the height — has a population of from four to five thousand, half
Druses, half Greek Christians. It has no mosque, because no
Moslems live here, they having been almost entirely driven
away from the mountain. Two Greek churches and a Syrian
one were entirely filled on the 8th of April — a holy day — and
were profusely decorated with images and lamps. Druses here,
as in most parts of the mountains, live on terms of amity with
the Greek Christians, and discharge their own mysterious rites
and observances ; their girls and women are distinguished by
the lofty horn (the tandur), which they wear on their heads.
Above the castle of Rasheya, itself in a lofty position, towers
towards the south the far higher snow-covered summit of
Jebel Sheikh, whose ice extended even in April within fifteen
minutes' walk of the village. This elevated situation ensures
a great degree of health to the people who reside there, and
who are distinguished for their fresh complexions, their coral
lips, and the piercing black eyes of their women and children.
The mountains close by give refuge to many wild beasts — such
as wolves and leopards — just as they did in the days when
Solomon's Song was written (iv, 8) : " Come with me from
Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon : look from the
1 Buckingham, Trav. I.e. p. 392 ; Burckhardt, Trav. p. 32.

RASHEYA AND HASBEYA. 185
top of Amana,* from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the
lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards." This lofty
summit displays everywhere a high grade, except on the south
side, where its descent towards Banias is more gentle; along its
west side there runs a low parallel chain, called the Jebel Arbel,
which forms the western wall of the long valley of Rasheya
and Hasbeya. It is, however, a low range; and one who stands
upon the loftiest point in Rasheya can see completely over it
to the third parallel chain of the Lebanon. The latter chain,
which in the beginning of April was entirely covered with
snow, Buckingham found to be called by many of the people
of that vicinity Jebel ed Druse, although the ancient name of
Libnan or Lebanon is heard even yet in the mouths of the
common people. Its white aspect completely corresponds to
the Arabic word meaning Snow Mountains, Jebel et Teltsh,
as it is often called. The valley between the Jebel Arbel on
the east, and the Lebanon range on the west, is that which is
now known as el-Bekaa' (more strictly el-Bohah) ; it is the
Coele-Syria of Strabo, and La Boquea of William of Tyre. In
it are found the renowned ruins of Baalbec. In a more general
sense, this valley extends entirely across from the Lebanon to
the Anti-Lebanon; the intermediate chain is of very little
relative importance — so little, indeed, that the nomenclature of
the peasantry ignores it, for they call the Lebanon the West
Mountain, and the Anti-Lebanon the East Mountain.*
On the way from Rasheya to Hasbeya, which Seetzen
traversed in five hours, but of which he makes almost no men
tion, Buckingham passed a number of villages inhabited by
both Druses and Christians. On the way there appeared a
wild mountain stream, which rises above the village of Kanaby,*
and which seems to be lost in the bottom of the valley. In the
bed of this little stream there appeared that same black porous
stone which is found in Hauran and around Lake Tiberias : at
first only a wedge-shaped mass, of little importance, but farther
on found in greater abundance. Three hours beyond the place
where Buckingham discovered the basaltic rock, he came to the
source of the Nahr Hasbany, an arm of the Jordan ; close by,
1 Amana, a peak of this range. See Rosenmiiller, Bibl. Alterth. i. p. 234.
' Rosenmiiller, Bibl. Alterth. i. p. 236.
» Burckhardt, Trav. p. 4. * Burckhardt, Trav. p. 32.

186 PALESTINE.
on an elevation just eastward, stands the city of Hasbeya.
Professor Hanel, who passed over this road in 1847, found the
Druse villages upon it in better condition than those of the
Turks and Arabs ; the houses were higher, and supplied with
windows.* The Jordan, according to Buckingham,' rises at the lowest
part of this valley, presenting itself at the very source as a great
basin of the clearest water, from which it makes its escape by
overleaping a dam, and produces a charming cascade. A little
distance below, it is spanned by its first bridge.
These general accounts have been fully confirmed by the
more detailed narratives of Burckhardt and Thomson, whose
courses of travel led them over a considerable portion of the
route taken by their predecessors. Burckhardt passed,* in
October 1810, from the ruins of Baalbec southward through
the valley of Bekaa. He passed the first night at a little Druse
village on the narrow crest of Jebel Arbel, said by Eli Smith
to be not more than a quarter of an hour's walk across. The
next day he entered the valley of Hasbeya, It lies about five
hundred feet higher than that of el-Bekaa, through which the
Litany pursues its westward course. The spring which Buck
ingham had already described lies about a half-hour's distance
from the village of Hasbeya. Burckhardt did not visit it, but
Thomson in 1843* made it the object of special investigation.
The water bubbles up through the soft slimy bottom of a pool'
about eight or ten rods in circumference ; and as it escapes it
is checked at once by a stone dam, forming the cascade which
Buckingham observed in the winter time, but which is not to
be seen in the early autumn. The water is abundant, however ;
and below the dam there is a strong clear stream, in which
fish are plentifully found. The first five miles of its course
is through a narrow but very beautiful and highly-cultivated
valley, densely shaded by willows, sycamores, and terebinths.
1 Prof. Hanel, Reisetagebuch, i.a.l. p. 484.
2 Buckingham, Travels, I.e. p. 397.
3 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 32.
4 Eli Smith, in Miss. Herald, vol. xii. 1845, p. 17 ; W. M. Thomson,
Tlie Sources of the Jordan, I.e. Bib. Sacra, vol. iii. p. 185.
' Compte de Bertou, Mem. sur la depression, etc., in Bulletin de la Soc.
Geogr. de Paris, T. xii. p. 139.

HASBEYA. 187
The stream then passes into a deep cleft of basaltic rock, whence
it emerges into a great plain of volcanic origin, and then sinks
by a series of very gradual transitions into the morasses which
surround Lake Huleh, Entering the plain just mentioned, it
turns its direction a little westward, and runs about ten miles,
and almost the same distance through the swamp land, entering
Lake Huleh not far from its north-west corner. During its
course hither it receives a large number of tributaries — the
Banias branch and Tel el Kadi on the east, and the Mellahah,
the Derakit, and numberless little brooks on the west, by which
its volume of water is largely increased. The entire distance
from the source to the lake is about twenty-five miles.
Although in the higher portion of Wadi et Teim there is
no permanent stream, and, as Thomson says, the channel which
is seen there is dry for the greater part of the year, yet in the
rainy season there rushes down the valley a great mass of
melted snow water,* which makes the bridge at the source of
the Hasbany indispensable,
Burckhardt describes Hasbeya as having seven hundred
houses, half of them inhabited by Druses, the other half by
Christians, mainly Greeks and Maronites : the number of Turks
and Nasairites he describes as very small. The chief production
of. the place is olive oil ; the most prominent occupation of the
people the weaving of a coarse kind of cotton cloth. The lead
ing man in the village was a Druse emir, dependent on the
Pasha of Damascus, and having twenty-one villages under his
jurisdiction, which included even Banias, At the time of
Thomson's visit' in 1843, the emirate had passed into the
hands of a Moslem branch of the house of Shehab, I shall
have occasion subsequently to speak of the government and
the Christian population; I will here merely subjoin a few
words on the condition of the place and its Jewish inhabitants
at the time of Wilson's visit, April 1843. According to his
account, the town lies upon an eminence eight or nine hundred
feet high. The population he estimated at five thousand, of
whom one thousand were Druses, a hundred were Moham
medans, and four thousand Christians. The Jews form only a
small colony of about twenty houses and a hundred souls,
1 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, vol. ii. p. 189.
2 Missionary Herald, vol. xl. xii. xiii.

188 PALESTINE.
They all belong to the Sephardim, whose ancestors immigrated
from Austria, There are only two or three permanent traders
among them ; the other vendors of goods are a kind of pedlars,
whose main business it is to lend money to the agriculturists,
taking their pay out of the returns of the harvest. They have
a synagogue, but no reading-room, as in Tiberias or Safed ; they
are by no means a people addicted to study ; few of them under
stand Hebrew, and only eight or ten can write. Their hakim,
Abrahain den David, was at once butcher, teacher, reader in
the synagogue, and the leading militarj' man. Thejr taxes,
which were formerly high — four hundred and fifty piastres —
had, at the time of Wilson's visit, been raised to three thousand
two hundred piastres. The demand of the Christians in Has
beya for the Arabic New Testament and Protestant writings
was very great, and indicated a quickened state of religious life.
The Greek priests were exceedingly incensed against the mis
sionary, Wilson, and endeavoured to persuade their people,
though without great success, to return the books. A Druse
of prepossessing dress gave the assurance, that if the English
would guarantee protection to the Protestants, as the French
had done to the Catholics, and the Russians to the Greeks, a
hundred families would at once embrace Protestantism, He
expressed his wish that the Druses might enjoy Protestant
schools, nor was he at all reticent regarding his own religious
opinions. The streets of Hasbeya run down the sides of the
mountain, where there are no houses ; all the slopes are covered
with olive and mulberry trees. The manufacture of silk, of
cotton cloth, and olive oil, formed the chief occupation of the
inhabitants. Yet every man has his little garden or his ter
races on the hill-side ; and the words of Micah (iv. 4) seem to
find exact fulfilment there, for each house is overshadowed by
its own vine and fig-tree. At the time of Wilson's visit the
summit of Hermon was still covered with snow, and the corn
was not yet in the ear. The custom of cooling the drinking-
water with snow from the mountain exists unchanged from the
time of Solomon (Prov. xxv. 13). Here Wilson saw for the
first time the tantur or horn used as an ornament for the head.
It is at present only worn by the women, especially the married
ones, but was formerly used by men as well (see Job xvi, 15 ;
Jer, xlviii, 25; Ps. cxIi. 9, cxxxii. 17, and cxlviii. 14). An

HASBEYA. 189
antique gem also, which Wilson procured in Damascus, dis
played the tantur now worn by the Druse women upon a man's
head. Burckhardt* describes the mineralogical character of Has
beya and its vicinity as interesting; in the wadi east of the
town there is found a metallic substance, which he held to be a
natural quicksilver amalgam. Cinnabar was said to be found
also ; the soil is rich in iron ; and at a short distance to the east
he found massive deposits of bitumen, which the peasantry sold
to merchants from Damascus, Aleppo, and Beirut. Thomson,
who visited the asphaltum pits, considered' the amount of bitu
men inexhaustible, and thought that, if managed with care,
they would become veiy profitable.
The road leads in a direct course from Hasbeya over the
very narrow ridge which separates its valley from that of the
Litany, It passes the village of Kaukaba, and emerges at the
hamlet of Barghaz, which stands close by the stream, as it
dashes and foams through its gorge-like bed, spanned by an old
Roman bridge. Perhaps it were more strictly true to say that
below this bridge begins that cleft, impassable by the steps of
man, and which the stream has cleft through the rocks of
Lebanon, whose lofty peaks rise abruptly on the west, A half-
hour below Kaukaba,* and on the Hasbany, stands the khan of
Hasbeya, a very large and old caravanserai of regular construc
tion, eighty paces square, with entrances on the east and west
sides, the latter of which was so overladen with inscriptions,
that even an experienced eye could scarcely make them out.
The khan, as well as the remains of a once veiy elegant mosque
close by, give evidence of the great depreciation of art in Syria
in the present compared with former days. This khan yields
a most unremunerative rent. The market on Thursday is
attended by peasants from the whole Hasbeya district, el-Huleh,
Belad-Beshara, Belat-Shukif on the Litany, Medj-Ayun, and
Jezzin, A kind of pottery, largely manufactured in the neigh
bourhood, is offered for sale ; also the cotton and silk stuffs of
Hasbeya, horses, mules, camels, donkeys, fine sheep, goats, oil,
^ Burckhardt, Travels, p. 33.
' Thomson, I.e. iii. p. 186 ; comp. Compte de Bertou's Mem. I.e. Bul
letin, xii. p. 139 ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, etc., vol. ii. p. 191.
s Wilson, Lands of the Bible, I.e. ii. p. 192,

190 PALESTINE.
butter, cheese, and other articles. These are displayed in slight
booths or on the ground. The whole spectacle, taken in con
nection with the surrounding landscape, is a very romantic one,
Thomson was especially surprised to see some fifty mill
stones offered for sale, made from the porous black stone which
is used for that purpose in Hauran, and which seems to be the
chief material which makes up the structure of the part of the
mountain where the market is held. Thomson judged its
appearance to indicate that the mountain had a volcanic origin.
Passing over the stone bridge near by, he rode along the banks
of the stream, following its downward course, and soon came
to a fine growth of wood, which stood forth in strong contrast
with the naked appearance of the mountain crags on every
side. South of this he entered an extensive olive grove, through
which the Hasbany continued its dashing course for the distance
of an hour and a half ; but after passing out of this grove, he
no longer heard the music of its waters, for it had passed then
into the plain, and changed its course,
Buckingham traversed the length of the Hasbeya valley,
yet he did not pursue the road which leads along the bottom
of it, but chose rather that which runs along the top of
the low ridge* on the west. After a good day's march from
Rasheya, he arrived at sunset at a round, isolated, cone-shaped
mountain, very like Tabor in its form, and filling up somewhat
the Hasbeya valley. Upon it stands the city Hibl el Hawa,
smaller than Rasheya, and provided with a good khan, from
whose gate the view extends down the deep and broad Jordan
valley as far as Lake Huleh. At Hibl, the habitations of the
Druse mountaineers cease, and a new population succeeds,
Burckhardt, in his course down the valley, followed the western
slope of Hermon, After the first two hours he arrived' at
Hereibe, a place that lies high above the river, and which is
surrounded by olive vineyards, the fruit of which forms an
important article of food among the mountaineers. West of
the village stand the ruins of a fallen temple, twenty paces
long, thirteen broad, with a vestibule and two columns still
standing upright. The inner apartments of the temple are not
materially injured ; it still exhibits a number of arched rooms,
1 Buckingham, Trav. I.e. pp. 398-400.
« Burckhardt, Trav. p. 34.

THE ARD EL HULEH. 191
and the relics of a staircase which formerly led to the roof, now
fallen in. From this ruin Burckhardt came in an hour to the
spring Ain Ferchan, and then, after ascending a mountain,
three-quarters of an hour brought him to Rasheyat el Fuchar,
a village of a hundred houses. The most of these belong to
the Turks, the rest are inhabited by Greek Christians. The
village affords a magnificent view of the Ard el Huleh, i.e. the
circular plain of that name three or four hours away. In the
distance Lake Huleh can also be seen. This village is remark
able as the place where the pottery ware, so much valued in
the neighbourhood for its graceful forms and skilful painting,
is manufactured. It finds a market not only in Hasbeya, but
is carried as far as Jolan and Hauran ; almost every house in
the village is a small pottery,*
Thomson,' after leaving the long valley Wadi et Teim, and
passing through the great olive grove at the south end, tra
versed the plain that lies there in forty-five minutes. He found
it covered everywhere with lava, and ending in a steep slope,
which led to .a second plain much larger than the first, and
exhibiting the same traces of volcanic activity. This one he
found to slope gently to the marshes around Lake Huleh. His
course led him eastward to Banias, which he reached in two
hours and a half.
Scattered over this barren plain, Thomson saw a few
stunted oak trees, which, instead of beautifying the prospect,
only made it more painfully desolate, Buckingham's account*
confirms that of Thomson in this regard. He too, in his
descent from the fertile valley, found on the lava-covered plain
not a single olive tree, not a grape vine, and not a corn-field.
No houses were visible ; and only a few tents served as the
habitations of man. The only people visible were a few no
madic adventurers called Turkomans, who in the spring force
their way in from Syria, and, partaking of the character of
both Turks and Arabs, make use of both languages. On
account of their predatory habits, however, they are considered
a more abandoned race than even the wild Beduins. Crossing
1 See also Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 439 ; and Major Robe, in Bib.
Sacra, 1843, pp. 14, 15.
2 Thomson, I.e. iii. p. 187.
3 Buckingham, Trav. I.e. p. 400.

192 PALESTINE.
the Hasbany, he found it at this season, the beginning, very
broad and deep. Eastward he could see the high castle of
Banias. Approaching this city, vegetation begins immediately to
assume new vigour and beauty ; the hundred brooks that dis
tribute their waters through its neighbourhood, carry fertility
everywhere, and make the place a miniature Eden, Josephus
says of it, that it affords a profusion of all natural gifts ;
Seetzen* alludes to the uncommon richness of its charms; and
Burckhardt calls it rightly classic ground ; and surely it is so,
• for hither came Jesus Christ with His disciples, and taught in
the neighbourhood, and loved to meet the people who assembled
at the markets of Caesarea Philippi : here He loved to preach
the gospel, and to speak to the multitudes of Himself as the Son
of the living God (Matt, xvi, 16 ; Mark viii. 27), The parable
of the sower is invested with new significance when read in the
fruitful corn-fields which surround Banias. Wilson discovered'
in the wheat-fields a great number of places destitute of grass,
and displaying a productive growth of a kind of tares, called
by the Arabs Zawan. Before sowing, the seed of this is care
fully separated from the grain, lest it grow up and choke the
harvest. This is eminently the Zizanion or Lolium of Matt.
xiii. 25, which the enemy sowed among the wheat in the night
time while the master lay and slept. It bears the same name
even to-day.
5. Tlie source of the Jordan at Banias ; the city of Banias ; the
Castle of Subeibeh, and the ruins of Hazuri Hazor.
Seetzen, the first European traveller who visited Banias
since the times of Abulfeda and Brocardus, gave a very brief
account of his stay there ; yet all that he did narrate has been
fully confirmed* by subsequent explorers. The small place ; the
abundant spring with its attractive rock grotto ; the picturesque
wall with its Greek inscriptions, dedicating the place to Pan
and the nymphs of the fountain ; the charming environs, which
Seetzen thought* the most interesting in all Palestine  a
^ Seetzen, Mon. Correspond, xviii. p. 343.
2 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, vol. ii. p. 173.
' Seetzen, in Mon. Corresp. x-viii. pp. 343, 344.
* Seetzen, p. 348 ; Wilson, Lands, etc., vol. ii. p. 174.

BANIAS. 193
judgment in which Wilson coincides ; the abundance of game
of all kinds for the hunter, wild boars, foxes, jackals, gazelles,
deer, hares, wolves, hyenas, bears, and panthers, — all of this is
as Seetzen years ago asserted it to be. He was the first to
ascribe the true origin of the Jordan to the spring of Banias, as
a tribute to its beauty ; yet he did not refuse to recognise the
Hasbany lying farther west as a longer arm of the river than
the Banias tributary ; and it is unquestionable, that he laid
very little stress on the probability of a third and intermediate
stream's leading to the head waters, the Tell el Kadi, in con
sequence of his want of acquaintance with it.
Burckhardt, who regrets the short stay which he was com
pelled* by the want of money to make at that place, has yet
given a very exact account of it, accompanied with a drawing
of the grotto, and with copies of the inscriptions which he
observed there.
Banias, now a village of about one hundred and fifty
houses' (at Burckhardt's time, 1810, there were only sixty),
lies at the foot of Jebel Sheikh, and in a corner of the plain of
Banias. Its population is mostly of Turks and Arabs, yet there
is an intermingling of Greeks and Druses. The declivity of
the mountain is here particularly fruitful, as well as the plain
which lies before it, and both enjoy the uncommon advantage
of having a dense growth of trees. The district which is most
remarkable for its fertility extends half an hour's distance
west of the town, and is thickly dotted with ruins, stone walls,
pillars, capitals, and pedestals. This place is regarded by
Wilson as unquestionably a part of the old city of Caesarea
Philippi. On the north-eastern side of the present village, the Banias
river emerges from its source. That in ancient times it re
ceived honours as the fountain-head of the Jordan, is shown by
the monuments which stand near it. Above the spring there
may still be seen an upright limestone wall,* in which several
niches of larger or smaller size have been skilfully excavated,
and ornamented with volutes. The most of these niches are
1 Burckhardt, Trav. pp. 37-43.
2 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 176.
3 Gesenius' ed. of Burckhardt, i. pp. 494-497, Note ; Boeckh and Franz,
Corpus Inscr. Grsecar. vol. iii. Fasc. i. fol. 244, Nos. 4537-4539.
VOL. II. N

194 PALESTINE.
now filled with rubbish. The largest one, which is six feet
high, and the same in length and width, stands over a spacious
cavern, from which the river flows ; still higher is a second
niche decorated with pilasters. At the distance of twenty
paces, and at the foot of the same rock, a couple of other niches
have been hollowed out: every one bears its own Greek inscrip
tion. In one of them, which is decorated with a profusion of
ornaments, a portion of a pedestal for a statue can be seen.
The almost illegible inscriptions merely indicate that the place
was sacred to Pan, whence its name Panion, or Paneion in
Josephus, and the later name Panias. They also tell us that
a priest of Pan (probably officiating here in a temple dedicated
by Herod the Great to Augustus) caused the inscriptions to
be engraved. Philip the tetrarch of Trachonitis, to whom at a
later period this province was assigned by the Romans, built
the city, and gave it the name of Csesarea Panias : it was also
called Csesarea Philippi, to discriminate it from the Caesarea
Palestina on the sea-coast, and is so designated in Mark viii.
27. Still later it was enlarged by Agrippa, and in flattery to
the Emperor Nero was called Neronias. There is not known
to have been any older primitive name of the place ; * and here,
differently from almost all the localities of Palestine, the Greek
name has not been supplanted by an Arabic corruption' of the
old name, but has remained only slightly changed in form.
The Panion of Josephus appears in the Banias or Banjas of our
day, and in the Belinas of Benjamin of Tudela and the Cru
saders, Reland has indeed started the conjecture that there is
no such connection; that the form of the present word deceives,
and that it really dates to the days of the Phoenician supremacy.
An inscription which escaped the eye of Burckhardt is found
on the wall about five feet above the most eastern niche, and
confirms the statement of Josephus, that Agrippa decorated
Panias with royal bounty. It was copied by both Thomson*
and Krafft ; It fills sixteen lines, but it has not been published.
Around the spring there is a large number of hewn stones.
The stream runs along the north side of the village, where are
still to be seen a well-built bridge and some ruins of the ancient
' Gesenius' ed. of Burckhardt, Note to i. p. 483.
2 Abulfedse Tab. Syr. in Koehler, p. 96.
^ Thomson, in Bib. Sacra, iii. p. 194.

BANIAS. 195
city, the larger part of which appears to have been on the
farther side of the river, where ruins are found extending back
a quarter of an hour's walk. These ruins are not found in
any perfect condition ; there are no whole walls, only scattered
fragments and detached stones, among which one unbroken
pillar was visible. In the village Burckhardt saw upon the
left a light-grey granite pillar, of about one and a half feet in
diameter. The incompleteness of the narratives given by earlier travel
lers has been completely removed by the full accounts of sub
sequent explorers. Even Burckhardt failed to describe with
any fulness of detail the cavern from which the Banias spring
emerges, but Thomson* has entirely filled the hiatus in our
knowledge. The account given by Josephus of this great
fountain is interesting ; but its condition is so much changed
since he wrote, that his description no longer remains true.
Pie tells us that when Herod the Great had accompanied Caesar
(Augustus) to the sea on his way home, he built in his honour
a splendid temple of pure white stone. This he erected near
Panium, a beautiful grotto, where flow the head waters of the
Jordan, The place which was afterwards to be made cele
brated by this beautiful temple was of note even before, in
consequence of this rare natural curiosity.
The perpendicular wall, from forty to fifty feet in height,
and running parallel with the ancient walls of the place, and
standing only a few rods from it, displays not far from its
middle part a high irregularly-shaped cavern, which at the
present time, moreover, only penetrates the mountain a few
feet, Th's place, according to Josephus, was the source of
the Jordan. Professor Hanel,' who visited the place in 1847,
reports that the wall has been very much shattered by an earth
quake, whose results are to be seen in the thickly scattered
fragments strewn around. It is very probable, however, that
the pieces of rock so abundant there, are rather to be ascribed
to the ruins of the demolished temple of Herod, of which there
is nothing left standing. Other architectural objects which
1 Thomson, I.e. Bib. Sacra, iii. pp. 187-189 ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible,
ii. p. 176.
2 Dr G. Hiinel, Reisetagebuch, in Zeitsch. d. deutsch. morgenland Gesell.
vol. ii. p. 43.

196 PALESTINE.
once served to adorn the place, appear now to block iip the
entrance to the cavern, so that it could only be possible to dis
cover the true spring by removing the great mass of rubbish
accumulated there. They are probably now sustained by an
arch ; for Thomson conjectured that so many pieces of rock
could only have been borne up by the strong support of a vault.
If this were so, we should be able to understand the account
which Josephus gives of the place, and perhaps to recognise its
trath. The inscriptions and sculptured volutes found above
have stood the weather well, and display traces of remark
able skill. Of the altar which Benjamin of Tudela* (writing
in 1165) supposed to be the pediment on which stood Micah's
idol, mentioned in Judg. xviii. 17, and which he located before
the Jordan grotto of Banias, there is, of course, not a trace to
be found. Thomson gives a more explicit account of the situation of
the city than his predecessors. Wilson' is still more full.
Banias lies in the midst of hills and mountains ; the surface of
Lake Huleh cannot be seen from it, it being shut off from
sight by intervening eminences. On these, Wilson,* as he
looked southward, saw a place that was called Mazarah ; the
hills themselves he found to bear the name Jebel Jura, or
Jeidur, in the latter one of which he thought he discovered
traces of the name Itursea, which was given in ancient times
to that region. Ain Fit lies still farther south, near the broad
district of Gaulon, Golan, Gaulonitis, or Jolan, which em
braces the whole country south-east of Banias, and east of
Lake Huleh. Like Itursea, it unquestionably owes its local
name to the ancient and hitherto undiscovered city of Golan in
Bashan, — a site which, with three others, was selected by Moses
as places of refuge for those persons of the tribe of Manasseh
who accidentally committed manslaughter. Subsequently the
place was given to the children of Gershom (Deut. iv. 43 ; Josh.
XX. 8, xxi. 27 ; 1 Chron. vi, 71). The little plateau on which
the city of Banias stands is a hundred feet higher than the
neighbouring plain of the same name. The part of the town
which lay within the ancient walls lay directly south of the
1 Benjamin von Tudela, Itinerar. ed. Asher, 1840, i. p. 82.
2 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. pp. 175, 322,
8 Ibid. l.c. pp. 173, 318.

BANIAS. 197
great spring, whose stream forms a deep bed along the north
western walls, A part of the water was formerly carried
through a ditch or fosse, which protected the eastern wall, and
which ran into the deep cleft formed by the mountain stream
Wadi el Kid, Along the bank of the latter the southern wall
was erected. The whole place was therefore surrounded by
water. The walls were very strong, and protected, as the
ruins now show, by eight towers : certainly a very formidable
position ; an irregular triangle or trapezium, broadest at the east,
— the whole so small as to be walked round in twenty minutes,
and well justifying the remark of Irby and Mangles,* that
Csesarea Philippi could not have been a city of great extent.
It is only in the north-eastern portion of the tract once
covered by the ancient city, that the few wretched huts stand
which form the present town. It lies, according to De Bertou's'
measurements, about two hundred and fifty-t-\vo feet higher
than, the Jordan spring at Hasbeya. The western part of the
territory, which was included within walls, is now overgrown
with a rank profusion of bushes and weeds, among which stand
three mills, whose wheels are moved by the stream from the
great spring. There is a fourth one on the southern stream,
that of Wadi el Kid.
The suburbs of the place, as they may be called, are far
more extensive than the town itself ; for the whole plain is
thickly scattered with the fragments of pillars, capitals, and
walls, all displaying the ancient splendour of Csesarea Philippi.
Under a settled government, this place, now so pitiably sunk,
would assume new importance, for its natural advantages are
remarkably great. The soil of the neighbourhood is of extra
ordinary fertility, and yields a more ample harvest than that of
any other part of Palestine. There is a noble terebinth tree *
growing in the middle of the village, a thick carpet of grass'
covers the ground, and extensive rice-fields greet the eye with
their fresh green colour ; the neighbourhood abounds in boars,
gazelles, and other varieties of game ; and partridges, ducks,
and snipes* are met in great profusion.
1 Irby and Mangles, Trav. p. 289.
2 C. de Bertou, Mem. l.c. Bullet, xii. Table des hauteurs.
3 Burckhardt, Gesenius' ed. i. p. 91.
* Irby and Mangles, Trav. p. 280.

198 PALESTINE.
Burckhardt is the only one who has pushed* out from
Banias in a north-north-westerly direction for any distance.
His excursion extended about five miles, and on the way he
discovered traces of an ancient paved road. He discovered the
ruins of a city, to which he gave the name of Bostra. It stood
on a bold height, which Seetzen had in vain attempted to
ascend. The stones of which this old city was built were in
many cases of remarkable size, and were hewn. There were
the remains of some fountains, some shattered pillars, but
nothing else which seemed particularly noteworthy. Although
Burckhardt gave the name Bostra to the place, yet no city of
this name seems to have been anciently there : Gesenius held
it to be Bathyra, which Herod built as a stronghold against the
predatory attacks of the people of Trachonitis. The whole
region in the vicinity of this collection of ruins Burckhardt
found admirably adapted for building purposes. Behind this
place there rises an eminence of some pretensions, called the
Jebel Merura Jubba.'
Wilson,* on passing from Banias to Hasbeya, discovered a
third way of communication between the two, which had been
taken by Burckhardt ; one of special interest, in consequence
of its traversing the lowest part of the defile through which the
Hasbany runs. His road ran north-westward from Banias for
about five miles, along the southerly base of Jebel Sheikh, then
turned northward, and five miles farther on crossed the stream
Nahr es Sei-aiylb, a branch of the Hasbany, Not far from
that point is the narrow ravine through which the Hasbany
pours. The basalt rocks which I have mentioned as found
elsewhere here appear again, but they differ from those found
in the neighbourhood of Lake Tiberias in the large proportion
of iron which they contain. Farther up in the valley green
sandstone is found, and the whole geological structure of the
soil changes. The basaltic pass or ravine is surrounded by a
very hilly country as far up as Hasbeya, All the wadis are
full of olive and mulberry plantations, vineyards, and the finest
corn-fields. In fact, the whole art of agriculture has here
reached a stage far in advance of that found in every other
place between Beersheba and Dan,
1 Burckhardt, Gesenius' ed. i. p. 92. See Thomson, p. 196.
2 See Berghaus' map. ' Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. pp. 180-182.

THE CASTLE OF BANIAS. 199
The restless Burckhardt* made another excursion to the old
Saracen citadel of Banias, which no European had visited
before. It lies directly east of the great spring, and is three
miles away. It crowns a hill fifteen hundred feet above the
village of Banias, and affords a most extensive and charming
prospect, extending beyond the barren Jebel Heish, Lake
Huleh, and Jebel Safed. This castle, whose form is that of
an irregular quadrangle, covers the whole of the extensive rocky
and completely isolated spur of .Jebel Sheikh, on which it
stands. It is guarded on all sides by inaccessible gorges, and
only on the north-east does a single narrow crag connect the
hill with the main body of the range. Even here, too, there is
a sudden descent of from two hundred to three hundred feet
from the rock-crowned citadel to the narrow pass just alluded
to. This north-eastern side, the only one that was approachable,
was defended by walls, round towers, and bastions of extraor
dinary strength. The south side of the citadel is guarded by
six towers, alternately round and square, through only one of
which was the ascent practicable from Wadi el Kid, The
walls on the south-west, west, and north-west, lead along the
brink of a very steep precipice. Within the citadel the
l^rimitive rock has been left standing higher than even the walls
themselves ascend ; and in this rock, cisterns, corn-chambers,
storehouses, and arched rooms have been hewn. At the west
end of the castle there is a staircase cut in the rock, but now
so broken that Thomson was unable to descend to ascertain the
truth of the story that it leads to a subterranean passage con
necting with the Banias spring. It took Burckhardt twenty-five
minutes to walk round this citadel ; Thomson estimates it to
be about an English mile in circuit. He was astonished at the
enormous magnitude of the fortress, and asserts that the style of
the architecture was in many places exceedingly fine, A round
tower, built with bevel stones, appeared to him to date back to a
period long antecedent to that of the middle ages, — a supposition
materially strengthened by the presence of many Saracen in
scriptions. One of these, bearing the date of the latest Crusades,
indicates only the repairs which have been effected. This
castle of Banias has been called, since the time of the Crusades,'
1 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 37.
* Wilken, Gesch. d. KreutzzUge, ii. p. 569.

200 PALESTINE,
Subeibeh, — a name which can hardly be traced to that of one
of the Arab tribes, the Subeib, which live gipsy-like in the
neighbourhood. These are only recent immigrants, and derive
their name rather from the citadel than the reverse. This
desolate old castle, whose size, strength, and position must have
once given it great importance, now ' serves only the fellah
herdsmen of the Jebel Heish, giving them a place of refuge
in the winter, in the night-time, and in severe storms.
Only a little distance from this castle Thomson learned of
the existence of a very old ruin, called Sheikh Othman el
Hazur,* — the same place where Burckhardt passed the Ain
el Hazuri,' and heard of the ruins of an old city of the same
name. These remain as yet unvisited, but we do not doubt
that they would prove to be the relics of the ancient capital of
Jabin king of Hazor, and before the time of Joshua the chief
city of the whole northern basin of the Jordan (see Josh, xi.
1-20), Its position has hitherto been completely unknown,
since neither Burckhardt nor Thomson thought of looking for
Jabin' s capital in that place. The hypothesis was formerly
universal, that Hazor was on the west side of Lake Huleh.
I need not recapitulate the details which Robinson* has
given regarding the history of Banias, its receiving the name
Neronias in honour of the Emperor Nero, the fearful contest
which Vespasian and Titus compelled to take place between
Jews and wild beasts in the amphitheatre, its becoming a
bishopric in the fourth century, its later fortunes at the time of
the Crusades, and its entire desertion by the Christians in 1253,
6. Tlie Jordan Spring of Tell el Kadi, the minor Jordan of
Josephus ; the situation of Dan {Daphne), and of Paneas.
The accounts of this spring, and the stream which flows
from it, are either wrongly given in the accounts of the early
travellers of this century, or are so incorrect that many mis
apprehensions have been raised regarding it ; and these have
not been wholly dispelled till the publication of the works of
Thomson and Wilson, Seetzen considered* this spring as of
1 Thomson, l.c. p. 194.
2 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 44.
* Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 447 et seq.
* Seetzen, in Mon. Corresp. xviii. p. 344.

TELL EL KADL 201
no importance; and Burckhardt's* visit was so hasty, or his
opportunities of seeing it made so unfavourable by reason of
the rainy weather which he experienced, that his account is
erroneous, to the degree of putting it on the north-east instead
of the north-west of Banias. This mistake naturally misled
Berghaus in his map, and led to a displacement of all the
localities in the neighbourhood. The results of Robinson's'
investigations permitted Kiepert to rectify this error ; but De
Bertou* examined the whole subject with great care, and
ascertained that Tell el Kadi is due west from Banias.
To Buckingham* we are indebted for the flrst detailed
description of this important spring. Riding west from Banias
about an English mile (Thomson found it to be three miles),
he reached a slight eminence, similar in appearance to an
artificial mound. Its name was Tell el Kadi. From its centre
there emerged five or six springs, the approach to which was
much impeded by a thicket of bushes. The water from these
different sources he found to flow into a basin a hundred
paces in diameter, its bottom showing that new springs were
feeding it from below. The outlet was a stream which runs
southward, passing the grave o^ a certain Sidi Yuda Ibu Jakub,
soon uniting with the Banias stream, and after running from
twelve to fifteen miles, entering Lake Huleh. Riding for an
hour westward from Tell el Kadi, Buckingham arrived at the
Hasbany bridge, under whose three arches the river shot with
a strong and rapid current.
Thomson gives' somewhat more full details regarding this
source of the Jordan. The hill or mound rises forty or fifty
feet above the plain, is of an oval shape, and is wholly covered
with oaks and other kinds of trees. It is evidently the result
of volcanic action, and the place where the water .springs up
was the former crater of the extinct volcano. The south-west
side of this crater has been worn away by the power of the
1 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 42.
2 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 437.
» C. de Bertou, Mem. l.c. Bullet. T. xii. p. 142.
* Buckingham, Trav. p. 405. See also Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 115 ;
Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 437 et sq. ; Berghaus, Mem. to Map of Syria ;
and Tristram's Land of Israel, p. 580.
* Thomson, Tell el Kadi, in Bib. Sacra, vol. iii. pp. 196-198. See also
von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 120.

202 PALESTINE.
water issuing from the springs, — a clear, crj'stal stream several
times as broad as that of Banias (according to Wilson, ten
paces wide, two feet deep, and with an uncommonly strong
current). The whole body of water does not run through this
one channel, but that which issues from the highest part of the
former crater passes down the south side of the hill, giving
motion in its course to a number of grist mills, which, over
shadowed as they are by noble oaks, seem almost buried in
the rank vegetation. The two streams, which form a kind of
island, unite below the mills, forming a little river of from
forty to fifty feet in breadth, which even in September, the
driest time of the year, rushes vehemently down towards Lake
Huleh. C. de Bertou, who confirms this account in all essential
particulars, found the absolute height of the springs to be three
hundred and twenty-two Paris feet* above the level of the sea,
therefore two hundred and thirty-four feet lower than the
source of the Hasbany, and four hundred and fifty feet lower
than the Banias spring. Von Wildenbruch's' measurements,
however, made in 1845, show the height of Tell el Kadi above
the sea to be considerably greater.
The miller of the place, whom Thomson knew, pointed out
in a south-westerly direction, and at a distance of three miles,
a clump of trees, where, he asserted, the Tell el Kadi stream
joins that from Banias. The place lies in the marsh land, a
little distance north of a huge mound, whose appearance was
similar to that of Tell el Kadi, and which Thomson supposed
to be the remains of a second extinct volcano. The miller
had often been there ; and according to his account, the united
stream flows for some distance through the marsh land, and
then enters the Hasbany,
South-west of the Tell el Kadi are to be seen several
deserted Arab huts of recent construction; and the locality
seems to be so peculiarly exposed to miasmatic vapours from
the marshes, that many have deemed it impossible for permanent
settlements to be made there ; and Thomson was of the opinion
that this was a conclusive reason that the celebrated city of
1 C. de Bertou, l.c. Bull. xii. p. 143.
2 Von Wildenbruch, in Berlin Monatsber. der geograph. Gesell, new
series, vol. iii. plate iii. p. 251.

TELL EL KADI. 203
liaish, which the Danites once captured, could not have been
in that region, as many have supposed,
A few minutes' walk west of the Tell el Kadi the marsh
land begins. It is intersected by a number of rills, which
would, if united, form a stream of considerable size, but which,
separated as they are from each other, flow in tortuous channels
till they reach the lower marsh land, on whose borders are
to be seen scattered rice-fields of great luxuriance. Not far
westward Thomson arrived at the swollen Hasbany, whose
channel here intersects the volcanic tufa of the plain, and forms
a kind of ravine or gorge. De Bertou* ascertained the width
of the stream to be thirty feet in this .place, and the height of
the steep rocky banks to be sixty feet. After leaving this
defile, which is not of long extent, the river divides into two
arms, the narrower one of which was originally an artificial
canal, probably constructed in ancient times for the irrigation
of the otherwise unprofitable, but in reality thoroughly pro
ductive soil,' This canal or western arm forms with the
eastern one a kind of delta, at whose northern angle lies the
pitiful village of el-Zuk. No one has traced the Hasbany
proper below this point ; but Thomson followed the windings
of the canal several miles westward, until it entered another
stream flowing from the Merj Ayun, whose waters flow into
Lake Huleh.
We have now indicated the geographical peculiarities of the
sources of the Jordan east of the river Hasbany, so far as
modern discovery throws light upon them. We can therefore
pass lightly over the hypotheses and vague conjectures concern
ing them, so freely indulged in by many who venture to criti
cise the descriptions of Josephus and other early writers. As
instances of what I mean, I may refer to Leake's, and even
Thomson's, decided opinion, that Banias stands on the site of
the ancient Dan ; or, to take another instance, that the minor
Jordan spoken of by Josephus was the Hasbany, a much
larger stream than that of Banias.
The true state* of the case with regard to Josephus' position
is this. He held the Banias stream to be the chief source of
1 De Bertou, l.c. xii. p. 143.
2 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 434 et sq.
3 Robinson, Notes to Thomson in Bib. Sacra, vol. iii. pp. 207-214.

204 PALESTINE.
the Jordan, and accepted the current hypothesis of his day,
that Lake Phiala was connected with this source by a subter
ranean passage, — a position which modern observers have shown
to be physically impossible. He spoke, indeed, of a stream
which he called the minor Jordan; but by this term he certainly
did not refer to the Hasbany, but completely ignored it. The
reason for this was, that in the popular opinion of the Hebrews,
only those springs which are found within the Promised Land,
at any rate within the actual territory of Israel, could be
reckoned as strictly belonging to the holy river. This could
only be the Banias spring, and those in its immediate neigh
bourhood ; that of the Hasbany, lying among the high Anti-
Lebanon range, was altogether outside of the Hebrew territory.
It may be conjectured, without any straining of probabilities,
that at an early period there was no connection, as at present,
between the Hasbany and the stream formed by the union of
the Tell el Kadi springs and that of Banias. Hydrographically
speaking, the Hasbany is to be considered the true head waters
of the Jordan, and its course would seem to have been a direct
one to Lake Huleh, receiving no tributaries; while, on the
other hand, the Banias and Tell el Kadi streams appear to have
united and sent their independent contribution to the lake. If
this is the case,* Josephus was justified in passing entirely by
the Hasbany, and in regarding it as merely a tributary of the
Samachonites Lacus, but as having no connection with the
sacred Jordan,
Josephus speaks of the minor or smaller Jordan in four
different places. One is where he alludes to Abraham's attack
upon the Assyrians who had carried Lot captive. His words
are : " to Dan, for thus is the other source of the Jordan called"
(see Gen, xiv. 14, 15). In the second passage Josephus asserts
that " the spies of the Danites made a day's journey farther
into the great plain, which belonged to the city of Sidon, and
which is not far from the mountains of Lebanon and the
sources of the smaller Jordan : thither went the Danites, and
built the city of Dan on the site of Laish or Leshem." The
account, as it is given circumstantially in Judg. xviii, 7, 28, is
as follows : " Then the five men departed and came to Laish,
and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt careless
Country of the Sources of the Jordan, in Bib. Sacra for 1843, p. 12.

TELL EL KADL 205
after the manner of the Zidonians [Sidonians], quiet and secure;
and there was no magistrate in the land that might put them
to shame in anything, and they were far from the Zidonians,
and had no business with any man ; , . . and there was no de
liverer, because it was far from Zidon, and it [Laish or Leshem]
had no business with any man ; and it was in the valley
that Heth by Beth-rehob. And they built a city, and dwelt
therein."* The third passage in Josephus speaks of the setting up of
the golden calves by Jeroboam the first king of Israel, who
introduced this mode of worship from Egypt. One of these
he set up at Bethel, the other " at Dan, which lies near the
source of the minor Jordan" (1 Kings xii. 29).
The fourth passage describes Seleucia, which lay upon the
Samachonites, a lake thirty stadia broad and sixty long, whose
marshes extend " /tej^t Aa^vr\^ ^((opiov, Trrjja.'; e')(pvT0<s, a" rpe-
(j}Ovat Tov fiiKpov Kokovfievov 'lopBdvrjv vtto tov tjj? j^pvo-ijs
/3oo? vecov, irpocnre/iirova-at, rm fteyoKip" {de Bell. Jud. iv. 11).
From this passage it is plain that the Daphne mentioned in it
must be identical with or near to the place spoken of elsewhere
as Advov, Adva, and Aavrj, whose location is exactly that spoken
of in connection with the minor Jordan, and as that where the
golden calf was set up, Reland and Havercamp did not con
sider Ad<f)vri and Advr] as two different places, but held the
name Daphne, occurring only once as it does, erroneously given
in place of Dan, since tliere is no proof that the name Dan was
subsequently changed to Daphne. De Bertou's and Dr Barth's'
hypothesis, that the name is derived from that of the oleander,
which is so prevalent there, is not to be condemned as hasty or
superficial ; nor is Thomson's opinion to be rashly cast aside, that
Daphne and Dan indicate two different places, which lay so near
together as to be confounded together in popular speech, Dan
he concluded to be Banias, and Daphne a place in the suburbs,
coincident with the Tell el Kadi.
Wilson's accidental discovery* solved all the difficulties; for
the miller spoken of above gave the name Shedshar ed Difnah
to a small clump of trees two miles south of the Tell el Kadi.
^ Von Raumer, Paldstina, p. 126, note 29, b.
2 Dr H. Barth, Tagebuch, MS.
' Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 173.

206 PALESTINE.
This is the Adi^vr) of our day, the Difnah or Oleander Grove
of our day, and manifestly the little grove spoken of by Thom
son.* The passage in Josephus is therefore to be taken literally,
where he says that " the Samachonites extends to Daphne, but
not to Dan," — a new proof how important the closest local sur
veys of the geography of Palestine as it now is, is for the ascer
taining its geography in historical epochs, in order not to follow
groundless hypotheses, and thereby to introduce all sorts of
confusion into the understanding of ancient authors, of which
we have countless examples.'
All these passages in Josephus, remarks Robinson, mani
festly discriminate between the smaller Jordan and that of
Banias, of which, in the fourth one, Josephus speaks as the
greater Jordan. Thomson remarks, however, that there does
not seem at the present day to be any natural reason for this
distinction. The "smaller Jordan" of the .Jewish historian
is evidently the stream flowing from Tell el Kadi, and the
title of pre-eminence was given to the stream on whose banks
stood the beautiful temple of Paneas, and whose waters issue
from the great grotto of Panium,
That the Paneas of Josephus is not identical with Dan, is
seen very clearly in the passages already cited from him, and
in others which occur in his writings, Eusebius, too, visited
Paneas, and discriminated between it and Dan. Jerome, too,
makes distinct allusion to it in these words: " Dan viculus est
quarto a Paneade mileario euntibus Tyrum, qui usque hodie sic
vocatur. De quo et Jordanius flumen erumpens a loco sortitus
est nomen." Dan seems, therefore, to have been a settlement
at the Tell el Kadi, It is no sufficient proof to the contrary
that there are now to be seen no remains of a temple dating
back to the time of Jeroboam,* nor that the region is supposed
to be inimical to health, in consequence of exhalations from the
marshes. There are traces of former cultivation there, and
north of the fountain there are traces of houses once standing
there : a proof, at least, that the place was once regarded as
1 Thomson, l.c. iii. p. 197.
" See Onomasticon Hieron. s.v. Dan, confirmed by Gesenius ; also Wilson,
Lands of the Bible, ii. pp. 171, 173.
3 Burckhardt, Gesenius' ed. i. p. 95. See also Wilson, Lands of the Bible,
ii. p. 172.

WEST SIDE OF THE HASBANY. 207
habitable. The Ao-abs do not regard these exhalations insalu
brious ; and besides, the question may be permitted, whether at
the time of a much denser population of the whole country than
now exists, there was not a better drainage than at present, which
prevented the existence of miasma.
Still another argument for the situation of Dan at the Tell
el Kadi.* In Judg, xviii, 28, the Laish or Dan is said to have
been " in the valley that Heth by Beth-rehob." Compare this
with Num. xiii, 21, where, in the account of the sending of the
spies to examine the countiy, we are told that " they searched
the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come
to Hamath," — an expression equivalent to the later one, " from
Dan to Beersheba." Here, therefore, there is an allusion to a
place situated just at the entrance of the mountain-road leading
to Hamath. This corresponds exactly to the position of Dan in
Aram-beth-Rehob, the territory alluded to in 2 Sam. x, 6, and
spoken of in Judg. i. 31 as unconquerable by the tribe of Asher,
only gained by the Danites by the help of treachery,
7, Tlie west side of the Hasbany ; the Merj Ayun ; the springs
and brooks of Jebel Safed; Lake el Huleh the Lacus
Samachonites and the Waters of Merom of the ancients.
From the bridge over the Hasbany at el-Ghujar, Bucking
ham gradually ascended the hills lying at the north-north-west,
and after half an hour arrived at the Merj Ayun, a place
lying on his right hand, and at a considerable elevation. He
afterwards passed a number of villages which Berghaus has
set down conjecturally upon his map, but of whose position
enough is known with certainty to enable us to say that they
form the line of watershed between the upper Jordan and the
Litany, Buckingham's sickness prevented' his making any
observations of importance, — a fact to be regretted all the more,
since very few have followed him over the same route : even
Seetzen and Burckhardt never explored the country lying on
the west side of the Hasbany, Irby and Mangles, however,
succeeded, in February 1818, in reaching the western bank of
this river ; but they found the marshes so dangerous, that their
horses nearly perished in the mud. This season, it will be
1 Rosenmiiller, Bib. Alterth. i. p. 252.
2 Buckingham, Trav. p. 407,

208 PALESTINE.
remembered, is the wettest of the whole year. Their peril was
of course such as to prevent their making any observations, till
they succeeded at last in reaching the extreme western side of
the plain, the somewhat drier and higher road leading to Safed.
The whole plain, according to Irby and Mangles, was literally
covered with flocks of wild geese, ducks, snipes, and all sorts
of wild-fowl. At the foot of the mountain range they saw a
village in which stood some Roman ruins, and higher up there
opened before them a broad panorama which embraced at once
Lake Huleh and the Sea of Tiberias.*
Neither von Schubert, Russegger, Robinson, Robe, nor
Wolcott succeeded,' in consequence of the incessant anarchy
and hostility of the Druses, in exploring the western portion
of the Hasbany valley. We are therefore the more thankful
for the use of the diaries of Eli Smith and Thomson, the
account of Major Robe, and that of my young friend Dr
Barth. A short distance from the bridge over the Hasbany, and
close by the border of the marshes, the traveller meets an
extensive basaltic dyke about two hundred feet in thickness
and three hundred paces in width.* Its course is directly from
north to south, directly parallel with the western mountain
ridge, and several miles in extent. It forms the eastern wall,
so to speak, of the Merj Ayun.* It is traversed by the moun
tain stream, of which mention has already been made, in connec
tion with a canal leading westward from the Hasbany, From
the bridge over this river, to the western range of mountains,
Thomson estimated to be about twelve miles, and the extent
of the plain north of the marshes about ten.
ISIerj Ayun forms ^ a district under the Druse government
of the Lebanon. It is a fine tract of land ; it lies west of the
Wadi et Teim, and is bounded on the west by the wild valley
1 See also Burckhardt, Trav. p. 42 ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p.
168 ; Irby and Mangles, Trav. p. 290 ; Dr H. Barth, Tagebuch, MS. 1847.
2 Major Robe, in Bib. Sacra, pp. 9-14 ; Robinson, Bib. Research, ii.
434, 439.
8 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, vol. ii. p. 165.
* Will. Tyriens. Histor. xxi. 28, p. 1014. See also Dr Barth, Tagebuch,
1847, and Bib. Sacra 1843, p. 13.
« Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 166 ; Robmson, Bib. Research, ii,
442 ; Thomson, l.c. iii. p. 206.

CASTLE HUNIN, 209
of the Litany, and on the south-east by the great basaltic dyke
already referred to. It forms an almost round basin, is nearly
level, is arable, and well watered. Whether Ayun has any
connection with the Hebrew Ijon, in the neighbourhood of
Dan and Naphtali (1 Kings xv. 20 ; 2 Chron. xvi. 4), is uncer
tain. Thomson holds it to be the same, and speaks strongly
of its uncommon beauty and its ample supplies of water.
Thomson,* on leaving the union of the canal with the
Ayun stream, and on ascending the rough road leading to the
Castle Hunin, was surprised to see the resemblance in point of
extent between Lake Tiberias and Lake Huleh, including its
marsh land. To him the evidence was conclusive, that the
latter lake once covered with its waters a large portion of the
swamps which now fringe it. Indeed, it often happens that
in the winter time, after heavy rains, the marshes seem to be
transformed into a series of connected pools. How easily the
hydrographical character of a lake like this may be affected,
is shown by the circumstance that, at the instigation of a
number of agriculturists, Ibrahim Pasha was persuaded to
allow some rocks to be blasted which stood at the outlet. The
result was an immediate fall in the waters of the lake. The
soil thus reclaimed yielded for several years a most abundant
harvest, but at length the soil deposited at the outlet raised
the waters to their former elevation. Thomson was assured
that the whole lake could be drained at little expense.
Major Robe's map exhibits four little streams flowing from
the mountain ridge west of the lake south-easterly till they
enter its waters. Their names are Ain es Serab, et-Thahab,
el-Masiah, and el-Barbiereh. Wilson gives' these names with
comparatively little difference in their forms. South of these
streams is the larger one of Ain Belat, whose source is a
hundred and ten Paris feet above the level of the sea. Still
farther south, and only a quarter of an hour's walk from the
north-western corner of Lake Huleh, is the uncommonly
copious spring of el-Mellahah. This Thomson ascertained to
be twenty rods in circumference and two feet in depth. The
water was lukewarm, and unpleasant to the taste : the stream
1 Thomson, l.c. iii. p. 201. See also C. de Bertou, Mem. xii. p. 144 ;
and Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 166.
2 Wilson, l.c. ii. p. 166.
VOL. II. 0

210 PALESTINE.
that conveyed it to the lake was forty to fifty feet wide.
Wilson says it may be ranked among the more prominent head
waters which feed the Jordan.
The district in the immediate neighbourhood of this spring,
Thomson says, formed the largest continuous extent* of grazing
land that he had ever seen. It is completely level, and covered
with rushes and grass. Countless flocks of white sheep and
black goats, every one with its shepherd before and the dogs
behind, traverse it in all directions from sunrise to sunset :
herds of camels and cattle animate every part of the plain.
Buffaloes are seen wading in the mud, wild, destitute of hair,
thin in their build, with flapping ears, staring eyes, and power
ful tusks. There is nothing poetical in the appearance of
these creatures, as in the reem' praised by Job, David, and
Isaiah, and which, though called the unicorn, seems to be the
wild buffalo, still the same untameable creature as when de
scribed* in Job xxxix. 9-12,
South-west of the el-Mellahah spring, and only half a mile
from it, is the north-western corner of the lake. The north
portion of el-Huleh is subject to the control of Hasbeya.
Strictly speaking, the name is only applicable to the northern
half, but its application to the southern has become universal.
The northern shore is muddy, but the southern is steep and
stony. The breadth Thomson estimated to be about seven
miles, but towards the outlet it is much narrower. All its
sides, excepting the northern, are sharply defined, and arable
land comes down even to the water's side,
De Bertou gives* the depression of the surface of Lake
Huleh as eighteen and a half feet below the level of the
Mediterranean, Here he thinks the true Ghor begins.
The name el-Huleh has been universally applied* to this
lake since the time of the Crusades ; yet its original application
seems to have been at a much earlier date. It has been con-
1 Thomson, l.c. p. 200. See also Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 437.
2 Rosenmiiller, Bib. Alterlhk. iv. pp. 199-204.
3 Von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 117. See also Wilson, Lands, etc. ii. p.
167 ; Dr Roth, Zoology, in Harris, The Highlands of Ethiopia, vol. ii.
Append, p. 425.
* C. de Bertou, l.c. xii. p. 145.
5 Rosenmuller, Bib. Alterthk. i. p. 253, Note 70, p. 309, and ii. pp. 175,
176.

LAKE EL HULEH. 211
jectured* that the name of PIul, a son of Aram (Gen, x. 23),
has some connection with the word Huleh, the more as Aram's
possessions comprised the northern part of Syria, the country
immediately contiguous. There is the more probability in this,
that the word Hul signifies just such a depressed valley as that
in which Lake Huleh lies. Josephus calls it by a term whose
etymology is unknown. Lake Samochonites ; in the Old Testa
ment it is designated as the waters of Merom, i.e. waters of
the highlands ; and in the adjacent plains Joshua gained his
memorable conquest over Jabin king of Hazor, and the princes
.who were allied with him, and brought the northern part of
Palestine under the dominion of Israel. Strabo and Pliny
allude to this lake under various designations. The former
speaks of the marshes north of Lake Gennesareth, in which
grow aromatic rushes and the calamus. Pliny, too, speaks of
these as the natural productions of the place ; and Schubert's
discoveries showed that they were perfectly truthful in their
account. From the narratives of sonje travellers who visited Lake
Huleh during the middle ages, as well as in the writings of
Cotovicus (1599) and Quaresmius (1622), we learn' that in dry
summers the whole bed was dry, nothing remaining but an
extensive swamp. Cotovicus asserts that he has seen it when
it was shrunk into a little pond of not .more than five hundred
paces in circumference.
8. The Mountain Cities on the Western Range, or Jebel Safed,
Ibl or Hibl {Abel, AMI), in the Merj Ayun {Ijon), Hunin,
Kedesh, and Safed.
The western continuation of the Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon, as
well as the small neighbouring ridge of Arbel, and which now
bears the general name of Jebel Safed, is interesting to us as the
location of several localities of historical importance, and which
have been made the object of recent careful inquiry. Among
the names which are connected with this range, are those of the
biblical Ijon, of Ibl (Abel), Hunin, Kedesh, Benit, and Safed.
Of these the Hunin and Kedesh are the most interesting, as
probably affording the best clue to the situation of the extremely
1 Rosenmiiller, Bib. Alterthk. i. p. 253.
2 Quaresmius, Elucid. Terr. Set. ii. vii. c. 12, fol. 872.

212 PALESTINE.
ancient city of Hazor, the most powerful place in the northern
portion of Canaan, and the residence of Jabin, the mightiest of
the Canaanite kings.
AH of these places lie in the least known portion of Galilee,
the northern part, on the eastern confines of the Phoenician
territory : they offer, therefore, only probability instead of cer
tainty, in a comparison of the past with the present : still,
meagre as are the sources of our knowledge regarding them,
they are not unworthy of our investigation.
(1.) The Hibl of Buckingham ; Ibl of Eli Smith ; Ibl or Abil
el Hawa of Thomson ; and the Abil el Kamh of Thomson.
The various places bearing the name of Abil. The Abel-
beth-maachah and the Ijon of Scripture.
Buckingham's diary seems to give the situation of the place
Hibl with accuracy, as lying on a cone-shaped mountain, which
rises over against the southern contraction of the Hasbeya
river. Eli Smith, in passing from Ain el Mellahah past Ain
Belat, passed through a place called Ibil or Abil,* and thence
passed on towards the Litany bridge. When Thomson passed
from the lower Hasbany Valley, in the volcanic plain lying on
his way to Banias, he was told that on the mountains at his left
there were the three places, Ibel or Abil el Hawa, el-Khiyam,
and el-Ghujar. Of these, the first-named was said to be the
one farthest to the south-east, and eastward of Merj Ayun.
On Kiepert's map there is also entered another Abil, to which
the affix el-Kama is made : it lies farther south-west, and near
the southern extremity of the Merj Ayun, and south of the
Druse village of Metullah. On Robe's map, however, this
name is placed farther to the south-west, on the road past Wadi
Diflah ; while at the locality south-west of the Merj Ayun
there is the simple name Abil, and the more easterly one on the
Hasbeya is entirely wanting. From this it is impossible to tell
whether there are two or three places of the same name in that
vicinity, and which of them is the Abel of the Old Testament.'
From Hunin to that western Ibl or Abil el Kamh,
Thomson rode directly north, his course for the first half-hour
1 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 454, 459.
2 See also Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 166 ; Thomson, iii. pp. 187,
204, 206.

CONJECTURES REGARDING ABIL. 213
taking him over the ridge of the high plateau, and through a
thick growth of oaks and other trees. On one of the adjacent
hills a company of female camels was pasturing with their
young, — a sight altogether new to him. The herd was the pro
perty of an Arab tribe which had encamped north of Hunin.
Descending with considerable abruptness for some minutes, he
crossed the barrier line between Belad Besharah and Merj
Ajnin, and left Abil on the east, lying several hundred feet lower
down. This Abil, a large Christian village, is so celebrated for
its excellent wheat, i.e. Kamh,* that it is generally known as Abil
el Kameh. Robinson thought it quite probable' that the Merj Ayun
is the Ijon of the Old Testament, but was unable to come to
a decision whether this Abil, or some other, was the Abel or
Abel-beth-maachah of Holy Writ. Thomson, however, was
decidedly of the conviction,* that the Abel el Kamh which he
passed through was the biblical Abel, because in the Scriptures
it was very often coupled with Ijon, while the latter, judging by
the pronunciation, is identical with Ayun. This view Robinson
in subsequent years has assented to. It only remains to say,
that Buckingham alone has mentioned a place as Merj Ayun,
which was elevated above the road which he took, and was on
his right : perhaps the ancient Ijon, which would then command
the valley on the east as Abil would do the west.
Abel is discriminated from Beth-maachah in the passage
where we are told of Joab (2 Sam. xx. 14, 15), that he " went
unto Abel and to Beth-maachah ;" but in 1 Kings xv, 20, both
places, unquestionably in consequence of their proximity, are
called by a single word, Abel-beth-maachah : " Benhadad smote
Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-beth-maachah, and all Cinneroth, with
all the land of Naphtali," In other passages Abel is spoken of
without the addition of any other word, as in 2 Sam, xx, 18, for
example. In 2 Chron, xvi, 4, in the repetition of the account
of Benhadad, Abel is given as Abel-maim, which, however, is
no other place than that which in 2 Sam, xx, 19 is spoken of
as a city " peaceable and faithful — a mother in Israel," i.e. one
of the chief cities, Reland,* who was unacquainted with the
1 Von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 115.
2 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 217.
* Thomson, l,c. Bib. Sacra, iii. p. 204, * H. Reland, Pal, p. 519,

214 PALESTINE.
position of the modern Ibl, came to the correct conclusion that
the place could not have been an eastern one, but must have
been a Galilean city west of Paneas ; for in 2 Kings xv, 29,
where mention is made of Tiglath-Pileser the king of Assyria,
and his invasion of northern Palestine, the places which he
captured are probably arranged with some view to their geo
graphical position. The record runs : " In the days of Pekah
king of Israel, came Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, and took
Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and
Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and
carried them captive to Assyria,"
The exact position of this place Abel seems to be, then,
on the west side of the valley and stream which run from
Merj Ayun to Huleh, and below the opening into the Merj,
on a very well defined tell or hill, whose slope ran far away
southward. This position gave it its advantages for raising
fine wheat, and to fit it to become In ancient times a " mother
in Israel," a parent of cities. But, at the same time, the account
of Tiglath-Pileser's carrying into captivity a portion of the
inhabitants, shows how early another population pressed in, and
perhaps mixed with the remnant which had been left there.
But regarding the changes wrought in this way, we have no
accurate data left to us,
(2.) The Castle Himin.
Thomson was the first traveller who ascended the peak of
Jebel Hunin, 2500 feet high, from the Merj Ayun, and the
first to give a detailed description of the castle on its summit.
He devoted special attention* to the place, since he believed it
to be the site of the ancient city of Hazor, the former metro
polis of North Galilee, The castle is visible from Banias, It
is rectangular in shape, and is nine hundred feet long by three
hundred broad. The central castle was well defended with
fosses and towers, of which Thomson has given a detailed de
scription. The main point of interest is, however, that this
great structure, which is evidently Saracenic in character, rests
upon a foundation of the same large bevelled stones, clamped
with iron, which are found in the remnant of Solomon's temple
in Jerusalem, in the Hippicus Tower, also there, and in the
1 Thomson, l.c. iii. pp. 201-203,

THE CASTLE HUNIN. 215
remains of some of the Phoenician cities, Ruad for instance
(the Aradus of the ancients), and more strikingly still in Tor-
tosa* opposite. These remains all seem to date back to the
epoch of Solomon. Besides the places just alluded to, Thom
son tells us that they have been seen by him in the walls of
Banias, and at esh-Shukif ' on the. Litany. Wolcott observed
the same architectural forms in the foundations of Baalbek, on
which the beautiful temples were built apparently at a subse
quent epoch. They have also been traced near Byblus,* at
Jebail (Gebal). In all these places they are uniformly different
from any stones left by Greek and Roman architects, and must
evidently be referred to a very remote antiquity.
These facts seem to warrant our referring this skilful work
manship in stone to the people of Gebal or Byblus, the Gib
lites, who were included in the promise of subjugation by
Israel (Josh. xiii. 5), but who were in truth never subdued, and
always were connected with the Phoenicians. In 1 Kings v.
17, 18, we are told that " the king (Hiram) commanded, and
they (the Giblites) brought great stones, costly stones, and
hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house," etc. The
prophet Ezekiel (xxvii. 9) says of them, that they were the ship
carpenters of Tyre ; and it is probable that they were teachers
of architecture to the Jews of David's and Solomon's time.
From this it is right to infer that Hunin is a place of great
antiquity ; and situated so near to the Tyrian territory as it
was, it is not unlikely that it was the seat of an ancient Canaan
ite prince. This gives a degree of colour to Thomson's opinion,
that that seat was the capital of Jabin, the head of the alliance
of north Canaanite chieftains. Hazor is mentioned in Josh,
xix, 36-38 in immediate connection with Kedesh, which was
but a short distance south of Hiinin ; and in 2 Kings xv, both
places are spoken of together, though in a reversed order,
Kadesh first and then Hazor, just as we have Gilead, Galilee,
and all Naphtali, Further, Josephus tells us that Hazor lay
upon a lofty mountain, impending over the Samochonitic Lake,
which happily describes the location of Hunin. Kedesh, which
1 Thomson, Missionary Herald, 1841, vol. xxxvii. p. 99.
2 Thomson, l.c. Bib. Sacra, iii. p. 207.
' Wolcott, Excursion from Sidon to Baalbek, in Bib. Sacra, 1843,
No. vii. p. 85 ; comp. Robinson, in Bib. Sacra, iii. p. 213.

216 PALESTINE.
is mentioned several times in Scripture in immediate connection
with Hazor, lies somewhat farther towards the south : it has a
similar situation, a similar castle, apparently dating from the
same epoch ; and, according to Thomson, everything speaks in
favour of Hazor's having been at Hiinin, or in the immediate
vicinity.* The only thing which is wanting to give this view a positive
character, and to commend it to every one, is the want of any
similarity between the sound of the modern name and the pre
sumed ancient one, this being an argument of the first degree
of importance in establishing the identity of modern places
with ancient ones. It is true the situation is a favourable one,
and the prospect from it, as described in the glowing words of
Thomson,' is one of the most comprehensive in the whole Holy
Land. It embraces the Lebanon range and Hermon, Bashan
and Gilead, Moab and Judah, Samaria and Galilee, the plain
of Coele-Syria, and that around Lake Huleh.
(3.) Kedesh, Kedesh- Naphtali : the KvBoicraa of Eusebius and
Jerome.
The mountain lying south of Hunin, and some miles distant
from it, has been ascended by De Bertou, and found to be 1258
Paris feet above the sea. We have, however, no detailed
description of it. Major Robe* passed it on his way from
Lake Huleh to Safed, but did not ascend it, Eli Smith visited
it in 1844, but has published no full account* of it, although
^ Captain Wilson, in his recent exploration, made important excava
tions on the site of these ruins. The western building he found to be a
tomb containing eleven loculi ; the eastern one he ascertained to be a
temple of the sun, of about the same date as Baalbek. Close to the temple
was an altar with a Greek inscription, and a finely worked sarcophagus.
Stanley conjectures (S. and P. p. 393) that Hazor is above Banias, on the
southern slopes of Mount Hermon. Robinson, however, on what seems
more adequate authority, places its site at Tell Kliuraibeh, one hour's
distance south of Kedesh. See B. R. iii. 365. Porter, too, in his Five
Years in Damascus, vol. i. p. 304, has some remarks worth consideration
respecting the site of Hazor. His theory has the more probability, from
the similarity between the name Hasur which he heard, and the ancient
Hazor. — Ed.
2 Thomson, l.c. iii. p. 203.
" Major Robe, l.c. Bib. Sacra, 1843, p. 11,
* Bib. Sacra, vol. iii. p. 203.

KEDESH-NAPHTALL 217
he wrote out a full manuscript report, Robinson did not
extend his researches thither, De Bertou* tells us that he saw
some inscriptions there, but he did not copy them, and makes
only an incidental allusion to them, Benjamin of Tudela'
visited the place in 1165, and speaks of it as Kedesh-Naphtali.
He found no Jews living there then, but discovered a few
graves of rabbins, showing that at an earlier period there had
lived there people of his own religious communion.
The king of Kedesh was conquered at the time of Joshua,
in common with the other Canaanite chieftains of the north :
the place is often alluded to in connection with Hazor and
other strong posts of that region (Josh, xii, 19). At the
subsequent distribution of the country, Kedesh was assigned to
the tribe of Naphtali (Josh. xix. 37), and was afterwards, under
the title of Kedesh of Galilee, made one of the cities of refuge
to which those who had committed accidental manslaughter
could flee, and be spared the retribution by blood which was
allowed under other circumstances by the Mosaic law. The
two other places named as cities of refuge were, Shechem on
the mountains of Ephraim, and Hebron on the mountains of
Judah (Josh. xx. 7). Kedesh, too, was one of the three cities
in Naphtali which were made over to the Levites (Josh, xxi.
32) ; a place, therefore, not without importance. It gains its
greatest celebrity, however, as the home of the hero Barak, who
was summoned from Kedesh by the prophetess Deborah to
engage in battle with Sisera (Judg, iv, 6, 10), Sisera was the
chief captain of a mighty prince, Jabin (the second of that
name, the first having been killed by Joshua), He lived at
Hazor, and for twenty years had held Israel in vassalage,
Barak, we are told, collected from Zebulon and Naphtali {i.e.
from the south-west and the north-west) ten thousand men,
and withdrew to Tabor, at the foot of which the battle was
fought and the victory won, Hazor can therefore scarcely be
looked for in the neighbourhood of Kedesh, nor in the imme
diate district west of the waters of Merom ; for had it been
there, how would Barak, in a city so little removed, have been
able to summon his men, and make all the preparations for war ?
Regarding Sisera, we are told that he Hved at Harosheth of
1 C. de Bertou, l.c. Bullet, xii. p. 145.
* Benjamin von Tudela, Itinerar. ed. Asher, 1840, i. p. 82.

218 PALESTINE.
the Gentiles, — a name which is mentioned three times (Judg.
iv, 2, 13, 16), Yet in 1 Sam, xu, 9 we are told that Israel
came under the dominion of Sisera at Hazor. The situation
of Harosheth is undetermined by actual discovery,* yet it seems
probable that it must be looked for in the neighbourhood of
Hazor, the residence of the king, and that it was not in the
immediate vicinity of Kedesh, on the south-west corner of
Lake Huleh, where it has been set arbitrarily on some maps.
There is no argument for this position in the biblical narrative.
In Judg. iv. 13 we are told that " Sisera gathered together
all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots' of iron (in contra
distinction to the common wooden ones), and all the people
who were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles unto the
river of Kishon." The result is given in ver. 15 : " The Lord
discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with
the edge of the sword before Barak," so that Sisera alighted
from his chariot, and fled towards Harosheth on foot : the
direction is not given us. Then follows the account of his
reception in the tent of Heber, and the manner in which he
met his death at the hands of Jael. It has been common to
transfer the locality of this story to the west, but it seems to be
without good reason. But if Harosheth of the Gentiles is to
be understood as a general gathering-place of people of various
tribes and nations, it seems natural to locate it on the east side
of the Jordan, east of Banias, and at the base of Hermon, for
that region has always been characterized as a rendezvous of
Syrians from the north. And it is just there that we flnd the
locality of the Hazuri, discovered by Burckhardt, and which I
am led to believe indicates the site of the ancient Hazor,
Eusebius and Jerome give in the Onomasticon (under Cades)
no new information regarding the locality of Kedesh, which
they hold to be identical with Kedoissa : the first states that it
is eight, the second that it is t-wenty, miles from Tyre; but both
agree that it is near Paneas, They confirm the statement of
Josephus, that the place lay on the confines of Galilee and Tyre,
from which circumstance this populous border city, which lacked
none of the materials of war, was always full of bitterness
against the Galilseans, and ready for battle with them. The
1 Von Raumer, Pal. p. 126.
2 Keil, Commentar zu Jos. p. 207 (trans, in Clark's For. Theol. Library),

SAFED OR SAFET. 219
territory was subsequently overrun by Tiglath-Pileser as far as
to this border city (2 Kings xv, 29).
Robinson,* who doubts the identity of Hdnin and Hazor, is
inclined, in view of the want of water at the former place, the
probable nearness of Kedesh to the lake, and the consecutive-
ness of the Galilsean localities mentioned in several places (Josh.
xix. 35-37 ; 2 Kings xv. 29), to place Hazor south of Kedesh.
He expected to find, between Kedesh and Safed, ruins which
should confirm him in his doubts. He did not know that, in
1844, Eli Smith discovered' important ruins three miles south
of Kedesh, although the name bore no resemblance to that of
Hazor. It was called el-Chureibeh.* The place was not visited
by Smith in person, who only heard of its existence from the
country people. Should it prove to be the Hazor of the Old
Testament, the spring near it would probably be found to be
the En-hazor of Josh. xix. 37.
(4.) Safed or Safet.
The south-western arm of the Hermon system, extending
along the west side of the Hasbany and the Lake el Huleh,
Jebel Safed, received its name from the city and the castle of
Safed, which lie on the extreme southern elevation of the long
range, where it declines steeply eastward towards el-Huleh and
southward towards the lake of Tiberias, Irby and Mangles
visited the place in 1818; Burckhardt, in 1812, ascended it in four
hours from Jacob's Bridge, The place had then six hundred
houses, a quarter of them being occupied by Jews ; the place
being one of those which they esteem holy, although it has no
recorded connection with the history of their nation,
Robinson* visited Safed in June 1838, Thomson after the
great and destructive earthquake of 1837, and Wilson in 1843.
At the time of that great convulsion the place had a population of
1 Robinson, Bibl. Research, ii. p. 435 ; and Bib. Sacra, iii. p. 212.
2 Bib. Sacra, May 1847, vol. iv. p. 403.
* Capt. Wilson, in his recent tour, discovered a hill a little more than
two miles south-east of Kedesh, on which were important ruins : he could
trace the walls of the citadel, and a portion of the wall. He regards this
place as the site of Hazor, instead of accepting Tel Chureibeh as the locality.
—Ed.
¦* The reader is referred to full details regarding Safed in Robinson's
Bibl, Researches, and in Wilson's Lands of the Bible — Ed.

220 PALESTINE.
about 10,000, of whom the half were Jews,* Safed stood at the
centre of a district which felt the shock most sensibly, and most
of the city was seriously injured. The buildings were, however,
soon repaired ; and at the time of Robinson's visit, in the next
year, the place was well on the way to its restoration. The
peculiar structure of the rows of houses up the side of the hill
has been the source of much destruction both of life and pro
perty ; for the toppHng over of the higher rows carried ruin to
all below. The houses of the Jews' quarter, being the poorest
constructed of all, suffered the most. The castle, which has
been esteemed a very strong structure, was rent completely into
fragments, with a great loss of life to those who had fled thither
for security, Thomson,' the American missionary at Beirut,
hastened thither with all speed, bringing a physician, and such
supplies as could be transported; yet all that could be done was
insufficient to meet the wants of the terrified and flying popu
lation. The hasty departing from the city of those who had
been spared, recalled to Thomson's mind the flight of Lot and
his daughters from Zoar at the time of the destruction on the
plain. The district in which Safed is found was probably once
included within the ancient limits of Naphtali (Josh. xix.
32-40) ; and Herbelot considers that it was the former capital
of the tribe, although no mention is made of the place either
in the Old Testament or in the New. Maundrell* holds
that this was the place which the Saviour had in mind, and
probably in sight, when He spoke of a city upon a hill that
could not be hid (Matt, v, 14).
The elevated situation of Safed ensures it fresh and pure
air in summer, and, like Jerusalem, it enjoys a healthy climate:
in winter, numerous clouds gather around the two round hills
which tower up a half-hour's distance farther north. The
country in the immediate neighbourhood of the city has extensive
vineyards, olive plantations, and gardens, in which the pome
granate and the fig flourish. The valleys around are very
fruitful. The rearing of these articles, the dyeing with indigo,
the weaving of woollen stuffs, occupy the inhabitants, who, on
1 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 154.
2 Thomson, Visit to Safed, in Missionary Herald, Jan. 1837.
' An opinion which has been repeated by most recent travellers. — Ed,

SITUATION OF HAZOR, 221
account of their industry, have a deserved prominence over
those of some of the neighbouring towns. Their high situation
assures them an extensive view,* especially from the castle : at
the south-east, Lake Tiberias is seen ; at the east the elevated
table-land of Jolan (Gaulonitis), intersected by deep valleys and
gorges running to the sea ; beyond that the limits of the Leja
(the Hauran) can be discerned, from which rises in marked
pre-eminence a single peak, Jebel Kuleib, or Kubeib (Kelb)
Hauran, the Hauran dog, which Col, Leake considers to be the
Mount Alsadamus' of Ptol, v, 15, Farther south, beyond the
lake and the Ghor, are seen the ranges of Ajlun and el-Hossn,
in the ancient country of Bashan or Batanea ; in the south rise
Tabor and the Samaritan mountains ; directly east and north
are naked peaks, while Hermon is generally veiled from sight
by the intervening clouds.
Note by the Author. — Situation of Hazor, the capital city
of king Jabin, and the metropolis of northern Canaan, on
the east side of the Waters of Merom, and identical with the
ruins of Hazuri near Sheikh Oman el Hazur or Ain el
Hazuri {the En-hazor of the ancient Jewish history).
It remains for me to state the grounds of my dissent from the
opinions already laid before the reader regarding the situation of
Hazor, which has been supposed by nearly all travellers to be
upon the west side of the waters of Merom and the sources of
the Jordan. I think it is to be looked for, on the contrary, in
the ruins of the place called Hazuri, which Burckhardt names
in his work, but which he failed to connect with the very im
portant place which we know the ancient Hazor must have been.
He passed on the Damascus road, running east from Banias,
after a walk of an hour and a half, a spring known as An el
Hazuri, and learned that, at an hour's distance still farther
north, lay the ruins of a city called Hazuri. Thomson received
a confirmation of this fact while he was at the citadel of Banias,
he being told that at a very short distance away there is a very
ancient ruin called Sheikh Othman el Haziir, This did not
remind him of that very old city of northern Canaan, whose
name was so identical in sound, and which played so important
1 Robinson, Bibl. Research, ii. p. 438 ; Wilson, Lands, etc, ii. p. 159.
2 Col. W. M. Leake, Preface to Burckhardt, Trav, p. xii.

222 PALESTINE.
a part in Jewish history, the reason clearly being that 'the idea
that Hunin was the ancient Hazor had so firmly taken posses
sion of his mind. As the distance of the ruins is, at the most,
not more than two and a half hours from Banias, and they are
not more than an hour's walk from the citadel, it is to be hoped
that some future travellers will take pains to ascertain whether
I am correct in supposing that the ancient Hazor was identical
with the el-Hazuri aHuded to by Burckhardt, But till there be
found good reason for thinking that I am wrong, I must believe
Kiepert* justified in connecting the two places on his map of
Palestine, as was the case in the time of the judges and kings.
My grounds for this conviction are as follows : — First, The
remarkable and very close similarity in the names in a district
very little visited, in which the old indigenous appellations
perpetuate themselves from age to age and from century to
century with almost no change. Secondly, The commanding
position which was chosen, lying as it did upon the direct road
between upper Canaan and the Syrian Damascus, Its history
seems to extend back to the very earliest pre-Israelitic period.
Lying as it did upon the main highway between upper Canaan
and Damascus, it formed an excellent situation on which sub
sequently to build an Israelite fortress above the sacred spring
which supplied the head waters of the Jordan. The position
was one which was capable of becoming of the same interest
as a border city of Israel as it had been under Jabin, on account
of its ancient location on the confines of the Syrian, Damascus,
and Canaanite territory. Tliirdly, It is not a matter destitute
of weight, that Burckhardt speaks of the shrine of a Moslem
saint upon the Damascus road — since the Mohammedans often
bury their holy men in places of historical importance — and
that this Ain el Hazuri, or spring of Hazuri, singularly corre
sponds to the En-hazor mentioned in Josh, xix., where Hazor
is separated by the interposition of Edrei and Kedesh from
En-hazor.' It is manifest that Hazor and En-hazor were two
different places; and this led Eli Smith, in looking for the
location of the latter, to set it at the profuse spring of Mellahah
on the west side of Lake el Huleh. Reland* declares his
1 Kiepert, Bibel Atlas, nach den neuesten und besten Hulfsquellen, Tab. iii.
2 See Keil, Commentar zu Josua, p. 354.
' H. Relandi Pal, pp. 123, 706.

SITUATION OF HAZOR. 223
opinion that the frontier city, Hazor-enan, mentioned in Num.
xxxiv. 9, is identical with the spring of Hazor. In Eusebius
and Jerome the same place, under the simple name of Enan, is
spoken of as a frontier town towards Damascus ; and in Ezek,
xl, 17, where the northern boundaiy is given, the full name
Hazor-enan is found.
In confirmation of this is the second passage in the Ono
masticon : 'Hvacrwp KKrjpov Ne^daXetfi' Keirai koI dvoarepco
'AcrSip. Jerome repeats : Enasor in tribu NephtaJim, Po-
slta est supra Asor: so that we can scarcely doubt that the
situation of both Azor and En-hazor was east of Banias, In
Thomson's narrative, the very ancient ruins of the city receive
no name, but the shrine at the spring is called by him Sheikh
Othman el Hazur : here, however, Burckhardt seems to have
observed no ruins.
Fourthly, It may be remarked, that in the account of the
invasion of Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kings xv. 29), the arrangement
of the names of places is such that Hazor forms the transition
from the cities of Naphtali — that is, the last-named in tracing
the order from Kedesh to Gilead, — an arrangement which cor
responds accurately with the geographical order, from the west
side of the sea to the eastern one, and thence to the country far
ther inland. Fifthly, From Josh, xi., where the conquest over
Jabin by the Hebrew leader is narrated, the following inference
Is to be drawn. Hazor is represented as the royal residence,
which Josephus calls "Aampo^, and which, he says, vrrepKeiTai,
TJj? Se^.e^eoviriSa \lp,vr}<i ; which Thomson interpreting to refer
to a high mountain overhanging the sea, referred to Hunin.
Robinson,* on the contrary, remarks that the passage does not
necessarily refer to any eminence at all, but only a place near
to the sea: thus judging, he preferred the site of Kedesh as
the probable location of Hazor to Hiinin, ten miles farther
north, or Banias, still farther. But Josephus, in his description
of the Samochonitic Lake, states that it, with its marshes, ex
tended as far northward as Dan, and so to the very neigh
bourhood of Banias. It could be brought, therefore, into near
relations with Hazor. This is made the more certain by Keil's
remark, that the Greek of Josephus may be interpreted as
referring to the district lying north of Lake el Huleh.
^ Robinson, Bib, Sacra, iii. p. 212.

224 PALESTINE.
In Josh, xi. 3, among the people who are named in contra
distinction to the mountain tribes of the north country, the
Hivites are mentioned as living " under Hermon in the land of
Mizpeh," The country referred to here can only be the great
plain which extends north of Lake Huleh, from its narrow
western margin eastward past Tell el Kadi to Banias, and
thence on to the outlying spurs of Jebel Heish, on which lie
the ancient ruins of Hazuri, which may with justice be said to
command the lake.
It is only upon this level tract that use could be made of
the chariots, which would have been useless in the mountain
land at the west. This use of these formidable engines of
war, especially alluded to in the account of the campaign of
Jabin ii, king of Hazor (Judg. iv, 2, 13), where nine hundred
iron-bound ones were employed, was particularly adapted to
the Syrian plain east of the Jordan, The use of these in the
mountain land may have been the cause of the sudden over
throw of Sisera, since in the highlands of Safed they would
become a source of embarrassment rather than of help. At a
third period — at the time of the Maccabees — allusion is made
in Josephus' narrative* to a irehiov ^Acrcbp, whither Jonathan
withdrew on his way from Lake Gennesareth to meet king
Demetrius ; and this can refer to no other place than the great
plain of Banias and el-Huleh,
If now the confiict under Joshua, who advanced from Gileal
(Josh, X, 43), i.e. from the west and south side of the Jordan,
took place at the west, between the waters of Merom and Kishon,
the statement made in Josh, xi. 8 shows that a part of Jabin's
forces were driven north-westward' towards Sidon, and that
another part was driven " into the valley of Mizpeh eastward,"
i.e. the plain of Banias, where two places of further flight stood
open, one up the Hasbeya vale, the other by the Damascus
road. The next step in the sacred narrative is (ver, 20), that
" Joshua turned" (giving up the pursuit), " and took Hazor, and
smote the king thereof with the sword; for Hazor was before-
time the head of all those kingdoms," In ver, 11 we read
that " he burned Hazor with fire ;" and ver, 13, that " as for
1 H. Relandi Pal. pp. 262, 372, 597, 708,
2 Keil, Com. zu Jos. p. 209.

SITUATION OF HAZOR. 225
the cities that stood still in their strength, Israel burned none
of them, save Hazor only." The cities which stood on the
hills in the Phoenician frontier were spared this it seems. In
all this account there appears no reason for doubting the
identity of Hazor and el-Hazuri. That the name lived* on
after the destruction of the city, is evident from the allusion in
Judg. iv,, where we are told that a second Jabin king of Hazor,
whose chief captain Sisera lived at Harosheth of the Gentiles,
had again become powerful, and for twenty years had compelled
the Israelites to pay him tribute ; a vassalage which was only
ended by the heroic deeds of Barak and Deborah on Tabor.
Nor does Hazor disappear then and there from history : for
Solomon, the great patron of architecture, we are told expressly
in 1 Kings ix, 1 5, built, in addition to his temple and palace at
Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gazer (which the Egyptians
had destroyed) ;' and therefore in the ruins of Hazuri we have
reason to expect to find traces of the architecture of Solomon's
age: for although Tiglath-Pileser, in his conquest of Pekah
the king of Israel (2 Kings xv, 29), captured Ijon, Abel-beth-
maachah, Janoah, Kedesh, and Hazor, together with Gilead,
Galilee, and the whole land of Naphtali, and carried the
inhabitants into captivity;* yet we can hardly deem it probable
that he converted the places themselves into hopeless ruins :
the foundations must have been too thoroughly laid for that,
as we know from the instances elsewhere which remain to the
present time.
Yet still, in spite of the destruction by the Assyrians, the
name lived on till the time of the Maccabees, and the great
contest between king Demetrius and Jonathan the Maccabean
took place upon the plain of Hazor (1 Mace, xi, 67).
^ Ewald, Gesch. der Volks Israel, ii. p. 253.
2 Von Raumer, Pal. p. 188.
• Comp. Joseph. Antiq. ix. 11, and H. Relandi, Pal. p. 697.

VOL. II.

CHAPTER II.
Sec. 5. THE MIDDLE STAGE OF THE JORDAN BASIN,
FROM THE WATERS OF MEROM (EL-HULEH) TO LAKE GENNESARETH OR THE SEA
OF TIBERIAS (BAHR TABARIEH).
DiSCURSlON I.
THE COURSE OF THE JORDAN FROM EL-HULEH TO ITS ENTRANCE INTO THE
SEA OF TIBERIAS — THE CULTIVATED PLAIN OF EL-BATIHEH -WITH THE
GHAWARINEH — ET-TELL, THE ANCIENT BETHSAIDA JULIAS — THE TWO
BETHSAIDAS IN GALILEE AND IN GAULONITIS.
E now advance to the discussion of the middle course
of the Jordan, beginning at the place where it
emerges from Lake el Huleh, and continuing on to
the place where it leaves Lake Gennesareth to enter
upon the third stage of its course, which is analogous to the
second, although with some change in the relative proportions
of the natural features, and with some essential differences in
the physical character of the two.
This middle course extends from north to south in the
normal direction of the whole river system, and is of almost
the same length with the upper course, which reaches from the
Hasbeya spring to the southern extremity of Lake el Huleh, a
distance of ten or twelve hours.
The real emergence of the Jordan from el-Huleh has been
observed by few travellers, since the great Damascus road,
which they usually take, crosses the Jacob Bridge, a short
distance farther south. Only von Wildenbruch* has given
more attention to this point than the most of his predecessors.
According to his barometrical measurements at Jacob's Bridge,
the water level of Lake Huleh does not vary much from a
hundred feet above the sea (according to De Bertou, 322
1 Von Wildenbruch, Profl, in Monatsber, der Berlin. Gesell. vol. iii.
Plate iii. p. 251.

THE OUTLET OF EL-HULEH. 227
Paris feet). Wildenbrach found that at Jacob's Bridge the
water of the Jordan was 84'4 Paris feet above the sea. If his
measurement of the level of Lake Tiberias is correct (793 Paris
feet below the Mediterranean), the fall of the Jordan between
the bridge and the lake is 877*5 Paris feet. According to the
measurements of De Bertou, the hypsometrical difference be
tween the city of Tiberias and Hasbeya is 956 French feet.*
According to Burckhardt,' the southern extremity of Lake
el Huleh is about three-quarters of an hour's distance above
the Jissr Beni Yakub, or Jacob's Bridge, which in his time
designated the frontier of the pashalics of Damascus and
Akka. On this account a custom-house was stationed there,*
and tribute was levied upon all Christians who passed over the
road. This disappeared together with the Turkish guard-house
at the time when Egypt had the control of the Syrian govern
ment, and caravans had an undisturbed right to the free use
of the road to Damascus. Wilson found a Turkish garrison
here in 1843, however : the soldiers were in the greatest dis
may in consequence of the daily expectation of an incursion of
Beduins from the Euphrates.
There are to be seen here the ruins of a once large and
stately khan, built of basalt, on the east bank of the Jordan :
only scattered blocks among the grass mark the place where it
once stood. Yet the place is much used as a camping ground*
in consequence of the springs found there, and the nearness of
the sacred river. Of the castle erected there by the crusaders
only a few fragments remain.
The bridge still stands in tolerably good condition. Von
Wildenbruch^ endeavoured to follow the course of the Jordan
down from it, but the roughness of the land affected his ther
mometer so unfavourably as to put it out of the question.
Three-quarters of an hour below the bridge he came to a mill,
in whose neighbourhood was a square fort dating back to the
^ See also Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 254 ; and A. Petermann, On the Fall
of (he Jordan, in Journ. of the Roy. Geog. Soc. xviii. p. 90.
2 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 316.
* Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 258.
* Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 316 ; Bove, in Bullet, l.c. iii. p. 388.
« Wildenbruch, MS. communication ; comp. De Bertou, Mem, sur la
depression, in Bulletin de la Soc. de Geog, xiL p. 164.

228 PALESTINE.
times of the Crusades, He did not dare to bathe in the stream
itself, which roars and foams through thickets of oleander on
both sides, and which he caHs appropriately a continuous
cascade. He selected for his bath a mill-race three and a half
feet deep, where the rapidity of the stream, although much less
than in the current proper, was so great that he could scarcely
stand without supporting himself by something,
Jacob's Bridge, with its three arches, is forty-five paces in
length and thirty in width, is built of basaltic stone, and is in
good condition, it having been repaired by Jezzar Pasha. The
river beneath it has a breadth of eighty feet, and a depth
seldom of four feet : it must have been a very dangerous place
for a ford, if we accept the legend which connects it as such
with the fortunes of the ancient patriarch. The plants and
shrubs which abound on the shore at this point are mainly
the oleander, here most thrifty and attractive, the cross-thorn
{Rhamnus spina Christi), the wild small-leaved olive (the
zakkum of the Arabs, Eleagnus angustifolius), and where there
are marshy lands, the papyrus sedge {Cyperus papyrus) in
uncommon size and abundance.
This bridge, J'issv Beni Yakub, i,e. the Bridge of the Sons
(also Benat, i.e. the Daughters, a name which Robinson thinks
the more correct one) of Jacob, in whose neighbourhood king
Baldwin in 1178 erected a stronghold, in order that he might
the better hold the country in check and command the Damascus
road, does not seem to have been built at that time, for William
of Tyre speaks expressly of the Vadum Jacob, i.e. the Ford of
Jacob. The old legend was, that the patriarch, on his return
from Mesopotamia, after sending messengers to his brother Esau,
and dividing his company of followers into two parts, passed
over the Jordan at this place (Gen, xxxii, 7, 8), But we know
from the biblical narrative that Jacob took his course by way
of Mahanaim and through Gilead — a country rich in pasturage
for his numerous flocks and herds — while he himself (Gen,
xxxii, 22) took his two wives, and the two maids, and the
eleven children, and crossed the ford of Jabbok.* The Jabbok
mentioned here is the Wadi Serka, much farther to the south,
and an easterly tributary of the Jordan.' The ford is even
' Von Raumer, Paldst. p. 243.
2 See Gesenius' ed. of Burckhardt, ii. p. 599, and Note to p. 1060 ;

JACOB'S BRIDGE. 229
now recognised at Kalaat Serka, on the regular Damascus road
which runs through the country east of the Jordan, From
that point Jacob passed along the lower course of the Jordan,
and thence to Succoth and Shechem, The connection of the
Vadum Jacob is therefore proved by no more authentic testi
mony than that of a legend, as baseless as the uncounted num
bers with which the whole country swarms,
Jacotln's map gives the name of the bridge as Jiser Benat
Yacub, i.e. the Bridge of the Daughters of Jacob, He derives
this from Seetzen,* who thought that it might be possible to
justify or to find some basis for the legend, by supposing that
the other portion of Jacob's followers crossed the Jordan here,
and that the fact perpetuated itself in the name of the spot.
Through this ford, where subsequently, and at a date not now
precisely known to us, the bridge was built, the great road from
Damascus to the Sea of Galilee ran, passing thence to Akka,
the chief port between Carmel and Tyre, It thus passed round
Hermon and the Anti-Lebanon, while the direct road from
Damascus to Sidon and Tyre must have always passed directly
over the whole Lebanon range. The three avenues of com
munication alluded to in the preceding pages are the chief
ones which connected the very ancient city of Damascus with
northern, middle, and southern Canaan, It is the middle road
which received in the middle ages the name Via Maris ;^ it was
always the chief avenue between Syria and the great Phoe
nician cities. It is uncertain whether it received its name
from the Mediterranean, or from the small Sea of Galilee,
which it passed at the ancient city of Capernaum (Matt, iv,
13), There are good grounds* for receiving either interpreta
tion. The physical character of the Jordan below that Vadum
Jacob was unquestionably the controlling cause which opened
this via maris leading from the land of culture, although of
the Gentiles or heathen, to upper Palestine, Zebulon, and
Naphtali ; and this converted Capernaum into an important
frontier city, and a chief custom-house station. Its officials,
comp. von Raumer, Das ostliche Pal. und Edom, in Annal. i.a.l. vol. i.
p. 553. 1 Seetzen, in Mon. Corr. xviii. p. 345.
2 Quaresmius, Elucid. Terrx Sctx. T. i. lib. i. fol. 19.
s Gesenius, Comment, zu Genesis, Pt. i. pp. 350-354.

230 PALESTINE.
the publicans or collectors of custom, were the men from whom
Jesus selected several of His disciples (Matt. ix. 9 ; Mark ii.
14 ; Luke v. 27). Isaiah also refers to the same locality, where
he speaks (ix. 1 and foHowing verses) of the nation that sits
in darkness as destined to see a great light. Through these
repeated allusions, this spot has become one of the classic places
of the earth.
The historical importance of this Jacob's Bridge, in connec
tion with the mercantile interests of Palestine at the present
day, is not less than it was at the time of the Crusades.
Modem times have converted it into an important military
position, commanding as it does one of the great roads to
Damascus.* It was the most advanced post which was taken
possession of by Napoleon, but was left by Murat on the 2d of
April 1799.
Seetzen did not follow the course of the Jordan any farther
southward, as he was anxious to penetrate the hill country
lying east of Lake Tiberias, — a region entirely unexplored.'
He could find no one who would venture to act as his guide,
such was the untamed rapacity of the Beduins in that quarter.
At last, however, an Arab agreed to take him to his sheikh, who
was troubled with some affection of his eyes. Seetzen, who was
known as Sheikh Musa, and who also enjoyed the reputation
of being a hakim, made use of subterfuge, and agreed to go
into the interior for the purpose of curing the eyes of the
Beduin chief. His course was at first along a range of basaltic
hills east of the Jordan, — a wild and desolate-looking part of
Jaulan, the ancient Gaulonitis. After two hours he reached
the village where his guide lived ; there he spent the night, and
the next day took horse and ascended some hills which gave
him a very fine view of Lake Tiberias. His course took him
through the small village of Tellanihje* (more correctly et-
Tell), lying on the margin of a very fruitful plain abounding
in aloes. This plain reached to the lake, and had apparently
been formed by deposits from the Jordan, Thence he turned
away from the sea into the dry Wadi Szemmak, in which he
found the aiUng chief living. The case was a clear one of
J- Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 441.
2 Seetzen, i.a.l. xviii. pp. 346-348.
^ For its position, see Seetzen's map.

THE KHAN BAT SZAIDA. 231
cataract, and all cure was hopeless. Yet, in order to be able to
visit the rest of the country east of the lake, Seetzen told the
chief that he would undertake to help him if he would send a
guide with him along the shores of the lake to collect a kind of
herb which grew there, and which he would send back by the
hand of the guide. This was acceded to, but the latter proved
faithless, refused to take the right road, forded the Jordan near
its confluence with the lake, robbed Seetzen of his horse and
gun, and left him to find his way on foot along the already
explored west bank of the river to the city of Tiberias. The
place where he was deserted was in the neighbourhood of the
ruined khan of Bat Szaida,* a place whose historical interest he
failed to discover.
Josephus gives the distance from the Samochonitic Sea to
Lake Gennesareth as a hundred and twenty stadia, i.e. a six
hours' march ; but Burckhardt learned that it is not over half
that distance. He did not follow down the border of the stream
farther than Jacob's Bridge, however, as his course led him
westward to Safed. This part of the Jordan has therefore
never been visited throughout,' and we lack any description of
it, though it is to be inferred that it is a brawling and rapid
stream, and passes between steep banks of limestone and basalt.
Nothing is known of cascades excepting the rapids where von
Wildenbruch was obliged to turn back on account of the diffi
culty of carrying his barometer, and where he essayed to bathe.
Eli Smith explored the country for an hour's distance north of
the entrance of the Jordan into the Sea of Galilee, and found
no rough water there.
In the course of this little excursion he first reached the
fertile plain el-Batiheh (alluded to by Burckhardt under the
name of Battykha), which seemed to him a tract sometimes inun
dated by the rise of the river. It is hemmed in on the north and
east by high hills ; those on the north come close to the river,
and confine it to a very narrow bed. The appearance of the
fertile plain el-Batiheh was such, that Seetzen alluded to it as a
delta formation of the Jordan, formed by the retarding action
of the south wind in the downward course of the river at the
time when its waters are hea-vily freighted with the mud which
1 Seetzen, Mon, Corresp, xviii. p. 348.
2 See Abulfedse Syrisi, ed. Koehler, p. 447.

232 PALESTINE.
it brings down fi'om the mountains. The river here is less
broad than at the Dead Sea, and only about a third as wide as it
is at Jericho — sixty to seventy-five feet : the water has an idle
motion and a melancholy aspect as it creeps through the plain ;
in some places it can be waded, but in others it is too deep.
Mr Smith took advantage of a day when his companion
Robinson was ill with fever, to visit the ruins of et-Tell (erro
neously called Tellanije by Seetzen), which, situated on a hill
not far away, attracted him strongly. His course led him
through the ruined village of el-Aradj, whose houses were once
built of basaltic stones, A little farther he encountered the
remains of the village of el-Mes'adiyih ; after this, of Dukah, a
place which had been built on a more extensive scale, but of the
same basaltic materials. He then crossed the plain el-Batiheh
alluded to above, and observed carefully the fellahin called
Ghawarineh,* or dwellers in the Ghor, and saw the same kind
of buffaloes wallowing in the swampy ground which are so
abundant in the marshes of el-Huleh, The plain is the property
of the Turkish Government, and only a share of the harvest falls
to the portion of the poor, insulted, and degraded peasants who
till it ; a race of men prohibited from wearing arms, and there
fore at the entire mercy of the rapacious Arabs. They are a
race whose position is analogous to that of the pariahs of India;
they speak the Arabic language, but they are the especial object
of detestation to the Arabs themselves, Eli Smith is the only
traveller who has carefully observed them : he estimates their
number at Zoar, at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, at two
hundred, and those at Jericho and the plain of Batiheh at two
hundred families and a hundred and fifty families respectively.
From this plain Smith directed his course northward to et-
Tell, the most extensive of all the ruins in the neighbourhood,
and which appears to have been the chief place in the neigh
bourhood, although it has entirely lost its old name, and is only
used by the Ghawarineh as a place to store their grain. The
ruins cover a large part of the hill (Tell), and are really
extensive : they, as well as those which he had already seen in
the vicinity, consisted of basaltic stone,
Seetzen, at the time of his visit, conjectured that this place
1 Eli Smith, Bands of the Ghawarineh, in Missionary Herald, vol. xxxv.
pp. 87-89,

THE TWO BETHSAIDAS. 233
was the ancient Bethsaida Julias, on the east side of the Jordan,
in the pro-vince of Gaulonitis, — a place which had previously
been confounded with another Bethsaida, on the west side, in
Galilee, Reland first, and after him Bachiene, pointed out
the incorrectness of confounding two places so different, and
showed that there must have been two Bethsaidas, one on each
side of the lake, Seetzen was the unconscious discoverer of
them both, and entered them both in his map. The places
remained unexplored, however, till the time when Robinson
and Smith visited their neighbourhood,* Both places were in
the immediate vicinity of the Sea of Galilee, although its waters
do not touch them at the present day : they were both fishing-
places ; and the name Bethsaida itself gives token of the occu
pation of the inhabitants, Beth signifying " place," and Saida
" fishing," From one of these two places Jesus chose fishermen
to be His disciples, in the other He fed the multitude with bread
and with fishes.
It is a well-established fact that Peter, Andrew, and Philip
were from Bethsaida in Galilee, But had it not been for a
decisive passage in Josephus, it would have been scarcely sus
pected that allusion is made, though without any particularlza-
tion, in the gospel narrative to a second Bethsaida. Josephus
tells us that Philip, the son of Herod, tetrarch of Itursea,
Trachonitis, Gaulonitis, and Batanea, and thus the ruler of the
territory east of the Jordan (comp. Luke iii. 1), after complet
ing the ornamentation of Paneas, converted Bethsaida, a mere
hamlet by the sea, into a city, placed colonists In it, gave them
rights and privileges, and called the place Julias in honour of
Julia, the daughter of the Roman emperor. This Bethsaida
cannot be rightly transferred to the west side of the sea, as
Brocardus and others have done, because the tetrarchy of
Philip did not extend thither; and just as little to be reUed
upon is the opinion of the learned Lightfoot, who thinks that
the Bethsaida of Galilee mentioned in John xii, 21 is to be
located on the east side of the sea, giving in explanation the
statement that, in an enlarged sense, Galilee was sometimes made
to embrace territory beyond the Jordan. Cellarius' thinks
1 See also von Raumer, Pal. pp. 121-123, and Notes 20 and 21.
2 Chr. Cellarius, Notitia Orbis Antiqui, Lips. 1706 ; Asia, lib. iii. c. 13,
fol. 633,

234 PALESTINE.
that the question is one of the most difficult in the whole range
of biblical geography: and it was so in his days, before the
researches of modern travellers threw so much light upon it
as they have done ; but now it is nearly or quite certain that
the writers of the gospel narratives refer to two different
Bethsaidas, even although they do not specifically couple the
name of the one which was in Gaulonitis with the additional
name Julias, which it bore. Whatever doubt arises about the
question in its present stage of investigation, springs from the
fact that, regarding the Bethsaida of Galilee, we have only the
e-vidence which is found in the permanence of the name itself
as exhibited in the modern Bat Saida or Szaida, there being no
ruins to mark the site of a former city. Yet no conclusive
argument is to be drawn from the last fact ; for the same is
the case with many other well-known places of antiquity,
whose architectural monuments have entirely passed away,
Capernaum, Banias, Dan, the noble city of Tiberias, and a
hundred others, have little or nothing to exhibit of their former
splendour. This argument may be applied still more forcibly to the
ruins of Tell, on the eastern side. There are the traces of a
large city, but every architectural decoration has passed away.
Yet, aside from the allusion of Josephus to an important capital
there, Pliny has not passed over it in silence, and speaks yet
more definitely still of a city on the east side of the Jordan,
and in that neighbourhood : " Jordanus in lacum se f undit —
amoenis circumseptum oppidis, ab oriente, Juliade et Hippo,"
etc. So long as there was supposed to be but one Bethsaida, it
was extremely difficult to harmonize various allusions to it ; but
when it was found to be almost beyond doubt that there were
two, the task became a simple one. The eastern Bethsaida is
mentioned only twice in the Gospels — in Luke ix. 10, and Mark
viii, 22, It was the place where Jesus fed the five thousand at
one time, the four thousand at another time, and restored the
sight of the blind man. The western place of the same name
is most prominently brought into notice as the original home of
several of His disciples. It is evident, moreover, that the now
deserted shores of the lake were in continual communication at
that time by means of boats.

THE SEA OF GALILEE OR GENNESARETH. 235

DiSCURSlON II.
THE SEA OF GALILEE OR GENNESARETH — CHINNERETH — ^THE SEA OF TIBERIAS —
NAMES, SITUATION, NAVIGATION, ASPECT OF THE REGION ADJACENT —
GEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS — HOT AND COLD SPRINGS, SALT WATERS —
EARTHQUAKES, WINDS, CLIMATE — NATURE OF THE VEGETATION ON THE
COAST,
1. Names.
Chinnereth is the oldest name which this sea bears in the
books of Moses (Num. xxxiv. 11, and Deut. ui, 17), Joshua
seems to have taken the name (xii, 3) from a place of which
we only know this, that it was on the shore of the lake (Josh,
xix. 35). That, however, it occupied the same site which
afterwards was covered with the city of Tiberias, which Herod
built, and which, according to Jerome, bore the name of
Chennereth, is destitute of historical proof; for the site of
Tiberias belongs to the territory of Zebulon, while Chinnereth
lay in the more northerly domain of Naphtali (Josh. xix. 35),
which embraced only the northern half, the sea-coast. This is
also clearly shown in the account of Benhadad's conquest of
the land of Chinnereth (1 Kings xv. 20), where allusion can
only be made to the shore of the northern half of the basin :
the place mentioned there would seem to be an ancient city
of Chinnereth, which subsequently disappeared, and whose
situation cannot on any grounds be considered as identical with
that of the more modern Tiberias. There are other grounds,
too, for not accepting the identity of the two places.* These I
shall allude to on a future page. The name Chinnereth, it
may be remarked, is not used in reference to the sea in the
Old Testament, excepting to designate the boundaries of some
of the tribes. Far more common in the Bible is the mention
of the Sea of Gennesareth, the origin of whose name is uncer
tain, although it is educed by Lightfoot from Chinnereth :
transiit nomen Chinnereth in Genesor. The name is mentioned
several times in the New Testament, although in some of the
allusions not the sea alone is referred to, but a portion of the
coast (see Matt. xiv. 34, and Mark vi. 53). This appears to
indicate a small tract of the western shore about midway between
* Rosenmuller, Bibl. Alterthk. ii. Pt. ii. p. 76.

236 PALESTINE,
the northern and the southem extremities of the lake. Josephus
gives the dimensions of this " land of Gennesareth" as only
thirty stadia in length and twenty in breadth. Robinson
supposes that the place corresponded with the modern fertile
tract caHed el-Ghuweir, the little Ghor, which lies between
Mejel at the south and the Khan Minyeh at the north. This
is strengthened by the glowing description which Josephus
gives* of the spot, coupled with the etymological meaning of
the word Genesor, " garden of riches : " compare Lightfoot :
" ab amoenitatem regionis, hortis ac paradisis refertissimae."
The name Genesera is the one most frequently applied to the
lake by Josephus, Strabo, Pliny, and the Romans. The name
Sea of Galilee, which appears in Matt. iv. 18, on whose waters
the fishermen Peter and Andrew were casting their nets, was
derived from its situation contiguous to Galilee, a province
which did not extend to the eastern side of the lake. This
name must have been a comparatively modern one,' since the
name Galilee was originally applied merely to a small tract, in
connection with which other districts like Kedesh and Naphtali
were sometimes mentioned (see 2 Kings xv, 29), At the time
of Solomon and Hiram, Galilee was still an unimportant dis
trict, and appeared to the latter to be, with its twenty cities,
an insignificant gift to be made by Solomon in return for the
cedars of Lebanon which had been carried to Jerusalem for
the temple and the new palace. It was only with the extension
of the meaning of the name Galilee under the Maccabees,
when Zebulon and Naphtali were added to the original dis
trict, and the whole west coast was known as Galilee, that the
lake itself could receive the same name. After the city of
Tiberias became, at the time of Herod Antipas, the metropolis
of Galilee, the name of this capital was used generally to
distinguish the water on which it lay ; and so we have, as in
John xxi. 1, the Sea of Tiberias. This at length became the
general designation of the lake, and was corrupted into Tabaria,
which is the Arab name at the present day.
1 Robinson, Bih. Research, ii. pp. 399-414.
' Gesenius. Comment, zu Jesaias, i. p. 350.

GEOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS, 237
2. Astronomical and Hypsometrical Situation, Extent, Depth,
and Navigableness.
At the sluggish entrance of the Jordan into Lake Tiberias
there is no place of importance. Between Jacob's Bridge, which
is eighty-four feet above the level of the sea, according to von
Wildenbruch, and the surface of the Sea of Galilee, there is
somewhere a point where the level of the river and that of the
ocean are identical, but this place has never yet been ascer
tained, Symonds* estimates the surface of Lake Tiberias to
be 328 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, von Wilden
bruch 845 feet. The latitude of the northern extremity of the
Sea of Galilee was fixed by Lieutenant Molyneux,' during his
expedition to the Jordan in 1847, to be 32° 52^' N, The heat
at noon on the day when he took his observation, August 23,
was 103° Fah, in the shade. He discovered, in the course of
his exploration of the lake, that it is much broader as well as
longer than it has been supposed by those who had been unable
to sail upon it, and had been compelled to judge by the eye.
He estimated it to be from eight to nine miles broad, and about
eighteen long. It had always been supposed to be a lake of
great depth : he found this to be a mistake, however, as the
deepest place which he discovered only ranged from a hundred
and twenty to a hundred and fifty-six feet.* Molyneux's exa
mination of the Sea of Tiberias by means of a boat was one of
the first attempts of the kind, and the little craft was carried
from the Mediterranean, — an operation which in some places
was attended with great difficulty. In modern times there
seems to be no use of this lake for the purposes of navigation ;
and yet at the time of the Saviour it seems to have been much
sailed upon, whole fleets being sometimes on its waters at once.
When the forces of Titus besieged the city of Tiberias, large
numbers of the people flocked into the boats : Vespasian caused
^ Dr Petermann, in an article on the fall of the Jordan, in vol. xviii.
Jour, Lon, Roy. Geog. Soc, thinks it unquestionable, that accurate as are
Symonds' general measurements, particularly those relating to the Dead
Sea, some great and unexplained error vitiates his estimate of the depres
sion of Lake Tiberias, and makes it altogether untrustworthy. — Ed.
2 Lieut. Molyneux, of H.M.S. " Spartan," Expedition to the Jordan and
the Dead Sea, in Journ. of the Roy. Geog. Soc. xviii. p. 107.
» W. J. Hamilton, Address to the Roy. Geog. Soc of London, 1848, p. 76.

238 PALESTINE.
other ones to be built In order to follow them ; and a naval
engagement ensued, in which as many seem to have perished
at sea as had already on the land, Josephus gives the number
of these as 6500, The fishing in the lake now seems to be
carried on from the shore alone. In the last century, and
early in this, a boat was seen by Pococke, Seetzen, and Burck
hardt* on the waters of the lake, but at last it disappeared,
and was mentioned no more. The only other traveller besides
Molyneux who has ventured to explore Lake Tiberias by means
of a boat, is Count de Bertou. The results of his observations
are given on his own map, and in his report to the Geographical
Society of Paris. Unfortunately we are unable to compare it
with the results of Molyneux's expedition, since the untimely
death of the officer in command, before he had time to work out
what he had done into inteUigible shape, has deprived us of
many of the most valuable fruits of the English expedition.'
3. The Picturesqueness of Lake Tiberias.
As one approaches the lake from the west, the eastern side
being inaccessible even at the present day in consequence of
the unsettled state of the country, the first glimpse* which is
gained of the basin of the Sea of Tiberias is from the summit
of Tabor, whence its entire outline can be seen. The surface
of the water is invisible, however ; and even from the Hattin
peaks, the Mount of the Beatitudes according to the legend,
only the north-east corner can be descried,* although one
would get the impression from the fanciful and hasty descrip
tions of travellers, even the most recent, that the whole lake
can be seen in all its beauty from some of the adjacent heights.
This is not true ; but instead of this there are excellent oppor
tunities of studying the high but evenly-levelled mountain
ranges of Bashan and Gilead, as well as those of Jaulan
and Hauran, which are seen towards the east and south. As
I Burckhardt, Trav. p. 332. See Tristram, p. 423.
2 I omit at this point the detailed result of De Bertou's measurement of
the distances between the villages on the shores of Lake Tiberias : the
original statement may be found in the Bulletin de la Soc. de Geog. Paris.
1839, xii. pp. 146-149.— Ed.
3 Roberts, The Holy Land, vol. x. Plates 27, 28.
* Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 355.

BEAUTY OF LAKE GENNESARETH. 239
the traveUer approaches the sea, the water long remains con
cealed, and does not come into view till the edge of the deep
basin is reached, down which there is a descent of more than a
thousand feet. The reasons for the great historical interest of
the lake do not fail to strike even the most casual observer,* even
although the landscape cannot be compared on the score of beauty
with many others in the world. There are lacking in this regard,
not mountains of height enough to be attractive, but those
bold forms which are so striking in the eminences amid which
the Swiss lakes nestle : there are also wanting the rich green
meadows and the attractive forest trees which are found in the
neighbourhood of the American, Scotch, English, and Bavarian
lakes, with their mild beauty. Around Tiberias we have only
bare rocks, some Hght-coloured, some black, a shore almost
treeless, and whose grass even is withered, while the dark sur
face of the lake itself is unreHeved by a single white sail. And
yet, despite all, the place exerts a charm upon every stranger
who approaches it; for it is a holy place in the land both of
promise and of fulfilment : it is the field of the early ministries
of Jesus, the home of His disciples, often their place of refuge
from their persecutors : its solitary places have often been
haUowed by the words and deeds of the Saviour. And this
gives to the landscape, despite its present desolate appearance,
a peculiar and indestructible charm of its own, — a charm which
reflects itself in the simple records of the Evangelists ; as, for
instance, in the allusions to the throwing of the nets into the
sea, the abundant supplies of fish which the disciples brought
to land, the scattered sheep, the sheep which follow the good
shepherd, the only door to the fold, the lilies still found abund
antly gracing the field, and many others which will recur to
the reader.
But this lake must not be supposed to be destitute of its
own real beauties too, particularly in the spring months, before
the sun has power to wither the young growths. Seetzen
tells us' that in all Palestine there is no district to compare
with this in respect to natural beauty, — not now, indeed,
what it was once, when art lent its kindly and powerful aid,
1 Irby and Mangles, Trav. p. 294 ; Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 380 ;
Russegger, Reise, iii. p. 131 ; v. Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 231.
2 Seetzen, in Mon. Corresp, xviii. p. 348.

240 PALESTINE.
and made the shores of Tiberias one of the gardens of the
world. The present aspect of the spot — with its heaps of
ruins, which attest the action of past earthquakes ; the whole
eastern shore a field where wild Beduins practise unchecked
their arts of plundering; the western side a desolate waste,
exhibiting here and there the hamlets of the few inhabitants
who take the place of the once dense population — gives no clue
to the appearance which Lake Tiberias bore at the time of its
past glory.*
If we turn to the Tiberias of the past, we find that Josephus
praises not only the beauty, but also the fertility, of the
shores of the lake, as well as the mildness of the atmosphere
there. All the forest trees throve there, little as we should
think it now ; and whatever was planted attained an excellent
growth. Walnuts, he goes on to say, which generally love a
cool climate, grew in profusion; and together with them the
palm, which requires the intensest heat. Nor were there lack
ing figs, olives, and groves, which need a temperature inter
mediate between that demanded by the walnut and the palm.
Josephus alludes again to the singular character which the
shores of the Sea of Gennesaret have, of uniting productions
which generally are not found to inhabit the same region, and
says that this is only possible in a place sheltered by a system
of ascending terraces. He asserts that European fruits were
able to thrive there ; and that such was the nature of the
climate, that vines and figs would ripen ten months out of the
year, while other fruits were to be always seen in a perfected
state. If there is a place in the world which answers the condi
tions which Hippocrates summed up in the expression, the
" mingling of seasons," and which may be takpn as the ideal
of a perfect climate, it is that of the Sea of Galilee. It is the
nearest possible approach to a perpetual spring. There is the
same harmony in the natural world there which we sometimes
meet in the characters of men — a perfect balance of parts. And
so on the shores of Tiberias we have the finest fruit and the
most perfect growths of all kinds : we have the conditions also
which ought to give us the most admirably formed animals and
the highest type of man. So long as men were expecting to find
1 Von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 262.

GEOLOGY OF THE DISTRICT. 241
a paradise on the earth, here was the place where there was the
most encouragement to look for it. With all the change in
the political and social relations of men, the physical character
of the neighbourhood is not changed, excepting so far as has
been occasioned by the neglect and the idleness of the inhabit
ants. The broad sheltering basin of the lake, with its terrace
gradations, is particularly favourable to the growth of tropical
productions ; and even at the present day, the date palm, the
citron, the pomegranate, the indigo* and rice' plant, and the
sugar-cane,* are found there, although their culture is miser
ably neglected. The heights around, on the contrary, are visited
by cool, refreshing breezes. The free draught of the south
wind, up the direct course of the Ghor, as well as the protec
tion which is afforded on the northern side ajjainst the cold
winds of Asia, together with the moisture which is indirectly
furnished by the snow-crowned peak of Hermon, which towers
grandly in view,* cannot be overlooked in taking an estimate of
the great advantages enjoyed by the sheltered basin of Lake
Tiberias. Josephus alludes particularly to the number of
excellent springs which are found in its neighbourhood, as a
feature by no means to be overlooked. And in view of. all
these varied attractions, it may be safe to conjecture, that
unimportant as are the benefits derived from this renowned lake
at the present time, in the future its industrial value may again
be equal to what it was when cities dotted both its shores, and
a teeming population passed their life by Its waters.
4. Geological Characteristics, Volcanic Formations, Basalt
Dykes.
As we enter upon the discussion of the geological character
of the basin which contains the Sea of Galilee, we see at a
glance that it is simply one element of the Jordan valley and
Dead Sea, which extends due north and south for a distance of
sixty hours. This is the Ghor, or Sunken Valley of the Arabs,
extending»from Hasbeya to the ..^lanitic Gulf as a continuous
cleft — the deepest one that is known to us. Its many varieties
of aspect, including those found in the Sinaitic Peninsula, do
1 Seetzen, i.a.l. pp. 349, 350.
2 Ali Bey, Trav. ii. p. 260 ; and Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 403.
3 Bov^, Redt. l.c. Bulletin, iii. p. 388. * Russegger, Reise, iii. p. 131.
VOL. II. Q

242 PALESTINE.
not permit our seeing at once the unity which characterizes the
long length of the Ghor, or recognising the volcanic nature of
the result of convulsions which took place doubtless antecedent
to human history.* That those convulsions took place, is well
authenticated by the existence of large masses of volcanic rock
which have broken through the superimposed crust. The
frequent earthquakes which occur ; the form of the basin of
Gennesaret, which Russegger thinks crater-shaped (though
certainly incorrectly, as Wilson has conclusively shown') ; the
hot springs on the border of the lake ; the many caves scattered
far and near ; the constitution of the country east of the Jordan,
in evident geological connection with the Ghor ; the large
deposits of naphtha in the valley of Hasbeya ; the springs of
the same and of hot water in the neighbourhood of, and even
in, the Dead Sea ; the lofty crystalline masses of the Sinaitic
Peninsula, and the porphyritic dykes which are found near the
southem extremity of this great cleft ; all confirm the theory,
that powerful volcanic forces have been at work there.
An important part in all this has been played, unquestion
ably, by the black basaltic rock, which increases in extent as we
approach Lake Tiberias from the north and west, and which
appears again in the neighbourhood of Damascus, on the east
side of tlie Jordan, passes down through the Leja, Jaulan,
and Hauran, to the Sheriat el Mandhur (Hieromax), and
back again to the Sea of Tiberias. It thus forms a colossal
basaltic triangle,* bearing the name of the Basaltic Trachonitis.
The Sheriat el Mandhur breaks through it from east to west ;
and out of the depth of the cleft thus occasioned issue the
boiling springs of Om Keis or Gadara,* which are similar to
those found in the neighbourhood of Tiberias. Seetzen thinks
that the small river just mentioned forms the southem boundary
of the basaltic region. o
In passing from Acre, first towards Mount Tabor, and then
to Lake Tiberias by way of Hattin, Russegger^ first encoun
tered volcanic rocks on the banks of the Nahr Mechatta, or
• Russegger, Reise, iii. p. 134.
2 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 151. .
'^ K. V. Raumer, Das ostliche Paldst. in Annal. 1830, i. pp. 554-561.
* Seetzen, Mon. Corresp. xviii. p. 353 ; Gesenius' Burckhardt, i. p. 424.
* Russegger, Reise, iii. pp. 258-261.

GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT, 243
Kishon, — a vast basaltic dyke, which has forced its way through
the Hmestone, retaining its characteristic black colour, blistered
in appearance, and exhibiting zeolites here and there, A second
dyke of the same nature, and no less massive, is found running
from north to south, in the normal direction of the Ghor, as
one leaves the plain of Esdraelon, and approaches the hills
around Nazareth, The hills around the village, however, do
not display traces of the volcanic stone ; but they, in common
with the whole Galilean mountain system, are composed of the
same limestone which is found in the neighbourhood of Jeru
salem. But north of Nazareth, between Kefr Kana and the
Sea of Tiberias, there is a reappearance of basalt dykes, on
such a scale of greatness,* as to cause the belief that the con
vulsions which threw them to the surface will explain the
curious contortions which the Jurassic and dolomitic formations,
met with all the way to the Gulf of Acre, exhibit. The graceful
Tabor exhibits traces, too, of having undergone the pressure of
subterranean forces, which have largely affected its appearance ;
and these are all the more apparent, when it is compared with
the low mountain usually known as Little Hermon, which
stands isolated on the eastern border of the Plain of Esdraelon.
Tabor abounds with holes, which, according to Russegger, have
generally a cave-like appearance, and are supposed to be caused
by the emission of suppressed gases, when these have become
so powerful as to force their way to the surface.'
In the fertile rolling upland called Ard el Hamma, about a
thousand feet* above the level of the sea, and at the eastern
base of Tabor, the rock is covered with soil, and very seldom is
visible : the greater part, however, is strewn with fragments of
basalt* and other kinds of rubble, much of it cinder-like, and
some exhibiting zeolites. Near Kurun Hattin {Mens beatitu-
dinis), and along the southern slope, there runs from west to
east a valley whose surface is tolerably flat, and which slopes
gently to the basin of Lake Tiberias : in it are found two
cisterns and the ruins of a khan. The main road from Tabor
' Russegger, Reise, iii. p. 262.
2 K. V. Raumer, Dr, tertiare Kalkstein bei Paris und der Kallcstein des
westl. Paldst. in Beitrdgen 1843, p. 65.
8 Russegger, Reise, iii. p. 130.
* Russegger, Reise : Das Projil, Tab. vii. 2.

244 PALESTINE,
to Damascus runs through it,* leaving the city of Tiberias at
the right. At the northern end of this valley basalt appears,
forming an immense dyke nearly two and a half miles broad.
This runs down toward Lake Tiberias, and close by its border
it towers up In the form of a knoll, the top of which is eight
hundred feet above the level of the sea. This cannot be the
result of any mass of molten matter flowing down, but rather
the result of subterranean pressure, causing immense superin
cumbent masses to give way, and to allow the volcanic rock
below to jet up and form its wedges and dykes, which still
attest the terrible throes of nature. There are traces of these
throughout the neighbourhood. North of the basalt, near the
Hattin mountain, and close by the Safed hills, Russegger saw
places where the Jurassic rocks have cloven down to the level
of the lake, by the violence of volcanic forces.
Directly below the mighty basalt knoll just alluded to,
extends the crater-shaped basin of Lake Tiberias, surrounded
by high mountains, only broken by the cleft' through which
the Jordan takes its way. The whole eastern side of the lake
seemed to him to be a wall of limestone, behind which lay the
plateau of Hauran, No professed geologist has examined the
east side of the Sea of Galilee, and I am compelled to doubt
whether Russegger's view of what was eight or nine miles at
least from him, can be accepted as reliable evidence; for it
not only conflicts with the general statements of travellers in
Hauran, that basalt is found very largely there, but it will be
remembered by the reader that Seetzen,* at the time of his
hasty visit to the blind chief, recorded on a preceding page,
speaks of the prevalence of a dark-brown basaltic stone on his
ride. The west shore, however, was thoroughly examined by
Russegger, and was found to belong to the Jurassic formation,
excepting in the places alluded to, where basalt had been inter
jected in such vast dykes that they show how general the
action of the ancient volcanic forces must have been, I cannot
omit mentioning that in one of the valleys, running in a north-
north-westerly direction from Lake Tiberias to a point on the
* Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 394.
2 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 112.
* Seetzen, Mon. Corresp. xviii. p. 353.

GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 245
south-west side of Safed, there is a depression three or four
hundred feet in length and a hundred feet in breadth, with
steep lava sides running down to a depth of forty feet, A
little pool fills the bottom of it. It is supposed to be the crater
of a now extinct volcano,* now known as Birket el Jish, It has
been thought that at the time of the violent convulsions which
once shook this region, this volcano may have been the centre.
The city of Tiberias, which is close by the lake,' stands
upon the lower extremity of a great basaltic dyke, which,
although by no means uniform in its appearance throughout its
course, yet seems to have no other lack of uniformity than
would be occasioned by the amount of resistance which it
encountered at the time of its upheaval, and the varied rates of
cooling which it experienced.
Von Schubert* found the shore of the lake composed of
limestone of several formations — a large part of it chalk, how
ever — and interspersed with the solid masses of basalt mentioned
by Russegger and others. Out of this black basalt the walls
of Tiberias are built, many of the houses, the most ancient
structures in Tell Hum, and, in short, the larger part of the
architectural remains which are met on the shores of the lake.
At the surface the basalt has usually crumbled into shape
less blocks, covered with a white, earthy, decomposed substance,
resembling phonollthic stone. Where the shape of the original
masses has been wholly lost owing to exposure, there results a
rich dark earth which is extremely fertile. The hot salt and
sulphur springs which gush up in those regions, and the
frequent earthquakes which abound in the neighbourhood of
the lake, attest the volcanic nature of the whole region. From
a very early antiquity the hot springs of Tiberias have attracted
attention to themselves. They lie south of the city, on the
southern edge of the great basaltic dyke,* but they spring not
from the basalt itself, but from the Jurassic limestone and
dolomite. This is yellowish-white in colour, and displays the
shells clearly when it is quarried. Its strata extend from
north-west to south-east, with an inclination of 15° towards the
' Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 423, 424.
2 Russegger, Reise, iii. p. 260.
' Von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 237,
* Russegger, Reise, iii. p. 261,

246 PALESTINE.
south-west. In the gorges which sink to the level of the
lake, basalt is everywhere found, unquestionably forming side
branches of the main dyke, and creating a network of great
complexity and extent.
5. The Hot Salt Springs of Tiberias.
These springs, which have been noticed from a very eariy
period. He about a mile south of the city. Josephus often
mentions them under the names of Emmaus and Ammaus,
probably a Greek form of the Hebrew Hammath, i.e. warm
baths : the Arabic word Hammam, by which they are now
generally known, is a corruption of the Hebrew. Seetzen
thinks* that if these springs were in Europe, they would form
one of the most attractive bathing-places in the world. Burck
hardt found a bathing-house erected over the one nearest to
the city, and furnished with two apartments. The spring
which is used is the largest of the four hot ones, and the supply
of water is great enough even to turn the wheels of mills!'
The three other hot springs, or really four, if one counts two
smaller ones lying side by side, are two hundred steps farther
south ; and the most southern one, which is so shallow that
the hand can scarcely be dipped into it, is the hottest of all.
These baths are much resorted to by people afflicted with
rheumatism, scurvy, and leprosy, from many parts of Palestine
and Syria.
Von Schubert found* the hot springs to have a temperature
of 48° Reaum., and to contain salt and a solution of iron. He
compares the waters with those of Carlsbad : at the bottom he
' observed sulphur and lime globules, coloured red with the oxide
of iron. Not merely the warmth of the springs themselves
seemed to be favourable to the persons afflicted with palsy,
who use their waters, but the warmth of the nights there
also seems beneficial. There prevails around Tiberias a true
hothouse climate, and the palm flourishes there as well as in
Akaba and Alexandria, On the north side of the city of
Tiberias also, at Szermadin, there is a warm brook of about
twenty degrees Reaumur,* which rushes forth from a cavernous
outlet in the rock, and who^e waters taste of salt and iron,
' Seetzen, Mon. Corresp. xviii. p. 349. 2 Burckhardt, Trav, p. 329.
» Von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 239. ? Rid. p. 245.

THE HOT SPRINGS OF TIBERIAS. 247
Its banks are abundantly overshadowed with the beautiful
evergreen oleander with its rose-like blossoms, a true delight to
the eyes, recalling the expression in Ps, i, 3, " A tree planted
by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his
season," Still farther north there are found copious warm
springs issuing* from the basalt rocks, and forming brooks of
considerable size, that dash down the steep declivity leading to
the sea. The great number of these springs, and the abundant
supplies of water which issue from them in a region very
scantily supplied with springs of fresh water,' hint very strongly
at volcanic activities once at work there, to which they probably
owe their existence.
The Hammam at Tiberias are the best known of all on the
shores of the lake, although the hot springs at Ora Keis, in the
neighbourhood of Gadara, which were visited by Burckhardt
and Buckingham, are no less remarkable in respect to sizfe.
According to Russegger's observations, the springs south of the
city of Tiberias issue from ground which has been formed by
a combination of basalt and limestone nibble ; and although
forming several little rivulets of water, yet the various indica
tions made it certain to his mind that one parent supply is the
source of all. About the year 1833,* Ibrahim Pasha built an
elegant bath-house, furnished with a marble basin, and adorned
in the luxuriant manner of European establishments of the
same kind. At that time the water of the chief spring was
conducted to this bath-house by an artificial canal three
hundred paces long. As the water bursts forth to a height of
two or three feet, Russegger thought it probable that the real
source might be in the mountains lying directly behind the
baths. In the course of time there have been probably many
changes in the number and size of the springs: these it is
impossible to ascertain, I cannot forbear, however, alluding
to the statement of Isthakri* (middle of the tenth century), that
the springs issue from the ground at the distance of two para-
sangs -from the city, and that the water was so hot that a hide
thrown into it would very soon lose its hair. He remarks,
moreover, that for culinary purposes the water can only be
1 Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 251. ^ Burckhardt, Trav. p. 332.
s Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 127 ; Tristram, p. 428.
* Isthakri, Buch der Lander, pp. 35, 36 ; Edrisi, Jaubert's ed. i. p. 347.

248 PALESTINE,
used by mixing with that from common springs : the people of
Tiberias usually take theirs from the lake. In the twelfth
century the springs appear to have yielded more profusely than
they have since. Edrisi gives the names of four which were
used as baths ; he says, besides, that there were other ones
farther south which were much resorted to by the sick.
The water of the main spring Russegger found clear, with
a strong salt taste, and a very perceptible smell of sulphuric
acid. The temperature he found to be 46° Reaum. when that
of the air was 11|° : it was scalding hot, and could be used for
bathing only after cooling. An analysis of the water gave him
as bases, nitre, talc, lime, and potash: as acids, free sulphurous,
hydrochloric, and sulphuric. Thick deposits he did not perceive,
only a slight sediment : Robinson discovered red and green
discoloration of the glass in which he allowed it to stand and
settle. Von Schubert found the heat to be 48°; Robinson, who
was there only a short time thereafter, records that it ranged
from 48° to 49J°, a trifling amount higher than it was in the
winter when Russegger examined the temperature. At the
time of the great earthquake of 1837, it was found that not
only was the heat of the water much increased, but the amount
of water was very much enlarged, — a fact which seemed to hint
not at all obscurely at a connection between the springs and the
volcanic activities which were displayed then on so extensive a
scale, Lieut. Molyneux,* who examined the springs in Aug.
1847, found the temperature to be 130° Fahr.,' or about 44° R.
Earlier measurements of the thermal state of the springs are
not known to have been made,
6. The Earthquake of 1837.
The British consul at Beirut, Mr Moore, states,* In his report
to the Royal Geographical Society regarding the earthquake
which was felt in 1837 in Beirut, Cyprus, Damascus, and the
country to the south, extending as far as Jerusalem,* that the
J Molyneux, Exped. in Jour, of Roy. Geog. Soc of London, xviii. p. 107.
2 Lieut. Lynch, of the American expedition, found the heat of the
springs in April 1848 to be 143° Fahr.— Ed.
* Moore, in Jour, of the Roy. Geog. Soc vii. p. 101.
* Thomson, Journal of a Visit to Safet and Tiberias, Jan. 1837, in
Missionary Herald, vol. xxxiii. pp. 433-442.

WATER, WIND, CLIMATE, AND VEGETATION. 249
city of Tiberias Suffered much more from the upheaval than
did the region in which the hot springs are found : the subter
ranean channels which convey the water to the surface seemed
to act as the natural conductors of the pent-up gases, and pre
vent the effects of their explosion. Though Tiberias did not
suffer so seriously as Safed, yet it was left little better than a
heap of ruins, and a thousand people — a third of the inhabitants
— perished. For weeks after the chief convulsion, tremblings
of the ground were experienced. The heat of the warm springs
increased to such an extent at the time, that the thermometers
which could be obtained were inadequate to record it ; and not
only was the temperature higher, but the supply of water poured
forth was greater than it had been for years before. While the
rivers in other parts of Palestine and Syria — that at Beirut, for
instance — forsook their beds, and left them dry for hours, the
supply poured into the Sea of Tiberias from the hot springs
was so largely increased, that, according to some accounts,*
the lake was sensibly raised above its ordinary level. There
were rumours' also that flames were seen breaking out in
various places in Hauran and Jolan. These, however, lack
confirmation. A statement made to Reland by persons who had returned
to Europe from Palestine, shows that just an opposite effect
has been produced upon the springs by previous earthquakes,
and that the Tiberias springs have been closed for a consider
able length of time. About 1710 they yielded no water for at
least three years : it may have been a longer time, for there is
no evidence to show at what period they began to flow again.
The extent of territory affected by the great earthquake of
1837 extended from north to south, and was about five hundred
miles in length, and about ninety in breadth. There is no
authentic information received regarding its manifestation on
the east side of the Jordan.
7. Water, Wind, Climate, and Vegetation.
Regarding the lake itself, full accounts are yet wanting ;
yet from what can be learned, in addition to the measurements
already referred to, it becomes shallow towards the southern
' Caiman, in Kitto, Phys. Hist, of Pal. p. xcii.
2 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, vol. ii. p.. 129.

250 PALESTINE.
extremity. Molyneux gives the depth near the outlet as
eighty-four feet : at the south-east corner, near Semak, Burck
hardt* was able by swimming to form some conjecture as to the
depth ; at any rate, he encountered none of the reeds and
sedge which make really shallow places.' The water of the
lake is sweet, and supplies a great part of the city with that
which is needed for culinary purposes, there being no fresh
water springs in the neighbourhood. Both Burckhardt and
von Schubert* found fresh-water snails on the shore, as well
as the other kinds of shell-fish which they met on the lower
Jordan, The former traveller was unable to find any fishes
at the southern end of the lake, where once the town of
Tarichsea* lay, which derived its name from the curing of fish
there ; but at the northern end he found an abundance, parti
cularly of carps (binni), and a kind of flat fish (mesht), a foot
lonjj and five inches broad. At the time of his visit the right of
fishing in the lake was hired out by the people of Tiberias for
seven hundred piastres, but the boat' which the fishermen had
used was then unfit for use. Otto von Richter® saw men stand
ing up to their waists in water, and catching fish in hand-nets;
they seemed to him to be no less successful in their labour than
the fishermen of a remote antiquity were, Robinson praises
the fine-fiavoured fish of the lake, the silurus, mugll, and sparus
galilseus of Hasselquist. Von Schubert confirms the statement
of Josephus, that in the Sea of Tiberias are found the same
kinds of fish which are met in the Egyptian Lacus Mareotis
near Alexandria, and hence calls the Sea of Galilee the source
of the Nile, Wilson declares that the fish of Lake Tiberias
are excellent : he mentions the cyprlnus bennii, the mesht
(which he thinks was the sparus galilseus of Hasselquist), the
mormyrus, which, according to Sir Gardiner Wilkinson,' is a
native of Egypt, and the oxyrinchus of the ancients, Wilson
also speaks of seeing water-fowls upon the lake, among them
pelicans. 1 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 276. 2 n^ij p_ 332,
= Von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 238 ; Tristram, pp. 428, 437.
¦• Seetzen, Mon. Corresp. xviii. p. 350.
^ Burckhardt, Gesenius' ed. i. p. 433, ii. p. 576.
8 Otto von Richter, Wallfahrten, p. 60.
' Wilkinson, Manners of the Anc. Egypt, vol. iii. p. 58.

WATER, WIND, CLIMATE, AND VEGETATION. 251
With regard to the statement of Clarke and others,* that
the waters of the Jordan pass through the sea from one end to
the other without mingling with those of the lake, Robinson
and other modern travellers have been able to ascertain nothing
confirmatory : it is probably an en-or. occasioned in great part
by an expression of Josephus, and strengthened by Willibold,
as well as by the learned Pausanias, Some of the Jewish
rabbis, too — Jichus ha Abot, for instance — have claimed to be
able to trace the course of the river through the lake ; and even
Irby and Mangles say' that at certain places the surface of the
water is seen to be disturbed by the onward motion of the river.
It may be that this is a matter which is more or less affected by
changes in the amount of water, and by other varying circum
stances, and cannot be reduced to any general statement,
Burckhardt states* that the level of Lake Tiberias is some
times raised three or four feet during the rainy season, — a
phenomenon perfectly intelligible in view of the many brooks
which flow into it. Turner goes so far as to assert, that at the
time of the heavy rains many houses are in part under water.
The conflned inland situation of the lake exposes it to the most
violent winds and storms (Matt, viii. 23; John vi. 18); and
this has caused a very boisterous character to be ascribed to it.
Russegger* witnessed a tempest sweep over the sea about the
last of December, dashing waves against the shore with great
violence ; and yet on the land scarcely a breath of wind was to
be felt. Five hundred feet higher, on the western bank, a very
severe cold wind was experienced, coming from the distant
Hauran plateau, which was then covered with snow, Russegger
suspected that the wind struck the surface of the lake at such
an angle as to be reflected again and glance off, striking the
shore high up the slope of the basin, and literally leaving the
city of Tiberias beneath the motion of the atmospheric current.
A more protracted stay than travellers usually make would
throw much light upon this phenomenon.
Turner,' while bathing near the north gate of Tiberias,
discovered that in one place the water rose to the height of 86°
Fahr. (24° R.) : elsewhere the temperature was much cooler.
• Russegger, Reise, iii. p. 132. ^ ij-by and Mangles, Trav. p. 295.
» Burckhardt, Trav. p. 332 ; W. Turner, Journal, ii. p. 142.
* Russegger, Reise, iii. p. 136. ' Turner, Journ. ii. pp. 141, 144.

252 PALESTINE.
The inference was natural,. that beneath the spot where he was
swimming there are powerful hot springs, A burning sirocco
was blowing from the south at the same time, — a wind winch
in the nights often causes great storms upon the lake. In the
month of August, Lieut. Molyneux experienced at noon a heat
of 103° Fahr" in the shade. During the summer these south
winds are very common : they parch all the vegetation, and
cause it to ignite at the touch of a single spark. When this
occurs, the wind, overdriving the flames far and wide, effects
a great deal of damage. Burckhardt tells us* that it is the
custom of the land, if such a conflagration result from the fall
ing of a single spark from a tobacco-pipe, to put the smoker to
instant death. Gesenius' calls attention to the fine commen
tary these accidental burnings give to some passages ; in Isa.
V, 24, for example, " Therefore, as the fire devoureth the
stubble, and the flame consunieth the chaff," etc. In the
spring-time there is nothing of this arid aspect to be seen, and
the whole district is one mass of leaves and blossoms.
The hot south winds, and the terraces which surround the
lake, must have a great influence upon the whole course of
vegetation, and must occasion the marked contrasts which are
exhibited there in the various seasons. The west winds which
prevail in Syria during the summer* are not able to strike the
deep-lying west coast of Lake Tiberias : the situation of the
city is therefore far from healthy, and fevers abound. The
high plateau region in the neighbourhood, which is covered
with snow in the winter, as well as the eternally snow-capped
Lebanon not far away, cannot exert in their turn a less marked
influence upon the vegetation of the shores of the lake than
the hot south wind does. Von Schubert remarks* that the flora
of the highest part of the basin around the lake is precisely
that of Nazareth and the base of the Carmel range, while
those which grow at the lowest part are the same as those which
are found at Jericho. Burckhardt thought the heat at Tiberias
equal to that experienced at the Dead Sea, This explains the
ancient praises of the palms and the balsam shrubs which used
' Burckhardt, Trav. p. 331.
2 Gesenius, Notes to Burckhardt, ii. p. 1056.
» Burckhardt, Trav. p. 320.
* Von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 232.

SHORES OF THE SEA OF GALILEE. 253
to be found in both localities; but although palms are still
found growing in the neighbourhood of Tiberias,* von Schubert
was unable to discover any trace of the balsam, Strabo's
allusion ' to ^dXaa/iov, on the shores of Gennesaret, seems to
arise from a hasty confounding of the place with Jericho,
Still it is evident, as Cotovicus has shown,* that many plants
which once throve on the shores of the lake are found there no
longer. The narrow plains along the shore, remarks Burck
hardt, would be able to produce every kind of tropical fruit;
yet the inhabitants of Tiberias content tl\emselves with raising
wheat, barley, dhurra, tobacco, melons, grapes, and some kinds
of garden vegetables. The melons* are of the finest quality,
and are in much demand in Acre and in Damascus, being sup
plied a month before those raised in the vicinity of those places
come into the market.
The winters in Tiberias must be somewhat more severe
than in .Jericho, for snow is sometimes, though very rarely,
met there : at the time of Robinson's visit, the wheat harvest
was ended on the 14th of May at the latter place, while at
Tiberias the last was not housed before the 19th of June.
Sesam, cotton, and indigo are to a certain extent raised' upon
the borders of the lake.

DiSCURSlON HI.
THE SHORES OF THE SEA OF GALILEE.
I. The Galilean or west and north-west side of the Lake.
The present desolate aspect of the country around the Sea
of Tiberias is in the most marked contrast with the great pro
sperity which was exhibited there at a former day, when the
cities which only exist at present as shattered and crumbling
ruins were thronged with a busy population. Only the western
shore of the lake is trodden by civilised men to-day, and the
1 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 323 ; von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 235.
' Gesenius, Notes to Burckhardt, Pt. ii. Note to p. 105.
3 Cotovicus, Itinerar. ed. Antw. 1619, p. 358.
< Burckhardt, Trav. p. 322. See Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 388.
» Abulfed* Taiul. Syr. ed. Koehler, p. 35.

254 PALESTINE,
only two places even there which are at all important are Safed
and Tiberias. The wild tracts of Jolan or Gaulonitis, east of
the lake, and the savage land of the Gadarenes north of the
Sheriat el Mandhur, with the ancient cities of Gadara, Hippos,
and Gamala, whose ruins may be seen on the summits of the
distant hill-tops, have never been visited by any Europeans
with the exception of Seetzen and Burckhardt, and even
they were able to catch only stolen glimpses of the unsub
dued and inhospitable region. No one has ever been able to
pass around the lake, as Seetzen wished to do; and all we
know of the population there is gathered from the few obser
vations of Seetzen and Burckhardt, taken under exceedingly
unfavourable circumstances.
On the west coast of the lake and in the adjacent valleys
there are several walls, springs walled up, caves, graves, and
other tokens of former habitation : these are in many instances
surrounded by fortresses, some of which appear to date back
to a very remote period, others not further back than the time
of the Saracens. These have never, however, been carefully
studied : we only know them from the casual allusions to them
by hasty travellers.
The western coast was once inhabited by the Galilean
mountaineers, from whom many of the apostles were selected
(Acts i, 11, ii. 7), — an active, remarkable people, despised by
the Jews, but honoured by the Saviour, and made the medium
of diffusing the gospel among the .Tews as weU as the Gentiles.
.Tosephus, the rigid Pharisee, praises the Galileans on the score of
their extraordinary industry, their agricultural skill, their thrift
in business, and the valour which they always displayed. The
sea-coast was strewn with cities and villages, and the population
must have been an exceedingly dense one, else Josephus would
not have been able to say that it would have been an easy thing
for him to raise up an army of a hundred thousand volunteers
for the defence of Galilee against the Romans, Some of their
towns contained 15,000 inhabitants each. Not the tenth part
of this number could be called together at the present day.
The east side of the lake, on the other hand, seems always to
have been inhabited by restless, unsettled tribes, unable, as
Josephus says, to live in peace : their fixed abodes were upon
the tops of hills, and some of their ruins may be seen at the

PRIMITIVE MEANING OF GALILEE. 255
present time,— as, for instance, those of Gamala, Hippos, and
Gadara. Although, in comparatively modern times, Tiberias has
become the chief place in Galilee, in Josephus' day Sephoris
was the most important place ; and the mountain district known
by the name of Galilee seems to have been more inland than
the tracts belonging to Naphtali and Zebulon, extending from
the springs of the Jordan to the outlet of the Sea of Chinnereth.
This district only subsequently became a part of Galilee.
A proof of this Geienius* finds in the primitive application
of the name Galilee to a region very unimportant in size in com
parison with that which the province of Galilee subsequently
became: see the allusion to it in the times of Solomon and
Hiram, in 1 Kings ix, 11 and 2 Kings xv. 29, where it can only
mean a limited tract of Naphtali, This is yet more plainly seen
in Josh, XX, 7, "Kedesh in Galilee, in Mount Naphtali ;" and this
expression, Kedesh in Galilee, is one of very frequent occur
rence (Josh, xxi. 32 ; 1 Chron. vl. 76). Rosenmiiller's claim,'''
that the words "in Galilee" are annexed merely to distinguish
it from another Kedesh, seems superfluous, since the expression
" in Naphtali" would have been sufflcient to distinguish it from
the Kedesh in Judah and that in Issachar, It may be set down
as tolerably certain, that the Kedesh whose position we have
already fixed on the north-west side of the waters of Merom,
was a central spot in the ancient province of Galilee, at a period
when the shores of the subsequent Sea of Galilee could not
strictly bear that name. The word has been supposed to be
derived from the Hebrew Galil or Galilah, which originally
signifies a circle, and which could naturally be applied to a
region whose proportions were continually expanding. And
here we find the first clue to explain the scorn which was
universally displayed toward Galileans, and which appears in
the New Testament as exercising a decided infiuence upon the
Israelites in their relations to the Teacher of Nazareth (Matt.
xxvi, 69 ; Luke xxiii, 6) ; the scorn to which Isaiah alludes as
to be taken away when Galilee should attain her promised glory
(Isa, ix. 1, 2), "Nevertheless, the dimness shall not be such as
was in her vexation, when at the first He lightly afflicted the
' Gesenius, Commentar zu Isaias, i. p. 350 et seq.
2 Rosenmuller, Bibl. Alterthk. ii. p. 42.

256 PALESTINE.
land of Zebulon, and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did
more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond
[this side of : Luther's Germ, trans.] Jordan, in Galilee of the
nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great
light ; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon
them hath the light shined," The ignominy which rested upon
Galilee was occasioned by the fact that, in spite of the bravery
of the people of Naphtali and Zebulon, they had, from the very
time when their territory was apportioned to them, been willing
to receive the Gentiles or heathen among themselves. They
remained in closer alliance with their idolatrous neighbours
than any of the other tribes. Of Zebulon the prophecy had
been spoken, " He shall dwell at the haven of the sea ; and he
shall be for a haven of ships ; and his borders shall be unto
Sidon," This implied industrial and commercial occupations
which were foreign to the genius of the Hebrew policy, and led
first to the transfer of twenty Galilean cities by Solomon to
Hiram king of Tyre (1 Kings ix, 11); and subsequently to
idolatry in Dan, at the head waters of the Jordan, on Hermon,
and in other parts of the mountain land. The marriage of
the Israelites with the daughters of the heathen followed as a
matter of course; and this unrighteous connection, together with
the idolatrous worship, was the occasion of the scorn expressed
by Isaiah, as well as by Matt, iv, 15, in those words, " Galilee
of the Gentiles," which had become current. The ill repute
in which the Galileans stood may have been increased by the
misfortunes endured at the hands of Benhadad and Tiglath-
Pileser, as well as by the coarse Syrian dialect, and the strong
guttural* accent of the mountaineers, and many other things
which throw light upon the question put by Nathanael to Jesus,
" Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" (John i, 46,
vii. 52.)
1, The City of Tiberias, the Tabaria of the present time}
It was only in the time of Herod i. that Roman luxury was
introduced into that part of northern Palestine which extends
from the Sea of Tiberias, the Banias spring of the Jordan,
» Winer, Bib. Realw. i. p. 388.
2 H. Reland, Pal. pp. 1036-1042 ; Rosenmiiller, Bib. Alterthk. ii. p. 74 ;
V. Raumer, Paldst. p. 138.

THE CITY OF TIBERIAS. 257
Herod ii., generally known as Antipas, the builder of Sephoris
and Betharamphtha JuHas, and the brother of Philip, to whose
munificence Csesarea PhiHppi and Bethsaida JuHas owed their
erection, was the founder of the city of Tiberias, whose name
was derived from the well-known Roman emperor and patron
of Herod, He preferred the sea-side to any other place of
residence, and surrounded the palace which he built there with
dwellings for his court, with amphitheatres, bath-houses, and
temples, Josephus tells us, that in order to make room for all
his buildings, he was obliged to remove several graves which
occupied the spot which pleased his fancy. Here he put up
costly works of art, some of which in their ruin Burckhardt
thought* he recognised, among them a bas-relief of a lion
strangling sheep ; but Scholtz regards this rather as Phoenician
workmanship. More recent investigation still shows that this
is modern; and Mr Banks, at the time of his visit, while carefully
examining the relic referred to by Burckhardt, discovered an
Arabic inscription, leaving no room to believe that such a work
left by Herod has survived the lapse of time. The changes
effected by Herod were doubly distasteful to the orthodox Jews,
as it was entirely against their traditions for any one to build
upon the graves of the dead. So, in the early days of Tiberias,
there were but few Jews who settled there : Herod was driven
to the expedient of compelling Galileans to be his builders;
Gentile colonists were induced by liberal gifts to settle in the
new city; the place grew rapidly, and at the time of the Saviour
had become very flourishing.
It is not probable that any older place occupied the site of
Tiberias, for the reason just referred to, namely, that the Jews
always placed their graves just outside of the city or town
where they lived ; but this affords ground for supposing that
there may have been a place of some importance in the imme
diate neighbourhood,' The Talmud speaks of a Rakkath near
by, and identifies this with the ancient Hammath. It has also
been supposed to be the same as the Chinnereth referred to in
Josh, xix. 35.
• Burckhardt, Trav. p. 321.
2 See also Jichus ha Abot, in Carmoly, Itineraires, pp. 385, 446 ; also
Burckhardt, Gesenius' ed. ii. p. 574 ; and Herbelot, Bib. Orient, s.v. Lok-
man ; Gunther Wahl, Koran, p. 383.
VOL. II. R

258 PALESTINE.
In the Gospels there is no allusion to any visit of the Saviour
to the city where His most formidable opponent lived. After
Herod had caused John the Baptist to be beheaded (Matt. xiv.
1-22), Jesus withdrew to the east side of the sea, and amid the
solitudes there He fed the great multitude who went out to see
Him, supplying the wants of five thousand at once. After
wards He returned (13th and 14th verses) to Gennesaret, on
the western side of the lake. The beastly excesses and the vices
of the Roman court had been transferred to this rankly growing
capital of the weak and yet cruel princes of Galilee. Tiberias
remained the metropolis of that province till the Emperor Nero
placed Agrippa ii. over Galilee, when Sephoris became the
capital. Always in quarrels with the parent city of Jerusalem,
the inhabitants surrendered voluntarily to Vespasian, and their
city was spared. It became in the time of the great Jewish
afflictions a refuge for the rabbis. The great tribunal of the
Sanhedrim was transferred to Tiberias, after having held its
sessions for a while in Sephoris. Thirteen synagogues subse
quently arose in Tiberias ; and in the beginning of the third
century a school of Jewish legal lore was established,* which
afterwards attained to great celebrity, and became the centre of
those who clung to the literal traditions of the Jewish faith.
This city became, in consequence of the founding of the Tal-
mudic school, the place where the Hebrew language was spoken
in its purity ; and Jerome speaks with a certain degree of com
placency of the advantage which he had enjoyed in learning
Hebrew of a rabbi of Tiberias.
In the fourth century, Constantine the Great built the first
Christian church which had ever been known in that city, and
named it after St Peter, in allusion to his former residence on
the shores of the lake close by. The builder of it, who was a
baptized Jew, is said to have taken the materials for the church
from an unfinished temple, the Adrianum, which had been used
as a bath. Justinian, with his love of magnificence, surrounded
the city with massive waUs ; in the year 449 it became the seat
of -a bishopric, but this was subsequently included within the see
of Nazareth. The city was sacked by the Caliph Omar in the
seventh century, and subsequently by Saladin' in the thirteenth,
1 J. Lightfooti 0pp. omn. Roteod. fol. 1686, vol. ii. fol. 223-230,
2 Abulfedse Tab. Syr, ed. Koehler, p. 84.

THE CITY OF TIBERIAS. 259
when it was much injured. It began then to pass into a state
of ruin ; its palaces, churches, synagogues, did not again resume
their old splendour, and the ravages of earthquakes only com
pleted the desolation. From that time Safed enjoyed the pre
eminence which till then had been the possession of Tiberias
alone. The ancient city seems to have extended at the time of
Josephus as far along the shore of the lake southward* as to
the hot springs, and the ruins which are seen at the present
day confirm the account. The modern city is about a mile
distant from the baths, and is built of the fragments of the
ancient one. The numerous blocks of stone, many of them of
Egyptian syenite, of granite, and of marble, which strew the
ground, particularly in the neighbourhood of the hot springs,
are in the strongest contrast with the poverty and squalor of the
present town, whose walls were twenty feet high at the time
of Burckhardt's visit, but which have been so shattered by
the earthquake of 1837 that they are not longer of any avail
against the attacks' of the Beduins; and the garrison which
defends the city is compelled to put up its tents outside, and
encamp there. Burckhardt, Turner, and Scholtz have each
spoken* fully of the condition of the city and of its inhabitants
(particularly of the Jewish portion) at the time of their visit,
and I need only refer to their statements. Wilson,* describing
his visit in 1843, speaks fully of the state of the city after the
great earthquake had done its work. Of the population which
Burckhardt found in Tiberias, about four thousand souls, only
the half were there at the time of Robinson's visit. The part
of the city which had been destroyed was not restored ; the
place was wholly open on the lake side, and not a trace could
be found of the formerly jealously closed Jewish quarter.
At the northern extremity, Burckhardt, as well as Irby and
Mangles,® discovered the remains of a very ancient portion of
the city lying high above the lake, and its walls were profusely
1 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 320 ; Scholtz, Reise in Pal. 1822, pp. 157, 248.
2 Wilson, The Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 112.
8 Burckhardt, Trav. pp. 320-331 ; W. Turner, Journal, etc., ii. pp.
140-144 ; Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 380-386.
4 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 113.
« Irby.and Mangles, Trav. pp. 293-296 ; Burckhardt, Trav. p. 329.

260 PALESTINE.
adorned with columns of the most beautiful red granite, sup
posed to be Egyptian in its origin. On some of the threshing-
floors near by, Robinson discovered shafts of polished syenite,
three feet in diameter,* Russegger discovered a portion of the
old church of St Peter standing near the lake, and took up his
lodgings for the night in the confessional, only eight feet above
the surface of the water. The filth,' the miasma arising from
the soil, the vermin bred in the sultry atmosphere, have caused
it to pass into a proverb, that " the king of the fieas holds his
court at Tiberias." This Wilson found only too true; and
while excavating one of the arches of the Jewish synagogue,
he plucked these vermin off his clothes in handfuls : the walls
were literally red with them. The Arabs content themselves
in their misery by saying* that it is "the curse of Allah,"
Formerly Tiberias, with a dozen of the adjacent villages,
formed a district of the pashalic of Acre, and the Jews paid a
yearly tribute of three thousand five hundred piastres for the
protection which they enjoyed. The garrison* did not consist,
as at Safed, of Mogrebin from Africa, but of men from Affghan-
rstan and Cashmere,® In consequence of the large immigra
tion during the past century of Spanish Jews called Sephardim,
and whose language is still that which they brought with them,
as well as by the settlement of numerous Polish and German
Jews, called Ashkenazim, who came from various parts of Syria
and the Levant, there are to be seen many grey beards in
Tiberias as well as in Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed, the four
sacred cities in one of which they hope to die, and by their
dying to avert the impending vengeance which otherwise awaits
the world. This delusion^ has been made general in conse
quence in part of the incorrect interpretation of Deut. xxxii. 43,
" Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people; for He will avenge the
blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adver
saries, and will be merciful unto His land and to His people,"
• Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 385.
2 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 320 ; Turner, Journ., etc., ii. p. 142 ; Irby and
Mangles, p. 294.
' Irby and Mangles, Trav. p. 292.
* Burckhardt, Trav. p. 320.
' W. Turner, Journ., etc, ii. p. 142.
* Asher, Benjamin von Tudela, iL p. 93.

THE CITY OF TIBERIAS. 261
which is interpreted as if the country could make good the sins
of its people, and as if they who were buried in Palestine would
not be called to a future account. It is this delusion which
brings so many every year to lay their bones in the ground
which is endued with such saving virtues. And Tiberias has,
in spite of all its misfortunes, been a favourite resort of the
Jews who came to the Holy Land ; and the Jewish population
has experienced also more lenity at the hands of the Turks, than
that of Damascus and some other cities. The Jews carry on
less trade, and are less proficient in industrial pursuits, than
elsewhere : they spend the most of their time in Hebrew studies,
and in religious contemplations. In the libraries Scholtz found
manuscripts of the fifth century, and Hebrew and rabbinical
books from European presses in Amsterdam, Lisbon, Italy,
Germany, and Constantinople,* Among the evils to which.
they are exposed, not the least is the plague, which is not a
stranger in Tiberias, It will be a question which only the
future can solve, whether this city shall ever rise again from
the low condition into which it has sunk. But the long-
cherished delusion, that the Messiah will make His appearance
at Tiberias, is one which is so confidently maintained, that many
foolish devotees will yet be persuaded thither. The Scripture
passage which is pleaded in favour of this opinion is Isa, ix, 2,
" The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light," etc. :
they who repeat it have no conception that the fulfilment of
the prophecy has already come, and was referred to by John
the Baptist in Matt, iii, 12-14,
At the time of Wilson's' visit (1843) there was a popu
lation of about 2000 inhabitants, of whom eight hundred were
Jews. The great destructiveness of the catastrophe of 1837
does not seem to have prevented population from returning to
Tiberias. There are the same Jewish sects there which Burck
hardt found — the Sephardim and the Ashkenazim. Wilson
studied their ways with a curious eye, and was received as a
guest by the chief rabbi. The Sephardim are mostly natives of
Tunis, Morocco, Fez, and other parts of northern Africa. In
addition to their synagogue, they have three public rooms
where young men read the Scriptures and offer their comments.
The conversation of this sect is carried on mainly in Spanish
1 Scholtz, Reise, p. 248. 2 -^vilson. Lands of the Bible, ii. pp. 129-134.

262 PALESTINE,
and Hebrew, very little in Arabic. They have almost no con
nection with Europe. The Ashkenazim are not so numerous,
embracing a population of about three hundred, while the
Sephardim amount to five hundred. They are from Austria,
Russian Poland, and Galicia, and use the Polish language : they
do not pay tribute as a rule to the pasha of Acre, as most of
them are provided with passes, and are under the protection of
European consulates. The information which Burckhardt gives
regarding the Jews of Tiberias relates, according to Wilson,
only to the Ashkenazim, whose worship as it is conducted in the
synagogue is veiy striking. At the daily reading of the Psalms
of David, the listeners accompany with gestures, which often
times are very earnest, and their voices chime in in a very high
key : they often imitate trombones and trumpets through the
hollow of their hand, and beat time with their fists and feet.
The references to the coming of the Messiah excite the wildest
excitement throughout the synagogue, which subsides into quiet
as the worshippers take their way homeward.*
2. El-Mejel {Migdol), Magdala; el-Ghuweir {Little Ghor),
or the Plain of Gennesaret; the Wadi el Hammam; the
Kalaat Ibn Maan, or Hammam ; the Castle of Doves.
North of Tiberias, on the west coast of the lake, a single
day's journey takes the traveller through the sites of Magdala,
Bethsaida, Gennesaret, and Capernaum, — scenes of classic in
terest in connection with the New Testament. Few traces of
their former aspect are now to be seen, however.
Going northward from Tiberias, we meet in half an hour
a small wadi, through which a path may be taken which will
lead into the regular road from Tabor to Damascus. Here lie
five or six profuse springs near together, to which the name
Ain el Berideh has been given,' i.e. the " cool fountains," to
distinguish them from the hot ones south of Tiberias. They
have a warmer temperature than the air ; at least this was so
at the time when the point was tested : the atmosphere was
84° Fahr., the springs 86°. The water is very clear, and only
slightly brackish. Robinson was unable to decide whether the
^ See Tristram's account of the present state of Tiberias, Land of Israel,
pp. 424, 496.
2 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 394.

VILLAGE OF MEJEL. 263
cisterns which had been built to hold the water were ancient
or modem; they were, however, overshadowed by oleanders
and by nubk-bushes. Irby and Mangles speak* of them as six
Roman baths of mineral water, and of a lukewarm temperature :
this Wilson confirms. Schubert speaks of a small arm of the
lake about a mile north of Tiberias, into which runs a brook of
warm water, that issues from a ca-vity in the rock over which
oleanders grow profusely. His account as to distance agrees
with that of the travellers already referred to in this connection,
although Schubert gives' the name of Szermadein to the place.
Yet it cannot be denied that, in respect to the number of the
springs, the form and extent of the wall which encloses them
and the characteristics of the water yielded, there are discre
pancies* in the various travellers who have alluded to them,
only to be explained by their concealment beneath the oleanders,
and by the more or less hasty manner in which they have been
observed. Passing northward, we find the shore somewhat higher than
before, and soon come to an open plain, in which lies* the
pitiful little Mohammedan village of Mejel, once enclosed
within walls which are now a heap of ruins. Seetzen® spent a
night there, and estimated the distance as one and a quarter
hours from Tiberias : he writes the name Majel, Burckhardt
Mejel. The latter recognised the place, judging from the
name, as the site of the ancient Magdala, from which Mary
Magdalene probably received her name (Mark xv. 40 ; Luke
viii. 2) ; a place which, according to the whole tenor of the
Gospels (comp. Matt. xv. 29, 39, with Mark viu. 10), must
have lain on the west side of the lake.* Dalmanutha, which
Mark mentions in connection with it, appears to have been on
the border of Magdala : its name does not seem to have been
preserved. And, indeed, it is a singular thing that the name of a little
> Irby and Mangles, Trav. p. 300 ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 135.
° Von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 245.
2 See Buckingham's Trav. in Pal. ii. p. 334 ; Kitto, Palestine, Phys.
Geog. of, ii. p. 234, Note 6 ; Burckhardt, Trav. p. 320.
4 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 397.
s Seetzen, Mon. Corresp. xviii. p. 349 ; Burckhardt, Trav. p. 320.
0 K. V. Raumer, Pal, p. 122, Note ; abo p. 130

2G4 . PALESTINE,
fishing viUage lying on the border of the sea, and sheltered by
high cliffs, has continued to be called as it was in the Saviour's
time, while many of the great cities of the world have wholly
disappeared. And we have the more reason to be grateful in
this instance, from the fact that this one is so closely connected
with the memory of Mary Magdalene.
The supposition that Magdala was on the east side of the
lake,* where indeed there was a "Migdol by Gadara," is
entirely groundless ; and there are even in the Talmud repeated
allusions to Magdala as being in the neighbourhood of Tiberias,
and a favourite resort of learned Jews.' The expression " by
Gadara" was unquestionably added to the other place of this
name, in order to distinguish it from the home of Mary
Magdalene. Gesenius thinks* it probable that the MIgdal-el
alluded to In Josh. xI.k. 38 as one of the cities of Naphtali is
the Magdala on the western shore of Lake Tiberias; but as
the Hebrew word indicates the Tower of God, and as the
domain of Zebulun covered the territory south of Capernaum
(which lay, according to Matt. iv. 13, on the borders of
Naphtali and Zebulun), the view of Gesenius does not seem
admissible, though the name Migdal is a Hebrew word which
exactly corresponds to the Greek Magdala, and although
Buckingham claims to have discovered the remains of a square
gate which he thinks to be of very ancient origin, Wilson
discovered* that a band of gipsies, fifty in number, had taken
up their abode in Mejel, and gained a living as tinkers,
musicians, and as agricultural labourers ; they claim to be
Mohammedans. Wilson addressed them in one of the dialects
of India, and was understood perfectly, — a sure proof of their
Indian extraction, of which they had lost all tradition. They
lived in huts which they built for themselves out of dry rushes.
He remarks that the village is not without traces of ancient
walls and foundations, perhaps belonging to the Magdalum
Capellum Magdalce Marice to which Breydenbach alludes.
From the springs at Tiberias the shore runs north-west^ as
1 Scholtz, Reise, p. 158. ". Lightfooti 0pp. Omn. ii. p. 226.
2 Gesenius, Note to Burckhardt, ii. p. 104 ; comp. Raumer, p. 130,
Note 39.
^ Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 306.
' Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 397 ; Burckhardt, Trav. p. 359,

RUINS NEAR THE SEA OF GALILEE. 265
far as to Mejel, then it bears north-east. The hills of lime
stone, interspersed with basalt dykes, come down very near to
the sea up to that point, and then recede, leaving a fine
crescent-shaped plain two or three miles long and a third of
a mile wide, at the northern extremity of which is Khan
Minyeh, At the south-west this plain begins to ascend gradually
to a height of three or four hundred feet, towards the high
plateau of Sahel Hattin : the Wadi el Humam (the Hammam
of Burckhardt), winding down the same elevated tract in a
south-westerly direction, breaks through the ridge, and north
of the same runs to the sea. Towards the west and north the
high land rises less steeply from the sea, and to a less altitude.
On the high precipitous cliff on the north-west side of the
Wadi el Humam, and a half-hour's distance west of Mejel,
lie the ruins of Kalaat Ibn Ma'an, described by Burckhardt,
Irby, and Mangles, A careful study of them is needed
yet, in the opinion of Olshausen,* to set at rest some ques
tions of great historical interest, supposed by him to be con
nected with them, Burckhardt heard' much about this old
castle, which was named after the son of a certain Ma'an,
or, according to some, was more strictly designated Kalaat
Hamdm, or the Castle of Doves, in consequence of many
wild pigeons being found in that neighbourhood, Schubert
confirms the reason of the latter name, for he found large
numbers of turtle-doves which had made their nests in the
cavities of the wadi. Burckhardt describes the castle as a
singular structure, apparently made by connecting ancient
caves, many of them of large size, by means of passage-ways,
building up rude external walls where weak places existed,
and here and there breaking up the interior in the same
way, A single footpath leads into it from below, running
up so steeply that a horse cannot ascend it; in the interior,
which is large enough to shelter six hundred men, there
are several cisterns cut in the rock. The walls are at present
in a very imperfect state : a few arches testify to the Gothic
character of the structure, and make it probable, according
^ Olshausen, Rev. in Wien Jahrb. vol. cii. p. 215.
2 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 331 ; v. Schubert, Reise, iii. 251 ; Wilson,
Lands, etc, ii. p. 138.

266 PALESTINE.
to Burckhardt, that it was the work of the crusaders. Mr
Banks, with his companions Irby and Mangles,* spent two
days in examining the place, but did not publish the result of
his investigations. He held the castle to be the Jotapata
which Josephus mentions, in which conclusion I do not agree,
as will be seen in another place, Mr Banks is very certain,
however, that the citadel is older than the Roman occu
pation of Palestine, In the various recesses which previous
travellers' considered to be burial-places, not a trace of what
might indicate sepulture there was seen. On the way from
Mejel to this castle, there were passed on the left side the
remains of several convents, as they seemed, — one built close
against the steep wall ; and on the other side was the viUage of
Erbed or Irbid, where were seen some Roman ruins. This
Irbid or Irbll is the Arabic form for Arbela, probably the
house Arbel, or Beth-arbel, mentioned * in Hos, x. 14, which
was destroyed by Shalman, It is without question the site of
the caves of Arbela, where robber hordes used to issue forth
and attack Herod as he went to Sephoris ; it is also the place
which Josephus fortified against the Romans, Von Raumer,
Robinson, and Wilson all agree in thinking that the whole
body of evidence makes this certain. The last-named traveller
has paid particular attention to the admirable character of the
place as a defensive post. It commands the road from rocky
Galilee to Damascus ; it communicates directly with the Castle
of Doves, Another road runs to the Wadi Rabadlyah, another
(open for a part of the year at least) to Wadi el Amud, and
still another to the great spring Ain et Tin at the Khan
Minyeh, Wilson* confirms Burckhardt's descriptions of many
natural caves in the limestone range, which earlier travellers
took for burying-places,® but he says that they begin in the
upper third of the perpendicular rock-wall. The plunge down
into the Wadi Hammam is very precipitous. On the side of
the ravine opposite to Kalaat there are other caves which
travellers before Wilson had not noticed. The so-called
Kurun Hattin, or Homs of Hattin {Mens beatitudinis), are
" Irby and Mangles, Trav. p. 299. " Tristram, p. 448.
3 H. Relandi, Pal. p. 675.
* Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. pp. 138, 307-309.
« Clarke, Trav. tom. ii. p. 466,

THE PLAIN OF GENNESARET. 267
only the continuation of the rocky Wadi el Hamslm, whose
topographical character could not fail to be remarked at a very
early period, although the ruined walls upon them seem to
date only from a modem period.
The fertile plain, at whose south-east corner the present
village of Mejel with its gipsy population lies, bears the local
name of Ard el Mejel :* elsewhere it is known among the
Arabs as el-Ghuweir, or the Little Ghor, and corresponds,
even in the details of extent, to the district, thirtj' stadia long
and twenty broad, which Josephus designated as Gennesar or
Gennesaret, and which he pictures in the most glowing colours,
although it may be with a touch of exaggeration. From
Mejel to the Khan Minyeh there is a straight path, about an
hour long, leading near the lake, Burckhardt, who entered
the plain from the north, says that the pasturage is so rich
there that it has become a proverb in the neighbourhood : on
the shore he found sedge and rushes, but no traces of the
aromatic reed which Strabo ascribes to Gennesar, He found
the plain scattered over with the trees which bear the names
dum and theder, probably the sidr or lotus napeca. Seetzen,
who also entered the plain on the north side, was charmed
with the place, and thought it worthy of having been one of
the favourite resorts of the Saviour, It was near it that he
discovered' the Khan Bat Szaida, referred to in a preceding
page. Von Schubert, who entered the plain from the south,
speaks* of its great fertility ; he also alludes to the brooks
which enter from the west and water it, particularly the Wadi
el Ham^m, which comes down from Hattin ; he also speaks, as
does Burckhardt also, of a village caHed Senjol lying in the
heights of the west. In this, however, he follows Berghaus'
Atlas, which in its turn is based upon Bmrckhardt's statement.
But neither Robinson nor Wilson, in their exceedingly careful
examination of the plain of Gennesaret, were able to discover
such a place, and the former supposes that Burckhardt con
founds Irbid (Arbela) with it. Both Robinson and Wilson
aUude in the strongest terms to the fertiUty of the plain, which
1 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 442-447 ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii.
pp. 136-140, 306 ; Burckhardt, Trav. p. 319.
2 Seetzen, Mon. Corresp. xviii. p. 348.
s Von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 251.

268 PALESTINE.
remains just as it was at the time of Josephus, excepting that
it is now used mainly for pasture, and lies fallow. The soil
consists of a black loam formed by the mingling of decomposed
basalt -with the alluvium of the lake. In the morasses which
occur, rice flourishes finely, and the few acres which are else
where under cultivation yield ample returns of all kinds of crops.
On the west side, directly below the Castle of Doves,
and at the opening of Wadi el Ham^m, Robinson salw the
ruins of a village called Churbel Wadi el Hamam. Wilson,
who entered the plain at the outlet of this wadi, made his way
along the west side, passing the ruins of Abu Shusheh, which
Robinson* speaks of as a mere ruined village, without memorials
of antiquity. Here Wilson found some storehouses, in which
the Arabs deposited the results of their harvestings. This place
Pococke' thought was the Bethsaida of the Gospels, because, in
reply to his direct questions put to the Arabs whether it were
not so, he was told that it was called Baitsida. He speaks of
seeing there cisterns and buildings, among them a large church,
with a door of finely wrought marble, and several pillars. No
subsequent eye-witness confirms his account, however. It may
be, that whatever he may have seen, has been converted into
the com magazines of the Arabs, to which Wilson alludes,
3. The Springs and Brooks of the Plain of Gennesaret : the
Khan Minyeh, at the northern extremity ; Bethsaida, the
Bat Szaida of Seetzen,
Robinson took his way from Mejel through the plain,
following an artificial watercourse, which led him to the out
let of the Wadi Rabadlyah, which has been already alluded to.
Towards the south he discovered in the plain a spring called
Ain el Mudanwarah, or the " round fountain :" it was walled
up, and was about a hundred feet in diameter and two feet
deep, but was so overgrown with bushes that few travellers
have ever observed it, Pococke, however, alludes to it under
this name,* and supposes that near it lay the ancient Caper
naum, — a view which Robinson at first held, but which he was
obliged to rehnquish, from not finding any architectural relics
1 Wilson, Lands, etc., ii. p. 310 ; Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 340.
2 R. Pococke, Trav. Ger. ed. ii. p. 99.
^ Pococke, Pt. ii. p. 105.

THE KHAN MINYEH. 269
•
whatever in the neighbourhood. He remarks that the water
of the spring is of service in supplying the plain with mois
ture, but not nearly so much so as the stream which courses
down the Wadi Rabadlyah, and which is distributed over the
northern and the southern part of the plain.*
Robinson, who did not follow the direct path along the sea-
coast, selected, for the better examination of the whole tract, a
western course, which led him not far from the base of the
cHff, and near the opening of the Wadi Rabadlyah. On his
way he passed a limestone pillar, twenty feet in length and
two feet in diameter, in whose neighbourhood, however, he was
unable to discover any trace of a former town. The northern
portion of the plain he found less abundantly watered than the
southern : here and there the ground was dry, and thistles were
growing. The Khan Minyeh was reached by Robinson, following his
roundabout way from Mejel, in an hour and a half. Seetzen,
however, was a quarter of an hour longer' in reaching the
place, which he calls Bat Szaida, and which I think, notwith
standing, is the one mentioned by Robinson under the first-
mentioned name. The statement of Seetzen, that the place
was deserted and the khan fallen, together -with his being
obliged to cross a brackish brook coming from the north a short
time before he reached it, is so consistent with the accounts of
other traveUers, and with Burckhardt's explicit allusion to the
brackish brook Ain Tabegha, whose waters drove the wheel of a
mill, that it puts it almost beyond question, that the deserted
khan mentioned by Seetzen is identical with that which so
many other traveUers have spoken of by another name. It is a
singular fact, and one that cannot be overlooked, that the khan
alluded to has been called Minyeh for many generations ; for
even Bahaeddin, in the Vita Saladini, gives it this name. The
appellation has been changed, it is true, in the arbitrary method
of spelling Arabic words ; but it has remained essentially the
same, despite its varied forms, Mini, Menieh, Elmenie, el-
Moinie, Almuny, Mennye, etc. And almost no one of those
» Josephi 0pp. omn. ed. Haverc. T. ii. fol. 258 ; Note e, m Casaub.
Exercit. edit. Lond. p. 299.
2 Seetzen, Mon. Corresp. xviii. p. 548 ; Burckhardt, Gesenius' ed. ii.
p. 558,

270 PALESTINE.
•
who have used any of these appellatives, has been apparently
cognizant of the name which Seetzen gave the place. And
Robinson and Wilson, whose efforts were so great to identify
every possible spot in the neighbourhood of the Lake of
Tiberias, laid no importance whatever upon Seetzen's statement
regarding Bat Szaida.
Bethsaida, the city in GaHlee which bore that name, and
the home of Andrew, Peter, and Philip (John i, 44, xii. 21),
must, according to Mark vi. 45, 53, have lain* in the neighbour
hood of Capernaum, as did Chorazin also, which is spoken of
in direct connection with Bethsaida (Matt. xi. 21 ; Luke x. 13).
Eusebius and Jerome state that Capernaum was in existence
in their time, and that it lay close by the sea. This Eusebius
could testify explicitly to, since he had been on the spot. He
also states that Chorazin was two Roman mUes from Caper
naum, but lay in ruins.
It is unquestionably the fact, that travellers in Palestine,
as well as elsewhere in the East, are very certain to receive
the answer which they hope to get, when they put leading
questions ; and on this account it was a first principle with
Robinson, for which we cannot be too grateful to him, never to
put questions in such a form as would indicate what he ex
pected or hoped the answer would be. He might have largely
increased the list, had he wished, of the glaring errors which
have crept into geography, in consequence of the habit of
putting leading questions, and of trusting to the answers. But
in this case Robinson seems to go too far in suspecting the
possibility of monkish legends attaching themselves to this
deserted place, as well as in distrusting Seetzen on the ground
of believing too readily, — a man whose acumen had led him
shortly before to such striking results in the discovery
of Bethsaida Julias on the east side of the lake, Robinson
thinks that Seetzen heard the name Bat Szaida because he
was so much off his guard as to ask leading questions. But
Seetzen says expressly that the khan was uninhabited and
deserted, and therefore no legend could be connected with it.
Besides, had he followed a legend, as Pococke and others did,
the ruins would have been exhibited farther away from the
lake, and not in such a place as would show that there must
1 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 404, 409,

THE KHAN MINYEH. 271
have been a mere fishing vUlage, If Bethsaida had been a
place which the monkish tales invested with any special interest
or sanctity, the name would have been given to it in the
descriptions of the countless pilgrims to the spot. But this has
not been the case ; and only in Cotovicus — who spent some time
in 1598, in company with a fishing caravan, at the spot — do we
meet the name Bethsaida* applied to the place. Seetzen gives
no reason, indeed, for adopting this name Khan Bat Szaida,
excepting that, coming from the eastern side of the lake, he was
left there by his guide Hussein, and compelled to find his way
alone back to Tiberias. From this guide he seems to have
learned the name; and it may be, that the dwellers in the
remote and unfrequented country farther east had preserved
more carefully the name of a New Testament fishing village,
than those had done who stood more in the great line of travel
over the Via Maris : there the term appears to have given way
to the word Minyeh ; and only those who live more apart
from intercourse with men keep the old name in a form almost
unchanged,' 4, Khan Minyeh ; the Springs Ain Tin and Tabighah ; the way
to Tell Hum ; Ruins of Capernaum.
The Khan Minyeh* was once a large building composed of
basaltic tufa, but now lying in ruins. It served the necessities
of the large number of caravans which used to follow the Via
Maris, and tarry here on their way from Jacob's Bridge at
the north-east to Tiberias. Here the mountains come down
very closely to the lake, and follow its border on to the place
where the .Jordan enters. Between the khan and the lake
there is a large spring, whose waters flow forth in sufficient
quantity to form a brook : the spring is called Ain Tin, from a
fig tree which overshadows it. A short distance south of the
1 J. Cotovicus, Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum et Syriacum, l.c. p. 358.
2 In illustration of this it may be remarked, that the people in Gold
smith's native village always call it now " Auburn," the name given it by
the poet ; but in the retired country a few miles away, the peasants speak
of it as Lishoy, the old name. — Ed.
8 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 405 ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii.
pp. 138, 141. (See an extract from Tristram's Land of Israel, with refer
ence to the sites of Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida, in the appendix
to this volume.)

272 PALESTINE.
khan there is a low knoll, on which He ruins of consideraole
extent. They do not, it is true, indicate any great degree of
antiquity, and Robinson was unable to learn that they bore any
name.* North of the khan the plain closes, and a steep rocky
path leads up from it over the hill which presses close to the
lake, and descends, after a distance traversed in about twenty
minutes, to the shore again, where lies the village Ain et
Tabighah,' with its jetting springs pouring forth their lukewarm
and brackish water in such quantity as to even drive several
mills. To the east there is a round cistern, and known by the
name Ain Eyub, the spring of Job. The wall which sur
rounded this cistern Wilson thought was constructed like those
of the Roman baths, and Buckingham conjectured that it had
once served that purpose; yet his description is so much
indebted to his fancy, as to detract very much from its value.
From this point,* according to Robinson, the path runs
along the brow of the line of hills whose base presses close to
the shores of the lake, and which are neither so steep nor so
high as those which are met farther south. The ground is
thickly strewn with fragments of basaltic stone, between which
shoots up the grass. Soon the traveller arrives at the ruins of
Tell Hum, which lie near a slight curve of the shore, and
somewhat above the level of the sea, and which are commonly
considered to mark the site of the ancient Capernaum. Behind,
the land rises gently and to a considerable height. The path
winds along high up above the lake, and at length approaches
the place where the Jordan enters. In order to see the ruins
it is necessary to leave the path, and to come down the rough,
rocky side of the hill. Robinson and Wilson both found the
distance from the Ain Eyub to Tell Hum about that of an
hour's walk. To go from the Khan Minyeh to Tell Hum
requires about an hour and twenty minutes.
Neither Seetzen, Burckhardt, nor von Schubert were able to
observe the ruins of Tell Hum* with special care. Buckingham
described them in considerable detail, it is true ; but I prefer to
' Buckingham, Trav. in Pal. ii. p. 336 ; von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 252.
2 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 407 ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii.
p. 142. ' Buckingham, Travels, ii. p. 339 ; Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 407.
* Buckingham, Trav. ii. pp. 346-361.

RUINS OF TELL HUM. 273
trust the accounts of Robinson * and Wilson, rather than
to accept his, which do not always betray a truth-loving
nature. The ruins are of a place once evidently of importance,
but now in a state of perfect decay and desolation. They
extend for half an English mile along the coast, and as far into
the interior. They consist of the fragments of ancient walls
and foundations, and only two are in any tolerable state of
preservation. Of these only one can be said to be standing.
The rank growth of bushes and weeds has prevented travellers
making any careful measurements of Tell Hum and the extent
of its ruins. The one structure which is standing is near the
shore of the lake, and is evidently of modern origin, although
it is composed of the architectural fragments of the old and
perished city, Robinson thinks that it is the marble church
which Pococke' speaks of seeing there. Not far away lie the
ruins of a building of great extent, and which, in respect of
elaborate workmanship, seemed to surpass anything to be
found In Palestine, The length Robinson could not ascertain
with exactness ; yet he assigns a hundred and five feet to the
northern wall, and eighty-five feet to the breadth from east to
west. Within this area there lay at the time of his visit several
pillars scattered around, wrought out of the indigenous lime
stone, and decorated with beautiful Corinthian capitals, hewn
architraves, elaborate friezes, and pedestals, many of which,
however, were much out of their original place, perhaps owing
to the influence of earthquakes. The pillars were not long,
but of considerable diameter ; and there were found, as in a
church of Tyre, only on a larger scale, the double columns,
otherwise unknown in Palestine, standing on a double pedestal,
but hewn out of a single block, Wilson saw pieces of marble
not indigenous to the place, scattered among the ruins. Some
masses of stone, nine feet long and half as wide, and orna
mented with sculpture, may have served as door-posts, and as
coverings of the gates of a temple or church, possibly as
sarcophagi. The whole place, taken in connection with the
great devastation of the fairest decorations by the tooth of time,
dashed by the ripples of the lake, and left to no other com-
' Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 407-411 ; Wilson, Lands, etc., ii. pp.
142-144. ' Pococke, ii. p. 106.
VOL, II. S

274 PALESTINE.
panionship than that of the waters, is calculated to awaken the
saddest feelings in the mind of the traveller,
Robinson, who, on grounds which seemed to him to justify
him, did not accept the identity of the Khan Minyeh with
the ancient Bethsaida, but, on the contrary, held that place
to be the site of the ancient Capernaum, was unable to
assign to Tell Hum the name of any place known historically
to us. Most traveUers have agreed, however, that Tell Hum
was the ancient Capernaum, although opinions vary exceed
ingly regarding the situation of the three cities on which
Jesiu pronounced the curse recorded in Matt. xi. 21-23 —
Bethsaida, Chorazin, and Capernaum — there being no marked
local memorial of them. Yet Robinson thinks that such a
memorial exists in the name of the spring Kafer Naum, which,
according to Josephus, watered the lovely plain Gennesar:
the name signifies etyraologically Nahum's Village. But as
this could not have been originally the appellation of a spring,
Robinson conjectured that it must have been connected with a
town or hamlet lying in the immediate neighbourhood. The
spring itself seemed to him to be one of the most profuse, and the
most abundantly supplied with fish, to be found in the whole
plain of Gennesaret ; and Josephus says of it, that some called
it the Vena Nili, since it produces a fish like the coracinus,
found in the lake near Alexandria. There seemed to Robin
son to be reasons enough for believing that the ruins on the
knoll near by, although they do not seem to be very ancient,
if not the site of the khan itself, are connected with the site
of the ancient city of Capernaum. He is not the first who
has taken this ground, for Quaresmius had no doubt that the
Khan ilinyeh stands where Capernaum once stood. But, on
the other hand, most travellers who have paid attention to
the question — Marin Sanudo, Rau, Pococke,* and Burckhardt
— have held that Tell Plura occupies the site of the ancient
city of which we speak, — an opinion which Dr Wilson, a
more recent explorer, has placed on grounds of the highest
degree of probability. The main reasons which Dr Wilson'
adduces will appear in what follows. The name of the sprino-
Capharnaum does not necessarily imply that the town of the same
1 Pococke, ii. p. 105 ; Burckhardt, Gesenius' ed. ii. p. 558.
2 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. pp. 138-149,

RUINS OF TELL HUM. 275
name lay close beside it : nay, in Palestine, instances where the
village and the spring bearing the same name are a consider
able way apart are very common. Besides, it cannot be that
Josephus refers to the Ain Tin near the Khan Minyeh when
he says that the spring which he mentions watered the whole
plain of Gennesaret : it lies on the north-east extremity ; and
the whole district cannot be said to be so largely indebted to
it as to the large round enclosed spring in the middle of the
plain, the Ain el Mudanwarah, or as to the waters which pour
through the Wadi Rabadlyah, and are then carried to almost
every part of Gennesaret.
The allusion in Matt. iv. 13, " Jesus came and dwelt in
Capernaum, which is upon the sea-coast, in the borders of
Zebulon and Nephthalim," is very definite, but unfortunately
the precise location of the border of those two tribes is unknown
to us. Pococke's conjecture that the Wadi Lymun forms the
boundary is mere hypothesis, and deserves no serious considera
tion. The name Capernaum does not appear at all in the Old
Testament. A place of the name Capernaum is mentioned but once by
Josephus ; but that single allusion makes it seem more probable
that the place was where Tell Hum now is, than where the
Khan Minyeh lies. In the battle which Josephus waged with
the Romans at the entrance of the Jordan into Lake Tiberias,
he writes that he should have gained the victory had his horse
not fallen into the morass, and he himself been wounded. He
was at once carried by his men to a place called Cepharnome,
where he lay in a feverish state for a day, while his followers
pursued the enemy. When they returned in the evening, at
the instigation of his physicians, he was carried during the
night to Tarichsea, south of Tiberias, But is it not natural to
suppose that the wounded men would be carried to the place
called Tell Hum, which was but about an hour's distance from
the battle-field, instead of more than twice that distance to the
site of Khan Minyeh? The two names, the Capharnome of
Josephus and the Capharnaum of the New Testament, are
very similar : Reland has shown that Caphar readily passes
into the form Caper, and in one edition of the Jewish historian
we have the reading Ka^apvaovfi instead of Kecpapvco/iiq ; they
both unquestionably indicate the same place.

276 PALESTINE.
From the account given in John vi. 3, and 17-24, of the
piiraculous feeding the five thousand, which, as we have already
seen, took place on the north-east side of the lake on the moun
tain near JuHas Bethsaida, it appears that Capernaum was not
far from there, since the people hastened to meet the Saviour,
and do not seem to have taken a long detour around the head
of the lake to come to the place where he was. In Mark vi, 33
we are told that they " ran afoot " to meet him, and that their
speed was so great, in fact, that they even anticipated his own
arrival, as we learn from Luke ix, 10 and Matt. xiv. 13 : this
is much more probable if they started from Tell Hum than
from the Khan Minyeh. These reasons, taken together, seem
to outweigh the argument which is drawn from the probable
contiguity of a spring which bears the name of a village
(Kaphar Nahum, the hamlet of Nahum), and that of the
village itself. According to the view of Rodiger * the philolo
gist, the word Tell, i.e. Hill, is often interchanged with Caphar,
i.e. hamlet ; and if that were the case in this instance, and if
the word Nahum merely lost the first syllable, we have left the
name which is given to the place to-day, namely Tell Hum.
Rodiger states that tlie etymological derivation sometimes given
to the word Hum in this connection, namely " drove of camels,"
is not correct, since it should be written haum, and not hum.
The passage which Robinson cites from Arculfus, substantiating,
as he thinks, the identity of Capernaum with the Khan Minyeh,
and which Reland had already quoted in full, Wilson thinks
applies more strictly to Tell Hum, as the lake must lie south
ward from Capernaum, while it is at the east of Khan Minyeh,
Arculfus was not at the spot itself; he only describes what
he could see from the Mens Beatitudinis, or Kurun Hattin,
From the position where he stood, Capernaum seemed to be
surrounded by no wall, but to lie on a narrow strip of shore
between the mountain on the north and the lake on the south
side, and itself extending from east to west (quse, Capharnaum
sell, murum non habens angusto inter montem et stao-num co-
artata spatio per illam maritimara oram longo tramite protendi-
tur, montem aquUonali plaga, lacum vero ab australl, habens, ab
occasu in ortum extensa dirigitur), Robinson's objection, that
the gently rising hUl behind Tell Hum is hardly important
1 Rodiger, Rec. in Allgemein. Hall. Lit. Z. 1842, April, p. 581.

SITE OF CAPERNAUM. 277
enough to be dignified by the name of mountain, is removed
by the consideration that Arculfus' view was a distant one, and
from a point where the background appeared to form part of a
mountain ridge. Indeed, the very cautious Reland founds upon
this quotation the conviction that Capernaum lay by the shores
of the lake, very near the entrance of the Jordan. Turner
remarks in his volume of travels, that Burckhardt* once spoke
with him about a place lying in the neighbourhood under con
sideration, bearing the name Kafer Naym; but nothing further
is known about such a spot, and Burckhardt makes no allusion
to it in his work.
On the grounds which have been given in the preceding
pages, it seems to be the least contradictory to the statements
of those most qualified to make them, and to be in itself the
most probable, that Bethsaida and Chorazin' are to be looked
for at the neighbouring points now known as Ain Minyeh and
Ain et Tabighah, while Capernaum is represented by the
modern Tell Hum, at most an hour and a half's distance from
Bethsaida. South of the Khan Minyeh, as far as Mejel, that
is, between the ancient Bethsaida and Magdala, lies the fertile
plain of Gennesaret : an hour's distance north-east of Tell Hum
or Capernaum, the Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee. Still
we can only say that this is the most probable solution of the
difficulties in the way ; we can by no means insist that the
matter is placed beyond a doubt. Yet in weighing this question,
the opinion of some of the older pilgrims,* who have not hesi
tated to speak very decisively, is not to be very highly valued ;
for some, Felix Fabri and von Breydenbach, never visited the
spot.* L. de Suchen, writing in the middle of the fourteenth
century, says, without any attempt to speculate on the matter,
that these places are such a desolation, that it is impossible to
tell where they lay. According to Epiphanius, Constantine
1 W. Turner, Journal, vol. ii. p. 143.
2 Captain Wilson has ascertained, during his recent explorations, that
the ruins of Chorazin at Kerazeh are far more important than was pre
viously suspected : he states that they cover a much larger extent of
ground than Tel Hum, and that many of the buildings are in an almost
perfect state, excepting as regards the roofs. — Ed.
3 Set. Willibaldi Vita, in Mabillon, Acta Set. T. ii. fol. 374, 375.
* Fel. Fabri, Evagatorium, ed. Hassler, vol. ii. p. 45 ; de Breydenbach,
ed. Spirens, 1502, fol. 26a,

278 PALESTINE.
gave a certain Josephus the privilege' of building at Caper
naum (where the Jews had before been aUowed to live) a
Christian church, at the same time as in Tiberias and in DIo
Csesarea, It may have been this church which Antoninus
Martyr,* some time prior to the year 600, went from Tiberias
to visit. Is it not probable that the ruins of the extensive and
highly ornamented building at TeU Hum, already referred to,
may be the relics of that Basilica ? The architecture is not
opposed to such a conjecture.'
[For an interesting discussion on the subject of the sites of
Bethsaida, Chorazin, and Capernaum, see extract in Appendix
from Tristram's Land of Israel. — Ed.]

DiSCURSlON IV.
THE SHORE OF THE SEA OF GALILEE.
II. The south and south-east side of the Lake.
Here, as in so many other parts of the Holy Land, Seetzen'
leads the way into new and unexplored regions. He -left
Tiberias on the 6th of February 1806, in order to examine the
country around the southern and south-east parts of the Sea
of Tiberias, and rectify the errors which had crept into the
maps of that district. At the southem extremity of the lake
he discovered rubbish and relics of walls, which he concluded
once belonged to the city of Tarichsea, a place which sheltered
the Jews after Tiberias had been surrendered to the Romans,
and which held out against Titus and Vespasian, The Roman
emperor determined to destroy it, in order that the war should
not be protracted longer in that quarter. The place was
strongly protected ; and in the waters before it there was a
large number of the boats, which had been made ready, in case
it was necessary to fly, and escape to other strongholds beyond
the lake, Titus encountered a small party of the Jews without
the walls, and engaged them : they fell back to the city ; and
1 Itinerar. B. Anton. Plac, in Ugolini, Thes. vii. fol. mccix.
2 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 406. See also Wilson, Lands, etc., ii.
p. 150. ^ Seetzen, Mon. Corresp. xviii. pp. 350-354.

DISTRICT SOUTH-EAST OF THE LAKE. 279
while the gates were opened for them to enter, the Romans took
advantage of the time and pressed in, and effected fearful car
nage. Those of the inhabitants who were spared betook them
selves to the boats ; but even in this their purpose was defeated.
Vespasian caused a number of fishing-boats to be made ready at
once, and pursued the Jews over the waters of the lake, com
mitting more bloodshed there, if possible, than he had done
before upon the land. The number of captives afterwards
made slaves is reported to have been 30,000 ; and six thousand
ablebodied men of the number are reported to have been em
ployed on the excavation of a canal through the Isthmus of
Corinth. Those who escaped became freebooters on the east
side of the Jordan, or betook themselves to the fortifications
of Gamala, where they underwent a subsequent siege. The
situation of Tarichsea (from Ta/otj^o?, a place where fish is
salted) Seetzen thought he had discovered, from the existence
of a layer of salt covering the ground of a place where the
desolation seemed to be perfect, and which bore the name
Ard el Malahha, the place of salt. According to Josephus,
Tarichsea lay upon an elevation : it cannot therefore, in Burck
hardt's* opinion, be looked for on the site of the present village of
Szemmak, or on the east side of the Jordan. But Banks dis
covered, at the southern extremity of the lake, between the
shore line and the mountains, the remains of an aqueduct' and
of walls, which he thinks belonged to the ancient city of which
we are now speaking, and which seems to have lain in part
upon two hills, one of which is close to the outlet of the lake.
This part of the old town seems to have been surrounded by
ditches, which are now filled with water when the Jordan is
high. It is an hour's walk, according to Wilson, from the
baths of Tiberias to the site of Tarichsea, A quarter of an
hour's distance south-east from the lake lies the miserable
village of Kerak,* inhabited by a small number of fellahin, or
cultivators of the arable land in that neighbourhood. The
southem shore of the lake here begins to run, at a height of
from ten to forty feet above the level of the water, though
without a steep slope : along the margin there is a narrow
and rough path, which on the east side changes to a strip of
1 Burckhardt, Trav, p. 275. 2 j^by and Mangles, Trav. p. 300.
" Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. pp. 124-129.

280 PALESTINE,
sand. The water of the Jordan, which passes at the outlet
under the shade of a long and dense thicket of oleanders on the
west side, is not dark and muddy, as it is before it enters the
lake : it has lost its sediment, and become as clear as crystal.
The river is about thirty feet wide, and six feet deep in the
middle. It begins its series of remarkable windings not far
from the ruins of the first ancient bridge. A hundred paces
below this one, which is traced with some difficulty, there are
the far more discernible remains of a Roman bridge of ten
arches.* Wilson calls it Kanaiterah, From it there is a much
finer view of the whole lake than is gained from the northern
extremity, since the mountains on the east side tower up very
prominently. The bridge can no longer be used ; and when
Dr Barth' visited it, he found that the water rushed so vehe
mently between the arches, as to make it necessary to exercise
the greatest care in crossing the river.
The only travellers who have penetrated the countiy east
of the Sea of Tiberias are Seetzen and Burckhardt, although
it must be confessed that they were able to make no thorough
exploration, and only reached one or two places of interest,
Seetzen went first down the broad valley of the Jordan, the
Ghor, which, in consequence of the steep sides of the mountains
on both sides, he likens to the vale of Bkaa, although there is
very little of the majesty of the mighty Lebanon and Anti-
Lebanon ranges to be seen here. He passed by the old Roman
bridge which spanned the Jordan, and in a few hours came to
a bridge of five arches which crossed its first eastern tributary,
the Sheriat INIanadra, A half-hour farther on he reached the
second bridge over the Jordan, if Kanaiterah be reckoned the
first, called Jssir el Medjamea, at whose western extremity
there was a khan with a small garrison. From this bridge he
turned back, having attained one object of his mission, which
was to learn whether the Sheriat Manadra (Hieromax, Yarmuk)
flows directly into the lake, as had been supposed, or into the
Jordan, The next day he entered the high land of Jolan on the
east side of the lake, and climbed a rocky mountain, upon
whose summit was the deserted Khan el Akabeh Phik, a
1 Irby and Mangles, l.c. p. 301.
' Dr H. Barth, Tagebuch, 1847, MS.

DISTRICT EAST OF THE LAKE. 281
locaHty which seemed to him to correspond to Josephus' de
scription of the fortress of Gamala, one of the last places of
refuge for the fiying Jews, Here, in the mountain fastness
which was called Gamala, from a fancied resemblance to a
camel's hump, they defended themselves for seven months
against the legions of Titus and Vespasian, but were at last
compelled to surrender. Hunger and the ferocity of the
Roman soldiery spared, it is said, but two of the whole number
who had found shelter there.
Farther north, about opposite the middle point of the
eastern coast of the lake, Seetzen reached the Phik or Fik
itself (the Feik of Burckhardt), only two hours south-east of
the place where the blind sheikh lived whom he had visited
before, as described on a preceding page. He thus accom
plished, though not in the manner he expected, his plan of
passing around the lake, and exploring its whole eastern shore.
Of the remains of three of the cities which once belonged to
the Decapolis — Hippos, Capitolias, and Pella — he could gain
no information. He purposed to go from Phik to the ruins of
Mkes (Om Keis) on the southern side of the Sheriat Manadra,
but could find no guide to show him the way thither : the
Amatha (hot baths), three hours from Phik in the Valley of
Manadra, was known to the guides, but for fear of the wild
Beduins no one ventured to conduct him thither. An hour's
distance west of Phik, on the shore of the lake, Seetzen saw
the marked ruins of Kalaat el Hossn, lying on the summit of a
mountain of dark brown basalt ; it was afterwards considered
by Banks and Leake to be the ancient Gamala, From this
point Seetzen proceeded south-east to el-Botthin (Batanea,
Bashan), which is separated by the Sheriat Manadra from
northern Jolan (Gaulonitis).
Burckhardt* entered the Ghor on the first week of May
1812, and found the barley harvest almost ended at that time,
although it was not expected to be ready around Lake Huleh
till half a month later. In the Ghor all the herbage was then
dry, while the heights of the eastern Hauran, which he had
just left, were covered with grass. Without instituting any
measurements, he calls the Ghor one of the greatest depressions
in Syria, and, like Seetzen, compares its general aspect to the
^ Burckhardt, Trav. p. 274.

282 PALESTINE.
Bekaa valley, between the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon^
ranges. His keen perception did not lead him astray when he
declared that the depression was nearly as much lower than
the general level of Hauran and Jaulan, as the average height
of the line of mountains on the east of the Ghor ; although, of
course, he did not conjecture that it lay below the level of the
ocean. The heat, which he found here greater than in any
other part of Syria, he ascribed to the concentration of the
sun's rays between the cliffs, and to the impossibility of feeling
the cooling west winds. He confirms a remark made by
Volney, that there are few regions in the world where more
marked contrasts are crowded into the space of a few miles
than here, -where are to be seen from the same spot the per
petual snows of Hermon, the fruitful plains of Jaulan, with
their charming carpet of flowers, and the desolation of the
parched and torrid Ghor.
At the entrance of the Sheriat Manadra into the Jordan,
Burckhardt estimated the width of the Ghor at one and a half
to two hours ; he followed the bushy banks of the river to the
village of Szammagh, consisting of only forty huts, and standing
on a soil composed of loam and masses of black basalt not
yet comminuted. A quarter of an hour's distance west of the
village he discovered the outlet of the lake.* Between the
outlet and the first bridge over the Jordan he heard that there
are two fords.
From the village of Szammagh, Burckhardt' passed In
three-quarters of an hour to the height on which stands the
Khan el Akabe, near a spring by which the great road runs
from Hauran and the Ghor through Jolan to Damascus, A
quarter of an hour's distance farther on lies Ain Akabe, a
much larger spring ; and still another quarter of an hour away
the top of the ridge is attained. Then follows a level road of
an hour and three-quarters, in order to reach the Feik of
Burckhardt, or Phik of Seetzen : it is about four and a half
hours distant from the viUage of Szammagh.
Nearer the lake, and only an hour east of the last-named
village, lies the solitary village Cherbit Szammera, containing
some ruins of ancient buildings. Lying on the east side of the
1 Burckhardt, Gesenius' ed. i. p. 433.
2 Burckh.-vrdt, Trav. p. 278.

DISTRICT EAST OF THE LAKE. 283
Sea of Tiberias, it seemed to Burckhardt to correspond with
what would be the probable situation of Hippos, regarding
which neither Josephus nor Jerome have given us clear infor
mation. The former merely says that it was situated in the
district of Hippene, which was on the eastern border of Galilee,
and probably to be reached by crossing Lake Tiberias, To the
north, along the sea-coast, Burckhardt saw the locations of two
deserted places, Doeyrayan and Tell Hum, Three-quarters of
an hour north of the Khan el Akaba he saw the half-ruined
yet still inhabited village of Kefr Hareb. Seetzen's map gives
north and east of Feik the names of several ruins,* showing, at
least, that this high part of Jolan was not always so desolate as
it is now.
The vUlage of Feik, lying at the commencement of one of
the wadis which run westward to the lake, and yet on land so
high as to command an extensive view, Burckhardt found in
habited by two hundred families. A walk of three-quarters of
an hour leads from this place to the steep and solitary eminence
on which stand the extensive ruins el-H6ssn, which Burckhardt
considered to indicate the site of Argob or Regaba ; Banks
and Leake, of Gamala, I am inclined to think, however, that
el-Hossn corresponds rather to Hippos than to Gamala, which,
according to Josephus, was no solitary mountain, but had
directly at the back of it a broad plain, on which the approaches
to the city were guarded by walls and ditches such as those
which are suggested by Seetzen's description of the Khan el
Akaba, Near Hippos stood, we are told by Eusebius and
Jerome, the great castle of Apheca,' which may have been the
Aphik mentioned in Judg, i. 31 as one of the places which the
tribe of Asher was never able to overcome so far as to drive
the original inhabitants out.
From the earliest times Feik seems to have played an im
portant part as a caravan station on the great highway through
Jolan to Damascus, In Burckhardt's time it was the only
district east of the lake which belonged to the pashalic of Akka.
The hospitality of the place this great traveller found to be
something surprising. Indeed, he says that a traveller may
spend a whole month in Hauran and Jolan without paying a
1 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 279.
2 In Onom. s.v. 'A(p£»J. See Gesenius' note to Burckhardt, i. p. 539.

284 PALESTINE.
para for his entertainment, yet little gifts on his part are not
refused. Around Feik Burckhardt saw olive trees growing,
showing that the plateau is not too high for them to thrive ;
and on the flat roofs of the houses the people were compelled
to guard themselves from the heat of the sun's rays by means
of mats. Of ancient buildings there are but few traces, although
the remains of two towers may be seen.

DiSCURSlON V.
THE GREAT CARAVAN ROAD FROM THE EAST SIDE OF LAKE TIBERIAS TO
DAMASCUS, PASSING THROUGH FEIK (APHECA) AND NO\VA (NEVE), AND
TRAVERSING JOLAN (GAULONITIS) AND JEDUR (JEYDUR, ITUR2EA).
The only road passing from the east side of Lake Tiberias
through Jolan is the caravan route leading from Feik to Damas
cus, nearly parallel with the Kanneytra road at the north-east,
Burckhardt is the only traveller who has yet explored this
district, and his brief record must be our only guide. North
east of Feik, and on the farther side of the cultivated district,
begins the modern Jolan,* whose southern frontier is formed
by the Wadi Hamy Sakker and the Sheriat, The ancient
Gaulonitis was not so extensive, embracing a mere strip along
the eastern shore of Lake Tiberias and the upper Jordan, The
district around Feik Burckhardt considered to be the province
of Hippene : Argob he thought to be the most northern tract,
three or four hours' distance frofn Feik, and closed by Jebel
Heish. Burckhardt's first day's march was from Feik to Nowa ;
the second carried him to Damascus, A half-hour beyond the
starting-place were the ruins of Radjoin el Abhor, an hour's
distance north-east of which was the viUage of Jebein, and
three-quarters of an hour to the left the fallen village of el-Aal,
lying on the side of the same Wadi Semek or Szemmak, in
which Seetzen discovered the tent of the blind sheikh. On the
farther side of the wadi, in which many reeds grow which the
Arabs use in making mats, lies Kaffr Berdoweil, — a name which
recalls the times of the Crusades, as it is a corruption of Baldwin
or Balduin, 1 Burckhardt, Trav. pp. 281-284.

ROAD THROUGH JOLAN. 285
The high plain continues, but is uncultivated. It yields,
however, excellent pasturage for camels and neat cattle. The
road passes by Ram, a pool formed by the rains, and an hour
and three-quarters wide, with a spring near it. Two and a
quarter hours farther on are the extensive ruins of the city of
Chastein, built of blocks of black basalt, with traces of an
edifice which once must have been attractive. To the left, two
and three-quarter hours away, Burckhardt saw Tel Zechy ;
and an hour and a half farther, Tel el Faras at the southern
extremity of Jebel Heish,
Three hours farther on he descended from the high land
into Wadi Moakkar, which runs southward to the Sheriat
Mandara. To the left, three and a half hours away, he left
the ruined village of el-Kebur; and passing over the Wadi
Seyde, Burckhardt reached in three and three-quarter hours
the bridge which crosses the Wady Hamy Sakker. Along the
whole way he met peasants and Arabs on the way to the Ghor
to gather in the barley harvest. From this bridge it is but two
and a half hours to the Sheriat.
Four hours more brought Burckhardt to the spring Ain
Keir, and a few minutes more to Ain Dekar. South of the
road thus far, with the exception of the village of Jebein, there
had been no regular settlement ; nothing more permanent than
the encampments of Beduins. Burckhardt dined at Tfeil,
which is one of the most important villages in Jolan, and has
a population of eighty to a hundred families, who live in the
half-ruined houses of the place : the largest building, a mosque,
seems once to have been a Christian church.
After leaving Tfeil the plain was for the most part covered
with fine fields of wheat and barley. A half-hour's distance
north of Tel Jemera Burckhardt saw Tel Jabye, with a village
on it; and one and three-quarters beyond Tfeil he found Nowa,
where he encamped for the night. This is one of the most
important places in Jolan, and was once a city a half-hour in
circumference. Neve (so called in the Itin. Anton., and the
Nova of Abulfeda*) was a Jewish city in the eparchy of Arabia,
and is mentioned by Jerome, although confounded by him with
Nineveh.' According to the Itinerar. it lies thirty-six Roman
' Itin. Antonin. ed. Parthey, 196, 198, pp. 88, 89.
2 H. Reland, pp. 217, 909, 910 ; Gesenius, note to Burckhardt, i. p. 540.

286 PALESTINE.
miles from Capitolias, on the Sheriat Manadra, and sixteen from
Gadara,* — data which may lead at some future time to the iden
tification of the former, Burckhardt found here a multitude
of fallen private dwellings, and the remains of some which were
used for pubHc purposes: a temple, of which a pillar still
remains, has been transformed into a mosque. At the southern
extremity of the place stands a small square massive structure,
probably a mausoleum ; and on the north side of the town are
the remains of another square but large building, of which
nothing continues in a state of completeness excepting the
entrance, elaborately adorned with sculptures. There are
several springs and cisterns in the city, and the grave of a
Turkish saint.
The second day's march brought Burckhardt to Damascus,
as already remarked. Two hours north of Nowa lies the village
of Kosem, on the southern frontier of the district of Jedur or
Iturjea, and on the northern confines of Jolan, though sorae
consider Nowa to be on the boundary. The places passed after
that were Om el Mezabel, Onhol, and the Tel el Hora, the
highest hill in the plateau of Hauran and Jolan. Then fol
lowed Semneim and .Tedye, where the cultivation was very
poor. All these villages have pools or cisterns not unlike in
character the Lake Philaa, which has in another place been
spoken of in connection with the sources of the Jordan,
Burckhardt then passed DeIr el Aades, Tel Moerad, Tel
Shak-hab, a village with a small castle and abundant springs,
and War Ezzaky, with its fallen Khan Ezzeiat, Here the mill
stones for the Damascus market are hewn. The road then
passed the Khan Denur and the viUage of el-Kcssue, the latter
of which is but three hours from Damascus.
» H. Reland, Pal. p. 694.

CHAPTER III.
Sec 6. THE LOWER COURSE OF THE JORDAN FROM LAKE
TIBERIAS TO THE DEAD SEA.
DiSCURSlON I.
FIRST ATTEMPTS TO INVESTIGATE AND NAVIGATE THE JORDAN TO THE DEAD
SEA — molyneux's EXPEDITION IN AUGUST 1847.
WO efforts to navigate the waters of the Jordan have
been made in rapid succession during the present
century; the one undertaken by the English Lieut.
Molyneux in 1847, and that of the American Capt,
Lynch in 1848. The death of the former almost immediately
after accomplishing a part of his mission, and before he could
give any special attention to the Dead Sea, has prevented our
knowing all that we should wish to learn regarding the scientific
results of the expedition ; while there has not come into my
hands the account of the American expedition of Lynch,* — a
document that will be awaited with great interest. Molyneux
has, however, left behind him a valuable sketch of his explora
tion of the Jordan, which, if not so full as could be wished,
gives a vivid picture of the dangers encountered, and of the
general physical character of the Ghor.
No one has yet been able to go on foot' along the shore of
the Jordan between the Sea of Tiberias and the Dead Sea; and
1 The account reached Prof. Ritter in season to be used in his discussion
of the Dead Sea, and will there be found fully cited. To supply the want
of the earlier chapters, I have condensed Lynch's account of his voyage
down the lower Jordan, and inserted it directly after the compressed
narrative of Molyneux. — Ed.
2 This must now be qualified, since Lynch divided his party, some
taking the boats, and the others forming a guard along the shore. — Ed.

288 PALESTINE.
yet, by putting together the glimpses which have been caught
by those who have partially traversed it, and by comparing
these with the landscape as seen from the river, we have a
tolerably complete picture of the Ghor, It is known that two
at least of the earlier pilgrims — Antoninus Martyr and Willi
bald — together with King Baldwin i., passed down the valley
of the lower Jordan, but they have left us no account of what
they saw upon the way,*
In following Molyneux's narrative, it must be borne in
mind that his expedition was undertaken in the driest time of
the year ; and that during the wet season, and with a flat boat
instead of a ship's dingy, he might have been able to shun
many of the dangers and hardships which he encountered.
The upper portion of the lower course has already been
alluded to in my account of the southern shore of Lake
Tiberias. I have spoken of the Roman bridge with flve arches,
which was discovered by Seetzen near the place where the
Sheriat Manadra enters the Jordan ; of the faint traces of a
Roman bridge of ten arches, the Kanneiterah of Wilson,
directly below the outlet of the Sea of Tiberias ; and also of
another bridge over the Jordan, two and a half hours farther
south, the Jessr el Medjomie of Burckhardt, This preparation
will enable us the better to enter upon the study of the lower
course of the sacred river,
Molyneux s Boat Exploration^ of the Jordan in 1847.
First day, Aug, 25. — The river was at first a hundred feet
broad and four or five deep : the first turning brought him in
sight of a large ruined ridge, the arches of which having all
fallen, completely obstructed the passage. Here the difficulties
commenced ; and for the seven hours that the party travelled the
first day, they scarcely ever had water enough to float the boat
for any consecutive hundred yards. Many of the wild Arabs
accompanied them along the banks of the river, possibly to
rejoice over or to take advantage of any accident which mIo-ht
befall the boat. In many places Molyneux found the river
split up into several small streams, and consequently without
much water in any of them. About an hour and a half after
1 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 380.
2 Molyneux, Exped. in Journ. of the Roy. Geog. Soc. xviii. p. 108.

MOLYNEUX'S EXPEDITION. 289
starting they came to a full stop, and were obliged to take
everything out, and carry the boat upwards of a hundred yards
over rocks and through thorny bushes ; and in many other
places afterwards it was nearly as bad. The Ghor was here
about eight or nine miles broad ; and this space is anything
but a flat — nothing but a continuation of bare hills, with yellow
dried-up weeds, which look, when distant, like corn stubbles.
These hills, however, sink into insigniflcance when compared to
the ranges of mountains which enclose the Ghor, and it is
therefore only by comparison that this part of the Ghor is
entitled to be called a valley.
Molyneux was surprised to find a great number of weirs
running across the ri-ver; but most of them appeared to be
only loose walls of stone, mud, and turf, rising three or four
feet above the water. Some of them were within less than a
hundred yards apart. These weirs turn the stream into small
channels, which irrigate the little green patches on either side,
and produce the scanty vegetation on which the Arab tribes
subsist. These weirs they had generally to pull through to
make a gap large enough for the boat to pass ; and sometimes
they were obliged to build them up again afterwards, to avoid
having trouble with the Arabs. From the top of one of them,
which was of more solid masonry than the rest, they had to
launch the boat. When approaching the village of Summakh,
they had high, steep, sandy cliffs all along the banks of the
river, particularly on the left : the place itself they found
perched upon the top of a round sandy hill, and looking as dry
and as miserable as the rest of the countiy. Here he encoun
tered an Arab sheikh, who claimed to have the control of the
territory for two days' march down the river : he demanded six
hundred piastres for the privilege of passing through the
district ; but as Molyneux refused to give more than two
hundred, he at last accepted that, and promised to give his
protection. He proved to belong to the powerful tribe of
Beni Sakkers, who inhabit a large portion of the Ghor.
After passing the village of Abadiyeh, and going a little
farther, Molyneux reached the ruins of el-Buk'ah, where he
determined to spend the night. The place itself consisted of
nothing more than the ruins of two villages, one on each side
of the river ; the mere walls remained. Just above there was
VOL. II. T

290 PALESTINE.
a small waterfall, down which it was necessary to ease the
boat. Second day.* — The river was so shallow below el-Buk'ah,
that the boat was seriously injured by the stones, and at
length Molyneux was compeUed to make it be carried by the
camels. From a hill above the road which the party then took
they had a fine view of the whole valley, with its many Arab
encampments, all made of the common coarse black camel-hair
cloth. Very large herds of camels were to be seen in every
direction , stalking about upon the apparently barren hills in
search of food. The Jordan had split into two streams of
about equal size after leaving el-Buk'ah ; and its winding
course, which was marked by luxuriant vegetation, looked like
a gigantic serpent twisting down the valley. After forming
an island of an oval form, and about five or six miles in circum
ference, the two branches of the Jordan again unite immediately
above an old, curiously-formed bridge. This bridge [the Jessr
Med Jamie of Burckhardt], which is still In such good preserva
tion that the road passes over it, consists of one large, pointed
arch in the centre, with two smaller ones on either side, and
over the latter there are three or four small arches of the same
shape, which go quite through the masonry. On the western
bank, opposite the end of the bridge, there is a large ruined
building of a square form, and not less than two hundred feet
each way : it had been well built, and even now has the
remains of a fine massive gateway composed of very large
stones. The walls of this quadrangle were high and loopholed,
and had several well-built towers, some of which had windows,
and in the centre stood a large cistern. The bridge was built
of a very dark stone abutting against the solid rock. Here
they launched the boat again, and found a great improvement
in the depth of the water.
Molyneux found the country along the banks of the Jordan
very populous, and became convinced that it would have been
utterly impossible to have succeeded in going down the river in
opposition to the Arabs, The Ghor now began to wear a much
better and more fertile aspect. It appears to be composed of
two different platforms : the upper one on either side projects
from the foot of the hiUs which form the great valley, and is
• Molyneux, l.c. Journ. xviii. p. 111.

MOLYNEUXS EXPEDITION. 291
tolerably level, but barren and uncultivated. It then falls
away in the form of rounded sand-hills or whitish perpendicular
cliffs, which enclose this smaller vaUey ; but generally it winds
in the most tortuous manner between them. In many placesi
these cliffs are like walls, and entirely preclude the possibility
of communication between the river and the cattle above. At
this part of the Jordan the lower plain seems to be from one
and a half to two miles broad, and so full of the most rank and
luxuriant vegetation, like a jungle, that in a few spots only
can anything approach its banks. Some of the bushes and
ferns are very beautiful. There was abundance of game seen
on the way, but Molyneux had no opportunity to observe it,
the trouble encountered with the Arabs was so great. The
altercations which arose harassed him incessantly, not to speak
of the continued danger of an attack. The seven loaded
barrels which he carried around his own person secured a
tolerable degree of respect, but the worry of the day was
enough, as he says, to drive a reasonable person mad. The
tribe which undertook to be his first escort, the Beni-Sakkers,
were carrying on war with the Anizees, and it was from these
that an assault was at any moment to be expected, Molyneux
makes no mention of the windings of the river, excepting to say
that it would be quite impossible to give any account of the
various turnings of the Jordan in its way from the Lake of
Tiberias to the Dead Sea,
Third day,* — The place where the party had bivouacked
was called Attah. There the lower valley, through which the
river more immediately runs, breaks out into a magnificent
plain, extending from the foot of the hills on either side across
the Ghor, but with a high slip on the western side, where the
large Arab village of Beisan stands. The party was soon
obliged to mount to the top of the high western ridge, as they
passed in sight of Beisan, The country there appeared very
different from that which they had passed since leaving Lake
Tiberias. The ground abreast of Beisan, and as far westward
as Molyneux could see, was fertile, well watered, and cultivated,
chiefly with Indian corn. It is also thickly inhabited : hundreds
of small sheds could be seen studding the plain, with men
watching the crops, and slinging stones to keep off the birds.
^ Molyneux, Exped. l.c p. 114.

292 PALESTINE.
Molyneux thought the view from this point over the valley
of the Jordan one of the finest things he had seen : an
abundant vegetation extending up the slopes of the eastern
hiUs, which are crowned with trees up to the summit, and
everything growing in the wildest luxuriance; while on the
western side, the higher steppe breaks down into steep sand
hills or whitish perpendicular cliffs, -with only here and there
the means of ascent. The river, as usual, winds very much,
with banks about twenty feet in height, of brown clayey soil,
somewhat resembling those of the Thames, and for some
distance on either side a thick and almost impenetrable jungle.
They made but a short journey on this day, as it was neces
sary to send to Beisan to get barley for the horses and food for
the Arabs: the tent was pitched on the small island of el-Kerma,
on the western side of the river. That day did not pass with
out more serious trouble with the Arabs : the difficulties were
those experienced in passing through an enemy's country, in
addition to the great labours inseparable from the low state of
water in the river, and the difficulty of getting supplies of food.
The heat was insupportably hot — 108° in the tent; and the
commander of the expedition here began to give signs of yield
ing to its influence. The water sufficed, however, to float the
boat, but there were hundreds of places where a man could
leap across from stone to stone without wetting his feet. The
party procured with difficulty some flour and melons from
Beisan ; but the Beduins generally will sell nothing : indeed,
they appear to have but little to spare, rich as the country
appears to be. From seeing a quantity of deposit in the plain
of the Jordan, and the marks of water in various places at a
distance from the river, it was evident that the Jordan widely
overflows its banks: the sheikh inforraed Molyneux that in
winter it is occasionally half an hour across, which accounts
for the luxurious vegetation in this part of the Ghor,*
Fourth day.'— This night a dew feU so heavy that the
leader of the expedition woke up wet through. The river con
tinued to be good for the boat, but there was no good road for
the camels. The country through the early part of the day
was very fine, well watered, and fertile : the river ran through
1 See Burckhardt, Trav. p. 342.
2 Molyneux, Exped. l.c xviii. p. 116.

MOLYNEUXS EXPEDITION, 293
the best part of the vaUey : very soon the higher terraces on
either side began to close in, and to narrow the fertile space
below ; the hiUs became irregular, and only partly cultivated ;
and by degrees the whole Ghor resumed its original form,
entirely different from the neighbourhood of Beisan, The
zig-zag course of the river was prettily marked by lines of green
foliage on its banks, as it veered from the cliffs on one side to
those on the other.
This day did not go by without more altercation with the
Arabs, but fortunately it passed by without bloodshed, Moly
neux learned from the sheikh the number of the great tribes
inhabiting the Ghor: the Ameers about eight hundred men,
the Beni-Sakkers six to seven hundred, and the Anizees fifteen
to sixteen thousand.
Fifth day.* — Leaving the camping-place, which the Arabs
called Fath- Allah, and after giving directions to the boat, the
party mounted the hills east of the river. The Jordan here
runs near the foot of the western mountains, which fall away
in steep cliffs to the water's edge, so that the narrow plain of
the river, in but very few places, attains to the breadth of half
a mile of cultivated ground. The lower hills to the eastward
can be considered little more than a continuation of the high
range of mountains : they are barren and uncultivated, with
the exception of occasional wooded patches, and here and there
some stunted shrubs or trees covered with sharp thorns. The
water this day was very troublesome, having many shallows
and some large falls, and the ruins of a bridge took sorae time
to pass, so that the boat was nearly six hours and a half
traversing a distance by water which some members of the
party traversed in three hours by land.
At about noon the boat reached a place on the river not
far from Abon Obeidah, and about an hour and a half to the
north of Wadi Zerka, called by the Arabs Seguia.' The cliffs
on the western side are soft limestone, quite bare, and in some
places they cannot be less than three or four hundred feet
high. In one spot only they were observed to be of a reddish
hue. This day the men in the boat shot two tigers and a boar.
Sixth day. — Leaving Seguia in the morning, at half-past
' Molyneux, Exped. l.c. xviii. p. 118.
2 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 347.

294 PALESTINE.
nine, they were abreast of the large old square castle of el-
Rabua* perched on Jebel Ajloun, where Ibrahim Pasha, when
he held this country, kept an Albanian guard ; but at present
no one inhabits it. At Seguia the river continues to run near
the western hills ; and between Abon Obeidah and the cliffs
which terminate the upper ground on that side, there is a con
siderable plain with many trees, and apparently well cultivated.
This plain may extend perhaps eight or ten miles from north
to south, the river Zerka bounding it on the latter side. The
Jordan there again crosses the Ghor obliquely, and everything,
except about its immediate banks, becomes barren and desolate.
About noon they descended from the upper ground into the plain,
through which the river runs, and which is here very remark
able, being particularly level and very green ; and the contrast
between it and the white cliffs which bound it on either side
making it look like one large green river. This was an event
ful day to the party, for the company which was in the boat
was attacked when the leader of the expedition with some others
were a few miles in advance on the shore : the boat with its
contents was taken by the Arabs, and the men, stripped of
their clothing, were permitted to go. As the men did not
make their appearance, after this disheartening intelligence
reached Molyneux, he pressed on during the night towards
Jericho, entering it about daybreak the next morning.
Thus ended the reconnaissance of the Jordan by an English
party ; the loss of the boat made it impossible to do much more
at this time. It was afterwards recovered, however, and the
missing men in due time made their appearance at Tiberias,
having endured very severe sufferings. When we shall ad
vance so far in our inquiries as to examine the Dead Sea, we
shall have to revert again to the narrative of Molyneux.
Lieut, LyncKs Voyage down the Lower Jordan from Lake
Tiberias to Beisan {Bethshean).
The scenery, as the party left the lake and advanced into
the Ghor, which at the outset is about three-quarters of a mile
in breadth, assumed rather a tame than a savage character.
The rough and barren mountains skirting the valley on either
hand stretched away in the distance, like walls to some gigantic
^ Burckhardt, Trav. p. 266 ; Irby and Mangles, Trav. p. 306. '

LYNCH'S EXPEDITION. 295
fosse, their southern extremities half hidden or entirely lost in
a faint purple mist. The average breadth of the river near
the outset was about seventy-five feet ; the banks were rounded,
and about thirty feet high, luxuriantly clothed with grass and
flowers. There were the anemone, the marigold, occasionally
a water-lily, here and there a straggling asphodel close to the
water's edge, but not a tree nor a shrub. The party lost sight
of the lake five minutes after leaving it. The water was about
ten feet deep, and was clear. They had no difficulty in the
navigation till after passing the first bridge, whose ruins are
very marked. They then encountered the first of that series
of rapids which -was thereafter to be the source of so much
danger and difficulty. Lynch had a great advantage over
Molyneux in his metallic boats, which were merely bruised and
dented as they came in contact with the sharp rocks of the
rapids, where wooden boats would almost infallibly go to pieces.
Lynch found only eight inches of water in this time of flood,
and concluded correctly that the river would be very dry in the
later months of summer.
After passing the rapids they pitched for the night, just
upon the edge of the Ghor, A little to the north, the Ard el
Hamma swept down from the left. The lake was concealed,
although in a direct line quite near, and a lofty ridge over
looked them from the west. The soil here is a dark rich loam,
luxuriantly clothed, three feet deep with flowers : the purple
bloom of the thistle predominated ; and the yellow marigold
and pink oleander were occasionally relieved by the scarlet
anemone. The rocks nowhere crop out, but large boulders of
sandstone and trap are scattered over the surface. Among
the flowers seen there, in addition to those already named, were
the Adonis, or pheasant's eye ; the briony, formerly used in
medicine ; the scabiosa stellata, in great luxuriance ; and two
kinds of clover.
The second day only brought an increase of labour and
hardship ; for hardly had they started in the morning, when
they found the river impeded by rapids to such an extent, as
to make the progress by boat well-nigh impossible : indeed, it
would have been hopeless, had there not been an old mill sluice,
which was closed by stones, but which, when opened, formed a
tolerable means of passing round the formidable breakers.

296 PALESTINE.
There were five successive cascades in the river; and the entire
fall, within a short distance, was eighteen feet. After passing
this dangerous spot, the water was stiUer and deeper. The soil
on the banks was fertile, but entirely uncultivated. The surface
of the plain was about fifteen feet above the river, thence gra
dually ascending a short distance to a low range of hiUs, beyond
which, on each side, the prospect was closed in by mountains.
In the afternoon they passed the village of Abadiyeh, a large
coUection of mud huts, on a commanding eminence to the
right : the people — men, women, and children — all hurried
down the hUl towards the river when they saw the Americans.
It was impossible to tell whether the inhabitants intended to
molest them ; for the boats swept by with too much rapidity
for them to carry their designs into execution. The banks of
the river were clothed with luxuriant verdure, — the rank grass
here and there separated by patches of wild oats. The moun
tain ranges forming the edges of the upper valley, as seen
from time to time through gaps In the foliage of the river
banks, were of a light-brown colour, surmounted with white.
After passing nine rapids during the day, the water became
clearer, and was eight feet deep : the bottom was hard : there
were small trees in thickets under the banks ; and advancing
into the water, principally tarfas, or tamarisks, and willows.
Fish were frequently seen : ducks, storks, and a multitude of
other birds rose from the reeds and osiers, or plunged into the
thickets of oleander and tamarisk which fringed the banks :
beyond were frequent groves of the wild pistachio.
At eight in the evening they reached the head of the falls
and whirlpool of Bukah, near which they encamped for the
night. Here are two ruined villages, one known as Delhemi-
yeh, the other Bukah. They were destroyed, it is said, by the
Beduins, Many of the villages on or near the river were
inhabited by Egyptians, placed there by Ibrahim Pasha to
repress the incursions of the Arabs, Now that the strong arm
of the Egyptian bull-dog, as Stephens aptly calls him, is with
drawn, the fate of these villages is not surprising. The
Beduins, in their incursions, rob the Egyptian fellahin of their
produce and the crops, ]\IIserable and unarmed, the latter
abandon their villages, and seek a more secure position, or trust
to chance to supply themselves with food (for of raiment they

LYNCH'S EXPEDITION. 297
seem to have no need), until the summer brings the harvest
and the robber. Once abandoned, their huts fall into as much
ruin as they are susceptible of, which is nothing more than the
washing away of the roofs by the winter rains. The whole
route through the day ran through an extensive plain, luxuriant
in vegetation, and presenting to view, in uncultivated spots,
richness of alluvial soil, the produce of which, with proper
culture, might nourish a vast population. The average width
of the river during the day had been forty yards, the depth
from two and a half to six feet.
The course of the river the next day was characterized by
a succession of cascadesand rapids more formidable than those
which had been passed the previous day. Nothing preserved
the boats from going to pieces upon the rocks excepting the
fact that they were made of metal. During the afternoon they
passed the mouth of the Yermak (Hieromax), forty yards wide,
with moderate current. Not long after the old bridge came
into sight. Near this stood a cliff, which Lynch climbed in
order to reconnoitre the river. The crest was crowned by a
ruined khan, while at the foot of the hill large masses of
volcanic rock or tufa were lying about, as if shaken from the
solid mass by the spasm of an earthquake. The khan had
evidently been a solid structure, and destroyed by some con
vulsion, so scattered were the thick and ponderous masses of
masonry. The bridge gracefully spans the river at this point.
It has one large and three smaller Saracenic arches below, and
six smaller ones above them, — four on the east, and two on the
west side. The river, deep, narrow, and impetuous, flows
through the larger arch, and immediately branches, the left arm
rushing down a nearly perpendicular fall of about eight feet,
and scarcely a boat's length ahead encountering the bold rock
of the eastern bank, which deflects it sharply to the right. The
right branch, winding by an island in the centre, and spreading
over a great space, is shallow, and breaks over a number of
rocks. Above and below the bridge, and in the bed of the river,
are huge blocks of trap and conglomerate ; and almost im
mediately opposite is a great fissure exposing perpendicular
layers of basalt, the structure distinct, black, and porous.
Upon the left bank, which is about sixty feet above the river, a

298 PALESTINE.
short distance up, were twenty or thirty black Beduin tents,
with a number of camels grazing around, — the men seated in
groups ; the women, the drudges of each tribe, passing to and
fro, busied apparently in culinary preparations. .Just below
the bridge they encamped for the night. The only tributary
which had been passed thus far was the Yermak, coming in
from the east, as wide and as deep nearly as the Jordan.
The bridge is on the road from Nablus, through Beisan to
Damascus. The next day the party reached the utmost limits of
cultivation, and approached the lower Ghor, a perfect desert,
traversed by warlike tribes. On the first heights of the Ghor,
to the eastward, is the viUage SIdumad ; the village .Tumah is
on the western bank.
There are evidently two terraces to the Jordan, and through
the lower one the river runs its labyrinthine course. From
the stream, above the imraediate banks, there is on each side a
singular terrace of low hills, like truncated cones ; this is but
the bluff terminus of an extended table-land, reaching quite to
the base of the mountains of Hauran on the east, and the high
hills on the western side. The peculiarity of form is attribut
able, perhaps, to the washing of rain through a long series of
years. The hill-sides presented the appearance of chalk,
without the slightest vestige of vegetation, and were absolutely
blinding from the reflected sunlight. At times the boats were
perfectly becalmed, the trees and bushes which lined the banks
intercepting the light air that came down from the mountains,
when, even at this early season (April), the heat was intense;
and the birds, ceasing to sing, hid themselves among the
foliage, from which the noise of the boatmen did not startle
them. The first hour of the journey, which was through a most
beautiful tract of alluvial, the country was entirely destitute of
cultivation ; nothing but a rank luxuriance of thistles and wild
grass indicating the natural productiveness of the soil. The
variety of thorns and thistles was remarkable. Along the banks
of the river ran a singular terrace of low hills, in shape like
truncated cones, which extended quite to the base of the
mountains. From thistles and wild grass they advanced into
utter barrenness and desolation, the soil presenting the appear-

EASTERN TRIBUTARY OF THE JORDAN. 299
ance of chalk, without the slightest vegetation. Around and
quite near were large flocks of storks, in no manner alarmed or
disconcerted ; some even stood on one leg, in' quiet contem
plation of the unusual spectacle which the caravan presented.
That night they camped two hours' distance from Beisan,
where we take leave of the party for the present.

DiSCURSlON II,
THE FIRST EASTERN TRIBUTARY OF THE JORDAN — THE YARMUK OR SHERIAT
EL MANDARA (HIEROMAX) — OM KEIS (GADARA) — THE HOT SPRINGS OF
HAMATH OR AMATTA.
It is to the bold Burckhardt that we owe the identification,
in 1812,* of the ruins of Gadara and the hot springs in their
neighbourhood. Since then the place has been visited and
described by Irby, Mangles, and Buckingham,'
The first important tributary of the Jordan, directly south
of Lake Tiberias, and about two hours distant from it, enters
the river directly below the ruined village of el-Bukah, It
is the Hieromax of Pliny, " Gadara Hieromace prsefluente."
Strabo and Ptolemy made no allusion to it. In the Talmud it
is mentioned under the name of the Jarmoch,* whence springs
the appellation Jarmuk,* which has become common among
the Arabs, and which Edrisi uses as early as the twelfth
century. It was probably not a boundary river in the old
Hebrew times, for its name is never met in the biblical
writings. It receives the name which is now generally given
to it (the Menadra) from an Arab tribe dwelling on its banks,
the Menadhere. The name Sheriat, which is joined with this,
is one which it shares with other rivers, and indicates a ford
which is used as a watering-place, — a name which is also
applied to the Jordan in consequence of the passage of the
1 Burckhardt, Trav. pp. 270- 274.
2 Dr Anderson, a member of the American Dead Sea Expedition, is a
still more recent explorer. His account may be found in Lynch's volume.
—Ed.
8 Lightfoot, 0pp. omn. in Centuria Chorogra. cap. iv. fol. 173.
4 Edrisi, in Jaubert, T. i. p. 338 ; Abulfedse Tahd. Syr. ed. Koehler,
fol. 148.

300 PALESTINE.
Israelites through it. The Jordan is distinguished from the
Sheriat Menadra by the appeUation el-Kebir, i.e. the great
river ; it is very seldom called by the Arabs the Jordan, or in
the older form, el-Urdan.
The head waters of the Sheriat el Menadra, or Mandhur,
issue from the distant tracts of the Jebel Hauran and of Jolan
(Auranitis and Gaulonitis), although it may be a little difficult
to teU at what precise spot to localize their source. Burckhardt
names four tributaries, the most northern one of which is the
Hereir, whose fountain-head is in the swampy tract near Tell
Dilly, on the pilgrim road south of Damascus, between the two
stations el-Szanamein and Shemskein, on the border Hne of
.Jeidur (Itursea) at the north, Jolan (Gaulonitis) in the west,
and Hauran (Auranitis) in the east. Only the smaller tribu
taries from Jolan — Wadi Moakkar, Wadi Hamy Sakker, and
Wadi Aallan, which are crossed on the route from Feik by way
of Nowa to Damascus — lie west of the Hereir ; the other two
known ones are on the east. The one is the Nahr Rokad, which
flows through eastern Jolan, not far from Ain Shakhab ; and
the other is the Buj, and comes from Mezereib.
The springs near the place last mentioned, the first castle
south of Damascus, and three hours south of Shemskein, are
well known on account of their abundant supply of water and
fish. The spot is a favourite stopping-place for caravans on
the way to Mecca ; they make the final preparations for enter
ing on the great march through the Syrian and Arabian deserts.
These springs, whose waters, when they come together, form a
lake half an hour in circumference,* and flow into el-Buj, are,
if not the most distant, at least the best known and the most
abundant feeders of the river which takes the name Sheriat not
far from Abiela, and which subsequently passes the sites of that
ancient city and Capitolias, Its shores are tilled by the Men-
adhere Arabs, who live in tents and move from place to place,
but never forsake the river : they sow wheat and barley, and
in their gardens raise grapes, citrons, pomegranates, and many
kinds of vegetables, which they sell in the villages of Jolan and
Hauran, As we go westward the river-bed becomes narrower, and is
closely hemmed in between the rocks on both sides. In this
1 Burckhardt, Trav. pp. 241-246.

EASTERN TRIBUTARY OF THE JORDAN. 301
cleft, and north of the height on which are the ruins of Om
Keis (Gadara), Hes the long row of the hot and very profuse
medicinal springs of the Gadarenes, among which that of Ham-
met esh Sheikh is one of the chief. From this point the river
runs in a north-westerly direction, following the rocky valley ;
and after pursuing a course of two or three hours' duration, it
enters the Jordan, The Sheriat is full of fish, its course is
rapid, its shores thickly overgrown with oleander ; its breadth,
where it enters the Jordan, is stated by Burckhardt* to have
been about thirty-five paces in May ; its depth, four or five feet.
As the lower course of the Sheriat el Mandhur is of especial
interest in connection with its history and natural history, I
shall connect the discussion of it with that of the Jordan
valley. Om Keis, i.e. Mater astutice, is the modern name of a great
village which lies west of the district of Kefarat, and near the
highest part of the ridge which bounds the valley of Lake
Tiberias and the Jordan on the east ; with its hot springs, it
lies far above the deep cleft through which the Sheriat flows,
about an hour's distance north of the ruins. The southern
declivity of Om Keis is bounded by the small Wadi Araba,
which runs westward into the Jordan parallel with the Sheriat
according to sorae authorities, or, according to Burckhardt,'
terminating the Sheriat itself before it enters the Jordan. The
place, which was discovered by Seetzen,* and called by him
Mkes (an abbreviated form of Om Keis), is said to lie on the
summit of a mountain, formed by the junction of the Sheriat
valley and Wadi el Arab, He found the steep sides of the
mountain, to which he ascended from the cavernous southern
side called Jadar, i.e. Gadara, to be composed of limestone,
with frequent deposits of flint. He regarded the Sheriat as the
natural geological boundary of the basalt region of Jolan and
Hauran on the north, and of the limestone* of Jebel Ajlun
and Jilead on the south.
The name Jedur, which Seetzen found current among the
shepherds® on the south-east slope of the mountain, would indi
cate that the ancient Gadara was in the neighbourhood, even if
' Burckhardt, Trav. p. 273. ^ Ibid. p. 271.
^ Seetzen, in Mon. Corresp. xviii. pp. 417-420.
? Ibid. p. 353. 6 Ibid. p. 357.

302 PALESTINE.
the Roman architecture on the summit did not confirm the
same when taken in connection with Pliny's and Jerome s
statements. The former says : Gadara Hieromace prsefluente ;
the latter, under the word Gadara, says : Urbs trans Jordanem
contra Scythopolim et Tiberiadem, ad orientalem plagam sita,
in monte ad cujus radices aquse calidse erumpunt, balneis super
sedlficatls. Although the name Jedur is given to a large part
of the Hauran territory east of Om Keis, and upon the north
bank of the Sheriat, and therefore seems to denote the province
in whose midst the ruins and hot springs lie, yet this cannot
affect the name of the ruin itself ; and all the grounds which
have been adduced to disprove the location of Gadara at this
place are, as Leake and Gesenius show, without any real worth,
Leake* remarks that Burckhardt was not able to make the
distance of the ruins of Om Keis from the Hieromax and the
hot baths harmonize with the position of Gadara ; but Eusebius
and Jerome say explicitly that the hot springs are not in close
proximity with Gadara, but some distance away, at the foot of
the mountain on which the ruins lie. In another place we are
told in the Onomasticon, " est et alia villa in vicinia Gadara;,
nomine Amatha, ubi Calidse aquse erumpunt," perhaps the
Hammath, i.e. hot baths, of Josh, xix. 35, which Keil' holds to
be identical with Tiberias. This is enough to set Burckhardt's
doubts aside. According to Josephus, the city was restored by
Pompey, and taken subsequently by Vespasian : Strabo* does
not know the place, and confounds it with Gaza ; Pliny locates
it in the Decapolis of Persea ; and Josephus calls it the Metro
polis Persese, which the coins also confirm. The place attracts
great interest to itself in consequence of the healing of the man
possessed of demons (Matt, viu, 28, Mark v, 1, Luke viii. 26);*
and there can be no doubt, says Gesenius, that the caves which
are described here by travellers are the same in which the people
simUarly afflicted concealed theraselves, Reland has mentioned
the high esteem in which the baths were held in the first cen
turies of the Christian era,
1 Leake, Pref. to Burckhardt, Trav. p. iv. ; Gesenius' Note to Bui-ck-
hardt, i. p. 427.
2 Keil, Comment, zu Josua, p. 353.
3 Grosskurd, Note to Strabo, Pt. iii. p. 260, Not. 1.
* Vou Raumer, Pal. p. 240. (Tristram, p. 458.)

EASTERN TRIBUTARY OF THE JORDAN. 303
Seetzen describes only in general terms the ruins of Mkes
which he discovered, and ascribes them to some finely built and
rich city of ancient times. This, he thinks, is made evident
not only by the remains of pillars and buildings, but also by
the large number of sarcophagi, many of which are profusely
decorated with figures in relief, and with carved garlands.
They have in many cases been remarkably well preserved.
It surprised Seetzen to find that all of these were made of
basalt, probably brought from Jolan, He discovered at Mkes
several large and finely wrought caves, but not a single house.
A half-dozen families were living in caves, whose size he was
not able to measure on the outside ; he only learned how really
spacious they were by going inside one, where he was hospitably
entertained by the occupants. In order to assure himself of
the identity of these remains with those of the ancient Gadara, .
which had once been so celebrated for its baths that they were
thought to be only surpassed in the whole Roman empire by
those of Balse, Seetzen inquired where they were, and discovered
their locality at the foot of the mountain on the north side, and
an hour's distance away, though but a few steps from the river
Sheriat, He saw the steam arise from the hot springs, but he
could not reach them, the river being so much swollen by the
long-continued rains as to be unfordable,
Burckhardt* came in May 1812, from Hauran westward,
by way of Abil and Hebras, reaching Om Keis on his way.
Here he was surprised to find an entire mountain covered with
ancient ruins, although only the summit bore the traces of a
compact city. He seems to have heard nothing while there of
the hot springs near by, for he returned from the Jordan the
next day to make a special examination of them. He found
the sarae caves and sarcophagi which had been mentioned by
Seetzen : of the latter he counted seventy. On the sunirait there
were several hewn stones and fragments, but no perfect build
ings. On the west and north-west sides of the mountain he
saw the remains of two great amphitheatres, one of which lay
very deeply hollowed out of the steep sloping rock, with a very
small arena, but with seats, ascending so high that the upper
most row is forty feet above the lowest. The more western of
the two theatres was in ranch the best state of preservation.
1 Burckhardt, Trav. pp. 271-273.

304 PALESTINE.
The largest part of the ruins were to be seen still farther west
on a tract of level ground, where along a paved street there
could be seen a large number of shattered piUars, capitals, and
fragments of temples. With the exception of the two theatres
and a single column, which were of grey granite, Burckhardt
found all the architectural remains to be of the indigenous
limestone which constitutes all the mountain land south of the
Sheriat as far as to Wadi Zerka, He (in this agreeing with
Seetzen) found in the whole Jebel Ajlun as far as to Beni
Obeid no more black basalt ; and only on the way f rora Hebras to
Om Keis, on the south shore of the Sheriat, did he see the last
alternating layers of basalt and limestone. It is quite clear that
the ravine into which the lower Sheriat flows is only a break in
the basaltic rock, through which also the hot springs have been
able to cleave a way for themselves,
Burckhardt's visit the next day to these springs has made
us able to understand their location. He found* the first one
lying about an hour and three-quarters distant from Szammagh,
where he had spent the intervening night. The river fiows
through a deep bed, having banks of basalt in some places a
hundred feet high, to whose black sides the green upon the top
forms a very striking contrast. The smell of sulphur is per
ceptible a hundred paces off from the springs. Grass and
bushes grow thickly around, and a few old palms are also seen.
The main spring jets from a basin forty feet in circumference,
five feet in depth, and surrounded by walls which have partly
fallen in : the brook which runs away to the Sheriat is so hot
that one can hardly bear to dip the hand into it; it covers
the stones with a thick sulphureous crust, which the Arabs
detach to rub their horses down with. The basin was originally
cemented and covered, but of the structure which surmounted
it only a few fragments and a broken pillar remain; all the
large rocks have been much affected by the power of the
steam. This spring bears the name of Hamraet es Sheikh,
and is said to be the hottest one of all. Only a few steps away
is another spring of a lower temperature, but surrounded with
ruins of some ancient structure there : this is called Hammet
er Rib, and is connected subterraneously with the larger spring.
Burckhardt learned that there are eight similar fountains, and
1 Burckhardt, Trav. pp. 276-278.

THE WARM BATHS OF GADARA. 305
that the most distant of them is two and a half hours farther
from the Jordan than the first. They are said to be found upon
both sides of the river. It is to be regretted that since that time
no naturalist* has carefully examined these interesting springs.
Burckhardt learned that in the month of April the largest
spring, Hammet es Sheikh, is visited by many sick people of
the adjacent country for the sake of its medicinal qualities : they
even come from places as far away as Nablus and Nazareth,
and stay as long as two weeks there : the place, is considered
even preferable to the springs at Tiberias, Antoninus Martyr
visited' the baths of Gadara about the year 600, and calls
them Thermse Helije ; he says that they were much visited by
persons afflicted with leprosy, Eunapius of Sardes, the rhetori
cian and physician, who lived towards the beginning of the fifth
century, says that two of the smaller fountains were called Eros
and Anteros ; in the Talmud they are named the warm baths
of Gadara; Eusebius and Josephus call them Amath and
Amatha (Hamath), Irby and Mangles, who visited Om Keis *
in 1818, spent the night in one of the holes — which was large
enough, according to their report, to shelter thirty men — with a
family which received them very hospitably. Their stable was
at the farther end of the long catacomb, while they occupied
the hither extremity. In ascending the hill they found remains
of the ancient city walls, and the cemented pavement of the
streets so well preserved in many places, that the marks of
wheels could in some places be seen. The main avenue was
accompanied throughout its length by rows of pillars. The
ancient necropolis could be made out on the northern side, where
the clefts, excavated to a considerable depth in the rock, and
guarded by swinging doors, showed the site of former sepul
chres. These doors in some cases were still swinging upon
stone hinges. On the outside panels were carved and adorned.
The "result of a visit to the baths was only to confirm the
I Dr Anderson, a naturalist who accompanied Lynch's expedition, was
prevented by the want of time from even seeing them at all, although he
made a hasty visit to the ruins on the hill. The necessity of pressing with
all haste down the Jordan rendered such a course imperative. See also
Tristram, Land of Israel, p. 458. — Bd.
2 Itinerar. Beati Antonini Mart, ex Muse CI. Menardi, 1640, 4, 5.
» Irby and Mangles, Trav, Lett. iv. pp. 296-298,
VOL. II. TJ

306 PALESTINE.
account of Burckhardt ; yet the temperature of the chief springs
was found to be lower than it had been observed at Tiberias,
and the crast on the hottest basin was rubbed by the Arabs
upon the skins of their camels.
The most critical antiquarian researches * which have been
made in our time into the architecture of Gadara, as well as In
other places in Persea, have been made by Mr Banks, who was
accompanied by Buckingham, The latter, however, made use
of extracts and copies of drawings made from the papers of the
former by a seaman, evidently of good intelligence and skill,
but with no knowledge of science or art. To those Bucking
ham has appended an immense mass of irrelevant quotations,
and a tedious narrative of his own, filling forty-four pages upon
Gadara alone. Whatever worth they have, is to be attributed
to the extracts made from Banks. It is most deeply to be re
gretted, for the sake of science, that the latter still persists in
withholding from the public the extremely valuable results of
his own observations.
I will detach from Buckingham's pages only a few observa
tions.' Among the three first sepulchre caves which are met
in entering the city from the east, the stone door of the third
was in a state of perfect preservation. On entering the place,
the first chamber was found to be seven feet high, twelve paces
long, and ten broad ; then came a second chamber, measuring
ten by twelve feet, and regularly hewn. The portal, archi
trave, and doors are aU of the same black basalt out of which
the sarcophagi are made. The architrave is adorned with
three roughly-sculptured busts, with bare head, full face, and
prominent ears.
There were other caves of similar aspect : one with ten
niches for cofflns, and smaller ones for the reception of lamps :
the architrave of this one w^as decorated externally with a
garland. In many of the vaults sarcophagi were found.
The greatest number of these, however, were to be seen
scattered around over the top of the hill: they were all of
black basalt, and were adorned with garlands, busts of Apollo,
and little Cupids ; also with family coats of arms. Other orna-
1 Irby and Mangles, Trav. Lett. iv. pp. 296-298 ; Quarterly Review,
vol. xxvi. p. 389 ; comp. Gesenius' Burckhardt, Pt. i. Note, pp. 530, 537.
2 Buckingham, Trav. in Pal. vol. ii. chap, xxiii. pp. 252-296.

RUINS OF OM KEIS. 807
ments were wanting. There were fully two hundred perfect
sarcophagi counted here, not to speak of the countless frag
ments which strewed the ground.
The city, whose ruins extend from east to west half an
English mile, and a quarter of a mile from north to south, dis
plays on the east a portal of the ancient gate. Beneath passed the
ma,in street, running westward, fifteen paces broad, and paved
in the most admirable manner with black basalt blocks. It runs
for the most part past colonnades of Roman and Corinthian
pillars, while the remains of others are also scattered around.
There are also the relics of temples and two theatres, to which
may be added another near the baths. So many are the proofs
of ancient splendour and of a dense population, where now
there is almost unbroken solitude ! Burckhardt saw not a soul
in Om Keis, Buckingham only a few families in the tombs,
while at the northern side of the village, and on the site of the
ancient necropolis, there are only pitiful hovels, constructed
mostly of the fragments of broken sarcophagi. He reckoned
the whole population as two hundred souls ; and their wan
dering through the tombs recalled vividly to his mind those
Gadarenes mentioned in Luke viii. 27, who did not dwell in
houses, but in tombs.
In one of these a waggon-maker had taken up his abode :
in another, which was adorned with an elegant architrave,
and an admirably constructed stone door, which moved lightly
on its hinges, was a cistern to which a flight of steps descended,
and. by its side a vault : in one apartment twelve feet square
stood a perfect sarcophagus, which had been converted into a
meal-chest and a receptacle of other provisions. The people
of the place had a different physiognomy from other Arabs —
not so dark as the swarthy Beduins, who are always exposed
to the weather, but with a strongly marked African cast of
features. The women had curly hair, thick lips, and promi
nent teeth. They insisted that their stock had always in
habited the neighbourhood of these springs. They had neither
horses, camels, goats, nor sheep, but the finest herds of buffaloes
and dogs.
Buckingham visited* the springs as well: he found the
tents of some Beduins in the neighbourhood. The northern
1 Buckingham, Trav. l.c ii. pp. 297-308.

308 PALESTINE.
shore of the Sheriat has, he says,* a dai-k, fruitful soil, which is
here and there tilled.'

DiSCURSlON III.
THE THREE NORTH--WESTERLY TRIBUTARIES OF THE JORDAN BETWEEN LAKE
TIBERIAS AND BEISHAN — WADI EL FEJAZ WITH ARD EL HAMMA — WADI
EL BIREH -WITH MOUNT TABOR — WADI OESCHE WITH JEBEL ED DAHI, OR
THE SMALLER HERMON.
South of the confluence of the Jordan with the Yarmuk,
the valley widens and displays an oasis-like fertility and beauty.
On the western bank lies the only place of importance, Beishan.
Burckhardt, in his cross journey from Nazareth to Abu Obeida
and Szalt, paid particular attention to the district which we are
about to describe ; Irby, Mangles, and others, followed him over
much the same route which he himself took. In one day,*
July 2, 1812, Burckhardt passed with a caravan from Nazareth
across the south-eastern end of the plain of Jezreel, passing
Mount Tabor, and a number of fountains near Endor and Om
et Taybe, on his direct road to Beishan, reaching, after about
seven hours, the village of Merassrass, at the top of a row of
hills, whence begins the descent from the plateau to the depres
sion or Ghor in which the Jordan lies.
North of the village just mentioned is the Wadi el Bireh,
which runs from the south base of Tabor to the Jordan ; and
south of the village is Wadi Oesche, whose general course is
^ Dr Anderson, who has already been mentioned as hastily examining
the ruins of Gadara, has added nothing of material importance to the
accounts already cited. His description of the theatre, cited from his
manuscript notes in Lynch's Dead Sea Expedition, p. 197, is more full than
that of the others. According to his report, it is half oval in shape, and
the short diameter, i.e. the length of the enclosed space, is about eighty
feet, the entire diameter about a hundred and twenty feet. At the upper
edge of each step is a cornice several inches in breadth. The seats are
interrupted by five passages, converging towards the centre of the open
space below. Exterior to the seats are three concentric walls, furnishing
a covered corridor of eighteen or twenty feet width within, and an outer
opening occupied by staircases ascending to the upper gallery, on a level
with the hinder seats. — Ed.
2 See also Buckingham, Trav. ii. p. 308 ; and von Raumer, Pal. p. 44.
s Burckhardt, Trav. pp. 342-344.

WESTERLY TRIBUTARIES OF THE JORDAN. 309
the same. North of Wadi el Bireh there is only one tributary
of the Jordan known to us to come in from the west, the Wadi
el Fejas, which runs from the northern side of Mount Tabor.
South of the Wadi Oesche is the Wadi Beishan, which passes
through the midst of the town bearing that name, carrying fer
tility and beauty wherever it goes.
These four tributaries — Wadi el Fejas, Wadi el Bireh,
Wadi Oesche, and Wadi Beishan, all of which flow into the
Jordan from the west — do not merit the name of Sheriat, like
the Mandera; but are, in truth, mere wadis, having a tem
porary stream during the rainy season, and therefore not with
out influence on the adjacent valleys, hiUs, and villages. On
this account, I cannot omit to speak of them before coming
to describe the geographical character of Beishan. The dis
trict which they drain forms a considerable part of the basin of
the middle Jordan ; and the ready access which they afford to
the hill country of Galilee, has always given them great his
torical importance.*
All the four wadis named above run in almost parallel
lines to the great Jordan depression ; their course being short
and the descent rapid from the long mountain chain, which
presents itself here, in the region south of Galilee, in a more
plateau-shaped and broadly-arched form than in the most ele
vated districts of Samaria and Galilee. The springs which
feed them are found upon the watershed line between the
Ghor and the Mediterranean : their waters, pouring as they
do into a stream lying from eight hundred to a thousand feet
deeper than the sea-level, and having so short a course, must
run with proportionately greater violence than those which,
like the Kishon, debouch on the western coast. The line of
watershed is not a straight, but a very winding one, connecting
the three mountain groups standing on the common plateau,
Tabor, the smaller Hermon (more correctly Jebel el Dahy),
and Jebel Gilboa. These mountains form the arc of a circle
on the eastern side of the plain of Esdraelon; but they are
disconnected from each other by the wadis alluded to above,
and converted into little isolated systems, the line of direction
in each of which does not run north and south, but parallel
with the wadis, i.e. from north-west to south-east.
1 See Hammer-Purgstall in Wien. Jahrb. 1836, vol. Ixxiv. p. 46.

810 PALESTINE.
1. Wadi el Fejas, and its head springs in the Ard el Hamma.
The most northern of the wadis named takes its rise north-
north-east of Mount Tabor, between it and the mountain chain
west of Lake Tiberias, and flows south-eastward from the
village of Hattin, on the northern edge of the plain Ard el
Hararaa,* plunging at last rapidly down to the Jordan valley.
This elevated plain, the Ard el Hamma, although covered
with basaltic fragments,' has a very fruitful soil, and yields
fine crops of dhurra, although in dry seasons the ground opens
with wide cracks, whence thistles and thorns spring with, great
rapidity. Burckhardt says of the plain, that a large portion
of it is overgrown with the wild artichoke, which produces a
small blue flower, which has been considered by some the " Uly
of the field " referred to by the Saviour.
The road from Tabor to Damascus crosses the plain Ard el
Hamma, and passes the Khan el Tudjar,, where every Monday
the peasants meet and have a market,* Kefr Sabt, Subieh, and
Hattin, the last named lying near the double-horned and saddle-
shaped pass known as the Kurun Hattin. These two knobs,
between which passes the road leading northward, rise only
about sixty or eighty feet above the plain, whose elevation
above the sea is estimated at about a thousand feet. The
northern part of the plain in the neighbourhood of the Kurun
Hattin has a deep historical interest : for here it was that the
Sultan Saladin gained so complete a victory in the year 1187
over the army of the crusaders,* that the latter never recovei:ed
from it, and were soon compelled to withdraw entirely from
Palestine. A modem legend, entirely unfounded, however,
has made this place the scene of the miracle which supplied
five thousand persons with bread.
North-west of the village of Subieh may be seen the little
hamlets of Turan and Kefr Kenna,® the latter of which, lying
1 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 333 ; Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 369 ;
Russegger, Reise, iii. p. 130.
2 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 333 ; Buckingham, ii. pp. 321-323.
2 Buckingham, Trav. in Pal. ii. pp. 320-322 ; Wilson, Lands of the
Bible, ii. pp. 108, 305.
-• Wilken, Gesch. der KreutzzUge, iii. p. 282 ; Reinaud, in Michelet, Extr.
iv. p. 194 ; Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 375-485.
' Robinson, Bib. Researches, ii. pp. 346-352.

MOUNT tabor: 311
five miles north-east of Nazareth, has been erroneously con
sidered the Cana of Galilee mentioned in John ii. The brooks
of this place flow westward, while those of Subieh enter the
Jordan. The watershed line therefore crosses the plain on
the north side of Tabor, and is undistinguishable with the
naked eye. 2. The Wadi el Bireh and Mount Tabor.
This wadi is the second of the tributaries of the Jordan
which come in from the west, below Lake Tiberias. It takes
its name from the village of Bireh, which it passes, and begins
at the southem base of Tabor, the celebrated mountain which
rises on the western boundary of the Jordan valley, and which
is the more carefully to be observed, because, while it is the most
characteristic peak which dominates over the Ghor, it forms a
barrier between it atid the great plain of Jezreel or Ezraelon.
This slopes gradually to the Mediterranean, and is traversed
by the Kishon, a not unimportant stream, whose head waters
spring from the north and west base of Tabor, giving it all the
character of a watershed mountain, and conferring the same
physical peculiarity upon the surrounding plain.
Tabor, whose etymological meaning appears to be umbilicus^
was called by the Greeks Atabyrion, and is designated by the
Arabs of the present day as Jebel Tor, or the mountain. And
really it- deserves this title of pre-eminence, as the most isolated'
and most prominent landmark of all Galilee, its cone-shaped
figure being seen from all sides* towering above the plain, and
the low hills which stand near it. Although it only rises about
eight hundred feet above the plain called Ard el Hamma, at its
north-eastern base ; only about six hundred feet above Nazareth,
a little to the north of west of it ; although it rises but very
slightly above Jebel ed Duhy or the smaller Hermon at the
south, and reaches* only a height of seventeen hundred and
fifty Paris feet above the sea ; yet its relative position to the
1 Reland, Pal. pp. 331-336 ; Rosenmiiller, Bibl. Alterthk. p. 105; also
Note 10, p. 133 ; von Raumer, Pal. pp. 37-39.
2 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 834.
" Roberts, La Terre Sainte, liv. ix. Vign. 25 : Le Mont Thabor.
* Russegger, Reise, iii. p. 159 ; Steinheil, in Gel. Aus. d. Bayer. Akad.
d. W. 1840, No. 47, p. 383,

312 PALESTINE.
country around it leaves the impression that it is twice as high
as it really is.* Jerome says of it : Thabor, terminus Zabulon ;
mons in medio Galilasae, mira rotunditate, sublimis, etc. It was
the boundary between the tribes of Zebulon and Issachar (Josh.
xix. 12, 22), The Chisloth Tabor which Joshua mentions was
a place which lay at the north-west base of the mountain, and
was sometimes reckoned in the territory of one tribe, and some
times in that of another.' In Ps. Ixxxix. 12, the glory of
Tabor is compared with that of Hermon. On the north side,
from Khan el Tudshar, Burckhardt required three hours to
climb the mountain, Wilson, who ascended by the same way,
discovered above the khan, and not far from it, a spring,* whose
waters flow from the north-east side of the mountain, wind
around its base, and enter the right fork of the Wadi el Bireh
on the south side. From this spring the observer can see that
Tabor is not a perfect cone, as it has been commonly sup
posed, but that its longer axis extends from east to west. The
isolation of this mountain has doubtless been the reason for its
being made by the earlier ecclesiastics the scene of the trans
figuration of the Saviour, described in Mark ix. 2 : " Jesus
taketh with Him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth
them up into a high mountain apart by themselves." Reland*
and Wilson have placed beyond doubt the fact, that the word
" apart" refers not to the solitary position of the mountain, but
to the seclusion of the disciples themselves. Both endeavour
strenuously to show that the Mount of Transfiguration was in
the neighbourhood of Hermon and Caesarea Philippi. The
New Testament does not throw any light upon the matter ; the
very earliest legend places the scene of the transfiguration on
the Mount of Olives, near Jerusalem.® It is only since the
time of Cyrillus and Jerome that Tabor has been connected
with this sacred episode in the life of the Saviour. Eusebius,
the predecessor of both, describes Tabor, but he evidently
knows nothmg of such a legend ; for assuredly he would not
1 Volney, Reise, ii. p. 1 72.
2 Keil, Comment, iiber Josua, pp. 338, 343. ¦
3 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 331; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. pp.
90, 107 ; von Raumer, Pal. p. 123,
* Reland, Pal. p. 335 3 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 100, Note 3.
* Itin, Anton, Aug, et Hierosolymitanum, ed. Parthey, 1848.

MOUNT TABOR. 313
have passed by it in silence, if the tradition existed in his time.
The historical data which we possess, show that the summit of
the mountain was employed, without any intermission, between
the times of Antiochus Magnus, 218 B.C., and the destruction
of Jerusalem under Vespasian, as a stronghold, and was by no
means the scene of peace and solitude whither one would flee,
anxious to escape the turmoil of the world. The consecration
which quiet and seclusion give was only reached after the
fortresses which once crowned its summit had been laid low,
and all Palestine had become a scene of desolation, and the
home of idle, legendary fancies. The architectural remains
now to be seen upon the summit confirm the account of the
character of the fortifications which it once sustained ; and in
addition to that evidence, we have the statements furnished by
the crusaders regarding the devastations made by the Saracens
under Sultan Saladin in 1187, and Sultan Bihar in 1263. The
latter converted the whole into a scene of utter desolation ; and
so it remains to the present day.*
The most common ascent of Tabor is from Nazareth, the
north-west side. This is also the easiest ascent, because the
height of the adjacent plain is greater than on the north-east
side. The path, at first tolerably level,' and then ascending in
a serpentine course, is beautified by varieties of grass, and by
overshadowing oaks and thickets of bushes, in which von
Schubert* heard, on the 19th of April, countless birds sing
ing their morning song, awakening within him the solemq
thought, that here once walked Jesus. Tabor rose before him,
arrayed in its mantle of forests, and isolated from all its neigh
bours, like an altar in a plain ; and even if it were not the
hallowed mountain on which Peter heard the voice from
heaven (2 Pet. i, 18), yet it was the place alluded to in the
inspired words of the Psalmist : " The north and the south.
Thou hast created them ; Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in
Thy name" (Ps, Ixxxix. 12),
At the left of the road running north-westward there runs
a low range of hills, which form the natural connection between
Tabor and the heights around Nazareth. Over the top of this
1 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 362-369.
2 Ibid. p. 350 ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 100.
* Von Schubert, Reise, iii. pp. 173-180.

314 PALESTINE.
range runs a road which was taken by Robinson, while Wilson
and von Schubert pursued the one first named. This is the
great Damascus route, and passes by the little village of Daburi,
the Dabira of Eusebius and Jerome, the Dabaritta of Josephus,
and, it may be, the Deberath which, according to Josh. xix. 12,
belonged to Issachar, And since the popular beHef has trans
ferred to Tabor the scene of the healing of the son who was
a lunatic, and whose father brought him to the Saviour,
Raphael has with fine judgment and taste introduced the sum
mit of Tabor and the angelic personages upon it into his picture
of the Transfiguration, and secured for it that immortality
which so perfect a work of art can give. Von Schubert tells
us that the direct ascent of the mountain begins near the ruins
of a Christian church, and is at first steep and difflcult. One
does not need to go more than a third of the way to the top
before he discerns the round wooded summit which, when
reached, proves to be a small plain slightly inclining westward.
The path up is extremely circuitous, and in some places too
steep to ride over. It usually takes from an hour and a quarter
to an hour and a half to reach the summit. Tabor is clothed
with woods to the very top — one of the greatest rarities among
the mountains of Syria,* The dark green of the walnut, the slim
azederach, the rose-bushes, the yellowish white styrax blossoms,
the pistachio and oak trees ; all these and many others beautify
the path to the very summit, where a view of immense extent,
embracing Galilee, Samaria, Persea, and extending as far north
ward as the snow-crowned Herraon, richly repays the toil of
the ascent.
Von Schubert ascertained the height of the valley in which
Nazareth lies to be eight hundred and twenty-one feet above
the sea, and that of the hills around to be from fifteen to
sixteen hundred feet. The altitude of Esdraelon, at the foot of
Tabor, is four hundred and thirty-nine feet above the sea-level,'
while the surface of Lake Tiberias, on the eastern side of the
plateau on which Tabor stands, is five hundred and thirty-five
feet below the ocean-level. The summit of this mountain is,
according to von Schubert's measurement, 1748 feet above the
sea, or about 2283 feet above Lake Tiberias. Yet it is not the
1 Russegger, Reise, iii. p. 129.
2 "^^on Schubert, Reise, iii. pp. 168, 174, 177,

VIEW FROM TABOR. 315
absolute height of Tabor, but Its position in relation to the deep
Jordan valley, and the great plain at its base, that gives it the
appearance of an altitude which it does not possess. And one
of the phenomena most striking to an observer standing upon
Mount Tabor, is the sharp contrast of colour presented by the
deep green broad plain just at its base, to the blinding white of
the snow-crowned Anti-Lebanon, the intense blue of the moun
tains of Ephraim and Judsea, and the pale green of those of
Gilboa, In this, and in the recollections suggested by many
places in view from the summit, and in the inexhaustible
varieties of natural beauty, there is enough to charm the spec
tator and bind him there with as strong a fascination as any
Alpine prospect could do,*
Towards the north-east is to be seen the distant and lofty
Jebel Sheikh ; west of that, the high range of the Lebanon ;
stiU nearer, Jebel Safed, with the peak which the city of Safed
crowns. Directly at the foot of Tabor, and in the same direc
tion, is the most northern arm of the great, but here rolling,
plain of Esdraelon, extending north-eastwardly as far as to
Kurun Hattin, and north-westwardly as far as Sefurieh and
Kana el Jelil, more or less dotted with hills, and animated
with the villages and encampments of the Arabs. Only a
small portion of Lake Tiberias is to be seen, although its out
lines are distinctly raarked. Behind it, and farther to the
north-east, the liigh plateau of Jolan is clearly seen ; farther
south, the flat table-land of Hauran ; and still farther south,
Bashan and the mountains of Gilead, which in winter are
capped with snow, but which in spring display even at a dis
tance the sarae green pasture lands which they had in Moses'
tiraes. Moab rises shajrply up from the horizon like an impass
able wall, which, however, a nearer view would show to be rent
with a thousand titanic seams.
In the direct neighbourhood of the mountain, the view
north-eastwardly takes in only a small tract of the Jordan
valley ; for the Ghor is hid from sight by its high western wall.
Even on the south, the situation of Beisan cannot be discerned,
although the depressed valleys of Wadi el Bireh and Wadi
1 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 357-360 ; Russegger, Reise, iii. p.
130 ; Wilson, Lands, etc., ii. pp. 104-106 ; Strauss, Sinai und Golgotha,
pp. 401-403; Richter, Wallfahrt. t^. 61; (Tristram, Zanc? o//srae?, p. 498.)

316 PALESTINE.
Beisan are in f uU view, and although the wider tract through
which they pass before entering the Jordan may claim to be
considered a part of the Jordan vaUey itself. Of the Dead
Sea nothing is to be seen. Towards the south, Jebel et Dahi,
or the smaller Hermon, shuts off the prospect, particulariy of
the mountains of Samaria; but as it is considerably lower than
Tabor, it does not hide the heights of Gilboa, Wilson recog
nised with perfect distinctness, at the south foot of Tabor, the
great depression* which runs from the village of Endor south-
eastwardly to the Jordan, He heard the name Mirzah appHed
to the upper part, — a name which is with great probability con
nected with the same Meroz' which was cursed by Deborah
(Judg, V, 23), Close by the beginning of Mirzah, whose
waters fiow into the Jordan, lie the sources of a small tributary
of the Kishon,* Here, therefore, south of Tabor, the same
phenomenon repeats itself which we have already observed in
the Ard el Hamma, namely, the existence of the watershed line
on the plains which lie between the groups of mountains just
west of the Jordan.
On the northern slope of the smaller Hermon, or Jebel
Dahi, are to be seen the villages of Dahi, Nain, and Endor, the
latter of which have a deep religious interest. They lie in the
upper valley of the Wadi el Bireh. From the summit of
Tabor, Jebel Dahi is seen to have two peaks, of which the
northern one is the less elevated : between the two there lies a
high plain, whence runs Wadi Oeshe, parallel with Wadi el
Bireh : in the summer time it is dry. Still farther south of
Wadi Oeshe the depression of the Beishan valley is to be seen,
running directly west from the Jordan to Ain Jalud, in the
plain of Esdraelon, and at the north-western extremity of the
Gilboa ridge. From this place, too, fiows westwardly a tribu
tary of the Kishon ; and here, as on the plains farther north,
the watershed follows the plains between the mountains.
The view westward from Tabor is no less interesting than
that southward. Both give an impression with regard to the
topographical character of the country far more accurate and
satisfying than could be gained by traversing all its parts. The
1 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, l.c. ii. p, 106 ; Robinson, Bib, Research,
ii. p. 355.
2 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. pp. 90, 107. * Ibid. pp. 89, 90.

THE SUMMIT OF TABOR. 317
view westward extends diagonally across the broad and gently
sloping plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon, the Merj Ibn Amer of
the Arabs, about twenty miles in length and ten in breadth,
according to Burckhardt. At its western end, above Lejun
and Megiddo, tower the wooded heights of Carmel, whose
altitude is almost precisely the same as that of Tabor, about
1500 feet ; whence the conjunction of their names in Jer.
xlvi. 18. The northem view is closed by the hills of Nazareth ;
but still farther north, there may be seen in the extreme dis
tance, and under a favourable condition of the atmosphei'e, a
line of silver — the Mediterranean Sea.
From 'this broad panoramic picture we turn to study more
closely the place where we stand — the summit of Tabor. Accord
ing to Burckhardt,* it is from one to two miles in circumference,
and according to Robinson it is an eUiptical plain, about a mile
across in one direction, and about half a mile in another. At
the south-western part there are a number of walls and ruins
to be seen ; the whole top is overgrown with grass and bushes,
but the growth of trees does not extend beyond the edge.
Wilson was surprised at finding a patch of oats upon the
top ; probably the last results of the settlement there early in
the century of a number of Greek families, who had been
driven from Hauran, and had taken refuge on the summit of
Tabor. The ruins on the top belong to different epochs. Around
almost the whole of the edge can be seen the remains of a thick
waU, composed of great stones, many of which are bevelled.
These both Robinson and Wilson suppose to indicate the exist
ence there of a strong fortress at a very early day. We know
that even in the time of Deborah and Barak, Tabor was a strong
hold, for here ten thousand men arrayed themselves against
Sisera (Judg. iv. 6, 12). Polybius tells us that Antiochus
Magnus fortified the summit of this mountain, 218 B.C. The
principal ruins are found on the eastern and southern sides of
the summit, and consist of a confused mass of walls, sepulchres,
ditches, arches, and foundations of houses, many of the stones
bevelled. There is to be seen also a pointed Saracenic arch
built in the middle ages. It is called the gate of the winds.
At the time of the Crusades, churches and convents were on
1 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 334 ; Robinson, Bib, Research, ii. p. 352.

318 PALESTINE.
the top of Tabor,* and WUlibald speaks of their existence there
as early as the eighth century,' although there is no proof that
the Empress Helena ever built a church there, as she is asserted
by some to have done.
Burckhardt* observed that during the most of the summer
the sumrait of Tabor was surrounded in the morning with
thick clouds, which disappeared later in the day. He found more
dew to fall there than anywhere else in Syria. Robinson ob
served the sarae phenomenon; and Maundrell* aUudes expressly
to the amount of moisture which he found on his tent in the
morning in the plains of Jezreel, This phenomenon reminds
us of the often-mentioned dew® of Hermon, How important it
was regarded to the existence of vegetation on the neighbouring
mountains of Gilead, may be seen by the prominence given to
the falling of dew on the fleece 'of wool before Gideon's conflict
with the Amalekites (Judg, vi, 37-39),
3. Wadi Oesche and the Jebel ed Dahi, or Little Hermori,
The valley known as Wadi Oesche is completely terra
incognita : of its lower course we know nothing further than
that Burckhardt^ passed through it on his way from Endor to
Beisan, It runs from a high plateau on Little Hermon, be
tween its two peaks, and passes down its eastern slope, passing
thence on to the Jordan, Jebel Dahi, the name appHed by the
Arabs to the mountain, appears to derive its name from that of
the village of Dahi on its western slope, Burckhardt' paid
little attention to the physical character of the valley as he
passed through, and gave no names of localities; but the
researches of Robinson did not leave even these undetermined ;
and as the result, we have on Kiepert's map the villages of
Afleh, Salam el Fuleh, ed-Dahy, Endor, Nein, Turarah, Um
et Talyibeh, Murussus, and Kumieh.
1 Von Raumer, Pal. p. 38.
2 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 358, 359.
3 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 335.
* Maundrell, Journ. Oxon. p. 57.
" Itin. Antonini, ix. fol. mccxLi., in Ugolini, Thes. vol. vii. ; ibid. edit.
Julimagi Audium, fol. 8.
6 Burckhardt, Trav. Gesenius' ed. ii. p. 591 ; Robinson, Bib. Research.
ii. p. 356.
" Burckhardt, Trav. p. 242.

ENDOR AND NAIN. 319
The name Little Hermon,* which is applied to Jebel ed
Dahi, has been in use since the fourth century. It is not
alluded to in the writings of the Old or New Testament.
Jerome alludes to it twice, and erroneously connects with it the
Herraon mentioned in Ps. Ixxxix. 12, "Tabor and Hermon
shall rejoice in Thy name," having supposed that the conjunc
tion of the two names was meant to correspond to the relation
of the two mountains, which stand almost side by side. The
Hermon alluded to there, as well as that spoken of in the plural
form in Ps, xiii, 6, Hermonim [translated Hermonites in the
Eng, version], refers unquestionably to the double-peaked Jebel
es Sheikh, The false' application of the word Hermon quickly
found favour with the ecclesiastics, and was adopted by them ;
but the Arabs of the country have never shown the slightest
inclination to caU Jebel Dahi by the name of Hermon. In fact,
the raountain is neither massive nor high, neither beautiful nor
fruitful ; it is a barren, shapeless mass, its highest part lying
towards the west: only the villages on its slope have any
historical interest,
Endor is the ancient place of the same name, situated in the
territories of Manasseh, where dwelt the soothsayer or "witch"
consulted by Saul (1 Sam, xxviii. 7). It was also the place
where Sisera was overthrown (Ps. Ixxxiil. 9, 10). Its position
has been discovered by recent explorers.
Nain, now a little hamlet, just south of the last-mentioned
place, has been visited by pilgrims since the time of the Crusades,
as the place where the young man mentioned in Luke vii. 11
lived. To the west, but very near, are the villages of Dahi, from
which the mountain derives its name, Fuleh* and Afuleh, now
in a state of great decay, and standing at the western base, on
the very border of the plain of Esdraelon, and at the line of
watershed between Tabor and Jebel el Dahi, These places
bore in the time of the Crusades the name CasteUum Faba ;
they were in the coraraon possession of the Hospitallers and
the Teraplars, but were taken and sacked in 1187 by Sultan
1 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 326, and Rodiger, Rec. ; comp. Rosen
muller, Bibl. Alter, ii. Note 6, pp. 135-137.
2 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 319, 320.
3 Ibid. p. 828 ; Wilken, Gesch. der Kreutz. iii. pp. 231, 267.

320 . PALESTINE.
Saladin, In modern times, the locality which Burckhardt*
designates by the name of Fele was the scene of a battle
between the French under General Kleber and the Turks, in
which an army of 2000 men routed a Turkish army of 25,000.
In 1843, Wilson, on passing through this neighbourhood, dis
covered the traces of ancient walls, which showed him con
clusively that Jebel Dahi, like Tabor, was once fortified as a
stronghold,' Just here it is, at the western angle of Little Hermon, that
the great Damascus road, running north-eastward, divides into
two arms, the right one of which runs along the east foot of
Tabor through the Wadi Bireh, to the Khan et Tujar (this
is the road most travelled*), and the left foUows the north
western side (mostly taken by Christian pilgrims who wish to
visit Nazareth and ascend Tabor), meeting the other at the
khan, and thenceforward making but one road. Tracing the
Damascus road in the reverse direction, it runs from the west
side of Tabor south-westward, passing the villages of Fuleh
and Afuleh, which lie on the eastern margin of the plain of
Jezreel, on the line of watershed* between the Mediterranean
and the Jordan, which, as has already been remarked, is not
to be traced at all with the eye. The level tracts which lie
between the mountains described above, do not show even the
slightest wave of land which would direct the tendency of the
streams which rise there, yet they form the natural watershed
notwithstanding. The village of Solam,® south-east of Fuleh,
on the last southern bluff projecting from Little Hermon, and
opposite to Zer'in, at the head waters of Wadi Beisan, is an
insignificant, squalid cluster of houses, but which, from its
position, commands the whole plain of Jezreel as far as Carmel,
It is the Shunem which, with Jezreel and ChesuUoth, was
appointed to be the boundary of Issachar (Josh, xix, 18) ;
it is also the place where the PhUistines encamped when
Saul had gathered all Israel on the mountains of Gilboa,
and went for counsel in his despair to the sorceress of the
neighbouring village of Endor (1 Sam, xxviii, 4), It is the
1 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 339.
2 AVilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 39. « Ibid. p. 90.
* Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 331.
« Von Raumer, Pal. p. 139.

WADI BEISAN. 321
Sunem whence the fair maid Abishag was brought to David
(1 Kings i, 3) ; it was the home, too, of the widow who
received Elijah in so hospitable a manner, and who afterwards
rode across the plain of Esdraelon to Carmel, to implore him
to restore the life of her son (2 Kings iv, 8-25), Eusebius
speaks of Shulem as lying five Roman miles south of Tabor ;
which coincides well with the situation of the modern Solam,
for the discovery of which we are indebted to Monro.
DiSCURSlON IV,
WADI BEISAN — THE CITY OF BEISAN AND THE MOUNTAINS OP JELBON OR GILBOA
— ZER'IN, THE ANCIENT JEZREEL — THE SPRING OF JEZREEL — BETHSHEAN,
i.e. SCYTHOPOLIS, BEISAN.
Burckhardt entered Wadi Beisan,* the fourth and most
southem of the parallel transverse valleys, and passed up and
down the whole wadi, without discovering the spring whence
its waters flow. Irby and Mangles visited it while on the same
road which Molyneux took from Lake Tiberias, and traversed'
it southwards as far as the Jordan. No traveller since their
day has followed Wadi Beisan to its source, and it remains a
field for new discovery ; for the greater number of tourists and
explorers have merely passed by the spring at Jezreel, lying
on the confines of the mountains of Gilboa and the plain of
Esdraelon, because there passes the great Damascus road from
Samaria via Jenin to Nazareth, as well as to Tabor and Tiberias.
From this point we become acquainted with the mountains of
Jilbon, the source of the Beisan stream, which springs here
from its northern slope, and takes its course through the Wadi
Beisan. There is also a road which leads directly from Jenin
north-eastwardly* over the Gilboa range to Beisan, passing
Fukua and Jilbon, the ancient Gilboa. At the west end of
the range is the route taken by von Schubert* and Wilson,
running northward to Nazareth, and passing Zer'in near tho
1 Burckhardt, Trav. Gesenius' ed. ii. pp. 591-595,
" Irby and Mangles, Trav. pp. 301-304.
3 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 316, 317.
« Von Schubert, Reise, iii. pp. 164-168 ; Robinson, Bib. Research, ii.
pp. 315-331 ; Wnson, Lands of the Bible, ii. pp. 84-91, 303, 304.
VOL, II. X

322 PALESTINE.
fountain of Jezreel, These travellers never went eastward
into the Beisan valley farther than to a spring of which I shall
speak in another place. The exploration of Wadi Beisan
seems to be the more desirable, since it appears to be the
deepest and flattest depression which connects the Mediterranean
Sea with the Jordan valley.
There are only three points connected with the present
division of our subject, of which, in the absence of sufficient
authorities, I venture to speak : the first is Zer'in, or the
ancient Jezreel ; the second, the mountains of Gilboa ; and the
third, the city of Bethshean, the Scythopolis of the Greeks, and
the Beisan of the present day.
1, Zer'in, or the ancient Jezreel; the Fountain of Jezreel, in
the upper part of Wadi Beisan.
The junction of the Beisan valley, which at its western
extremity is a broad plain, with the eastern part of the plain of
Esdraelon, is so perfect that the watershed cannot be detected
with the eye, and justifies the application of the term " Open
Gate"* applied to it by von Raumer, It is indeed the natural
transition between the great plain of Esdraelon and the flat and
plain-like Wadi Beisan, The pillars of this gate may be said to
be Jebel Dahi or Little Hermon on the one side, and the Gilboa
mountains on the other. The existence of a broad open space
connecting Esdraelon with the Jordan valley, is in entire vari
ance with the generally accepted notion of an almost unbroken
Syrian range running from north to south. Still Robinson
declares' decisively that there is a plain of from two to three
miles in width lying between Gilboa and Little Hermon, and
stretching away eastward as far as the city of Beisan, whose
acropolis-like site he could distinctly discern. Standing at Zer'in,
he could see the blending of the two plains just before his eyes.
To mark the precise line of watershed would be impossible,
for the eye can detect no visible sign of the blending of the
eastern with the western plains. The line appears, however,
to run northward from Zer'in past the villages of Fuleh and
Afuleh, and south of Zer'in to the ruins of Sundela,
Coming from the south-west on the high road from Jenin,
1 Von Raumer, Pal. p. 44.
2 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 315-331.

THE VILLAGE OF ZEE IN. 323
one discovers, after passing Sundela, the village of Zer'in,
from which the unbroken plain of Esdraelon or Jezreel extends
westward* as far as the eye can reach. It was a surprise to
Robinson, on reaching this place, to find himself standing on
the brink of a precipice a hundred feet in height, and facing
northward. This forms the abrupt termination of the moun
tains of Jilbon or Gilboa, At the foot lies the valley of
Beisan, a plain two and a half miles in width, beyond which
rises gradually Jebel Dahi or Little Hermon.
This village of Zer'in, at present in decay, and consisting
of only a few houses standing among ruins, lies absolutely as
well as relatively high, and commands a view of the Beisan
plain on the east, and the Esdraelon plain on the west. The
latter derives its name from that of the ancient city of Jezreel
(Josh. xvii. 16), where it is spoken of as lying in a valley.
The Jezreel of the Hebrews became the Ezdraelon of the
Greeks and the Stradela' of the middle ages; the Arabs of
the present day caU it Zer'in, We know from the account of
Eusebius that the territory designated by the Hebrew word
Jezreel was exactly coincident with that called by the Greeks
Ezdraelon, The Arab word Zer'in arose naturally from the old
Hebrew form, since the last syllable, el, very often passes over
into en and in, — for example, Israyen instead of Israel, — the
weak aspirate j is lost, the es is transposed into se or ze, as is
very often the case in Arabic words. The crusaders recognised
the identity of the names,* and William of Tyre says that in
his day Jezreel was known as Gerinum,
The ancient Hebrew name employed by Josephus in his
Antiquities has continued to cling to the city, to the spring
found beneath it, and to the valley sloping away gently toward
the east, — the sarae in which the Midianites encaraped (Judg.
vi, 33), The Greek name Ezdraelon, which Josephus does not
use, is now applied to the great plain stretching away west to
the city of Jezreel (Zer'in),
This name Zer'in, or Zer'ain, as Wilson writes It, seems
to have more relation to the celebrated spring (Ain) which
^ Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 319.
2 Itinerar. Hierosol. p. 586, ed. Parthey, p. 276.
3 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 321 ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii.
p. 87,

324 PALESTINE.
is found near the viUage, and which is spoken of in 1 Sam,
xxix, 1 as a place of encampment : " The PhiHstines gathered
together all their armies to Aphek ; and the Israelites pitched
by a fountain which is in Jezreel," The place is of insignifi
cant importance compared with its splendour in the days of
Ishbosheth the son of Saul (2 Sam, ii, 2, 8, 9), and when
Ahab and Jezebel once had their royal residence there, and
coveted the vineyard of Naboth, and brought upon themselves
the judgments of God. Wilson counted* thirty or forty huts
in the present viUage, and scattered fragments around, among
which were a number of sarcophagi, which Robinson had
already noticed, and held to be a mark of the former import
ance of the place. At a second visit Wilson saw eleven of
these, and held them to be the work of the ancient Israelites.*
He also discovered traces of basaltic quarries which had not been
observed before. Araong the ruins he found an ancient square
tower, which both he and Robinson ascended, and whence an
extensive prospect was to be had. At the north was Jebel
Dahi and the mountains of Nazareth and Galilee, Westward
the Carmel ridge was seen stretching to the sea : in the distant
east and beyond the Jordan the mountain walls of Bethaniyah
(Bashan) and Ajlun (Eglon) were to be descried. Still
nearer, and in the same direction, was the Tell Beisan, the
acropolis which towers above the site of the ancient Scythopolis,
Westward, and at about the same distance, Lejun with its
minaret could be seen confronting Carmel. This place was
the ancient Legio ; and near it was Maximlanopolis, which
Jerorae locates in the plain of Megiddo. Each of these places
is about nine miles from Zer'in, the intermediate station. The
tower referred to above seems to be a monument dating from a
very early period, — perhaps that of the prophet Elijah, — and
may be the very one mentioned in the account of Joram's
sickness at Jezreel, and the approach of Jehu, his adversary,
over the plain below. The latter was evidently coming up
through the Wadi Beisan, the ancient Bethshean, The account
is given in 2 Kings ix., and the 17th verse gives a very distinct
idea of one topographical peculiarity of the ancient city of
Jezreel, The allusion is in the following words : " And there
stood a watchman on the tower of Jezreel," etc,
' Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. pp. 87, 303.

ZER'IN THE ANCIENT JEZREEL. 325
More satisfactory testimony to the identity of the place
noticed by Robinson and Wilson with the Jezreel which
flourished three thousand years ago, can hardly be imagined.
The argument is strengthened by a word or two occurrincr in
1 Kings iv, 12, where, in the account of the twelve officials
appointed to provide for the wants of Solomon's household, we
read : " Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is
by Zartanah, beneath Jezreel" etc. The last words exactly
describe the impression which the view from Zer'in made upon
the travellers of our day who looked down from it upon the
depression of Wadi Beisan,*
Wilson tells us that, on his descent from Zer'in, on the
northern side of the decHvity, he came unexpectedly upon a
fountain which supplies the present village with water. This
seemed to him to be probably the spring mentioned in 1 Sam,
xxix, 1, around which Israel encamped when the Philistines
came up into the plain of Jezreel and offered battle. This,
however, is the fountain Aia Jalud, farther east, which
Robinson visited, Wilson, on his second tour of exploration'
in that neighbourhood, was struck with the regular descent of
the valley towards the east ; he discovered, moreover, several
brooks whose waters were of great advantage to the crop
of oats which he found growing there. The soil seemed to
him to be formed from the crumbling of the basaltic rock
of the neighbourhood, and to owe its fertility to this com
ponent.* Robinson, Hke Wilson, descended the north face of the
bluff on which Zer'in stands, and after a walk of twelve
minutes he came to a cluster of springs, whose waters, after
breaking from the ground, formed for a little distance separate
channels, and then joined in a common brook. The name which
he found given to it was Ain el Meiyiteh, or the Dead Fountain,*
because it used to dry up. At the time of his visit, however, it
had been dug out, and its waters turned to a useful purpose in
irrigation. This seems to be the spring which Wilson thought
the true Ain Jezreel mentioned in the Scriptures. But twenty
iSee Wilson, Lands, etc., ii. p. 87; Dr E. G. Schultz, Zeitsch. d.
deutsch. morgenl, Ges, vol. iii. p. 48 ; and Gross, Anmerk, p. 58.
2 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. pp. 88, 303, 304.
s Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 324. * Ibid. pp. 323-325.

326 PALESTINE.
minutes' distance eastward of this, Robinson discovered a very
large spring, which seemed to him to have no slight claims to
recognition, as the one alluded to in the sacred record. It
breaks forth from beneath a wall of conglomerate rock, which
forms the base of the Gilboa mountains (Gilboa signifies in the
Hebrew a boIHng* spring) ; and the supposition seems a natural
one, that the name was transferred from the fountain to the
range. The water is of an excellent quality, and forms, directly
below the cleft whence it flows, a fine clear pool, full of fish.
The brook which forms the outlet of this turns the wheel of a
mill, and then passes on, unquestionably to be the upper waters
of the Wadi Beisan, although this name is not there in use.
The term by which the fountain is designated by the Arabs
is Ain Jalud, i.e. Goliath's Spring, — Jalud being the Arabic
form of Goliath,' The connection of the name of the giant
who encountered David with this spring is evidently merely
fanciful, springing from the fact that a great battle was once
fought here between the Israelites* and the Philistines (1 Sam.
x.xix, 1, 11),
This spring was one better adapted, from its ample supply
of water, to be the camping-place of the Hebrew army, than
the one found near the village of Zer'in. And the place which
witnessed the death of Saul and Jonathan (1 Sam. xxxi. 1-4)
has not been allowed to remain there many centuries without
drawing other armies to its neighbourhood. Its situation at the
intersection of the roads running north and east, as well as its
ample supplies of water,* raade this place a f araous resort in the
time of the Crusades ; for by this spring passed the nearest
and the most comfortable road for the Saracen hordes under
Saladin to come up from the Jordan after crossing from Persea,
At this spring they could encamp before entering the mountain
land of GalUee and Samaria, and rest themselves and prepare
for battle, William of Tyre, the chronicler of the Crusades,
was familiar with the fact that this great fountain, then called
Zubania, was the source of the Wadi Beisan stream ; for he
1 Rosenmuller, Bibl. Alterthk. ii. p. 111.
2 Bahaeddin, Vita Saladini, p. 53 ; Wilken, Gesch. d. Rreuzzuge, iii.
p. 231, Note 146.
' Itinerar. Antonini Augusti, etc, ed. Parthey, p. 276.
* Zeitsch. d. deutsch. morgenl. Ges. vol. iii. p. 48.

BEISAN OR SCYTHOPOLIS 327
not only speaks distinctly of it, but he confirms his testimony,
by stating that the pool which it fed was so full of fish as to
supply the troops which were with him with a fuU meal. I
have already alluded to Robinson's interesting discovery of fish
in the same waters.
The earliest account of the division of the conquered
country among the; tribes (Josh. xvii. 11), informs us that
Beisan or Bethshean (Scythopolis), the possession of Manasseh,
though within the limits of Issachar, was settled by a Canaan
ite population, which Manasseh was too weak to conquer and
to expel* (Judg. i. 27). The Catiaanites were dweUing at that
time in several cities of that region — Endor, Thaanach, and
Megiddo — as well as Bethshean. At that period of the ascend
ancy of the tribes in actual possession, the descendants of
Joseph, who were divided into two tribes, Ephraim and half
Manasseh, were very much discontented with the portion
assigned them (Josh. xvii. 14-18), because, although a nume
rous people, they had but one share. The result of their com
plaint was, that Joshua recognised the justice of their claims,
and bade them go and cut down the forests, and make for
themselves a place in the country of the Perizzites and
Rephaites. Their answer was i " The hill is not enough for
us ; and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley
have chariots of iron, both they that are of Bethshean and her
towns, and they who are of the Valley of Jezreel." From this
and from what follows, it seems clear that the mountains of
Gilboa are here meant, extending as they do from Bethshean
(Beisan) to Jezreel, and that the broad gentle slope from BeisaU
to Jezreel, sinking into the plain itself, is set in direct contrast
with the " land of the valley." It was only this plain of
Jezreel, and that north of Lake Huleh, that was then accessible
to the chariots of the Canaanites. It was in this plain of
Jezreel that Joram king of Israel, and Ahaziah king of Judah,
went forth in chariots to meet the enemy : it was here that
Jehu passed in a chariot to Samaria to meet the faithful
.Jehonadab (see 2 Kings ix. 21, x. 15). And Wilson,' in
leaving the hilly district of Judsea, utterly unfitted for vehicles,
and entering the plain of Esdraelon at Jenin, was surprised
^ Keil, Commentar zu Josua, p. 318.
2 Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 303,

328 PALESTINE.
to see how entirely it differed from the country which he bad
previously traversed, and how easily it might be crossed by
exceUent highways, if the custom of the country admitted of
the use of vehicles. In the days of the Jews, the plain was so
associated with the use of the chariot, that this term became
to a certain extent an exponent of the power of the people
inhabiting the plain : the chariot was the glory of Ephraim, as
the horse was of Judah (Zech. ix. 9, 10).
There is this remarkable inference to be drawn from tlje
passage cited above from the book of Joshua, that at the time
of the Israelitish invasion, the mountains of Gilboa and the
country adjacent were covered with dense forests, of which not
a trace now remains, and which made them a more secure
asylum for those who sought protection, than open fields could
be. And it seems to have been a shrewd device of the great
Hebrew chieftain, the counselling the descendants of Joseph to
go up into the mountain land ; for it w^ould lead to the laying
bare of the whole country, and would compel the original in
habitants to come out from their places of refuge, and make
open resistance to the invaders. It is unquestionable, that the
mountains of Gilboa present a very different appearance to
that of Joshua's time. And when Wilson emerged at Jenin
from the mountain country of the south, and entered the most
fertile district of all Palestine, the plain of Esdraelon, in all the
broad expanse over which his eye ranged, there was not a single
tree to be seen,*
2, Hie Mountains of Gilboa, now Jelbun {Jelbon), or
Jebel Fukua.
Unimportant as the mountains of Jelbon may seem to be
at the present time, in consequence both of their physical in
significance and the uninteresting character of the few people
who inhabit them, both of which circumstances have caused
the range to be entirely overlooked by travellers ; yet, to one
interested in Hebrew history, these mountains have even a
classical interest. Who could pass by the range, and not think
with tenderness of the friendship of David and Jonathan, and
recall with painful interest the song of the former, when the
latter had perished in the battle of the Philistines : " The beauty
^ Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii, p. 85.

THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON. 329
of Israel is slain upon thy high places : how are the mighty
fallen ! Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in 'their
lives, and in their death they were not divided," The impre
cation of ver, 21 is also found in the same dirge: "Ye moun
tains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain
upon you, nor fields of offerings," etc, ; for the Philistines had
contended with Israel, the latter had been vanquished, and Saul
and Jonathan had fallen upon the mountains, Saul's armour
was suspended in Ashtaroth, and his body hung upon the walls
of Bethshean (1 Sara, xxxi, .1, 10). Afterwards, his bones,
together with those of Jonathan, were brought by the royal
Psalmist and hero, David, to Zelah, in the territory of Benjamin,
and buried in the grave of his father Kisli (2 Sam. xxi. 14).
As one passes on to the mountain-land of Samaria, through
the narrow pass in which Jenin (Gincea) lies, at the south
east bend of the plain of Esdraelon, a walk of two hours
brings him to Zer'in, on the north-west bluff of the mountains
of Gilboa. From that point the range runs in a south-easterly
direction, till it is terminated by the steep wall at whose foot
runs the Jordan. Coming from Jenin to Zer'in, one has on
the right hand the southerly slope of GUboa in view ; and the
brooks which rise there flow westward into the Kishon, although
in the summer they are all dry. The streams which flow into the
Jordan on the other side are entirely unknown, Burckhardt*
speaks, indeed, of a Wadi el Maleh ; but no one has visited it.
Directly after emerging' from the defile, the traveller sees,
across the south-eastern bend of the fruitful plain of Esdraelon,
the whole Gilboa range, along whose western flank the road
northward leads, passing a nuraber of uninteresting spurs or
bluffs. The mountains, or more strictly, the hiUs of Gilboa,
exhibit nothing striking or pleasing in their general contour : *
they are not lofty ; they exhibit very little green pasture-land,
and no tilled fields; while forests are utterly wanting. The
broad and naked strips, and steep barren escarpments of lime
stone, are far more obvious to the eye than the patches of
green. , The line of elevation seems to be a south-easterly con
tinuation of that of the Carmel range ; and with the exception
1 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 345.
2 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 318.
* Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. pp. 85, 86.

330 PALESTINE.
of one or two breaks, but a few miles across, the chain may be
said to be complete, from the Carmel promontory to the Ghor,
Northward of this continuous line there was unquestionably,
at a very early period, a lake of considerable magnitude, whose
waters broke through the place where now the channel of the
Kishon is, leaving the fertUe plain of Jezreel behind. The
road from Jenin to Zer'in passes the places Araneh, Jelameh,
and Sundela.* Rounding the northern end of the range, there
is to be seen first the village 'of Nuris, then Mezar or Wezar,
having at a distance the look of a fortress, and farther south
east the village of Arabbunah. Still farther in the same
direction, but upon the southem slope, lies Fukua,' which
gives the modern name to the range. Robinson locates the
village of Jelbon (Gilboa), whose existence was not known
before his day, and whose name is identical with the former
designation* of the mountains, on the northern side ; but this
was a mistake, and the later investigations of Schultz have
shown conclusively that it was on the southern slope.
The traveller last mentioned has devoted much attention
to the geography of Gilboa, in order to throw light upon the
places mentioned in the book of Judith. Although recognising
the lack of an authentic historical character in this apocryphal
book, yet he supposed, with good reason, that the author in his
topographical descriptions would have adhered closely to literal
fact. The result of his investigations showed him that his
conjecture was well founded; that the author of the book
of Judith was thoroughly acquainted with the geography of
Gilboa. Looking for Bethulia,* the scene of the heroine's
career, he Avas directed® to the viUage of Beit-Hfah® (or Ilua),
which seemed to him to be the same word slightly changed.
It lies on the northem slope of the mountain, as one goes from
Fukua towards the Beisan valley. Its whole geographical
character convinced him of the truth of his discovery. The
1 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 319. 2 jj^ifj ^ 3jg_
3 Ibid. pp. 316, 317. See also Rosenmiiller's Bib. Alterthk. ii. p. Ill ;
Reland, Pal. p. 344, and cap. xiii.
* Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 323-356.
^ Von Raumer, Beitrage zur bibl. Geog. p. 19, art. Belueir.
0 E. G. Schultz, Mutt. Uber eine Reise in Samaria, in Zeitsch. d. Deutsch.
Morgenl. Ges. vol. iii. pp. 48, 49 ; and Gross, Anmerk. pp. 58, 59,

SITE OF DOTHAN. 331
Belmah of the book of Judith, Schultz supposes he has found
in the modern Bel'ameh, near Jenin, Dothan, or Dothaim,
which was near Belmah, was also the object of his careful
search. The location has not been with exactness ascertained ;
but Schultz supposes it to have been south-west of Jenin,
where the plain of Esdraelon enters for a little -n^ay the moun
tains of Samaria, Dothan, it will be remembered, lay upon
the highway which the Ishmaelite merchants were compelled
to travel ; for it was while they were in their regular march
that they bought Joseph of his brethren (Gen, xxxvii, 17),
Gross,* in his remarkably close critical observations, conjectures
that the old highway running from Samaria northward did not
pass, as now, Engannin (Josh, xix, 21), the present Jenin,'
according to Joshua, but by Dothan, See Gen, xxxvii, 17,
and the account of the Syrian invasion, 2 Kings vi, 13, The
discovery of the site of Dothan is one well worthy of the
attention of future explorers. Unfortunately, Schultz was not
able to visit the place which has been conjectured with the
most probability to have been the spot,*
3. Beisan {Bethshean, Bethshan, Scythopolis).
We turn now from the Gilboa range and the fountain of
Jezreel, and pass south-eastward through the "Great Gate"
leading down to the Jordan, for there lies the third object of
our special inquiry. This is the site of the city of Beisan, the
renowned Scythopolis of the past, whose discovery and identifi
cation we owe to Burckhardt.
Seetzen * has already descried the place from Wadi Jabis
beyond the Jordan, a deep gorge which lies directly opposite to
Beishan, and of which he says that it is the natural boundary
between Botthin and Ejlan, — a circumstance which must have
given to Beisan, situated as it was at the outlet of this portal
1 Von Raumer, Pal. p. 149, Note 107, and Append, pp. 21, 22. See
Gross, Anmerk. as above, p. 58.
* Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. 315.
3 Since these pages were -written, the site of Dothan has been definitely
ascertained by Robinson and Van der Velde. The hill on which it lay is s.w.
of Jenin, about five miles from it, and near the southern margin of the
plain of Esdraelon. See also Tristram (p. 132), who there saw a long cara
van of mules and asses, laden, on their way from Damascus to Egypt. — Ed.
* Seetzen, Mon. Corresp. xviii. p. 423,

332 PALESTINE.
to northern and southern Persea, great historical importance.
The Syrian hordes, from the earliest times down to Saladin,
understood perfectly the value of that portal to Samaria and
Galilee. Situated as Beisan is in the Ghor, midway between
Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea, at the most fertile and most
accessible spot on the western bank, at the junction of the road
running eastward and westward with that running north and
south, it must always have been a place of much consequence
and influence. That it has not retained that place up to the
present tirae, is due to the want of stability in the political
relations of the country, and to the frequent incursions of Arab
robbers who come into Palestine from the desert, choosing as
their highway this very accessible one through the Wadi
Beisan, the most convenient south of Lake Tiberias, Since
there is not now, and for centuties has not been, anything
to hinder them, tribes of wandering Beduins have for ages
swept through that open gate like swarms of grasshoppers,
and have become by successive stages the possessors of the
whole country, whUe the primitive inhabitants have betaken
theraselves to the walled cities. And of the ancient glory
which Beisan once had, the largest and most important of the
cities which formed the Decapolis, and the seat of a bishopric
(afterwards transferred to Nazareth), nothing now remains but
a mass of ruins and a few squalid houses. Even in 1182 the
once lordly Scythopolis had become a sraall and unimportant
place ; stUl it was strong enough to withstand successfully
the first assault of the Sultan Saladin,* who was compelled,
after beleaguering it, to raise the siege. Yet the place fell
before his repeated attacks, and the inhabitants were com
pelled to take refuge in Tiberias, whose walls they deemed
more secure, Saladin, on his entrance, found the city desolate.
The archbishop of Tyre ' tells us that in his time the place was
beautified with a few elegant buildings of marble, testifying to
its former splendour, but that the place consisted mainly of a
cluster of mean, hut-like houses, built upon swampy ground,
and that the nuraber of inhabitants was very small. At a later
period the place is scarcely named, Edrisi* tells us that it was
1 Wilken, Gesch. d. Kreuzzuge, iii. pp. 210, 230.
2 Will. Tyr. Histor. lib. xxii. fol. 1037.
3 Edrisi, in Jaubert, T. i. p. 239.

SITUATION OF BEISAN. 333
an insignificant village in his day, that several date trees grew
there, and much of the samanie (a kind of rush), which the
people used to weave into mats. Abulfeda* speaks of the
place under the name of Baisan (the word Scythopolis was
utterly unknown to the orientals), and says that it was very
small, unencompassed by a waU, but well watered, and sur
rounded by a very fertile district.
Recent travellers describe its condition as very little im
proved. Burckhardt' merely remarks of it, that it lies on a
tolerably elevated position on the west side of the Ghor, where
the mountain range sensibly falls off in height, and that it
marks an open gateway to the central part of the country.
About an hour's distance' south of the village the mountain
chain begins. The ancient city, he says, was watered by a
stream now called Moiet-Beisan, i.e. the waters of Beisan,
which distributes itself through a number of small channels.
Burckhardt found the ruins of Scythopolis to be extensive ; it
was originally built along the banks of the stream, and could
not have been less than three miles in circumference. The
only monumental relics which he was able to discover consisted
of black hewn stones, foundations of houses, and fragments of
pillars. He saw only one shaft still standing. In one of the
little hollows formed by the stream he found a dam, constructed
with some skill, and on the left bank there stood a khan for
the accomraodation of caravans on the way frora Jerusalem
to Daraascus. The inhabitants of the seventy or eighty houses still standing
in Beisan Burckhardt found in a very sad condition, being
greatly exposed to the predatory incursions of Arabs from the
Ghor, and compelled to pay a severe tribute. The contrast is
most striking between the present and the past of this now
insignificant place. It attained great magnificence at the
instance of Pompey the Great, who passed through on his
tour of conquest, and left on the east bank of the Jordan and
in this city of Scythopolis the marks of his power and taste.
His successors lavished even greater treasures in the construc
tion of other Syrian cities, of which we have the distinct traces
in the admirably preserved monuments east of the Jordan,
1 Abulfedse Tab. Syria, ed. Koehler, p. 84.
2 Burckhardt, Trav. pp. 341-344.

334 PALESTINE.
while the splendour of Scythopolis has utterly departed. Among
the ruins the theatre is the best preserved, although it is wholly
overgrown with bushes and weeds. Irby and Mangles* took
accurate measurements of it, because the arrangements of it
were peculiar. The front measured a hundred and eighty feet
across. In one of the most hidden vomitoria there lay a heap of
skulls, in which vipers were seen curled. No one can conjecture
how many Christians have here met the fate of martyrdom.
The city walls, and the former fortress, the Acropolis of
the place, are still to be seen. North-east of the latter, and
outside of the walls, are several interesting tombs, whose stone
doors are still secured in their old places by the stone rivets
which were originally inserted for that purpose (see 1 Kings
iv, 13), In some of these tombs sarcophagi have been found,
and triangular niches in which to set the sepulchral lamps.
South-west of the Acropolis there exists a fine Roman' bridge,
and beyond it a paved via militaris, unquestionably a portion of
the great Damascus road running to Samaria and Jerusalem,
The present condition of Beisan has been depicted by
Molyneux since Burckhardt and Irby and Mangles were there ;
but there is no detailed report of the aspect of the ruins, since
very few travellers pass by it, preferring the safer ford of the
Jordan at Jericho, or that below Lake Tiberias, when taking
their excursions into the country east of the river. The Arabs,
too, in this neighbourhood, are very bold and troublesome to tra
vellers. C. de Bertou* is the only traveller who has studied the
whole of the middle Jordan valley, but he was unable to make
any stay at Beisan, and hence we lack a description from his pen.*
In Hebrew history this place was known as Beth-sean,
Beth-shean,® and Beth-shan, i.e. house of peace; and Beisan
is evidently a mere cormptlon of the older word. At the
time of the Israelitic invasion of Canaan, Beth-shean is men
tioned as standing near the wooded range which belonged
1 Irby and Mangles, Trav. p. 301. 2 jbid. p. 303.
s C. de Bertou, Mem. sur la Depression, in Bulletin de la Soc. Geog. de
Paris, T. xii. p. 151.
* See in appendix to this volume an account of Tristram's visit to
Beisan. = Rosenmiiller, Bib. Alterthk. ii. Note 3, p. 105 ; and Gesenius' Note to
Burckhardt, p. 1056.

THE NAME SCYTHOPOLIS. 335
to Manasseh ; but although given to this tribe, it never came
into their formal possession, owing to its strength. The people
were merely compelled to pay a certain tribute, they were never
reduced to actual submission (Josh, xvii, 11, 16 ; Judg. i. 27).
Only at the time of the PhiHstines' victory over Saul did Beth
shean fall into the power of these enemies of Israel (1 Sam.
xxxi. 10) ; but during the reign of Solomon it had been
wrested from the Philistines, as may be inferred from 1 Kings
iv. 12.* Soon after the captivity, the name Beth-shean fell into
disuse, and the name Scythopolis took its place. The origin of
the latter word is uncertain. I am not disposed to coincide
with the theories' which attribute it to an invasion of Scythians
into Palestine, of which history contains no record; and
although Zephanlah, Joel, and Jeremiah (see the latter, chap.
iv. 5, 6) speak indefinitely of the attack of certain powerful
enemies from a distant countiy, yet there is little reason to
think that they were Scythians. At all events, whatever may
have been the origin of the name Scythopolis, it had no per
manent possession, and yielded in favour of the Arabic cor
ruption of the ancient and scriptural Beth-shean.*
After the expedition of Pompey through Syria and Pales
tine, and his destruction of so many cities, the Romans began
to restore what they had destroyed, and on a scale of even
greater splendour. Gabinius, the successor of Pompey and
the predecessor of Crassus, restored and fortified Scythopolis,
Samaria, Gamala, and many other cities. The peace and
security which the Roman rule confirmed, made Scythopolis
the most powerful of the ten cities which formed the Decapolis;
and although the only one on the west side of the Jordan, yet
it was recognised as the head of the union. Thence came
many people to hear the Saviour of the world; and in the
account given in Matt. iv. 25, the importance of Scythopolis*
seems to have caused the use of the word Decapolis as its
5 Von Raumer, Pal. p. 144.
2 See Winer, Bibl. Realw. i. p. 176 ; H. Reland, pp. 992-998 ; Gesenius'
Note to Burckhardt, ii. p. 1058 ; G. Syncellus, ed. Dindorfii, p. 405.
* See G. Cedressus, p. 135, ed. Im. Bekker.
* Fleischer on the Codex Rescriptus, in Z. de Deutsch. Morgen. Ges. i.
p. 150.

336 PALESTINE.
synonym. At the time of Eusebius and Jerome* it was a
place of some splendour, and the seat of a bishopric. At a
later period it became the chief bishopric in Palestina Secunda,
and possessed a celebrated convent. Under Julian the Apos
tate's reign, the most fearful cruelties were practised upon the
Christians ; and the exposed position of the place caused the
continuance of them at the hands of barbarian invaders, until
the Franks, in order to escape this treatment, reraoved the
bishopric to Nazareth.' DiSCURSlON V.
THE JORDAN VALLEY SOUTH OF BEISAN, WITH THE WESTERN TRIBUTARIES AS
FAR AS JERICHO, ACCORDING TO BURCKHARDT AND DE BERTOU.
Continuing our course southward from Beisan along the
valley of the Jordan, we must confess that if our knowledge
northward of that point is only partial and fragmentary,
south of it it is still more so. All the territory lying between
Beisan and Jericho must be considered a terra incognita : what
we know of it, is indebted to the hasty flights of two or three
travellers through the country, under great disadvantages for
enabling them to take observations. The western side of the
river is almost as much unknown as the eastern ; and what we
know has been learned in part by hearsay, and in part by
glimpses which have been caught frora high and distant places,
all to be rectified by subsequent nearer and more careful in
vestigations. Yet we are, it must be confessed, a great way
removed from the stage of ignorance about the country which
was experienced by that master in the art of observation,
Burckhardt, when he set out from Beisan to go southward
through the Ghor by way of Abu Obeidah to the mountain
ridge Jilaad es Szalt, on the south-east side of the Jordan, and
south of Wadi Zerka. We have not only the record of Moly
neux's boat voyage down the Jordan, scanty as it is [and the
more full narrative of Lynch], but casual yet repeated allusions
1 Reland, Pal. p. 995 ; Gesenius' Note to Burckhardt, ii. p. 1058 ; von
Raumer, PaZ. p. 147 ; Winer, i. p. 175; Rosenmiiller, Bib. Alterth.' i. p.
173, and ii. p. 105.
2 Reland, Pal. p. 996.

TRIBUTARIES OF THE JORDAN. 337
on the part of other traveUers, which do something to dispel
the darkness which used to rest upon this region.
Burckhardt* is the first who threw any light upon this great
blank in our geographical knowledge. He aUudes to the great
number of brooks which in the rainy season come down from
the mountains in all seasons, and give nourishment to a luxuri
ant growth of grass and weeds ; yet the greater part of the
valley, according to his report, is an arid desert, the ground
betraying many marks of ancient volcanic action, and only
here and there tUled. Near Beisan the soil is marl through
out, supporting trees only here and there, but giving susten
ance to a plentiful harvest of bushes and reeds.
The rivers' which flow into the Jordan, south of Beisan, and
on the west side, are four in number — Wadi el Malih, Wadi
Mejedda, Wadi el Beydhan, and Wadi el Fariah. The two first
specified are mentioned in the Jihannuma by the same names.
On the east side, Burckhardt mentions other four — Wadi el
Arab, Wadi el Koszeir, Wadi et Taybe, and Wadi el Seklab.
These are all mentioned in the Jihannuma. He also gives
the names of three cities— Fassail, el-Oja, and Ayn Sultan —
leaving the impression that they are found nearer Beisan than
Jericho, and that there are no other ruins between the two. The
reports of subsequent travellers show, however, that Burck
hardt, generally so punctUiously exact, has fallen into sHght
inaccuracies here, as the true order of the rivers on the western
side is different from that given by him, and as the ruined
cities which he mentions are found in the immediate neigh
bourhood of Jericho. And in addition to the cities mentioned,
Schultz has identified conjecturaUy Archelais, Alexandrium,
Phasselis, Kypros, and others.
It is impossible entirely to overlook the full report which De
Bertou has given of the results of his journey down the valley,
although his meagre command of the Arabic has rendered many
of his results of less value than they would otherwise have been.
But it is not to be doubted, that others who may subsequently
go over the same ground will find his observations of great im
portance. Yet, as Bertou's course led him along the tops of the
hills which bound the valley on the west, we cannot learn from
1 Burckhardt, Trav. p. 344.
2 Von Hammer-Purgstall in Wien. Jahrb. 1836, vol. Ixxiv. p. 52,
VOL, II. ^

338 PALESTINE.
him the details relating to the lowlands so fully as from Moly
neux [and Lynch].
De Bertou found the breadth of the Ghor to be about thirty
thousand feet, or not far from five EngHsh mUes. The country
declined gradually towards the south-west as far as Sukkot, and
was only partially cultivated : the grain was then in its most
advanced stage. At Sukkot, De Bertou discovered some frag
ments of columns, and some traces of earthworks, leading him
to the conclusion that there was once a city. The Jordan,
opposite to Beisan, was found to be 1027 Paris feet below the
level of the sea. There must be, therefore, between Lake
Tiberias and that spot a fall of 305 feet.
He had great difficulty in procuring an Arab escort down
the river ; and all whom he could procure were vagabonds and
robbers. They called each other Satans ; a name which Barth*
afterwards heard used by the members of the Beni-Saker tribe.
He was obliged to leave all his valuables behind him at Beisan,
and thus in this state he entered upon a most dangerous
journey. He first crossed the brook Abu Fares,' and seventeen
minutes later the Wadi Shubash. Twelve minutes more
brought him to the spring Ain er Radghah, which springs from
an eminence, on whose summit are ruins, including fragments
of pillars and the tomb of a saint: the name is not known.
Twenty-five minutes farther on the Wadi Fatun is crossed ; and
twelve more, Ain Kaun. A little farther beyond, the valley
narrows, the mountains on the west advance towards the east ;
and a little southward the Wadi el Malih breaks through, enter
ing the Jordan directly opposite the Wadi el Hemar, which
comes down from the Jebel Ajlun,*
After passing the Wadi el Malih, or Salt VaUey, De Bertou
remarks that there is an imraediate change in the vegetation :
up to that point there is a vast quantity of sappy growths, such
as grass, small clover, anemones, and lavender, while southward
there is only a dry parched soil, on which grow light grass,
immortelles, and thistles.
From Wadi el Malih to Wadi el Faria there is a road of
1 Dr H. Barth, Tagebuch, 1847, MS,
2 De Bertou, Mem. l.c. xii. p. 155.
« Burckhardt, Trav. p. 345.

DE BERTOU'S JOURNEY DOWN THE GHOR. 339
eight hours' length, crossed by a full dozen of wadis, which
come down from the west, and terminate in the Jordan, The
first of these is the Wadi Fyadh, which divides into several arms:
the second, Wadi Jamel, a very deep watercourse, enters the
river opposite the bold shore on which the Kalaat er Rabbad
lies. The Jordan here runs through a Hne of white knolls,
which look as if they were a row of fortifications extending to
the Dead Sea. They are dry and salty, producing no green
thing, while the banks of the stream are accompanied by an
unbroken and dense thicket or jungle. The Jordan sometimes
overflows its banks to such an extent here, that the Arabs say
of it that it is " as wide as a sea." South of Wadi Jamel, and
a half-hour away, is the Wadi Bkia. At its entrance into the
Jordan, the barometer recorded the depression as 1036 Paris
feet below the sea, showing that while there has been a fall
between this point and the Sea of Tiberias of 314 feet, between
it and Wadi Beisan there has been a fall of only nine feet. We
come next in our southward course to the Wadi Abu Sadra,
and afterwards to the Wadi el Faria,* a very important halting-
place for travellers. It is well supplied with sweet and good
water, and the land adjacent is tilled by the Arabs: the weather
is so hot there, that the barley is ready for harvesting in the end
of April. De Bertou found that the Arabs were familiar with
the great depression of the Ghor, and believed it to be below
the surface of the " great sea," — a suspicion which, had it been
known, might have led to an early confirmation on the part of
Europeans. Below Wadi Faria, the mountains, which have for the last
part of the way crowded the Jordan into a narrow pass, here
recede, and give the same breadth which was last seen at
Beisan : this continues to be the case as far as to the Dead
Sea. From Wadi Faria to Riha or Jericho the distance is
nine hours, in which at least a half-dozen wadis must be
crossed. They are the Wadi el Abyad, the Wadi el FasaU
(remarkable for producing a rare kind of wood called rocka
— cistus arborea — occasionally seen on the Sinai Peninsula,
frequently met in Oman, in the Hejas, and around Mecca,
and used for giving lustre to the teeth), the Wadi el Aujeh,
Wadi Abu Obaideh, Wadi Hermel, Wadi Diab, and Wadi en
^ De Bertou, Mem. l.c xii. p. 158.

340 PALESTINE.
Nawaimeh. The second of these wadis is thought to have
been the site of the ancient Phasaelis, and the name itself is
believed to be a corruption of that of the old city. In the
Wadi el Aujeh, too, de Bertou saw extensive ruins, which
seemed to hint at the early existence of an important place
there; and at the Wadi en Nawaimeh the aqueduct arches
were seen.
Frora Riha or Jericho de Bertou prosecuted his researches
as far as the Dead Sea, and with a barometer ascertained it to
be 1290 Paris feet below the surface of the ocean.*

DiSCURSlON VI.
PARTIAL CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS SUPPLEMENTARY TO THE ACCOUNTS OF
BURCKHARDT AND DE BERTOU — SUKKOT — ^WADI EL MALIH — THEBEZ —
WADI EL FAR'LA.
Sukkot, — The existence of a collection of ruins known as
Sukkot (apparently a contraction of SukkotopoHs, which is in
its turn a corruption of Scythopolis), and, according to Burck
hardt, lying not far from Beisan, is confirmed by the existence
of a tribe of Arabs bearing the name of Sukkot. Unfortunately
the locality of it has never been inquired into by any subse
quent inquirer: and we have a mere allusion to it in the
narrative of Wilkes, that five miles from one of their places of
encampment the ruins of Sukkot were said to lie.'
It will be reraerabered by the reader, that the first place
where the children of Israel encamped was called Succoth, i,e.
booths or huts, meaning little less than a place of temporary
shelter (Ex. xii. 37 ; Num. xxxiii. 5). The sarae narae is also
given to the place (Gen. xxxiii. 17)* where the patriarch
Jacob put up sheds for his cattle after passing the Jabbok,
before he crossed the Jordan and came to Shechem. The
statement in Josh. xiii. 27 confirms the existence of a Succoth
in the valley of the Jordan, not situated on a height, but in the
valley proper, and belonging to the territory of Gad, though
formerly tributary to Sidon. This place was on the east side
1 Robinson, Bib. Research, i. p. 569.
2 Irby and Mangles, Trav. p. 478.
' Rosenmiiller, Bib. Alterthk. ii. p. 159 ; Keil, Comment, zu Josua, p. 260.

SITE OF SUCCOTH. 341
of the river : it is afterwards mentioned as a city near to Penuel,
both of which Gideon punished on account of their rebeUious
spirit (Judg, viii, 5-17). In Ps. Ix. 6, a division of Shechem
and of the valley of Succoth is spoken of, both of which David
should rule — probably an allusion to the stay of Jacob in both of
these places. In 1 Kings vii. 46, we are told that Solomon cast
the metal vessels which were to be used in the temple in the clay
ground of the Jordan valley between Succoth and Zarthan :
the latter place, we are told in 1 Kings iv. 12, was near Beth
shean and beneath Jezreel, These accounts seem to indicate
that on the west side of the Jordan there was a place bearing
the name of Succoth ; for it is hardly probable that the situation
of extensive foundries would be mentioned in connection with
it, if a large river like the Jordan separated them. Eusebius
and Jerome both speak of Succoth as a temporary halting-
place of the Israelites as they came out of Egypt ; but Jerome,
in his commentary on Gen, xxxiii, 17, says :* Sochoth est usque
hodie civitas trans Jordanem hoc vocabulo In parte Scythopoleos,
It seems to me to have been most probable that there were
two Succoths, one on each side of the Jordan, — the eastern one
being in the neighbourhood of Penuel, the western one in the
neighbourhood of Zarthan; the two being in the broad fine
valley near the mouth of the Jabbok, so well adapted to serve
as pasturage for the patriarch on his way to Shechem, It is
to be hoped that some future traveller will take time to investi
gate into the ruins which are now said to be standing there.
With regard to the course of the Wadi el Malih, we have,
in addition to the aUusions of Hadje Chalfa and Burckhardt to
its lower course, the statements of Berggren, Robinson, and
Schultz, who have traced its upper course eastward of Jenin,
Robinson, it is true, only saw this wadi from a distance, from
the neighbourhood of Wadi Faria;' but Berggren* passed both
on his way from Nazareth, by way of Zerin, to Tubas, and
thence to Nablus, While on the way from Tubas (probably
the Thebez where Abimelech received his death at a woman's
hand, Judg. ix, 50-57), he came to the brackish brook Wadi el
Melha, which was strong enough to drive the wheels of raiUs,
1 H. Reland, Pal. pp. 992, 1022.
« Robinson, Bib. Research, i. p. 567 ; comp. ii. p. 317.
3 J. Berggren, Resor. in Europa och Osterlande, pp. 338, 339.

342 PALESTINE.
The Wadi el Faria has been in a measure examined by
Irby and Mangles* while on an excursion in 1818 from the
Jordan to Nablus. They do not mention it by this name, but
allude to a Beit Forage, which seems to owe its name tothe wadi
in question, Yet their course was so rapid that their narrative
gives comparatively Httle Hght upon the subject. They lost
the way in the necessity which they encountered of crossing
the Jordan without a guide ; but it is probable that the ruins
of Agrarba, which they passed, indicate the site of the ancient
Akrabi, of which Otto von Richter speaks, but which he did
not see. Acrabi is spoken of by Eusebius and Jerorae as being
nine Roman miles from Neapolis, on the road to Jericho and
the Jordan.

DiSCURSlON VII.
SCHULTZ' EXCURSIONS FROM SHILOH TO KEFR ISTUNAB (ALEXANDRIUM), KARN
EL SARTABEH, KARIJUT (K0RE.«), BURJ EL FARI'a, AND EL BASS ALI JA
(ARCHELAIS).
It is to the enterprise of Schultz,' the late Prussian consul
at Jerusalem, that we owe our knowledge in great part of the
watershed lying east of the main road from Jerusalem to
Nablus, and he was the first to visit the site of Akrabah. Its
position is found to confirm the statement of Jerome, that it
was three hours distant from Nablus, This gave a good datum
for chartographical purposes,
Schultz' course led him from well-known stations on the
Nablus road, Sinjel and Seilun (Shiloh), eastward, stopping
first at Turraus Aja, where he spent a night,* North of this
station he discovered Karijut, the ancient Korese : he then made
a little excursion still farther east, to the edge of the Jordan
valley, till he came within two hours of Karn el Sartabeh :
he passed the viUage Kefr Istunah, with its very remarkable
ancient ruins of temples or castles, which cannot be more
modern than the time of Herod the Great, He then turned
back to Seilun,
1 Irby and Mangles, Trav. pp. 326-329.
2 Dr E. G. Schultz, Mitt, in Z. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Ges. vol. iii. p. 46.
' Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 266-270.

KEFR ISTUNAH. 343
This Kefr Istunah is a village standing upon a hiU, detached
from the loftier range on the east. There stands in the viUage
an ancient fortress, a part of which is still in good condi
tion, whUe elsewhere only the foundations are to be seen. The
stones are in many places as colossal as those in the external
wall of the Haram in Jerusalem — those in the base of the
tower of David (Hippicus). This he conjectured to be the site
of the ancient Alexandrium, which was so celebrated as a
fortress subsequent to the times of Pompey, and particularly in
connection with the siege of Gabinius. Josephus states that it
lay near Koreae.
Much earlier, indeed, Scholtz* had discovered some ruins,
bearing the name Kafr Setuna, i.e. the village of Istunah, and
Wolcott thought that he had discovered the ruins of Alexan
drium in the more southem ones of Azzil ;' but this spot is too
far removed from Koreae to justify his conclusion : the identi
fication of Schultz has many more chances of probability. The
Prussian consul was shown the high point called by him the
Karn el Sartabeh (the Kurn Surtubeh of Robinson),* which
was pointed out to him from Jericho : this seemed as if it
might afford a good site for such a fortress as that of Alex
andrium ; but no European traveller has yet ascended it. It
is said to have ruins upon it ; and the peasants told Schultz
that there was a great iron ring in the wall. Its distance from
Karijut prevented Schultz visiting it, and he was compelled to
inspect it with a telescope some miles away. Unquestionably
the ascent of that point would throw much light upon the
topography of all the adjacent district.
The Alexandrium at which Pompey tarried on his way from
ScythopoHs to Jerusalem, was not built, remarks H. Gross,* by
Herod the Great, but by the warlike king Alexander Jannseus,
from whom it derived its name. His son and grandson, Aris
tobulus I. and Alexander, used this fortress as an armoury
during their wars against the Romans and the party of the
high priest Hyrcanus. After the Roman proconsul Gabinius
1 J. Scholtz, Reise in Paldstina.
2 Wolcott, in Bib. Sacra, 1843, p. 72.
* Robinson, Bib. Research, i. pp. 338-568.
* Gross, Anmerk. zu Schultz, in Z. d, Deutsch. Morgenl. Ges. vol. iii.
p. 53.

344 PALESTINE,
had destroyed it, Aristobulus sought to restore it again, but
was unable to do so. Subsequently Herod the Great strength
ened the position, and made it his chief treasury. The fortress
was a famUy possession of the later Asmonaeans, and their
family burying-place. The founder of the citadel, Alexander
Jannseus, was not himself buried there, but in Jerusalem, as
was also his grandfather John Hyrcanus, The tracing of the
date given by Josephus would be all the more easy, if tombs
should be discovered at the reputed Alexandrium, since that
would make it almost certain that these sites were identical.
The Horn of Sartabah does not seem to correspond well with
the site of Alexandrium, as it appears to be too far from Koreae ;
but it seems to be exceedingly well adapted to serve as a signal
station, as the Mishna Rash Hasham indicates, although Reland,
who cites this, does not pronounce authoritatively upon the
point (Montes Sartaba et Gerophna videntur etiam montibus
terra Israeliticse adnumerandi, nam in his faces quassatae sunt
ad indicandum novilunium). According to Reland, the new
moon was first signalized on the Mount of Olives, then on
Sartabah, then upon Gerophna (perhaps a peak on the east side
of the Jordan), and then on the raore distant heights of Hauran.
The hostile Samaritans, Gross conjectures,* initiated these sig
nals in the neighbourhood of Sartabah, in order to deceive the
Jews. The line of mountains running northward was well
adapted to serve as a basis of fire-signals, to communicate the
times of celebrating a feast to the entire nation ; and the pro
minent position of Sartabah, standing as a boundary point
between Judaea and Samaria, caused it to play a very important
role. It was unquestionably from its summit that the signal'
for the great national feast was given, that of harvest and
thanksgiving, in the seventh or sabbath month, after the early
spring feast. The announcement of the new moon, too, was
from this mountain also ; and it seems not impossible that the
iron ring of which the peasants spoke to Schultz may have had
some connection with the fire-signals of the Jews,
Subsequently Schultz visited Karijut, Jalud, and Jurish.*
1 Gross, Anmerk. zu Schultz, in Z. d. Deutsch, Morgenl. Ges. vol. iii.
p. 54. 2 H. Ewald, Die Alterthumer des Volks Israel, pp. 354, 362, 369, etc.
s Ewald, i.a.l. pp. 46, 47.

LOWER COURSE OF WADI FARIA. 345
Beyond the last-mentioned place Akrabah is to be seen,
separated from it by the Wadi el Makhfurijeh, in which the
brook Momur of the book of Judith is to be recognised.
Akrabah, too, appears to be the "Ekrebet near to Chush,"
lying on the Momur. Karijut was seen by Robinson* from
Sinjel, and identified by him with the ancient Corese. Gross'
agrees with Robinson, and at the sarae time thinks that this
word Kopeai is a corruption of the old Hebrew word Kirjath,
which appears so frequently in the Old Testament. Wolcott*
visited this village of Karijut, but did not succeed in finding
any traces of antiquity there.
Another conjecture of Schultz, that the Enon where John
baptized (John iii. 23) was in the neighbourhood of Akrabah,
has been so completely set aside by Gross,* that I need not refer
to it now. North of the Karn el Sartabah, and on the line of
watershed, is the conspicuous ruin of Burj el Faria,® two hours
distant from Meithalon,* and in a very interesting location ; it
cannot, however, be identical with the Pirothon of 1 Mace, ix,
50. In the neighbourhood of Meithalon rises a hill crowned
with ruins — Tell Khaibar, the changed narae of that Hepher
which we meet with in Josh, xii, 17 and 1 Kings iv, 10,
In the lower course of Wadi el Faria, and near its mouth,
Schultz heard of the existence of ruins which seemed to hira
to indicate the site of Archelais, Already Robinson,^ without
knowing of their existence, had conjecturally located that
ancient city in this wadi. It was built 'by the cruel ethnarch
Archelaus, who also built a magnificent palace in Jericho, and
the aqueduct of Neara. After ten years' rule here he was
summoned to Rome, and sent as an exile to Gaul. -Archelais
and Phasaelis are mentioned by Ptolemy as being north of
Jericho, but Alexandrium is not naraed.
1 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 267.
2 Gross, Anmerk. i.a.l, p. 54.
» Wolcott, in Bib. Sacra, 1843, p. 72. * Ibid. pp. 55, 56.
6 Schultz, Mitt, in Z. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Ges. iii. p. 48.
» Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 313, 314. ' 3id. i. p. 569.

346 PALESTINE.

DiSCURSlON VIII.
WADI FASSAIL (CHIRBET FASSAIL, THE ANCIENT PHASAELIS) AND ITS PALM
GARDENS.
At the mouth of the Wadi Fassail there are ruins which
are well known to the Arabs, and which, according to Schultz,
can be no other than those of the ancient Phasaelis, Robinson*
ascertained from Sheikh Mustapha the names of aU the leading
wadis running from the west to the Jordan, and found them
to agree closely with the list which, in its now revised and
confirmed form, has been given on a preceding page, Robinson
remarks, without specifying any particular locality (excepting
conjecturally suspecting that el-Aujeh might prove to be the
correct site), that the ancient PhasaeHs must have been in the
territory which Herod once rescued from its desert state, and
converted into a tract of great fertlHty : the name, Robinson
supposed, has been perpetuated in the word Fassail, The
allusion of Brocardus to a viUage Phasellum, lying a French
mile north of Diik, led him to his conjecture, for this point
coincided with el-Aujeh, But now that the ancient position
of Chirbet Fassail is confirmed, it is unnecessary to suppose
that the ancient city was connected with a wadi whose narae
differed so widely from its own ; and it is a question whether
Gross is not correct in his conjecture, that the ruins at el-
Aujeh do not indicate the locality of the citadel of Kypros,'
which was built by Herod, and named in honour of his mother,
Monro,* however, thinks that the ruins which he saw nearer
Jericho indicate the state of that fortress. Phasaelus was
named in honour of Herod's brother, and was given first to his
sister Salome, and was afterwards conveyed by her, together
with Archelais, to Julia, i.e. Livia, the wife of the Emperor
Augustus. It is to this circurastance that we must attribute
Pliny's knowledge of the advanced stage of the palm culture
there, — a culture which was not confined to Jericho, but
extended to all the countiy in the neighbourhood. The palra
gardens of Phasaelis are mentioned specifically in the will of
Salome. 1 Robinson, Bib. Research, i. pp. 568, 569.
' Gross, Anmerk. i.a.l. p. 54.
* Monro, Summer Ramble, i. pp. 158, 162.

DISTRICT BETWEEN THE JORDAN AND NABLUS. 347
How entirely different from its present appearance the
Jordan vaUey must have looked when the great highway from
Jerusalem to Jericho extended northward through the fertile
Ghor, beautified by nature and art, the wadis liberally watered
and fiUed -with vegetation; and Kypros, PhasaeHs, Archelais, and
Scythopolis lying not far away from the traveller's course as he
took his way northward to Tiberias and Csesarea Philippi !
Robinson passed* from the Elizabeth Spring, or Ain es
Sultan, by way of Nawaimeh to Bethel, and from his account
we learn the topography of that region. Near the end of his
com'se he struck the old road between Bethel and Gilgal, which
was used by the prophets. The cisterns hewn by the way
made it evident that the ancient highway took that direction.
DiSCURSlON IX.
DR H. barth's TWO EXCURSIONS BETWEEN THE JORDAN AND NABLUS IN 1817.
1. From Jericho by way of the Waters of Dosh {Ain Duk),
Wadi Neweimeh {Nawaimeh), el-Uja {el-Aujeh), Jebel
Guddus, the cave of Nejmeh, the ruins of Samireh, Mreir,
Jalu, and Kabelan, to Nablus. Taken in Feb. 1847.
Von Wildenbruch ' and Eli Smith * both purposed to make
a careful examination of the valley of the Jordan, and the dis
trict adjacent, but were prevented carrying their plans into
execution. I am therefore all the more indebted to my friend
Dr H. Barth * for making two rapid runs through the country,
which, although under very unfavourable circumstances, have
thrown considerable light upon a region of which we have here
tofore known but little. It is to be hoped that sorae future
traveller wUl continue the same line of investigation, using
what Barth has collected as a basis. The trip which was made
by the latter- was occasioned by the failure of all his efforts to
secure guides through the territory east of the Jordan. This
compelled him to open a new route from Jericho to Nablus.
'Under the protection of four armed men on horseback, Barth
^ Robinson, Bibl. Research, i. pp. 572-575.
2 Von Wildenbruch, MS. 1849.
' H. Gross, Anmerk. p. 68.
« Dr Barth, 1847, MS.

348 PALESTINE.
left the spring caUed Ain es Sultan, and passing several graves
and the tomb of a saint, and encountering very uneven country,
at the end of half an hour reached the fruitful valley known
as the Waters of Dosh. Leaving this, and passing the ruined
village of Muldam, he reached first the Ras el Ain, and then
the upper Wadi Nawaimeh. This wadi takes its origin on the
east side of the road from Jerusalem to Nablus, near Taiyibeh
(Ophra) and Rumon (Rimmon), and runs eastward towards
Jericho. From the site of the tower above Taiyibeh, on one
of the highest elevations of the ridge, there is a fine panorama
of the whole eastern slope towards the Ghor, the Dead Sea,
and the mountains of Belka and Jebel Ajlun.
Dr Barth's course took him to el-Ujah (the el-Aujeh of
earlier travellers), and thence to the left, leaving the site of
Phasaelis sorae distance to the right. The violent rain and
cold wind and hail Interfered very much with the comfort of
his journeying, and drove him for shelter to a cave which
appeared to lie among ruins dating frora Canaanite times.
This place, which bears the name Nejemeh, appears to serve
as a refuge for the people of Jebel Guddus during the rainy
season, while they let their cattle run at large over the adjacent
grazing grounds.
Unfortunately the weather was too inclement to allow many
observations to be made, and the crowd of beings who were
packed together in this subterranean compartment made the
place most uncomfortable — a true Tartarus.
The next day the rain continued with little diminution, yet
Barth found it better to ride through the rain than to endure
longer the imprisonment of the cave. In about forty minutes
after starting, the narrow gorge through which he was compeUed
to pass opened into a fine basin girt with mountains, where he
thought there must be a paradise in pleasant weather. Passing
on a little farther, he came to a prominent hill which his escort
called Samireh. Seetzen's map here gives the name Szamra.
At this place, ruins with fine hewn stones were pointed out to
him; they evidently indicate the existence there of a once
flourishing city : the heights around were full of caves which
were inhabited by famUies.
This ruined city is unquestionably the one of which
Robinson was told in Jericho, as lying north of the Wadi Na-

DISTRICT BETWEEN THE JORDAN AND NABLUS 349
waimeh ; it is caUed by him es-Sumrah,* This seems to be the
more ancient Shamor on Mount Zemaraira (2 Chron, xiii, 4,
19), whence Abijah the king of Judah summoned his armies
into the field to meet Jeroboam, and pursued him beyond Bethel
and Ephron (now Taiyibeh), There seems to have been a
city also, called after the mountain on which it stood, Zemaraim ;
for in Josh, xviii. 22, a place of that name is mentioned in
direct connection with Beth-el and Beth-arabah, as a city in the
territory of Benjamin. It is unquestionably the same place as
that connected with king Abijah ; and in Grimm's map,' and
in a Review by Heller, it is treated as identical with el-Sumra.
and with Zemaraim. Rosenmuller* remarks that the name
Samaria was applied to a district (1 Kings xiu. 32) before the
city which bore the narae was buUt (1 Kings xvi. 24). But as
the Zemaraim of Abijah is known to be centuries older, there
seems to have been, long prior to the tirae of Orari, an older
Samaria (Shararam), which later was entirely forgotten ; for
the later buUding was effected when the house of Jeroboam
had become entirely extinct, and when Omri had purchased the
mountain of Samaria of Semer, and had laid the foundations
of the city of Samaria, which was afterwards to become so con
spicuous. Jerome was familiar with the fact that there had
been two Samarias, one of which was subsequently known as
Sebaste, while the other was lost from historical records till Dr
Barth had discovered the locality bearing the name Samireh.
The next interesting object which he reached in his ride, as
he went on breaking a path for himself in this unexplored region,
was the little village of Mreir, situated on high land, and built
of regularly hewn stones, on which, however, he faUed to find
any inscriptions. Leaving this place, he passed down into the
valley, and then entered a ravine full of terraces, which evi
dently must be of great antiquity, and were constructed of great
stones, in order to prevent the soil being washed away by the
floods. Going on thence, he came to Jalud,* which had before
been seen by Schultz, and which lies near the ruins of Karijut.
1 Robinson, Bib. Research, i. p. 568.
2 Keil, Comment, zu Josua, p. 322 ; Rev. in MUncher Gel. Auz. 1836, p.
983. 3 Rosenmiiller, Bib. Alterthk. ii. p. 103.
* Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 266, 267.

350 PALESTINE.
He must have passed very near Kefr Istunah, the supposed
Alexandrium, though he heard no allusion to the place. He
afterwards came to the viUage of Kabelan, which had already
been seen and mentioned by Robinson.* THq rest of his course
was also over ground which had been examined by those who
had gone before him.
2. Dr Barth's Second Excursion from Nablus eastward, north of
the Guddus route, by way of Bet {passing Salem, or Shalem)
to Tana, Churbet Sammer, and the Wadi Ferra, or Faria :
the discovery of a via militaris, and the important place Bet
Dejan {Tirzah, or Beth Dagen).
A second attempt which Barth ' made to reach Szalt and
the east side of the Jordan by a more northern route, was un
successful, but it resulted in throwing light upon two or three
localities which are of considerable interest.
This time he left the Guddus road at his right, and took
his course eastward. The first, hour or two carried him over
ground which had been examined by others, but soon, bearing
a little more southward, he came to a rocky elevation command
ing a plain finely tilled, romantically situated, very open to the
sun, and displaying a profusion of olive and fig trees, and
grape vines.* The village close by had fifty houses, all built of
ancient hewn stones. Near it was a small chapel. He here
encamped for the night.
The next morning he started early, conducted by a guide
of the tribe Beni Salem. Here, in this name, is unquestionably
preserved the ancient Shalem* or Salem, the city of Shechem,
to which Jacob came on his way from Mesopotamia to Canaan
(Gen. xxxiii. 18). For more than three thousand years, there
fore, that old narae has clung around the same spot, and has
perpetuated itself in the language of the people. Robinson
discovered a village Salim east of Nablus, from which .the
Arabs derive their name Salem. It lies in a line with two other
villages, Azmet and Deir el Hatab, and is the most eastern
of the three. They all lie upon high land bounding a wadi
on the north, which runs from the great Muchna plain to the
^ Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 272, Note 6.
2 Dr H. Barth, 1847, MS.
* Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. p. 280. * Ibid. p. 279, Note 1.

DISTRICT BETWEEN THE JORDAN AND NABLUS 351
Jordan. The existence of this ancient narae in connection
with a -village so near to Nablus or Shechem, shows at least
that it is not necessary to consider the name Shalem in Gen,
xxxui, 18 as identical with Shechem-^as has been done by
Eusebius, Jerome, and others — ^but that, as Raumer* showed
before the modern village of Salim was discovered, the name
Shalem was given to a place of even greater antiquity than
Shechem. This Salemite Arab then took Barth on till they came to a
great cistern hewn out of the rock, and bearing the narae of
Tana. One hour beyond that they discovered a group of hewn
stones lying around in rows, as is often the case on the hiUs of
Palestine: the place was called Churbet Sammer, and may
perhaps hint etyraologically at the time when the ancient narae
of Samaria was given to this region, of which more than one of
the cities may preserve a trace. Barth went farther on, far
enough to glance down the Wadi Ferra in its lower course, and
see that it continues from Nablus to the Jordan. The hostility
of the Arabs prevented his continuing his course, and compelled
him to turn round and retrace his steps, though by a different
route. Taking a course a little northward of that by which he had
come, he arrived at courses of walls, indicating in the manner
of their placing a former military road fourteen feet in breadth,
to which we have but a single allusion in the Tabula Peutin-
geriana. Three-quarters of an hour's distance from the road he dis
covered, upon a broad and prominent hiU, extensive ruins of
hewn stone, while at the foot, and girded with rocks, was a fine
piece of arable land. On the western slope of the hill he dis
covered the locality of another ancient city, now bearing the
name Bet Dejan, and consisting of about two hundred houses,
mostly built of large stones taken from the ruins of the perished
city which once stood on the site. There were also seen several
cisterns, and a cloaca buUt of massive stones. This Barth
thinks to have been an important place, perhaps the Canaanite
royal residence Tirzah mentioned in Josh, xii. 24 ; the same
also in which the kings of Israel resided, till Omri removed
his capital to Samaria, The last of the ancient line of
1 Von Raiuner, Pal. p. 159, Note 128. See Beitrage, p. 32.

352 PALESTINE.
Israelite kings closed with Zlrari, who burned hlraself with his
palace in Tirzah to the ground, Omri, his successor, reigned
six years there before he bought the mountain of Samaria
of Sheraer for two hundredweight of silver, and built a capital
for hiraself there, Brocardus* asserts that Thersa lay three
miles east of Samaria, and that thence it was three miles
farther on towards the Jordan to Thapne. The name Thersa
seems to be another form for Tirzah ; and the latter corresponds
well with the Hebrew Beth-Dagon, a narae which appears in
.Judah (Josh, xv, 41) and in Asher (Josh. xix. 27), but which
does not appear to be met elsewhere in the Old Testament, It
is possible, however, as Robinson conjectures,' that a Beth-
Dagon, not mentioned in the Bible, may have been here,
Dr Barth's farther course took him through an interesting
tract before he reached Nablus, but not specially noteworthy,
excepting for the ruins of a small place called Tali, and a water
reservoir cut out of the rock, apparently to subserve the uses of
irrigation, DiSCURSlON X.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS REGARDING THE GREAT LINE OF WATERSHED — THE
ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE HEIGHTS OF LOCALITIES ON THE WEST SIDE OF
THE JORDAN.
From the foregoing accounts, which relate exclusively to
the course of the tributaries on the right bank of the Jordan,
we get a view of that gradual extension northward, of the line
of watershed, which follows the course of the Syrian range of
mountains, I have already touched upon that watershed in
discussing that portion of the vale of Esdraelon which lies where
the Kishon and the Beisan rivers part their waters. From
that point it extends southward over the plain el-Muchna, near
Nablus, past Turraus, Aja, and Sinjel, to Beitin (Beth-el),
Taiyibeh, and Rumon, where Wadi Mutiyah begins its course
towards Jericho, and so on, still southward, to the beginning of
the Kedron, north of the height on which Jerusalem lies.
This whole district, the broad ridge of a high, uneven table-
1 Brocardus, Descr. Terr. Sanctx, in Grynseus, Nov, Orbis, p. 309.
2 Robinson, Bib. Research, ii. pp. 242, 280, Note 1.

THE GREAT WATERSHED, 353
land, is intersected by many deep, rough valleys, which sink
towards the .Jordan, growing more steep and wUd throughout
their course, but which are more gentle and terrace-like in
their descent westward towards the Mediterranean. The great
road from Jerusalem to Nablus, and so on northward to Tabor
and Tiberias, foUows the line of watershed, because it has the
fewest depressions to cross, and for the most part leads through
a country easily traversed. It is just on that line that the most
important cities were built, not only in the Canaanite, but in
the subsequent Jewish time ; for there it was a difficult task to
command the vales. Upon this line lay Bethel, ShUoh, Nablus,
Shechem, Tirzah, Jezreel, and many other ancient residences of
the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob, — the places where the ark
of the covenant was kept during the days of Samuel and Saul,
the most important fortresses and royal cities of the Canaanites,
as well as of the later kings of Judah and Israel, — ^until, through
political and other circumstances, other localities were brought
more prominently forward.
Between the ravines, clefts, and wadis which cross this
uneven table-land, there are frequent rocky crags and ridges
which stand in some connection with it, and which yet thrust
themselves boldly eastward, and slope abraptly towards the
Jordan valley. These are in great part the sites of ancient
fortresses, towers, watch-posts, whose ruins, generally of hewn
stones, cover the ground, their great extent testifying plainly
to the large population of the country in ancient times. The
shallow depressions often cross * each other on the line of the
watershed, and then part: their courses are therefore often
hard to trace, particularly in the dry season, when there are no
brooks which of theraselves show the natural direction of the
waters. Oftentiraes wadis lie very near together in their
commencement, which in their later courses are far apart, even
if they do not take diametrically opposite directions: in this
case they leave scarcely any ridge between for the comfortable
passage of caravans. There is such' a multiplicity of details,
and at the same time such a lack of marked and dominant
forms, that it is very difficult to completely master the geography
of the central region. On the high line of the watershed the
road can be taken now on the right side and now on the left,
' Robinson, Bib. Research, i. pp. 258-438.
VOL, II. Z

354 PALESTINE.
according to the wish or the business of the tourist, the political
condition of the country, and the comparative degree of security
of the different parts of the country. This has occasioned a
great many different reports of travellers, many of which seem
to contradict each other. If the east side is followed, there is a
succession of rocky paths, some easy, sorae difficult, compelling
to much climbing up and down the defiles, sorae of them leading
to interjacent valleys, which are exceedingly fertile in spring,
but which in sumraer dry up and becorae parched and waste.
From seeing this district in the dry season, the impression
has become only too general, that the whole Jordan valley
between Beisan and Jericho, and extending westward even as
far as the high lands of Judsea and Samaria, is a desert. This
irapression, though conveyed by travellers as guarded as
Burckhardt even, is really a false one, and there are only a
few tracts which are so thoroughly neglected as to present the
appearance of waste land,* On the contrary, the countless
ruins which are found in this district, the traces of olive plan
tations and of vineyards, the fields, even yet partially tiUed,
and in particular the very fertile patches of meadow land and
pasture lands for cattle, show what nature intended that this
tract should be, and that it is to human improvidence and folly
alone that it is due, that a country once so fruitful should be
surrendered to the mere occupancy of lawless Beduins,
The citations from travellers given in the preceding pages
show conclusively how far eastward of the line of watershed
the bounds of population extended in former times. Un
questionably the careful study of that line of watershed, and of
the character of the wadis on the east, and an exact estimate
of the heights and depressions of the district between that line
and the Jordan, would throw much light upon the physical
character of the entire district. At present we have not a
specific measurement of any but the most important heights
upon the watershed Hne Ijf tween Jerusalem and Tabor, These
give but general results regarding the elevation of the district
above the sea.'
' Von Schubert, Reise, iii. p. 73.
2 Von Wildenbruch, Profil. Mon. Ber. vol. iii. p. 251 ; Von Schubert,
Erdl, and Steinheil, in MUnch. Gel. Anz. 1840, p. 382 ; Russegger, Ueber
die Depression, etc., in Poggendorf's Annal. p. 186.

HEIGHTS, ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE. 355
They are the following : —
1, Absolute Heights above the Ocean.
1, Hebron, 2644 Paris feet above the sea, according to von
Schubert,
2, Jerusalem, 2349 feet (v. Wildenbruch), 2472 (v. Schubert).
3. Ain Yebrud, N, of Bethel, and near the origin of Wadi
Mutiyah, or W. Nawaimeh, 2208 feet (von Wildenbruch),
4, Sinjel, near Turmus Aja, 2520 feet (von Schubert).
5. Nablus, at the origin of Wadi Faria, 1568 feet (von
Wildenbruch), 1751 (von Schubert).
6. Jenin, 258 feet (von WUden.), 514 (von Schubert), at the
southern source of the Kishon.
7. Plain of Esdraelon, on the road from Jenin to Nazareth, 438
feet (von Schubert), i.e. at the western base of Tabor,
and at the source of the northern source of the Kishon.
8. Plain of Nazareth, 821 feet (von Schubert).
The heights rising above this high and yet varying plateau
are —
Mount of Olives, 2509 feet (von Wilden.) above the sea.
Mount Gerizim, 2398 feet (von Schubert) „ „
Above the vale of Nazareth is the convent, 820 feet (von
Schubert), 1161 (Russegger). The summit of Tabor is
1683 feet (von WUden.), 1747 (von Schubert), 1755
(Russegger).
The depressions eastward below the level of the Mediter
ranean are —
1, The Dead Sea, 1351 feet (von WUdenbruch), 598 (von
Schubert), 1290 (De Bertou), 1341 (Russegger), and
1231 (Symonds),
2. Jericho at Ain Sultan, 640 feet {\. WUdenbruch), 527 (von
Schubert), 717 (Russegger at Riha).
3, Lake Tiberias, 793 feet (v, Wildenbruch), 535 (v. Schubert),
625 (Russegger), 307 (Symonds),
2, Relative Heights above the surrounding district.
The relative heights of the localities just indicated must
have far different relations to each other than to the level of

356 PALESTINE.

the Mediterranean, which is common to them all : this is the
case because the Jordan basin, with which they all have more
or less connection, has no uniform level, but is constantly rising
towards the north. I cite a few places, in order to show their
relative height, but must compare together those which are on
the same paraUel of latitude. The measurements are mainly
those of von WUdenbruch and von Schubert,
Relative heights, as they appear to the eye of a traveUer on
the east side :
1, Jerusalem above the Dead Sea, 2344 + 1351 = 3700 Paris
feet. The Mount of Olives is about two hundred feet
higher,
2. Ain 'Tebrud, above Jericho at Ain Sultan, 2208 + 630 =
2838 : above the plain of Jericho, 2208 + 926 = 3134
feet,
3, Mount Gerizim, above Lake Tiberias, 2398 + 793 = 3191
Paris feet : above the city of Nablus and the Muchna
plain, only 1377 feet. The city of Nablus, 1568 + 793
= 2361 feet above Lake Tiberias,
4, The plain of Esdraelon, at the foot of Tabor, 438 + 739 =
1231 feet,
5. Vale of Nazareth, 821 + 793 = 1614 feet,
6. Mount Tabor, 1683 + 793 = 2476 feet above Lake Tiberias :
above the plain of Esdraelon, 1309 feet.
The impressions which grow out of this blending of absolute
and relative heights are very curious and perplexing. In some
cases, as in that of Gerizim for example, the absolute height is
not equal to that of the German Brocken, while the relative
height is hundreds of feet raore. There may, too, be found
villages and towns lying on the plateau which forms the water
shed, and which are as high or even higher than sorae peaks
of raountains which have celebrated names, Jerusalem, for
example, lies as high as the summit of Gerizim, and six hundred
feet higher than that of Tabor ; while the Mount of Olives is
eleven feet lower than the plateau at Sinjel and Turmus Aja
on the great road to Damascus, The whole of the high ridge
which runs northward from Jerusalem, with its rolling sur
face and frequent ravines, shelves away towards the plain of

CONCLUSION. 357
Esdraelon tUl it attains an absolute elevation of only about
three or four hundred feet, where a short district of lowland is
formed, which passes eastward through the Gate, so to call it,
of Jezreel, and connects with Wadi Beisan and the Ghor, It
gradually ascends on the north, first swelling upward in the
vale of Nazareth, then attaining the heights on which Safed
lies ; and then passing on, forms the connecting ridge between
the mountainous country of the south and the Lebanon,
We close these remarks with a weighty observation of
Gross* regarding the physical character of the region which
we have been considering. He notices that, in the district
lying between the Wadi el Aujeh and Turmus Aja on the one
side, and Wadi Faria on the other, the central mountain region
thrusts itself farther towards the east than it does elsewhere,
and the heights along the eastern border of this elevated dis
trict attain an altitude equal to that of the raore western ones.
The slope towards the Jordan is consequently much shorter
there than in the paraUel of Jerusalem and Hebron, and at the
same time not proportionally steep, since the comparatively
slight depression of the Jordan valley does not "make so great a
fall necessary,
1 H. Gross, Anmerk. in Z. d. Deutsche Morgenl. Ges. vol. iii. p. 57.

APPENDIX I.

GEOGEAPHICAL POSITIONS,
ACCORDING TO C. W. M. VAN DE VELDE.

Names of Places, Lat. N. ^°°S- ^: ?^
Greenwich.
Tarabulus (Tripolis) : the vUlage at the
harbour, Minet Tar§,bulus, by con
struction of itineraries frora Beirut, 34°27' 0" 35° 47' 50"
Seetzen, Aug, 1766, obs. of alt., , 34 27 30
Tarabulus, house of the French consul,
by construction as before, , . 34 26 0 35 50 10
Berghaus, from Gauttier and Hell, , 34 26 24 35 50 25
Capt, Corry, , . . . 35 50 40
Ras esh Shukah (Theuprosopon), . 34 19 30 35 38 30
The lat. is from Hell and Gauttier
(Berghaus' Memoir), the long, de
rived frora the long, of Tarabulus,
Perhaps the long, of Hell and
Gauttier refers to the highest
surarait of the promontory, . 35 41 13
Our fig. refers to the most western
cliff.
Maj. Scott's map, . , . 34 18 15 35 39 30
El-Batriln (Botrys), by construction of
itineraries, , , , . 34 16 30 35 38 0
Jebeil (Byblus, Gebal), by construction
of itineraries, , . , . 34 8 30 35 37 30

360 APPENDIX.
Names of Places, Lat. N. ^G°re?nSick
Beirut (Berytus), castle n.e, side of the
town, from the Admiralty map of
Beirut Bay, C, H, DUlon, 1842,
The long, by construction of
triang, from Saida and the coast, . 33° 54' 42" 35° 29' 30"
CaUier's map, . . . . 33 51 30 35 27 15
Maj, Scott's map, . . . 33 54 5 35 27 35
R^s Beirut, by construction of triang.
from Beirut, Saida, and the coast, 33 54 20 35 27 0
Berghaus, from Gauttier and Hell
(evidently erroneous), . . 33 49 45 35 26 5
Deir-el-Kamar, by construction of itine
raries,  33 43 25 35 35 0
Riblah, by construction of triangles and
itineraries, , . . , 34 27 30 36 33 30
Kamoa el Hurraul, by construction of
triangles and itineraries, . , 34 21 30 36 24 15
The Cedars, by construction of triangles
and itineraries, , , , 34 13 45 36 1 25
Ba'albek, ruin of the large temple, by
construction of triangles and itine
raries,  33 59 30 36 10 5
Berghaus, by construction of itine*
raries (the long, is far too ranch w.), 33 58 10 36 2 5
Arrowsmith's map (frora Corry?), ,34 0 20 36 13 20
Zahleh, Centre, frora construction of
itineraries, , , . . 33 51 15 35 53 35
Berghaus, by construction of itine
raries,  33 49 10 35 49 45
Jubb Jenin, from construction of itine
raries,  33 37 45 35 46 40
Zebedany, from construction of itine
raries,  33 43 35 36 4 20

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIONS. 361
Names of Places. Lat N ^°**S- ^- °^
fT 1 -IT • -r» ' Greenwich.
Zuk Wadi Barada, from Porter's survey,
compared with other itineraries, , 33° 38' 30" 36° 4' 55"
Ritter (xvu, 1278) gives, , . 33 40 0 36 9 0
Saidnaya, by construction of Porter's
survey, . . ' . , , 33 44 0 36 18 25
Kuteifeh, by construction of Porter's
survey,  33 45 50 36 34 30
Berghaus, by construction of itine
raries,  33 43 0 36 41 5
Yabrud, by construction of Porter's sur
vey,  34 1 30 36 37 25
Nebk, by construction from Porter's
survey,  34 3 55 36 43 40
Kara, by construction from Porter's sur
vey,  34 12 30 36 45 15
Berghaus, by construction of itine
raries,  34 12 0-36 51 45
Hasya, by construction of Porter's sur
vey,  34 27 20 36 45 45
Saida (Sidon), Sea Castle, from the Ad
miralty map ; observations of H.
A. Ormsby, LN,, 1833, , . 35 25 0
From construction of triangles, . 33 34 0 35 21 50
Berghaus, MS. letter of Capt.
Washington, . . . . 33 34 5 35 21 48
CaUier's map, . . . . 33 34 0 35 21 30
Niebuhr,  33 33 15
Berghaus, observations of Hell (the
house of the French Consul, which
is a little more S. than the Sea
Castle),  33 33 40 35 21 18
Ras Surafend, the low round cape, from
construction of triangles and itine
raries,  33 28 5 35 17 15

362 APPENDIX.
Names of Places. Lat, N, G°°efn5ch!
Berghaus (observations of Hell), the
ruined tower on a projecting rock
30" to the N. and 45" to the E. of
the cape, . . . . 33°30' 0" 35° 18' 54"
Nahr el Kasiraiyeh, mouth, by construc
tion of triangles and itineraries, . 33 20 20 35 14 15
Tur (Tyre), the ruined lighthouse on
rock N. side of city; observations
of H. A. Ormsby, 1831, . . 33 17 0 35 15 0
Tur (Tyre), the minaret, by construction
of triangles, . , . , 33 16 50 35 12 0
Berghaus, frora Gauttier and G. Vial, 33 17 0 35 12 45
CaUier's map, , . , . 33 17 10 35 12 15
IMaj. Scott's map, . . . 33 16 0 35 11 20
Ras el Abiad (Cape Blanco), n, end of
westernmost cliff, by construction
of triangles, . . , . 33 10 25 35 10 50
Berghaus, frora Galiano, . . 33 11 30 35 7 15
Berghaus, from Hell and by construc
tion ; perhaps Galiano's and Hell's
observations refer to the central or
highest part of the broad promon
tory,  33 12 10 35 8 55
Maj. Scott's map, . . . 33 10 30 35 9 30
Ras en Nakura, the ruined tower on the
sumrait, from Symonds' triangles,
and based upon the lat. and long.
of Akka, . . . . 33 5 25 35 6 40
Berghaus ace. to Gauttier, , . 33 5 10 35 5 35
Akka (Acre), the castle. Admiralty map
observations of C, H. DiUon, 1843, 32 54 51 35 8 0
Niebuhr, from observations of two
stars' alt., 15th Aug, 1766, . 32 55 23
Major Scott's map, , . . 32 55 25 35 3 20
Lynch's map, . , , . 32 56 0 35 4 20

32 55 35 35

4 15

35

4 20

32 55 16

35

4 30

32 48 45 35

0 45

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIONS. . 363
Names of Places, Lat. N. ^""S- ^: °i
Greenwich.
Callier's map, . . . ,32° 56' 55" 35° 4' 15"
Jacotm,  32 56 0 35 23 30
Bergl^aus, from Gauttier and Hell
(the French Consulate),
Berghaus, letter from Capt. Washing
ton, .....
The mean lat. of Dillon, Niebuhr,
Scott, Gauttier, and Hell, for
Akka, castle, ....
The long, from Gauttier and Hell, .
Haifa, castle on sea-side, by construction
of Symonds' triangulation and the
adopted position of Akka, .
Obs. of J. Aylen, master of H.M.S.
Madagascar, 1832 (Admiralty
map),  32 52 0 35 2 0
These observations are evidently not
correct.
Mount Carmel, the convent, from
Symonds' triangulation and Akka's
position,  32 49 30 34 58 30
Berghaus, Marquis de Chabert, . 32 50 0 34 58 55
Mount Carmel, the north-westernraost
cape,  32 50 25 34 58 20
Berghaus, reduc, from his position
of Akka, . . . . 32 50 25 34 58 0
Mount Carmel, el-Mohraka, reduc. from
Akka's position by Symonds' tri
angulation, , . . . 32 39 20 35 6 0
Athlit (cast. Peregrinorum), reduc. from
Symonds' triangulation and by
itineraries, . . • . 32 41 30 34 56 15
Berghaus, from Hell, who mistook
these ruins for those of Csesarea, 32 41 5
Tantura, the ruined tower, constructed
from triangulation, . . . 32 35 50 34 55 0

364 APPENDIX.
Names of Places. Lat. N. oTef iiwich.
Jezzin, by construction of itineraries, . 33 34' 0" 35° 33' 0"
Hasbeiya, Emir's palace, . . .33 25. 13 35 41 0
The lat, from Lynch's table of lat. and
long, in his official report; the long,
reduc, from construction of tri
angles and itineraries.
Kul'at esh Shukif (Belfort), ffom con
struction of triangles, . . . 33 20 30 35 32 0
Banias, centre of village, constructed by
triangles, , , , , 33 16 0 35 41 30
Berghaus, by triangles, obtained frora
itineraries of Burckhardt and
Buckingham (erroneous), , , 33 9 20 35 45 5
Tibnin, castle, constructed by triangles, 33 12 30 35 25 35
Bahr el Huleh, s. end, where the Jordan
issues from the lake, constructed
by triangles, , , . , 33 3 20 35 38 15
.Jisr Benat Yakub, constructed by tri
angles,  33 2 20 35 38 40
Berghaus, by construction of triangles, 33 2 50 35 38 35
Safed, the ruined castle on the summit
above the town, from Symonds'
triangulation, . . . . 32 58 30 35 31 50
Berghaus,  32 57 42 35 30 25
Lake of Tiberias, n. end, entrance of
the Jordan, by construction of
Symonds' triangulation, , , 32 53 50 35 39 20
Observations of Lynch (official re
port),  32 53 37
Observations of Lieut, Molyneux, , 32 52 30
(See Ritter, xv, 283 ; frora Journ.
R. Geogr. Soc. vol, xviii, 1848, p,
107.)
Berghaus, . . . . . 32 55 0

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIONS 365
Names of Places. Lat N •^^"S- ^- °^
Greenwich.
Tubariyeh (Tiberias), the castle, . 32° 46' 14" 35° 35' 50"
The latter is from Lynch's observa
tion, which agrees perfectly with
the lat, as derived from Symonds'
triangulation.
Major Scott's map, , , . 32 47 0 35 32 0
Callier's map, , . . . 32 46 15 35 36 0
Isambert's map,  32 46 32 35 33 20
Corry in Arrowsmith's map, , , 32 46 18 35 30 30
Berghaus,  32 48 8 35 32 35
Lake of Tiberias, southem end, issue of
the Jordan, , , . . 32 42 21 35 37 55
The lat. is from Lynch's observations
(official report), agreeing perfectly
with the latter as obtained by
Symonds' triangulation.
Mouiit Tabor, ruined convent on sum
mit, from Symonds' triangulation, 32 41 30 35 25 30
Nazareth, centre, from Symonds' tri
angulation, . ,
Major Scott's map,
Callier's map,
Berghaus, .
Lynch's map.

32 42 0 35 19 55
32 42 0 35 17 0
32 42 35 35 18 30
32 42 58 35 16 40
32 43 5 35 19 0

Damascus, the castle, by construction
from itineraries, . . , 33 31 20 36 15 30
Berghaus, from Seetzen's observa
tions, 1805, , . . . 33 32 28
Berghaus, from construction of itine
raries, ..... 36 20 15
There may be a difference of 30" or
40" in lat. between the castle and
the place of Seetzen's observation
which Berghaus does not men
tion (probably the Latin convent).
Taking this into account, the lati-

366 APPENDIX.
Names of Places. Lat. N. G°°ef nwlch.
tudes, as observed by Seetzen, and
obtained by construction in Van
der Velde's map, seem to agree
within 30".
Porter's map (five years in Damascus), 33° 33' 25" 36° 6' 40"
Katana, by construction of Porter's sur
vey, and itineraries, . . . 33 27 20 36 4 15
Mount Hermon, ruined temple on sum
mit, by construction of triangles, . 33 26 10 35 49 30
Kesweh, by construction of itineraries
and Porter's survey, . . , 33 22 10 36 13 25
Berghaus,byconstructIonof itineraries, 33 26 0 36 15 35
S'as'a, by construction of itineraries, , 33 17 45 36 3 30
Kuneitirah, by construction of itineraries, 33 9 0 35 49 30
Berghaus, by construction of itine
raries,  33 8 3 35 52 7
Sunamein (Acre), by construction of
itineraries, . . , , 33 7 50 36 9 0
Nawa (Neve), by construction of itine
raries,  32 57 0 36 1 45
Tseil, by construction of itineraries, , 32 53 30 35 57 5
Berghaus,byconstructionof itineraries, 32 50 53 35 54 45
Tell el Feras, by construction of triangles, 33 0 10 35 51 55
Berghaus, by construction of triangles, 32 56 28 35 47 42
Fik(Apheca),byconstructionof triangles, 32 46 10 35 44 25
El-Mazarib, by construction of itineraries, 32 46 35 36 6 0
Berghaus,byconstructionof itineraries, 32 46 20 36 13 32
Dera (Edrei), by construction of itineraries, 32 42 20 36 9 5
Eshmiskin, by construction of itineraries, 32 53 0 36 10 0
Edhr'a (Zora), by construction of itine
raries,  32 55 55 36 13 0
Berghaus,byconstructionof itineraries, 33 1 22 36 19 35
Arrowsmith's map, . . . 32 58 0 36 21 30

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIONS. 367
Names of Places. Lat. N. ^°**S- ^: ?^
Greenwich.
Musmeih (Phaenos), by construction of
itineraries, . . . .33° 10' 45" 36° 22' 30"
Bathaniyeh (Batanea), by construction
of Porter's survey, . . . 33 2 40 36 41 40
Kunawat (Kenath), by construction of
Porter's survey, . , , 32 47 30 36 36 0
Kuleib (highest peak of Jeb, Ha'uran),
from Porter's survey, , . 32 39 50 36 39 0
Berghaus, by construction of itineraries, 32 39 35 36 47 55
Sulkhad (Salcah), by construction of
Porter's survey, , . , 32 28 25 36 39 30
Berghaus,byconstructionof itineraries, 32 29 30 36 52 48
Busrah (Bozrah), by construction of Por
ter's survey, and other itineraries, 32 29 40 36 26 30
Berghausjbyconstructionof itineraries, 32 26 25 36 40 5
Berghaus, Arrowsmith's map, , , 32 35 30 36 27 15
Irbid (Arbela), by construction of itine
raries,  32 34 30 36 0 20
BerghauSjbyconstructionof itineraries, 32 39 48 36 2 32
Abil(AbUa),byconstructionof itineraries, 32 39 30 35 53 0
Um-Keis (Gadara), by construction of
itineraries, , , . , 32 37 30 35 43 10
Tubakat Fahel (Pella), by construction
of triangles, , . . . 32 27 10 35 39 5
Jisr Mejami'a (on the Jordan), by con
struction of itineraries, compared
with Lynch's route, . . . 32 37 5 35 36 0
Beisan (Beth-shean), the Tell, by con
struction of triangles, . . 32 29 45 35 32 15
Berghaus,  32 35 25 35 32 33
Berghaus, from Corry in Arrow-
smith's map, . . . . 32 29 30 35 35 55
Lynch's map, • . . . 32 33 0

368 APPENDIX,
Names of Places. Lat. N. ^r°f n^jch.
Zer'in (Jizreel), by construction of tri
angles,  32° 32' 40" 35° 21' 0"
Jebel Duhy, wely on the surarait, from
Symonds' triangulation, . . 32 36 15 35 22 20
Jenin (en-Gannira), by construction of
triangles, . . , .
Kaisariyeh (Csesarea), the castle at sea
side, by construction of itineraries,
Berghaus, from Gauttier,
Berghaus, Jacotin,
Yofa(.Joppe),the citadel, from Symonds'
triangulation, , . , .
Niebuhr, observations of two stars'
alt, , , . , ,
Callier's map, , , . ,
Hell (Berghaus), . . , .
Gauttier (Berghaus),
These observations refer, perhaps, to
a point somewhere in the northem
part of the city; whereas the
citadel is in the southern part.
Allowance of 30" might conse
quently be made,
Maj, Scott's map, . . , 32 6 25 34 45 20
Maj, Scott's too northerly position
must be explained from his too
northerly position of Jerusalem,
Ramleh, the martyr's tower, from Sy
monds' triangulation, . . 31 55 5 34 54 0
Berghaus, from Jacotin, , , 31 56 18
Berghaus, frora Robinson and Smith's
itineraries in 1838, , . , 34 50 15
Yebnah (Jabneh), by construction of
triangles, . . . . 31 51 10 34 47 0

32

26 40

35 20 0

32

29 30

34 52 40

32

32 25

34 53 4

32

32 0

34 54 5

32

2 0

34 47 25

32

3 22

32

3 20

34 43 45

32

2 30

33

3 25

34 44 15

Lat. N.

Long. B. of
Green-wich.

31° 46' 50"

34° 47' 0"

31 46 34

31 47 47

31 45 45

31 46 46

35 12 51

31 47 40

35 15 20

31 46 40

35 13 0

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIONS. 369
Names of Places.
Jerusalem, the citadel, from Symonds'
triangulation, .
Niebuhr, 1766, obs. with great care, .
Seetzen, for the Convent of Terra
Sancta, .....
Moore and Beke, ....
Capt. Corry (the long, by moon's
distance), ....
Callier's map, ....
Lynch's map, , , , ,
Berghaus (the lat. from itineraries and
long, from itineraries of Robinson
and Smith, 1838), compared with
Seetzen's moon's distances, . 31 46 42 35 13 41
Robinson (lat. B. R. p. 183), as com
municated by the Admiralty in
London to Mr Finn, H.M. Consul
in Jerusalem, . . . . 31 46 35 35 18 30
Seilun (Shiloh), by construction of tri
angles and itineraries, . . 32 2 30 35 17 55
Nabulus (Shechem), wely on Mount
Gerizim, by construction of tri
angles,  32 10 10 35 17 5
Sebustiyeh (Samaria), the ruined
church, by construction of tri
angles,  32 14 50 35 12 30
Kum Surtabeh, from Symonds' triangu
lation, and our own bearings, .32 5 45 35 31 20
Jordan, ford of the Nabulus es Salt,
road, from constmction by triangles
and itineraries, . • . 32 6 30 35 35 10
Jisr Daraieh, near the ford, . . 32 7 15 35 35 0
Lynch's observations at encampment
near Jisr Damieh, . . , 32 7 24
VOL. II. ^ ^

370 APPENDIX.
Names of Places. Lat. N. GrefiiSck
Er-Riha, tower, . . . .31° 51' 0" 35° 28' 20"
Berghaus,  31 52 47 35 30 5
Kul'at er Rubud, by construction of tri
angles,  32 19 20 35 47 30
Berghaus, construction of itineraries, 32 25 45 35 56 26
Jerash (Gerasa), by construction of
itineraries, . . . . 32 17 0 35 56 50
Berghaus, by construction of itine
raries,  32 21 30 36 6 5
Arrowsmith's map, . . . 32 20 50 36 5 25
Astronoraical observations of Moore, 32 16 30
Es-Salt (Ramoth-GUead), by constmcr
tion of itineraries, , . , 32 1 50 35 47 30
Berghaus, by construction of itine
raries,  32 6 26 32 50 13
Amman (Rabbath-Aramon), by con
struction of itineraries, , , 31 55 30 35 59 30
Berghaus, by construction of itine
raries,  31 59 8 36 3 8
Hesbon (Heshbon), by constmction of
itineraries, . . . , 31 44 55 35 48 55
Berghaus, by construction of itine
raries,  31 50 18 35 54 33
Um el Rusas, by construction of itine
raries,  31 34 20 36 6 15
Berghaus, by construction of itine
raries,  31 39 52 36 12-40
Shihan (Shihon), by construction of
itineraries, . . . . 31 25 15 35 4§ 50
Berghaus, by construction of itine
raries,  31 30 8 35 47 5
Kerah (Kir-Moab), the castle, by con
struction of itineraries and triangles, 31 13 20 35 43 10

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIONS. 371'
Names of Places. Lat N ^°°S- ^- °^
¦ ¦ Greenwich,
Kabba (Rabbath-Moab), by constmction
of itineraries, . , . .31° 19' 35" 35° 42' 30"
The Dead Sea, s, end; Jeb, Usdum,
cave, by construction of itineraries
and triangles, . . , , 31 6 25 35 26 35
Kul'at Um-Baghek, by construction of
itineraries, . , , , 31 10 50 35 24 10
Sebbeh (Masada), by construction of
triangles, . . . . 31 19 30 35 24 30
Ain Jiddy (Engedi), the fountain, ob
servations by Lynch, , , , 31 27 55 35 28 0
Long, by construction of triangles, . 35 26 15
Ain Terabeh, Lynch's encampment near
the fountain, observ. with care, . 31 35 54 35 27 15
The fountain, a Httle more s., . . 31 35 35 35 27 20
Ain el Feshkhah, Lynch's encampment
near the fountain, . . . 31 42 54 35 30 12
Long, by construction of triangles, . 35 29 5
W. Zerka Ma'in, mouth, by construction
of triangles, . . . . 31 36 15 35 34 40
W. Mojib (Arnon river), Lynch's camp
near the mouth, . . , 31 27 50 35 36 0
BeitLahm (Bethlehem), Latin Convent,
derived by triangles from Symonds'
position of Jerusalem, . , 31 43 35 35 13 40
El-KhuHl (Hebron), by construction of
itineraries, , , • . 31 31 0 35 8 25
Moore, by astronomical observations, 31 31 30
Callier's map, , , . . 31 31 10 35 12 15
Lynch's map, . . , 31 32 30 35 8 20
Berghaus, calculated from azimuth
of Jerusalem in Seetzen's map, . 31 31 30 35 12 25

372 APPENDIX.
Names of Places. Lat. N. Greenwich.
Arrowsmith's map, , . ,31° 30' 0" 35° 10' 15"
Robinson {Bib. Res. ii, 432), the long,
is derived from itineraries from
Jerusalem, Ramleh, Gaza, and
'Akabah, . , , , 31 32 30 35 8 20
Beit Jibrin (Eleutheropolis), by construc
tion of itineraries, , . . 31 36 0 34 56 0
Esdud (Ashdod), by construction of
itineraries, , . . , 31 43 30 34 42 45
Askulan (Ashkelon), the khan, by con
struction of itineraries, , . 31 38 0 34 36 30
Berghaus, from Gauttier, , . 31 39 0 34 31 0
Ghuzzeh (Gaza), the highest minaret in
centre of the town, by construc
tion of itineraries and triangles, , 31 29 45 34 33 10
Berghaus, MS, letter from Captain
Washington, . . , . 31 28 0 34 30 0
Berghaus, constructed from Gauttier's
position of Yafa, . . . 31 27 20 34 27 0
Callier's map, , . . . 31 27 45 34 30 15
Maj, Scott's map, , , , 31 35 5 34 31 10
These figures show great discrepancy.
But as Askulan's latitude is pretty
secure, and as we could not make
a great mistake in the distance,
which we travelled over from As
kulan to Gaza, we feel rather con
fident in Gaza's latitude as ob
tained by our construction,
Bir es Seba (Beer Sheba), the weUs, by
construction of itineraries, , . 31 16 10 34 54 25
Kumub (Thamara), by construction of
itineraries, . . . . 31 6 0 35 7 45
Khulasah (Elusa), by construction of
itineraries, . . . . 31 5 30 34 49 0

APPENDIX IL

ALTITUDES,
ACCORDING TO VAN DER VELDE, AND THE MOST RECENT
AUTHORITIES CITED BY HIM.
Jebel Akkar, .... 6980 ManseU,
Dhor el Khodib, or Jebel el Mes-
kiyeh, highest sum, of Lebanon, 10051

Furn el Mizab, near the former,
N,E. of the Cedars, . . 9996
Another summit S, of the Cedars, 9553
High ridge s,w, of the Cedars, . 9209
The Cedars, .... 6315

Scott ; Mansell,
10061.
Mansell ; 9621, von
Wildenbruch,
Mansell,Mansell. Scott; 6700, Man-
sell ; 6400, Rus
segger; 6264, von
Schubert; 5898,
von Wildenbruch.

Source of the, torrent of Bsherreh,

below the Cedars, ,

6437

Mansell,

Highest point of the Lebanon

Pass on the road from Baalbek
to the Cedars,
7624
Von Schubert.
Mar Eliyas, e, of Kanobin,
6044
Mansell,
Deir Saideh, N, of Kanobin,
5513
Mansell.
Hazrun, w, of Bsherreh, .
5292
V, WUdenbruch
Ehden, 
4747
V, Schubert.
Ainat,viU,on road Cedars — Baalbek, 5317
Russegger.
Jebel Ayto, summit,
6347
Mansell.
Ayun el Allak, springs b.s,e. of
Tanurin, ....
6435
Mansell,
374

APPENDIX,

Merj Ahin, meadow basin in the
N. part of Lebanon,
Lebanon Pass, s.w. of Akurah, .
Source of Nahr Ibrahim, near
Akurah, , . , ,
Afka, , . . . ,
Jebel Sunnin, , , , ,

Jebel Sunnin, n.w. top,
Jebel el Keneiseh, ,

A summit immediately south of
Jebel el Keneiseh,
Another summit a little more S.E.,
Another summit s.w, of the former,
Another summit still farther s.w.,
Sumrait s. of Ain Khureibeh,
Tomat Niha (the twin peaks), the
highest summit of southern
Lebanon, , . , .
Pass of el-Jurd, N. of Jebel el
Keneiseh, ....

Pass el-Mughitheh, s. of Jebel el
Keneiseh, ....
Pass of the new carriage road near
Jebel el Keneiseh,
Khan Mudeirej (Beirut carriage
road), , , , ,
Khan Ruweiset el Harara, .

Summit w. of Khan Mudeiref,

5600 Scott; 5577,French
Carte du Liban.
4296 Allen.
5972 Von Wildenbruch,
4560 Allen,
8162 ManseU ; 8554,
Scott; 8283,Mar-
shal Marmont,
8062 ManseU.
6824 Scott; 6666, Man
seU; 6660, Carte
du Liban; 7245,
V. Wildenbruch.
7232 Mansell. •
7290 Mansell.
7054 ManseU.
6748 ManseU.
6153 ManseU.

5620 ManseU ; 6070,
Carte du Liban.
5762 Scott; 4905, Allen;
4969, Due de
Raguse.
5342 V, Wildenbruch.
4462 Carte du Liban,
4814 V, Wildenbruch;
seems too high.
4003 Carte du Liban;
3852, V, WUden
bruch.
4929 ManseU.

ALTITUDES.

375

Bhamdun, . . . ,
Khan Hosein, , , , ,
Khan to the e, and above Kehaleh,
Summit s,B, of this khan, .
Khan Shekh Mahmud,
Mar Ishaya, , , , .
Convent between Mar Ishaya and
Bhonis, ....
Muristah, ....
Jezzin, . , . . .
Deir Mishmushy,
Rum, .....
Rummiet Rum, summit N. of Rum,
KefrMilkeh, . . . .
Jebeah, the castle,
Jurjua, .....
Beit Miry, convent, .

El-Abadiyeh,

Areiya, .
Deir el Kula'h,
Hadireh,

Bukfeiya, . . . ,
A summit w, of Meruj,
Mar Eliyas er Ras, .
Deir Luwisa, near Nahr el Kelb,
Mar Yusuf el Burj, near Nahr el
Kelb, ....
Mar Rokus, near el-Beirut,
Zuk el Gharb,
Keifun, , . . . •

4334 ManseU; 3792, v,
WUdenbruch,
3114 Russegger.
3255 Mansell.
4587 ManseU.
2560 Carte du Liban.
2733 ManseU.
2911 ManseU.
5413 Scott.
2723 Carte du Liban;
2875, De Bertou.
3982 Mansell,
1870 V, d, Velde,
2855 V,d. Velde; 3351,
Mansell,
1270 De Forest,
2486 De Forest.
2648 De Forest,
2589 ManseU; 2173, in
Mansell's map of
Beirut roads,
1500 Hutter, quot, in
Ritter, xvii, p.
477.
1731 Von Wildenbruch.
2200 De Forest.
2068 ManseU; 2089, in
Mansell's map of
Beirut roads.
4544 ManseU ; 3073,
Allen.
4587 ManseU.
1862 ManseU.
701 ManseU.
505 Mansell.
582 ManseU,
3062 Mansell,
2963 ManseU,

376

APPENDIX,

Aiteh, .....

2102

ManseU.

El Ghazir in Kesrawan,

1161

ManseU.

Summit E. of Burjeh above Wadi

IVTamUtein, ....

2004

ManseU.

Burj Rihani, ....

290

Mansell.

Ruined castle of Seraar,

1823

Mansell.

Ras es Shukah,

618

Mansell.

946

Mansell.

Surarait s. of Deir Belment,

1336

Mansell.

Mar Yakub, ....

749

Mansell.

Naby Safi (Jebel Rihan), .

4443

Mansell.

KefrMilkeh, . . . .

1270

De Forest.

Jebeah, the castle, .

2486

De Forest.

Jurju'a, .....

2648

De Forest.

Naby Safi (Jebel Rihan), .

4443

Mansell.

A surarait n.e. of it, .

4167

Mansell.

Naby Sejud, ....

3379

Mansell.

Naby Abu Rekab, .

5391

ManseU.

Lebanon Pass 8. of Tomat Niha, .

4835

De Forest.

Kefr Huneh, ....

3031

De Bertou; seems
too low.

Jisr Burghuz, ....

1186

De Bertou.

Belat, viUage s. of Jisr Burghuz,

1946

De Forest.

El-Madineh, in Wadi Jerraak, .

1414

De Forest.

Arnun and Kefr Tibnit, .

1790

De Forest.

Kul'at esh Shukif, .

2205

De Forest; 2115,
ManseU ; 1990,
Carte du Liban.

Nubathiyeh, the khan.

1475

V. d. Velde ; 1280,
Carte du Liban.

Khan Mehemed 'Aly,

1062

V. d. Velde.

Zifteh, 

1180

Carte du Liban.

Tell Dibbin (Ijon) in Merj Ayun,

1770

Carte du Liban,

Jisr KhardeU under Kul'at esh

Shukif, ....
700
De Forest ; 559, v,
Wildenbruch.
Highest point of road from Kau
kaba to Jisr Burghuz on ridge
between the Litany and Has
bany, , , . . .
2300 De Forest.
ALTITUDES.

377

Ukbiyeh, viUage on Ras Surafend, 496
Zekhzakiyeh, . , . . 350
Sidara,  9I6
Naby Seir, . . . .493
Kefr Dibbeh, , . , . 890
Zerariyeh, , . . ,840
Summit s, of the khan near bridge
on the Nahr el Kasimiyeh, , 557
El-Halusiyeh, , , . . 825
Marakeh, , , , ,809
Ter Dibbeh, between Marakeh and
Tyre,  681
Hattin, ..... 464
Kaukab el Hawa, . . . 1057
Aulam,  762
Mount Carmel, convent, . . 489

Mount Carmel, highest part, , 1861
Esfia,  1729
El-Mohraka, .... 1635
Summit of hills E. of Iksim, . 614
Kefr Lam, .... 118
Highest part of ridge west of el-
Lejjun, .... 1381
Naby Iskander, above Um el Fahm, 1866
Bluff rocky point near Csesarea,
Khusu-Maher, . . .457
Jebel Julbun or Fukua, . 1716
Fukua village, . . . 1555
Highest point of GUboa range, . 2200
Jenin, ..... 650

Highest summit of ridge B. of Jenin, 1773
Shekh Shibbel, above Kefr Kud, 1664
Yabud,  1315

Mansell,
Mansell,
ManseU,Mansell,
ManseU.Mansell.
ManseU.Mansell.
ManseU.ManseU. Roth,
ManseU,Roth, Symonds ; 603,
ManseU; 620, von
Schubert ; 551,
Allen.
ManseU. Symonds.
Symonds ; 1837,
Mansell.
ManseU,
ManseU,Mansell,Mansell.
Mansell.
Mansell,

Von Schubert; 420,
Allen; 275, von
Wildenbruch ;
708, Mansell.
Mansell,Mansell.
Mansell.

378

APPENDIX.

Zebdeh, ....

1047

ManseU.

Ridge w, of Arrubeh,

1290

Mansell.

Peak s,w, of Fahmeh,

1855

ManseU.

Ajjeh, 

1453

Naby Shekh Mujahid, near Ter-
shiha, ....
2073
Mansell.
Yanuh, , . . . .
2041
Mansell.
Kul'at Jedin, . . , .
1410
Mansell.
El-Bukeiya, . . . ,
1215
V. d. Velde.
Summit s, of el-Bukeiya, west of
the pass to Raraeh,
2657
Mansell.
Pass to Raraeh,
3000
nearly.
Akka, castle, ....
92
Symonds ;
ManseU.
100,
Karn el Hanaweh, .
1062
Symonds ;
Mansell.
1110,
Summit s, of the same.
1012
Mansell.
Mejdel-Kerum,
1294
Mansell.
Kubarah, . . , .
2064
Mansell.
TeU Hazur, , . . .
1995
Mansell.
TeU Hazwa, south of the last.
1857
ManseU.
Summit s.E, of Tell Hazwa,
1604
Mansell.
Kurn Hattin, , , . .
1118
Roth; 1191,
Man-
seU ; 1096, Allen.
Plain of Esdraelon, at the base of
the Mount of Precipitation,
382
Allen.
Plain of Esdraelon, at a well near
el-Fuleh, , , , ,
108
Allen.
Plain of Esdraelon, lowest part of
road between Zerin and Na
zareth, , . . ,
489
V. Schubert.
Plain of Esdraelon, at s.E. base of
TeU Metsellira, .
88
Mansell.
Zerin, . . , . .
420
Mansell.
Jebel Duhy, . , . .
1839
Symonds ;
ManseU.
1814,
Ard el Hararaa, high plain above
Lake Tiberias,
1018
Russegger.
Yakuk, 
493
Roth.
Ridge above Nimrin,
1871
Mansell.
ALTITUDES.

379

Summit above el-Buweineh,
Uzair, .
Rummaneh, Sefuriyeh,
Jebel Kaukab,
Wely, N. of Kaukab,
Summit s.w. of Kaukab,
A summit above Tumrah,
AbiHn, .
Shefa 'Amar, .
TeU Kurdany,
Jebel Jefat, near Jebel Kaukab, .
Turan, on road from Nazareth
Safed, ....
Naby Isma'il, above Nazareth,
Nazareth, ....

Nazareth, Latin Convent, .
Deburieh,
Mount Tabor, .

Mount Tabor, n.e. base, .
Mount Tabor, N.w. base, .
Khan et Tujar,
Mount of the Precipitation,
Base of the same,
Naby Bayazid,
Naby Kubeibat,
Highest part of road on ridge S.w
of Fendekumiyeh,

1859 ManseU.
1384 ManseU.
1235 ManseU.
1003 ManseU.
1736 Symonds ; 1851,
ManseU.
1523 ManseU.
1126 Mansell.
1249 Mansell.
526 Mansell.
533 ManseU.
150 ManseU.
1600 By estimation.
872 Lynch.
1790 ManseU.
1265 Roth ; the mean
from eight obser
vations taken in
1858, between
1125 Par. and
1213 Par.; Rus
segger, 1237.
AUen ; 874, von
Schubert; too low.
Von Schubert,
Roth ; 1865, our
map ; von WU
denbruch, 1793;
AUen, 1995 ;
ManseU, 2017,
653 Allen,
259 AUen,
660 Roth,
1441 ManseU,
717 Mansell.
2579 Mansell.
2360 Mansell.
1819 Allen.

1182 567
1868

380

APPENDIX.

Beit Lid, . . . .

1714

Mansell.

Kur, . . . ,

1301

Mansell.

Kuriyet Hajja,

1572

Mansell.

Pass over Lebanon from el-Barak,

4824

Allen,

El-Basuriyeh, .
624
Mansell,
Hanaweh,
634
Mansell,
Tibnin, , , , .
2340
Mansell,
Sumrait 8,w, of Tibnin,
2305
Mansell.
Surarait between Yathir and Kan-
zoh, . , , .
. 2452
ManseU.
Belat, temple ruins, .
. 2552
Kulat Shemma,
. 1408
Mansell.
TeUIrmith, .
. 1251
ManseU.
Tower on Ras Nakura,
. 261
ManseU.
Ras Nakura, top of pass, .
, 112
Symonds.
Alma, top of pass.
. 975
V.d, Velde;
Mansell,
1070,
Kades above the Huleh,
. 1354
De Bertou,
F'arah, ....
, 3185
Mansell,
Safed, castle, .
. 2775
Symonds ;
2791,
Roth ;
2851,
Mansell,
Safed, westem part of town,
. 2531
Roth,
Summit E. of Safed,
, 2917
Mansell,
Jebel Safed, summit N. of Safed,
3252
ManseU,
Sumrait S. of es-Serarauy, .
. 2525
ManseU.
Khan Jubb Yusuf, .
, 883
V, Schubert,
Jebel Jurauk (or Jermak),
. 4000
Mansell.
Jebel Zabud, .
. 3654
Mansell,
Summit N.E. of Raraeh,
, 3481
Mansell,
Jebel S'as'a, northern summit.
, 3362
Mansell.
Jebel S'as'a, southern summit,
, 3279
Mansell,
F'asnta,
. 1928
Mansell.
Castle of Tripolis,
. 197
Mansell,
Zahleh, ....
. 3090
Russegger ;
3071,
De Forest
3664,
Allen.
Bur Eliyas,
. 2885
Carte du Liban.
Azirteh, on the Zahleh, Sunnii
1
road, , , . .
. 5050
Carte du Liban.
ALTITUDES.

381

Mar Takhala el Meruj, church
near the coal mines of el-Juar,
Maklain el Bed, coal mines,
Mar Hannah el Keneiseh, ,
El-Juar, , , . .
Kurnayil, emir's castle,
Bzebdin, coal mines, ,
Natural bridge near the sources of
Nahr el Kelb,
Sulima, eralr's castle,
Shumlan, on Beirut D, el Kamr
road, , . . , .
Abeih, . . , . .
Mtara Abeih, n,e, of Abeih,
Mejdel-Aya, N, of Abeih, ,
B'awirteh, , , , .
Summit s. of B'asir, .
Jisr el Kady, on Nahr Damur, .
Beit ed Din, emir's birthplace,
Deir el Kamr,
El-Baruk, village near the source
of the Nahr el Auwly, .
Jett, near Kakun,
Tell Manasif, E. of Kefr Saba, .
Nabulus, Greek Convent, .

Alam Uda, wely on Jebel Sleiman,
Valley of el-Mokhna, near Hawara,
Summit above Lubban,
Nabulus, .Jerusalem road, top of
first ridge S. of Nabulus,
Bed of wadi on Nabulus-Jeru-
salem road, below Lubban,
Summit of ridge 8. of Lubban
Top of ridge beyond SinjU,

4073 3062 1918
21954096 3097

Russegger. Russegger. Russegger.Russegger.Russegger. Russegger,

4925

Von Wildenbruch.

3075

Russegger,

1310

De Bertou.

2300

De Forest; 2977,

Mansell.

3255

Mansell.

2264

Scott.

1730

Mansell.

1515

Mansell.

665

Scott.

2946

Scott ; 2419, De

Bertou.

2953

Carte du Liban.

3984

AUen,

617

Allen,

988

Allen.

1672

Von Wildenbruch;

1866, von Schu

bert; 1850, Al
len; 1464, Poole,
2396 1595
Symonds, AUen,
2850
Mansell,
2037
Allen,
1631
Allen,
2463
Allen,
3108
Allen; Poole, 2020,
too low.
382

APPENDIX.

Sinjil, ....

. 2685

Von Schubert ;
3128, Mansell.

Ain Haramiyeh,

. 1803

Poole ; too low.

Deir Abu Meshal, .

. 1457

Symonds ; 1592,
Mansell.

Deir Ghusaneh,

, 1433

Symonds.

Beit Rima,

. 1390

Van de Velde.

Mejdel,

, 627

Mansell.

DeirBalut, .

, 887

Mansell.

El-Mezra'ah (Nabulus-Jerusalem

road).

, 3382

Mansell.

Tell Azur, S. of el-Mezra'ah

. 3566

ManseU.

Taiyibeh,

. 2566

Symonds; 3116,
ManseU.

Ain Yebmd .

. 2355

Von Wildenbruch ;
1766, Poole.

Amutiyeh,

. 2200

Poole.

El-Aujeh, ruins e. of Taiyibeh,

. 2181

Symonds ; 2593,
Mansell.

Bethel,

. 2401

Poole.

El-BIreh,

. 2254

Poole; 3042, AUen,
too high.

Sumrait N.Ii. of Auza,

1968

Mansell.

Merj el Ghurruk, Plain of Sannur

1330

AUen.

Jebel Haskin,

2485

Mansell.

Summit s. of Yasir, .

2360

Mansell.

Summit w, of Kul'at Melha,

2558

Mansell.

Naby Bel an, ,

2724

Mansell.

Mount Ebal, ,

3375

Mansell.

Mount Gerizim, Shekh Gannim,

3179

Mansell; 2650, von
Schubert; 2408,
Poole.

Summit N, of Beit Dejan, .

2860

Mansell.

Jebel Jedua, ,

3120

ManseU.

Naby Sleiman el Farsi,

2893

Mansell,

Shekh Ibrahim,

2351

Mansell.

Sebustiyeh,

1674

ManseU; 1549, Al
len; 1120, Poole;
986, von Schu
bert.

ALTITUDES.

883

Jebel Kuruntul, s, of Ain Duk, ,
Naby Samwil,
Beit Unia, . , . ,
Summit n.e, of Janiyeh, .
Summit above Katanah, on Jeru
salem-Yafa road, ,
A summit farther west,
Jerusalem-Yafa road near Kulo-
nieh, , , , ,
Jerusalem-Yafa road at Ain Dilbeh,
Jerusalem-Yafa road below Saris,
.Jerusalem, Bab Wady Aly,
El-Atrun, road in the valley,
El-Kubab, road below,
Ramleh, martyrs' tower,
Ramleh, the convent.

Surafend,
El-Fejjeh, village e,n.e. of Jaffa,
Yafa, castle, .
Summit of low ridge between el
Fejjeh and Bene Ibrak, ,
Jebel um Deirej, summit N,w, of
Surah,
Deir el Hawa,
Beit Atab,
Dahr es Saleh, summit w, of
Solomon's pools, .
Mar Eliyas, .
Jerusalem, terrace at Prussian
hospice, , . , .
Jerusalem, highest N.w. part of
the city, ....
Jerusalem, the Latin Convent, .
Jerusalem, threshold of Yafa gate.

1068 Mansell.
2649 Symonds ; 3193,
Mansell.
2881 Mansell.
2739 ManseU.
3309 ManseU.
2562 ManseU.
1954 Lynch; 1527,Poole.
2024 Lynch; 2047,Poole.
1989 Lynch.
965 Lynch ; 867, Poole.
982 Lynch; 857, Poole.
543 Lync)i; 445, Poole.
326 Symonds ; 408,
Mansell.
230 Lynch; 244, Poole;
273, Wilden-
bruch.
178 Lynch.
220 Symonds.
119 Symonds.
323 Mansell.
1382 Mansell.
2246 ManseU.
2437 ManseU.
3430 ManseU.
2876 ManseU ; 2207,
Poole.
2526 Roth,
2610 Lynch,
2642 Russegger ; 2636,
von Schubert.
2504 Von Wildenbruch.

384

APPENDIX.

Mount Zion, c»naculum, , , 2537 Von Schubert
Mount Zion, Protestant grave
yard, . , , ,2696

Hezekiah's pool, , . 2061
Mount Moriah, . . . 2429
Pool of Siloam, . . . 2114
Ain Rogel, .... 2095
Gethseraane, .... 2412
Bridge below Gethseraane, . 2281
Mount of Olives, highest top, . 2766

Mount of Olives, wely e. of
church, .... 2415

Mount of Evil Counsel, . .2702
Russian Convent at Mount Gihon, 2925
Bethany, . , , , 1803
Bir el Hodh (Jerusalem-Jericho
road), , , , , 1421
Khan el Ahmar (on do,), . , 855
High mountain s, of es-Surarat, , 738
Top of last descent on this road, , 333
Naby Musa, . , , , 330
Birket el Hataba (Jerusalem —
Mar Saba), , . .921
Mar Saba, altar of the church, . 588

Roth, Poole,
Von Schubert,
Von Schubert.
Roth; 1996, Lynch.
Roth.
Von Schubert ;
2284, AUen.
Roth; 2724, von
Schubert; 2674,
von Wilden
bruch ; 2908,
ManseU.
Symonds, too low;
2138, Poole,
much too low.
Roth.
Mansell, too high.
Poole. Von Wildenbruch ;
1284, Poole.
Von Wildenbruch.
Symonds ; 1137,
Mansell.
Von Wildenbruch.
Poole.Lynch,
Lynch ; 725, von
Schubert ; 740,
Russegger,

Valley of the Kedron below Mar
Saba, , ... 37 Russegger,
Jebel Fureidls, . , , 2664 ManseU,
A summit about four miles b,n.e,
of Jebel Fureidls, . , 1650 ManseU,

ALTITUDES,

385

Bethlehem, convent,
El-Burak, castle at Solomon's

2704 Russegger ; 2567,
von Schubert.

Pools,

2645

Roth; 2251, Poole
(the great foun
tain above the
upper tank).

Wady Urtas, the farm.

. 1896

Poole,

Raraeh, ruins N. of Hebron,

. 2800

Poole.

Kurmul, ruins 8. of Hebron,

2234

Poole.

'Ain Tawaneh, s.E. of Hebron,

2074

Poole.

Arab camp in Wady er Rmail,

1654

Poole.

Hebron,

. 3029

Russegger ; 2840,
von Schubert,

Hebron, before the quarantine-

house.

2918

Roth.

El-Kereitein, .

2313

Roth,

Dura, Naby Nuh, .

. 2911

Mansell,

Shekh 'Aly (Dawaimeh), .

, 1417

Mansell,

Tell Jedeideh, N. of Beit Jibrin,

1382

Mansell.

Naby Ahmed (Arak el Mensiyeh),

581

Mansell,

Naby Yunas, N. of Esdud,

188

Mansell.

Ruins of Askelon, highest part, .

230

Mansell.

Shekh Arduan, n. of Gaza,

214

ManseU.

El-Montar, s. of Gaza,

314

Mansell.

TellDaheb, .

362

Mansell.

TeUelAjur, .

, 102

Mansell.

Edh-Dhoheriyeh,

. 2174

Russegger.

Semua (valley below),

2372

Von Schubert,

Bir es Seba, .

1100

Russegger.

Jebel Rukhy, .

1052

Russegger,

El-Khulasah, .

. 704

Russegger,

Kurnub,

1625

Von Schubert.

Top of Nubk es Sufa,

1528

Von Schubert.

El-Buka'a {Ccele-Syria) and Antilebanon Range.
Kamoa el Hurmul, , . . 2407 De Forest.
El-Hurmul, the viUage, . . 2171 De Forest.
Bridge over the Orontes near el-
Hurmul, .... 1789 De Forest.
VOL. II. 2 B

386

APPENDIX.

Orontes, source at Deir Mar

Maron, ....

2118

De Forest,

Watershed between Orontes and

Leontes, , •, , ,

3127

De Forest.

Ba'albek, ....

3726

Russegger ; 3807,
von Schubert ;
3800, ManseU ;
3551, von Wil
denbruch; 4166,
AUen; 3838,
Carte du Liban,

Jisr Teranin, bridge near el-

Merj, , . , ,
3069
Von Wildenbruch ;
3141, Allen.
Jebel esh Shurky, highest top, ,
5000
By estimation.
AntUebanon, highest surarait near
Ain Hawar,
6807
Carte du Liban.
Serin, N, of Wadi Yafufeh,
3620
Von Schubert.
Masy, 
3761
Von Schubert.
Surghaya, . , , .
4494
Carte du Liban.
Zebedany, ....
4289
Russegger; 3760,
von Schubert ;
4135, Allen.
Bludan, . , . . .
4842
Porter ; elsewhere,
4524.
Pass on Damascus, Beirut road
above Zebedany, .
5175
Russegger and v.
Schubert; 4714,
von Wilden
bruch.
Plain of Zebedany, .
3566
Russegger.
Plain of Zebedany, at the fountain
of Barada river, .
3608
Porter.
Mill on Barada, five miles below
last, .....
3842
Von Wildenbruch.
Fall of the Barada, near the pass
of Zuk Wadi Barada, ,
3566
Russegger,
Inscriptions of Abila,
3322
Von WUdenbruch,
Jebel Kasyun, above Daraascus,
3814
Porter,
Kefr Suseh, . , , .
2394
Carte du Liban.
ALTITUDES.

387

Damascus,

Dimes, on Damascus-Beirut road,
Yuntah, ....
Es-Suweireh, . , , ,
Basin of Kefr Kuk, n.e, slope of
Mount Hermon, ,
Hasbeiya, erair's palace, .
Hasbeiya, ....
Road over Khalwet el Biyad,
Ain Jnrfa, near Hasbeiya,
Hibariyeh, near Hasbeiya, ,
Rasheiya el Fokkar,
Bridge, on Nahr Serayib, ,
Banias, n,b, angle of terrace,
Banias, bridge over the Jordan
branch, . . , .
Banias, .....

2400 Russegger ; 2269,
Wildenbruch ;
2186, Schubert;
2286, Carte du
Liban ; 2200,
Porter ; 2437,
Allen.
3825 AUen ; 3514, Carte
du Liban.
4860 Porter.
4433 Carte du Liban.
3500 Porter.
2160 De Forest.
2510 Roth; 1920, Rus
segger.
2711 Russegger.
2374 Russegger.
2261 Russegger.
2475 Russegger,
1237 Russegger,
1147 Russegger,
1272 Roth,
2200 Roth,

Country south of Damascus.
KhanesShih, , , , 2616
S'as'a, on Damascus-Banias road, 2973
Kuneiterah, , , , , 3037
Jubata,"  3485
Lake Phiala, , , . • 3304

Plateau of TeU Khanzir, . . 3000
TeUelHarah, . . . 2965
TeUAbuNida, . . . 4114
Mzarib, . . , , 1652
Gadara (Um-Keis), . . 1204
Hot baths near Gadara, , , 550
Jebel Hauran, TeU Abu Turaeis, 5000

Von Schubert,
Von Schubert.
Von Schubert,
Roth,Roth ; 3175, Doer
gens,
Von Schubert,
Doergens, Doergens.
Doergens. Roth. Roth.
Doergens.

388

APPENDIX.

Jebel Hauran, el Kleib,

,

5725

Doergens,

Jebel Hauran, TeU Jeineh,

,

6050

Doergens,

Tibneh,

•

2110

Doergens,

K. er Rubad (wadi below).

.

1760

Doergens,

Burmeh,

.

1918

Doergens.

Wady Zerka, below Burmeh,

.

106

Doergens.

Pass over Jebel Jilad,

.

3676

Doergens.

Es-Salt,

,

2771

Doergens.

Highest part of road from

Es-

Salt to Amman, .

.

3463

Doergens.

Kerak, first floor of a house in

the

village.
•
3323
Roth.
The Depression Valley.
The Jordan and Dead Sea.
Jordan, fountain near Hasbeiya, .
1700
De Forest.
Jordan, ford below Hasbeiya,
,
1654
De Forest,
Jordan, khan below this ford,
,
1609
De Forest,
Jordan, fountain at Banias,
•
1140
De Forest (com
pare Banias) ;
863, De Bertou.
Tell el Kady, .
647
De Forest ; 537,
von Wilden
bruch ; 344, De
Bertou.
Bridge on the upper Jordan,
346
Roth, without stat
ing which bridge.
Sukeik,
2670
Thomson {Land
and Book,^.Z&2).
Ruins of Gamala, .
1170
Thomson {Land
aneZJSooA, p. 384).
Ain Belata,
270
By estimation (see
Memoir, p. 181).
Bahr el Huleh,
180
By estimation; 273,
ManseU ; 282,
Roth; De Bertou,
20,
Jisr Benat Yakub, .
•
90
Von WUdenbruch,
The bridge is
30' above the
river.
ALTITUDES.

389

Lake Tiberias, level,

653

Lynch ; 755, De
Bertou ; 665,
Russegger ; 570,
von Schubert ;
845, von WUden-
bmch;810,AUen; 328, Symonds,

Lake Tiberias, greatest depth.

165

Lynch ; 156, Moly
neux,

Tiberias, in front of the castle, .

557

Roth,

The Jordan, bridge near Semakh,

580

Roth,

The Jordan, at el-Buka'a, ,

687

Lynch,

The Jordan, at Jisr Mejami'a, ,

704

Lynch ; 779, Roth.

The Jordan, at 32° 26' 54" lat., .

843

Lynch.

The Jordan, at 32° 9' 18" lat., .

1049

Lynch,

The Jordan, at 32° 6' 39" (Jisr

Damieh), . , , ,

1097

Lynch,

Kurn Surtabeh,

1028

Symonds,

Jericho (er Riha), .

900

Syraonds ; 798,
Poole ; 764, Rus
segger ; 562, von
Schubert; 1034,
De Bertou,

Ain es Sultan,

682

Von WUdenbrach,

Jordan, pilgrims' bathing-place, .

1209

Poole; 1376, Rus
segger,

Jordan, ford on road to es-Salt, .

1118

Doergens,

Kasr Hajla, . . , ,

1069

Symonds.

Dead Sea level,

1317

Lynch; 1312, Sy
monds; 1377, De
Bertou ; 1430,
Russegger; 1441,
Wildenbruch ;
638, von Schu
bert ; 1367,
Bridges ; 1316,
Poole,

Dead Sea, greatest depth near

Ain Terabeh,
1308
Lynch ; Moore and
Beke, 1800,
390 APPENDIX.
Dead Sea, depth off Ain Jiddy, , 1128 Lynch,
Dead Sea, depth north end of
peninsula, , , , . 642 Lynch,
Cliff of Terabeh, above the level
of the Dead Sea, , , . 1306 Lynch,
Cliff of Terabeh, under the level
of the Mediterranean, . , 11 Lynch,
Ras Mersed, under the level of
the Mediterranean, , , 1113 Above Dead Sea,
200, Poole,
Bir Ain Jiddy, under the level of
the Mediterranean, , , 603 Poole,
Masada Cliff, bottora of path on
eastern side, . . .750 Poole ; above Dead
Sea, 563.
Ruins of fortress in W. Embag-
hegh, ..... 931 Poole ; above Dead
Sea, 382,
Ez-Zuweirah et tahta ruin, , 345 Poole ; above Dead
Sea, 968,
Wadi some yards below, . , 1027 Roth,
Jebel Usdum, , , , 1316 Roth; 900, Poole,
Bedawin camp in Ghor es Safieh, 1172 Roth,

APPENDIX Hi.

As I have endeavoured to give as perfect an account as
possible of the existing Palestine literature, supplementing
Ritter's list in this volume with one which comes down to the
present year^ I have thought that it might not be inappropriate
to insert Tobler's resume, and his piquant, and frequently, it
must be supposed, judicious and correct remarks, contained
in his Dritte Wanderung nach Paldstina. Tobler is the first
living authority, so far as the literature of Palestine is con
cerned ; and no man has gone through more painstaking efforts
thait he, to extend the area of our knowledge respecting the
Holy Land, It is all the more to be regretted that his brusque-
ness and occasional haste make his critical remarks less valu
able than they would otherwise have been, — Ed,
1. Works known or conjectured with the utmost probability to
proceed from personal explorers.
728. Willibald : Heinrich Hahn shows, in his thorough
treatise on the journey of St WiUibald to Palestine, that he
was there between the years 727 and 729.
1170. Descriptio itineris in Terram Sanctam (by an anony
mous writer), in Job. Georg. Eccardi Corpus histor. medii sevi.
Lips. 1723. Full of breaks, and raere verbiage.
1175. FeteU (strictly Fretell). Laurent identifies Fretellus
with the pseudo-name Eugesippus, which does not strictly satisfy
me. 1187. Plagon, incorrectly translated into English.
1212. Willebrands von Oldenburg Reise nach Palastina,
pub. in Latin by Dr Laurent, and in German with illustrative
comments. Valuable as this edition is, it contains Httle that was
not in that of Leo AUatius.
1217. Thietmari Peregrinatio. Ad fidera codicis Ham-
burgensis cum aHis libris manuscriptis collati edidit, annota-

392 APPENDIX.
tione illustravit, codicem recensum, scripturse discrepantiara,
iudicem rerum et verborura adjecit J. C. M. Laurent. Ham
burg!, 1857. 4to. By far the best edition, and more complete
than that of Jul. de St Genois or mine.
1294. RIccoldo or Riculdus: a manuscript. Itinerarius
fratris Richoldi ordinis fratrum Prsedicatorum, in the Wolfen-
biittel Lib.
1314-1322, Parchi. In the second volume of the Itine
rary of Benjamin of Tudela, there is an article on the Geo
graphy of Palestine, from Jewish sources, by Dr Zunz. In
the sarae work there is an extract from Khafthor va-ferach of
Esthori B. Mose ha-Parchi, a contemporary of Abulfeda and
Maundeville. Asher, the editor, regards this as the first and
most important author on the topography of Palestine. The
book has some value, but it is overrated by Robinson.
1336. Baldensel. The Itinerarius Gulielmi de Baldensele,
taken from a Wolfenbuttel MS. by C. L, Grotefend, and
inserted in the Zeitsch. des histor. Vereins fur Niedersachsen.
Probably the last edition. An edition (probably Latin) ap
peared in Venice in 1480.
1340. Maundeville : Latin, Italian, German, and EngHsh
editions of his travels. I have also found a French translation
bearing these words : " Ce liure est apele Mandeville, 1480;"
and then without mention of time, place, or publisher, " Man-
teuille corapose par messire .Jehan de monteville cheualler natif
d' angleterre de la ville de saint alain, lequel parle de la terre
de promission, de hierusalem, et de plusiurs pays, villes et isles
de mer, et de diuerses et estranges choses, et du voyage de
hierusalem." The copy before me is incomplete, and is orna
mented with four coarse woodcuts. Count de I'EscalapIer of
Paris possesses a paper MS, in folio : Cy commence le liure des
parties doultre mer lequel fut fait et ordonne par messire Ih^n
de mandevUIe, 1384, Sigoli : The older edition of this traveller, edited by
Niccolo Frescobaldi, appeared in Florence in 1829,
1395. Sarebmche : Journal contenant le voyage faict en
Hierusalem et autres lieux de deuotion, taut en la terre Salncte
qu'en .^gypte. Par , , , Seigneur Messire Simon de Sare-
bruche Cheualler, Baron d'Anglure, au Diocese de Troyes, en
I'ann^e 1395, A tolerably good work.

TOBLER'S LIST OF WORKS. 393
1410, Schildtberger or Scheltberger : A new edition taken
from the Heidelberg MS. by K. F. Neumann, and more enjoy
able than the one edited by PenzeU, prefaced with an introduc
tion by himself, and enlarged by comments frora the pens of
Fallmerayer and Hammer-Purgstall.
1419. Caumont : Voyaige d'oultremer en Jh^rusalem par
le Seigneur de Caumont I'an 1418. Public ... par le Mar
quis de la Grange. Paris 1858. This meagre account is inte
resting notwithstanding.
1422. Lannoy : Voyages et ambassades de messire GiuUe-
bert de Lannoy, 1399 to 1450.
1433. Phllipp the last Count of Katzellenbogen : Pilger
fahrt nach JEgypten und Palastina in 1433 and 1434, Printed
in the Vorzeit of 1821.
1449. Gumpenberg : Evidently taken from an older work.
1470. Itinerary by WUliam Wey : MS. in the Bodleian Lib.
1476. Albrecht von Sachsen : Found also in the collective
work. Itinera sex a diversis Saxonise ducibus et electoribus . , .
in Itallam orania, tria etiara in Palsestlnam et terram sanctam
facta. Studio Balthasaris Mencii, Witebergse 1612, The
pilgrimage of Albrecht was preceded, by a short interval, by
that of Frederick iii, 1474, and followed by that of Henry i,
1499, and again in 1500, The two last mentioned accounts
are not important, but they should not be wholly overlooked.
1479, Tucher, in Fol StrassburgjKnoblochtzer, 1483, It
appeared in connection with Gumpenberg in 1561,
1480, Voyage de la sainte Cit^,
1480, Santa Brasca : Viaggio a Gierusalerame. Milan
1481. 1480 and 1483. Fabri : The first German edition appeared,
so far as I can ascertain, in 1557, under the title, Elgentlich
beschreibung der hin und wider farth zu dem heyligen Landt
gen Jerusalem, vnd f urter durch die grosse Wiisten zu dem
Heiligen Berge Horeb und Sinai. Eine Mission oder Epistel
an vier Edle, die beim hiel. Grabe Ritter worden sind, geht
dem PUgerbuch, welches denselben ihr Kaplan, Bruder Felix,
hat gemacht, voran. Nur auf Bitten hin hat er das nachge-
hende Biichlein gemacht aus meinem lateinischen buch, das
ich fur raich selbst habe geraacht. Correctly printed in the
Reyssbuch des heU. Landes.

394 APPENDIX.
1482, Josse van Ghistele, His report appeared in the
Flemish language, edited by De St Genois, and also in French,
in Lyons, 1564.
1483. Breydenbach : The first German edition known to
me is, Die heyligen Reyssen gen Jherusalem zu dem heyl. grab.
Meyntz : E. Rewich, 1486. With wood engravings. Lat.
Mogunt. 1486. Fol. The prorector of the George Augustus
University, Jacob Wilhelm Feuerleins Einladung zu einer
Feyer der Konlgl. Deutschen GeseUschaft auf den 13 Hor
nung 1750. With this a treatise by Bernhard von Breyden
bach, Reise in das Gelobte Land, appeared in Gottingen.
Feuerleln says that he used four editions, one of which was
beautifully illustrated, written in High German, and still pre
served by the Breydenbach family. He speaks of a Latin
edition of 1484, a High German one of the sarae year, a Low
Gerraan one issued soon after, and a French one in 1489.
1487. Le Huen. The edition of 1522 in Regnault. De
Hody cites this passage : Des saintes peregrinations de Jheru
salem, et des en-virons et des lieux prochains, tire du latin de
Bernard de Breydenbach, par frfere Nicolas de Huen.
1506. Guylforde: Pilgrimage to wardesJhemsalera. Lon
don 1511.
1508. Noe : Viaggio al S, Sepolcro, I have also seen an
edition published in Venice in 1587, On the title-page of the
one seen by me stands the sentence : comporto dal R, P, fra
Noe deir ordine de S, Francisco,
1510, Wanckel : Ein Kurtze vermerckung der heyligen
Stet des heyHgen landts in und umb Jerusalera, Jobst Gut-
knecht, Wanckel spent six years in Palestine, The work is
closely condensed, and should not be wholly overlooked,
1517. Hirschfeld : Des Ritters Bernhard von Hirschfeld
im Jahr 1517 unternommene und von ihn selbst beschriebene
Wallfahrt zum heiligen Grabe, Aus einem in der gross-
herzogl, Bibliothek zu Weimar befindlichen Manuscripte,
Herausgegeben von A. von Minckwitz. Contained in Mitthil-
ungen der deutschen Gesell, zu Erforschung vaterland. Sprache
und Alterthiiraer in Leipzig, T, O, Weigel, 1856, A very
uniraportant docuraent : only a little of it deserved to be printed.
1518, Lesaige : Chy sensuient les gistes repaistres et
despens Que Moy Jacques Lesaige marchant demourant a

TOBLERS LIST OF WORKS. 395
Douay ; Ay faict de Douay . . , en la Saincte cit^ de Hieru
salem, , . . Imprime Nouuellement a Cambray, B, Brassart,
Au depens du diet iacques. This book is written in so fresh
a style, that it deserves being glanced at.
1519. Tschudi. Edition with different title. Freiburg
1610. 1519. Stulz : Beschreibung der PUgerfahrt gehn Hieru
salem, 1519. To be seen in the Lucerne City Library. Not
important. 1527. Pascha, French : La Peregrination Spirituelle ;
vers la terre saincte, comme en Jerusalem, Bethlehem, au
Jordan, Compos^e en langue Thyoise, par feu F, Jean Pascha,
D, en theologie. This is rather a book of edification than of
travel, 1535. Gassot. Jacob Gassot wrote a description of the
journey from Venice to Constantinople, but it did not touch on
Jerusalem. This is a new token of the haste with which
Chateaubriand makes his assertions.
1545. Copie du Saint Voyage de Jerusalem En partie
fait et renouvelie le vrze Du mois D'aoust Lan de grace 1714.
Rather a registration of the holy places than a record of travel :
unimportant. 1549. Regnaut : Discours du Voyage d'outre mer au
sainct Sepulcre de Jerusalem, et autres lieux de la terre Saincte.
Par Anthoine Regnaut. Lyon 1573. With many woodcuts
worth noticing. The prayers of the Latins are fully given in
this work.
1550. Tenerreyo : Itinerario de Antonio Tenerreyo. Lis-
boa 1829.
1552-1559. Bonifacius von Ragusa, Planographie. The
style of this writer is condensed and clear. He has entered a
little upon topographical matters, and seems to have been im-
pHcitly followed in these by Quaresmio and Morone da Maleo,
In his first volume there is nothing geographical : it contains
only prayers, orders of divine service, and of processions.
What is strictly topographical is only woven in, to make the
places haUowed by tradition more evident. The book confines
itself to Jerasalem and its vicinity. This author is not to be
overlooked because so many have trodden in his footsteps.
1 555. Giraudet : Discovrs dv voiage d'ovtre mer av Sainct

396 APPENDIX.
Sepulchre de Jerusalem, et autres lieux de la terre Salncte :
Et du mont de Sinai. . . . Par Gabriel Giraudet Prebstre.
Tolose 1583. Unimportant,
1 556, Muntzer, Reyssbeschreibung, , , , Wolffgang Miit-
zers von Babenberg, Von Venedig aus nach Jerusalem, Niirn-
berg 1624, Unimportant.
1556-1559, Seydlitz, trans, into Dutch by Angelen, 1662,
1563. Hanns von Godern : Beschreibung einer Rais geen
Jerusalem : MS,
1564, Helffrich, A later edition. , . . Jetzunder auffs new
ubersehen, und mit etzlichen Figuren gemehret. Leipz. 1589.
The woodcuts moderately good, although some are poor.
1583, Lauffen : Pilgerfahrt nach Jerusalem. Manuscript
in the Library of Lucerne, This document would not pay for
printing, 1593, De Hault : Le voyage de Hierusalem , . , conte
nant I'ordre, despence, et remarques notables en iceluy. Unim
portant, 1596, Kootwyck: Travels translated into Flemish in
1620, 1600, Verscheyde Voyagien, ofte Reyssen gedaen door
Jr, Joris van der Does na Constantinopolen. Dordricht 1612,
1600, ChristophHarant: Putowany anebCesta, Translated
into Gerraan under the title, Wallfahrt aus Bohmen in das
Judenland, 1608,
1600, Jean Palerne : Peregrination en Egypte, Arable,
Terre Sainte, Syrie, etc, Lyon 1606,
1601, Timberlake : Discourse of the TravaUes of two
English Pilgrimes , . . written by Henry Tiraberlake. London
1616. 1600-1611, The Travels of four Englishraen and a
Preacher into Galilee, Judea, Palestine, Jericho, etc, London
1612, 1604, Beauveau : Relation Journaliere dv voyage dv
Levant faict et descrit par , , , Henry de Beauveau, Reveu
augraente et enrichy par I'Autheur de pourtraicts des liens les
plus reraarquables, Nancy 1619, Unimportant,
1 604. De Breves : Relation des Voyages de M, de Breves f aits
en Hiervsalem, Terre Saincte, Constantinople, etc, Paris 1630,
Worth exaraining, if only in respect to the names of localities.

TOBLER'S LIST OF WORKS. 397
1610, Boucher, His work appeared in Troyes, 1610,
1612, Pesenti : Peregrinaggio di Giervsalemrae, Brescia
1628. 1619. De Vos : Journal ofte Beschryvinge van de Jeru-
salemsz Reyse, gedaen ; by Adrian de Vos. Delft 1655.
1621. Des Hayes: Voiage de Levant Fait par le cora-
mendement dv Roy en rann^e 1621. Par le Sr. D. C. Paris
1624. The abbreviation I think to be Du Castel, although
others have considered it to be De Cormenin. This work is
worth examining ; and so, too, are the authorities which it gives
in connection with the text.
1622, Ribes : Relaclon del viage de la Santa Civdad de
Hierusalem, y otros lugares adjacentes en la misma Tierra
Santa, Par Fray Raymundo Ribes; Barcelona 1627, Con
taining sorae observations of value,
1627, Castillo : El devoto Peregrine, y Viage de Tierra
Santa, Corapvesto par el Padre Fray Antonio del CastiUo,
Madrid 1655, This writer was governor of the Holy Land,
and gives many interesting particulars regarding the country,
1631. Stockove : Voyage du Levant, BruxeUes 1650.
1633. Heerlycke ende gelukkige reyze naer het heyligh
landt ende stadt van Jerusalem beschreven ende bereyst door
breeder Jan Vanderlinden. Antwerpen 1634,
1636, Neitschitz. This traveller visited the Holy Land
in 1630. His book has little value.
1640, Berdino : Historia dell' Antica e Moderna Palestina,
descritta in tre parti, dal V, R, P, F, Vincenzo Berdino,
Venice 1642. This writer was for several years general-com
missary in Palestine.
1650. La Syrie sainte: on la Mission de Jesus et des
Peres de la Compagnie de Jesus en Syrie. Par Joseph Besson.
Paris 1660.
1650. Relation nouvelle et exacte d'un voyage de la Terre
Sainte. Paris 1688. Uniraportant : a work wholly religious,
yet not bitter towards those who have a different faith from the
author. 1651-1658. Mariano Morone da Maleo. This author (the
title of whose work is very long) appears to have been a care
ful observer, and to have collected much that could be profit
ably used.

398 APPENDIX.
1658. Thevenot: Gedenkwaardige' en zeer nawkeurige
reizen van Thevenot. Arasterdara 1681.
1660. Cheron : Conferences spiritvelles, ov L'Eloge, et la
Relation du Voyage de Jerusalem fait en I'an 1660. Paris
1671. Pious ; and not very instructive withal.
1660. Poullet : Voyages du Sr, Poullet, NouveUes Rela
tions du Levant. Very little about Jerusalem in this work ;
but what little there is, looks well,
1660, Slisanzky: Reyssbeschreibung nachher Jerusalem
und dem heil, Lande.
1663-1670, Le voyage de GaHlee, Paris 1670, This
book deserves examination,
1665, Ranzow, Joh. v. : Reisebeschreibung nach Jerusa
lera, Cairo, und Constantinopel, Copenhag, 1669,
1666. Deschamps, BartheiemI : Voyage de Liege a Jeru
salem et en Egypte, Liege 1678,
1665-1668, Gonzales : Jerusalemsche Reyse gedaen ende
beschreven door F, Antonius Gonzales, Antwerpen 1673,
1670, Jouvin: Le voyageur d'Europe oil est le voyage
de Turquie, qui comprend la Terre Sainte et I'Egypte,
1671, Goujon : Histoire du voyage de la Terre Sainte,
Par Jacques Goujon, Lyon 1671,
1699, Felix Beaugrand : Voyage, Paris 1700.
1700, Antonio da Venetia : guida fedele alia santa citta
di Gierusalemrae, e descrizione di tutta Terra Santa. Venetia
1703, 1700-1709. Egraond en Heyman : Ter Drukpersse bezorgt
door Joh, Wil, Heyman, His work is worth examination,
1702, Reymann: Grundtliche Relation, Oder Wahrer
Bericht und eygentliche Verzeichnuss, etc. By N, Reyraann.
This book is worth reading, and contains sorae valuable his
torical notices,
1707, 1710, 1713, Solik : Fasciculus Myrrhse in carapis
Palsestinse coUectus, Brunse 1716. Close style, not critical,
and hardly usable.
1712. Hietling : Peregrinus affectuose per Terram Sanctam
et Jerusalem a devotione et curiositate conductus, etc. 1712,
1715, Voiage de M, Turpetin Pretre der diocesse Dorleans
dans les Saints Lieux de Jerusalem, This work contains some
notices of value.

TOBLER'S LIST OF WORKS. 399
1715, Benzelius. Dr Henrik BenzeHus journeyed through
Palestine, and coraraunicated his observations to GjorweU's
Svenska Merkurius,
1725, A. M, MyUer : Peregrinus in Jerusalem, Freradling
zu Jerasalem, etc, Wien and Nuremberg 1735,
1726, Chrysanthos, This writer pubHshed, in 1726, a
work giving a glowing account of Jerusalem, and of the
Sepulchre of Christ,
1730. Angeli: Viaggio di Terra Santa. Venezia 1738.
Unimportant. 1731. ToUot: Voyage fait au Levant, contenant les de
scriptions d'Algier, etc. Paris 1742,
1733, K, F, V, Hopken und Eduard Carson: Stora
Svenska Herrars Resa, Stockholm 1768,
1735, Cecilia: Palestina ovvero prirao Viaggio di F.
Leandro di Santa Cecilia Carraelitano Scalzo in Oriente
scritto dal medesimo. Roma 1753. It is worth looking
into. 1738. Korte, Reize naar Palestina. Amsterdam 1781,
1767, Mariti: Die Istoria carae out in Paris in 1853
under the title of Histoire de I'etat present de Jerusalem. The
translator, excellently as he has done his work, has yet sup
pressed the fact that the original dates from 1767, and con
veyed the impression that the book is a new one.
1772, Jerusalemsche reize gedaen ende beschreven door
Marinus Geubels, Tot Denderraonde 1780,
1772, L, F, Cassas : Voyage pittoresque de la Syrie, de
la Phenice, de la Palestine, etc, 2 vols, fol. An expensive
book even now, and a work, raoreover, never completed. The
text contains contributions from many celebrated savans, and
the plates are very accurate and faithful.
1776. Reize naer het heylig land, gedaen in de jaeren 1776
en 1777, en beschreven door Joannes Andreas Jacobus Rothier.
Aaitwerpen. Without date.
1783. Korobeinikof, a Russian, was sent by the Czar to
Jerasalem, and published an account of his journey.
1788-1790. Bscheider: Das heilige Land, nach seinem
gegenwartigen Zustande geschildert von F. G. Bscheider.
Augsburgh 1798. One of the most enjoyable books which the
Franciscans have written about Palestine.

400 APPENDIX.
1800. Wittman: Reisen in der europaischen Turkey,
Ifleinasien, Syrien, und JEgypten. Leipzig 1804.
1806. Chateaubriand. BruxeUes 1851. In three vols.
Also Chateaubriand illustre. Paris 1853. Mostly poor en
gravings ; that of Bethlehem not to be identified. Only a
pain to look at thera. There are Italian editions of this writer,
pubHshed at Florence in 1828, and in Naples in 1844, and
extracts in Milan in 1826. It has gone through three Gerraan
editions. In his Memoires d'outre tombe, the author manifests
self-satisfaction enough; indeed, he goes so far as to suppose
that his descriptions are exact. He says, *' Tons les voyageurs,
a Jerusalem, m'ont ecrit pour me feilciter et me remercier de
mon exactitude, wie Julius Folentlot (1' exactitude des descrip
tions)." I afterwards fell in with things not so exact in him,
1806. Seetzen, The publication of this traveller's works,
so valuable in many respects, is a most praiseworthy act,
1814, Bramsen : English Travels in Egypt, Syria, Pales
tine, etc, London 1815,
1816, Irby and Mangles, There is a newer edition of
their travels [than the one used by Ritter]. London 1844.
Condensed in style, and containing many valuable facts,
1817. Joliffe : Travels, Published in French and in
Dutch, Paris 1820, and Arasterdara 1822.
1817. Forbin. A work magnificently got up, and con
taining drawings by Gros, Thienon, Louise Bouteiller, Hippo-
lyte Lecorate, Bourgeois, Daguerre, Bouton, A. Deseynes,
Hersen, and Baltard. Well drawn, but very inaccurate ; and
it is a sin and a pity that so much money has been expended
on a work so faulty.
1817. Viagem de hura peregrine a Jerusalem, e visita que
feez aos Lugares Santos, Fr. Jo§,o de Jesus Christo. Lisboa
1822. 1821. W. R, WUson: Travels in Egypt and the Holy
Land, London 1823,
1822, Wolf : Missionary Journal and Mem. of the Rev.
Joseph Wolf, London 1824,
1823, Jowett: Travels, Enjoyable.
1823. Fisk: A Pastor's Memorial of the Holy Land.
London 1853.
1826. Valiani, Luigi : Travels.

TOBLER'S LIST OF WORKS. 401
1827. Jahn : Travels. Mayence 1828. The work of this
truth-loving, intelligent Catholic is worth reading.
1829. Prokesch ; Oversat af Christian Winther. Kjoben-
havn 1839.
1830. George Fisk: A Memorial of Egypt, Jerusalem,
and other principal localities in the Holy, Land. Lond. and
Leipz. 1859.
1832, G. Robinson : Voyage, avec vues, cartes, et plans.
Paris 1838. Some of the lithographs are endurable, and one
can get through the text.
1833. Vere Monro : Travels. Noticeable.
1833. ALrundale: Illustrations of Jerusalem and Mount
Sinai ; including the most interesting sites between Cairo and
Beirout. Frora drawings by F, Arundale, London 1837,
His merits in throwing light on the Haram of Jerusalem are
well known.
1833. Pallme : Meine Reisen durch Syrien und Palastina.
Without date. The young merchant tells his story honestly ;
sorae notices of his are useful.
1834. George Jones : Excursions to' Cairo, Jerusalem,
l)amascus,etc.,from the U.S. ship "Delaware." New York 1836,
1835, Kinglake : Eothen, A very vivid delineation,
1836, J, G. Fassler : Reise nach -Egypten und dem heil,
Lande, St GaUen 1840,
1836, Martin Kreutzhuber: Leben, Wanderungen, etc.
1840, Not usable,
1837, Lindsay, Lord : Letters from Egypt, Edom, and the
Holy Land, Merits some examination,
1838, D, Holthaus: Wanderungen, etc. Barmen 1842.
This man went as a travelling taUor,
1838, Puckler-Muskau : Die Ruckkehr, Berlin 1846.
Some things in this are useful.
1838, 1852, Robinson : Biblical Researches, English and
German editions. Though so many have gone through Palestine
since 1838, yet no one has attained to the clearness and the
excellence of Robinson, and our thanks are due to him ever,
1839, Kinnear: Cairo, Petra, and Damascus, London
1841, This book should hardly be overlooked.
1839. Reise Skizzen aus dem Morgenlande. Zweibrucken
1841, Hardly worth the reading.
VOL. II. 2 0

402 APPENDIX.
1839 or 1840. James Erving Cooley : The American in
Egypt; with Rambles through the Holy Land. New York
1842, 1840, D, MiUard : Journal of Travels in Egypt and the
Holy Land, New York,
1840, E, Joy Morry : Notes of a Tour, etc, PhUadelphia
1842, 1840, Dawson, Borrer : Journey to Jerusalem, London
1845, 1842, 1853, Bartlett, Text not good. Robinson makes
great account of Bartlett's artistic productions, but they are far
inferior to those of Ulrich Halbreiter.
1842, Wolcott, Samuel: Notices of Jerusalem, in Bib.
Sacra, 1843,
1843, Herschell : Visit to my Fatherland,
1843, Wanderungen im Morgenlande, in 1842 and 1843,
by Dr .J, A, Lorent, Mannheim 1845, Not usable,
1843, Hahn-hahn : Travels, 1845,
1843, J, P. Durbin: Observations in Egypt, Palestine,
etc. New York 1845,
1843 or 1844, Warburton : The Crescent and the Cross,
Some things in this are noteworthy,
1844, 1859, Tischendorf : Travels in the East.
1845. Georgi : Die heiligen Statten, Leipz. 1854, Finely
got up; the views taken from Roberts' and Mayer's works.
The text is a compilation,
1845, 1857, Tobler, T,: Beitrag zur raedizlnischen Topo
graphic von Jerusalera, Berlin 1855, Die neuen Forschun
gen, in Ausland, 1855, Forschungen zur nahern Kunde von
Jerusalem, in Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1857, Wanderungen
in Palastina, 1857, Planographie von Jerusalem, Memoir
accompanying Van der Velde's Map of Jerusalem and Vicinity,
Gotha 1857,
1846, Les Pterins Russes. Par Mme. Bagr^ef-Speransky,
1846, Gadow: Mittheilungen uber Jerusalem aus dem
Tagebuche eines Augenzeugen, Konigsberg, Worth reading,
yet not critical.
1846. Cassini : La Terra Santa descritta dal Padre
Francesco Cassini da Perlnaldo, Geneva 1855, A little
book, with touches of fun and humour here and there ; the

TOBLER'S LIST OF WORKS. 403
author, though a Franciscan, does not foUow all the traditions
blindly, 1846, Ausfiihrliche Beschreibung meiner Reise nach Rom
und Jerusalera, Von Joseph SchiUing, Tuttlingen 1854,
1847, Wolff : Jerusalera, With thirty-six wood engrav
ings. This handy Httle book not only gives a good idea of the
chief objects of interest in Jerasalem, but it also contains sorae
new matter,
1847, Reise ins Morgenland, untemomraen von J, H,
Schulthess, Zurich 1854,
1848, Gasparin : Journal d'un Voyage au Levant, Par
Mrae, de Gasparin, Paris 1848. This" book, though the work
of an enemy to the traditions, is pietistic, overloaded, and not
at all valuable. I must express my wonder that Roraan
Catholics think this lady, who has the most raeagre scientific
acquisitions, or her husband. Count de Gasparin, to be notice
able objects enough to attack. Such opponents as these, are,
in truth, too insignificant. The friends of tradition would do
better to attack the thorough Robinson, but he is Httle known
in France. 1848. Lynch : Official Report of the United States Expe
dition to explore the Dead Sea and the River Jordan. Balti
more 1852, Important,
1849, H, B, W, Churton : Thoughts of the Land of the
Morning; a Record of Two Visits to Palestine. London 1852.
1850, The Dead Sea, a New Route to India, By Captain
Wm, Allen, London 1855, Worth looking into,
1850, Pigeory : Les Pterins d'Orient ; Lettres artistiques
et historiques sur un voyage dans la Syrie et la Palestine,
Paris 1854, Not a thorough work,
1850, Patterson : Journal of a Tour in Egypt, Palestine,
Syria, and Greece, By James Laird Patterson, London
1852, An unimportant work ; the mere polemic of a modern
Catholic against the Protestants,
1850, Du Camp : Egypte, Nubie, Palestine, et Syrie ;
Dessins photographiques, Paris 1852, Some parts of the text
are interesting, but the most is weakly, and there is great con
fusion, I M'as expecting much from photography in enabling
me to judge as to the architecture of Palestine, but was dis
appointed after examining this work.

404 APPENDIX.
1851, The Lands of the Messiah, Mahomet, and the Pope,
By John Alton, London 1852, Of little value,
1851. Christina Trivulci di Belgiojoso : La vie intime et la
vie noraade en Orient, in the Rev. de deux Mondes. One has
to ask the question how such light wares found a place in a
journal of that character.
1851. Dandolo : Viaggio en Egitto, nel Sudan, in Siria
ed in Palestina, di Emilio Dandolo. Milano 1854. Well
written, but containing Httle new.
1851. Pilgerreise in das heil. Land. Von Johann Hilber.
Bruneck 1853.
1851, 1856. Schiferle : Zwelte Pilgerreise nach Jerusa-
1am und Rom, 1858. Characterized by animosity towards
those who have a different religious faith from the author,
especially Protestants. This is the chief merit of the book.
The second pUgrimage is poorer than the first.
1852, Thomas : Travels in Egypt and Palestine, By J.
Thomas. Philadelphia 1858, This little book does not richly
repay perusal,
1852, Ohnesorge : Der Zions Pilger ; Tagebuch auf der
Reise nach Jerusalem, Berlin 1855, Instead of exact infor
mation, the reader gets a kind of baptized declamation,
1852. Dupuis : The Holy Places ; a Narrative of Two
Years' Residence in Jerusalem and Palestine, By H. L, Dupuis,
A book written with no scientific end in view, and intended
mainly to advance the interests of Protestantism in the Holy
Land, and yet not without many new observations.
1852. Stephen Olln : Travels in Egypt and the Holy
Land. New York 1853,
1853, Ziegler : Meine Reise in den Orient. Leipzig
1855. One who is not on the watch for scientific knowledge
about the country would probably be satisfied with this book.
, 1853. Vogue : Fragments d'un Journal de Voyage en
Orient. Paris 1855. Although the author keeps rather too
closely to the French literature of the subject, yet his produc
tion merits perusal.
1853. Stanley : Sinai and Palestine. This work is marked
for its generalizations, and for the comparisons introduced
between the subject-matter and legendary and historical matters
not directly in the line of discussion.

TOBLERS LIST OF WORKS 405
1853. Shadows of the East, from Observations in Egypt,
Palestine, Syria, etc. By Catherine Tobin. London 1855.
1853. Thrupp : Antient Jerusalem ; a New Investigation
into the History, Topography, and Plan of the City, Envkons,
and Temple. Cambridge 1855. This work manifests Indus-'
trious research ; yet there are some archseological hypotheses in
it which are a little surprising.
1853. Travels in Europe and the East By S. J. Prince.
New York 1855. Hasty work.
1853. Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, etc. By Bayard
Taylor. London 1855.
1853. lUustrations of Scripture. , By H. B. Hackett.
Boston 1855.
1853. Jerusalera, seine Vorzeit, Gegenwart, und Zukunft.
Von F. Liebetrut. Uniraportant.
1854. Stewart : The Tent and the Khan ; a Journey to
Sinai and Palestine. By R, W, Stewart, Edinburgh 1857,
The author brings together much that is interesting, but he
does not command sufficiently well the English literature of
the subject.
1854. Beaumont: A Diary of a Journey to the East.
By W. Beaumont. London 1856. With useful observations.
1854. V. Guerin : De ora Palsestinse a promontorio
Carmelo usque ad urbem Joppem pertlnente. Parisiis 1856,
A thorough production,
1854, Salzmann, A, : Jerusalem ; Etude et reproduction
photographique des monuments, etc. What I have seen of
this work has not satisfied me at all,
1854, Fisher Howe : Travels in Greece, Turkey, and
Palestine, New York 1854,
1854, Benjamin Dorr : Notes of Travel, Philadelphia 1858.
1855. Clements : Reminiscences of Pilgrimage to the
Holy Places of Palestine. London 1857. This light work is
made up of three lectures.
1855. Malan. -Bethany : a Pilgrimage. By S. C. Malan.
London, without date. A pleasant Httle book.
1855. Pelligrinagglo storico e descrittivo di Terra Santa
del Alessandro Bassi. This work is worth looking into.
1855. Pasuello, Ant. : Viaggio a Gerusalemme. Verona
1857.

406 APPENDIX.
1856. Petersen: Et Besog i Jerusalem og Omegn. Af
Th. E. Petersen. Particularly devoted to new investigations.
1856. Bonar : The Land of Promise ; Notes of a Spring
Journey, etc. London 1858. There is little in this book of
special interest, yet sorae details are worth noticing.
1856. Prime : Tent Life in the Holy Land. London and
New York 1857. The author writes well, lively, and with
American self-confidence ; his studies are very limited, however.
1857. Frankl : Nach Jerusalem ! A very interesting pro
duction, throwing much light upon the Jewish relations of
Palestine. 1856. Sketches of a Tour in Egypt and Palestine. London
1857. Unimportant.
1856. Guida del Pellegrino devoto in Terra Santa. Roma
1856. A little book ; easily read.
1856. Ritchie: Azuba, or the Forsaken Land. Edin
burgh 1856. Theological rhetoric.
1855-1857. Barclay : The City of the Great King.
PhUadelphia and London 1857. The darker side of this book
presents a faultiness in the arrangement of the material, a lack
of knowledge of languages, — e.g. Locus Patriarcl, 329 ; Piscina
Gemllares, 321 ; aniraa regnit, 228, — untrustworthiness in the
historical stateraents, very meagre indications of authorities,
much that is taken from other works and thrown together con
fusedly, and a love of hypothesis ; while the bright side brings
into view many valuable investigations and observations, so that
the book has permanent value. The errors in Latin are espe
cially abundant in the plan of Jerusalem under the Crusaders,
taken from my work without any giving of credit. Barclay
has also taken without acknowledgment plates from Bartlett's
and Williams' works. It is painful to think that a missionary
of the gospel, a man sent out to extend the domain of truth,
possessed raoreover of a very pious pen, should allow his vanity
or his love of money to lead him into deceptions such as these.
1855-1857. Sarah Barclay : Hadji in Syria, or Three
Years in Jerusalem. Philadelphia 1858. Very lively, and at
the same tirae accurate, pictures. The best work on Palestine
from the pen of a lady.
1855. Osborn : Palestine, Past and Present. By H, S,
Osborn, London 1859. It is a pity that a book containing so

TOBLER'S LIST OF WORKS. 407
little that is new or good should be in such excellent type and
of such fine paper.
1854 and 1857. Murray: Handbook for Travellers in
Syria and Palestine, etc. This is an admirable manual. Yet
perhaps I may be allowed to say, that if the author had not
simply cited my works, but had read them as well, he would
have been able to give more accurate delineations of • many
things. In the interpretation of antiquities, the chief author of
this work (Porter) is too hasty.
1851, 1856. Flledner, Th. : Reisen in das heil. Land.
Kaiserwerth, without date. Important in relation to the estab
lishment of deaconesses' institutions in the Holy Land, but
containing much that is light and monkish;
1857. Conrad : Reizen naar de Landengte van Suez,
Egypte, het Heilige Landj door F. W. Conrad. 'sGraven-
hage 1858.
1857. W. M. Thomson : The Land and the Book, etc. New
York 1859. The author spent twenty-five years in Palestine.
1857. Buchanan, R. : Notes of a Clerical Furlough.
London 1859. A Hvely and attractive description, but lacking
in thoroughness! 1858. F. N. Lorenzen : Jerusalem. Keil 1859. Sketchy,
but readable ; tourist work.
2. Works of those who either certainly, or probably, never visited
Palestine personally.
1456. Lud. de Angulo : Cod. bibliothecae Vadianse S.
GaUensis, chartaceus, eleganter scrlptus a L. de Angulo. Very
little valuable relative to Palestine.
1590. Jerusalem au temp de notre Seigneur J. C. ; legende,
topographique, etc. Par Adrichoraius. Lyon 1857.
1648. La description de la Palestine et des lieux de cette
Province, etc. Uniraportant.
1649. Calaorra, istoria cronologica deUa Provincia di
Siria e Terra Santa di Gerusalerarae. Venetia 1649.
1819. La Terre Sainte, ou Description des Lieux le plus
celebres de la Palestine. Uniraportant.
1831. Ferrario : Descrizione della Palestina o storia del
Vangilo illustrata coi raonumenti, etc. Milano 1831. Unim
portant.

408 APPENDIX,
1832, Viaggi di Gesvi Cristo o descrizione geografica de'
principali luoghi e monumenti della Terra Santa, Torino
1832, 1834, Crome : Geographisch-historische Beschreibung des
Landes Palastina, Gottingen 1834. Containing much that is
good, but also much that is hurried.
1837. La Terra Santa ed i Luoghi illustrati dagli apostoli.
Torino 1837. Unimportant.
1843. Topographie de Jerusalem. Thfese par A. Coquerel,
fils. 1845. Munk : Palestine. Paris 1845. Good, but behind
the times.
1845. Palastina. Von Fr. Arnold. Careful work.
1847. Le livre d'Or des families ou la Terre Sainte.
Par J, A. L. BruxeUes 1847, A work to be looked into,
1852. Russell : Palestine, or the Holy Land, London
1852. Tolerably useful,
1852, Jerusalera et la Terre Sainte ; Notes de Voyage,
etc. Par I'Abbe G, Finely printed and engraved, but other
wise of little value,
1854. Laorty-Hadji, La Syrie, la Palestine, et la Jud^e.
Paris 1854.
1855, Phoenicia, By John Kenrick, London 1855, A
carefully prepared work,
1856, Ein Gang durch Jerusalem, Von A, G, Hoff
mann, Agreeable and instructive,
1858, Schauplatz der heiligen Schrift oder das alte und
neue Morgenland, etc. Von Dr Lorenz Clem. Gratz. The
author has carefully investigated his subject.
1858. J. A. Barstow : Bible Dictionary. London 1858.
Better, and more in correspondence with the present stage of
our knowledge, than the work last mentioned.
1859. The article of Arnold on Palastina in Herzog's
Real-Encyclopadie is worth looking at.
The chief Magazines ichich relate to the Holy Land are the
following ; —
Misslonsnotizen aus dera h. Lande. Herausgegeben vera
Wiener-General-Kommissariate der h. Lander. Wien 1846.
Worth examining.

TOBLERS LIST OF WORKS. 409
Das heUige Land, Organ des Vereins vom h, Grabe,
Koln 1857, This journal contains much usable material,
Neueste Nachrichten aus dem Morgenlande, Pub, by W,
Hoffmann, F, A, Strauss, Berlin, beginning at 1857, Less
full than the Cologne journal, and of far less value.
The Jerusalem Intelligencer, Printed in Jerusalem, Pub.,
by Henry Crawford.

APPENDIX IV.

The Editor has taken the liberty of extracting front Mr
Tristram's Land of Israel his discussion on the question
of the site of Capernaum^ Chorazin, and Bethsaida ; and
also an account of that author's visit to Beisan ; and he
may be permitted to take this opportunity of recommending
the reader to peruse a work which he has no doubt it would
greatly have gratified Ritter to have studied.
From Tristram's " Land of Israel," p, 440,
I HAD now repeatedly visited the sites on the western shores
of the lake, the identification of which with the several cities
where most of our Lord's mighty works were done, is a question
of no little difficulty. Each writer has propounded a theory
of his own ; and, reluctant as I always feel to differ from the
views very decidedly expressed by the learned and cautious
Dr Robinson, I must even follow the example of my prede
cessors, and, in so doing, endeavour to give my reasons for my
conclusions. We have only two ancient authorities to guide us as to the
geographical position of Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida
— the New Testament and Josephus. The land of Gennesaret,
according to both, was situated on the western side of the lake,
for thither our Lord passed over when He had been at the east
side. Josephus describes it as thirty furlongs in length and
twenty in breadth, the exact extent of the Ghuweir, so fruitful
that all sorts of trees wUl grow upon it, and enjoying perpetual
spring. Not the slightest question can arise as to the identifi
cation of Gennesaret with the modern el-Ghuweir. Dr Robin
son has clearly shown that Capernaum and Bethsaida were in,
410

SITE OF CAPERNAUM, ETC, 411

or close to, this plain. After the death of John the Baptist,
our Lord withdrew by water to a solitary place at the north
east end of the lake. Here He fed the 5000, and then desired
His disciples to pass over, according to St Mark, to Bethsaida ;
according to St John, they went towards Capernaum. When
our Lord entered the boat, immediately, says St John, it was
at the land whither they went; while, according to SS. Matthew
and Mark, they came into the land of Gennesaret. The argu
ment for the position of Capernaum in the plain of Gennesaret
has been summed up very clearly by Lightfoot. Josephus,
after describing in glowing language the fertiHty and climate
of Gennesaret, goes on to say : " It is watered by a most f ertUe
fountain, which the people of the country call Capharnaum.
Some have thought this a vein of the Nile, since it produces a
fish like the coracinus, in the lake near Alexandria." Will Tell
Hum answer the conditions of the geographical indications of
the Evangelists or Josephus? I conceive it will not in any
respect. The great argument relied on by its advocates is
phUological, Hiim being supposed to be the contracted form
for Tell na Hilm, "TeU" being naturally substituted for
" Kefr" when the spot ceased to be an inhabited village. The
next argument is founded on the extent of ruins at Tell Hiim,
not equalled elsewhere near the lake. The philological argu
ment is certainly entitled to great weight, so long as it does not
clash with historical geography. The existence of extensive
ruins cannot alone have much force, since Capernaum was not
the only city ; nor do we know that its edifices were the most
important among the many lost cities which studded these
fertile shores, although it may have been the largest place.
The ruins may have been better preserved at Tell Hiim than
elsewhere, from the hardness of the rock, which, unlike the
soft soil of the plain of Gennesaret, could never bury the frag
ments of overthrown buildings, and also on account of its
greater distance from Tiberias, for the edifices and fortifications
of which, the materials of the nearest ruins would naturally be
employed. But, on the other hand. Tell Hdm wUl not meet the condi
tions of the Evangelists, for it cannot be said to be in the land
of Gennesaret; nor of Josephus, for there is no fountain at
TeU Hdm; and to place, with Dr Thomson, the inhabited

412 APPENDIX.
Capernaum at Tell HAm, and the fountain Capharnaum of
Josephus at Ain Tabighah, two miles to the southward, would
be, as Dr Robinson remarks, an iraprobable and unnatural
conjecture. Even were it so, the fountain of Tabighah is
neither " ryovificoTdTrj" nor " TroTifituTdrrj," whichever reading
we adopt. It is close to the edge of the lake, away frora the
plain, and by no possible metaphor can be said to water it, for
it is separated by two miles of distance, and by an intervening
spur of the hills.
Khan Miniyeh, or Ain et Tin, the site selected by Dr
Robinson, better meets the requirements of the inspired text,
for it is in the land of Gennesaret, on its northern edge. But
I conceive that beyond this point the argument fails entirely.
The words of Josephus are clear : the plain is watered through
its course {SidpBeTai) by the fountain Capharnaum. Dr Robin
son evidently feels the difficulty, and assumes that Josephus, in
mentioning the fountain, could hardly refer to it as the main
source of fertility to the plain; and, to relieve himself still
further, selects the worse reading iroTi/JMrdTrj for jovtficoTdTrj,
while he pleads that Ain et Tin "does occasion a luxuriant
verdure in its vicinity and along the shore," which it certainly
does for the space of a few yards.
But when we come to the Round Fountain of Ain Muda-
warah, we find a spot in perfect harmony with the accounts of
the Evangelists and of Josephus, and, in fact, the only possible
locality which will harmonize all the accounts. Here is a
fountain In the centre of the western boundary of the plain,
sending forth to this day a copious stream which exactly bisects
the Ghuweir on its way to the lake, and is the most important
source of fertility in the plain. The stream from Wady Ham^m
waters the southem end, the -Wady el Amud the northern,
while this supplies the central plain, and is not less copious nor
less permanent than the others. Its waters are in high repute
for their salubrity, and are resorted to by invalids from a con
siderable distance. But the most decisive argument in its
favour is to my mind the statement of Josephus, that Caphar
naum produced the Kopaicivo^, a fish like that of the lake near
Alexandria. The fact is, that the remarkable siluroid the cat
fish, or coracine {KopuKivoi) {Clarias macracanthus, Gunthr.),
identical with the catfish of the ponds of Lower Egypt, does

SITE OF CAPERNAUM, ETC, 413
abound to a remarkable degree in the Round Fountain to this
day. As I mentioned above, we obtained speciraens a yard
long, and sorae of them are deposited in the British Museum,
The loose sandy bottom of this fountain is peculiarly adapted
for this singular fish, which buries itself in the sediment, leaving
only its feelers exposed. It is doubtless found elsewhere in the
lake itself, for I have a specimen obtained at the south end
beyond the baths of Tiberias, but it was not to be seen on the
surface like other fish ; while here in the clear shallow water it
may, when disturbed, be at once detected swimraing in numbers
along the bottora. But it is not found at Ain et Tin, where .
the fountain could neither supply it with cover nor food ; nor
could we discover it at Ain Tabighah, where the water is
hot and brackish. It is somewhat amusing to refer to the
speculations of various writers about the fountain and the
coracine, not one of whom seems ever to have thought of look
ing into the facts of the case. Dr Robinson actually seizes
upon the statement of Josephus as an argument against the
Round Fountain. " More decisive, however, is the circumstance
that the fountain Kapharnaum was held to be a vein of the
Nile, because it produced a fish like the coracinus of that river.
This might well be the popular belief as to a large fountain on
the very shore, to which the lake in sorae seasons sets quite
up" [?] " So that fish could pass and repass without difficulty.
Not so, however, with the Round Fountain, which is a mile
and a half from the shore, and which could neither itself have
in it fish fit for use, nor could fish of any size pass between it
and the lake." — Robinson, Res. in. 351.
If the worthy Doctor's arguments be worth anything, we can
only exclaim, So much the worse for the facts ! Dr Thomson
foUows suit in the same tone. Speaking of " the fable about
the fish coracinus," he proceeds : " We may admit that this fish
was actually found in the fountain of Capernaum, and that
this is a valid reason why the Round Fountain near the south
end of Gennesaret could not be it !" — Land and Book, p. 354.
Dr Bonar, in combating the claims of Ain et Tin, assumes the
coracine to be " a fish quite different from any to be found in
the lake," which does not necessarily follow if it were a remark
able and abundant production of the fountain ; for Josephus
could never mean to imply that the fish could not or did not

414 APPENDIX.
pass to the lake, when evidence to the contrary must have been
before his eyes. Dr Bonar's note, whUe demolishing most
sstisfactorily the clairas of Ain et Tin, supports in every parti
cular the interpretation here advanced, though he does not seem
to have been aware of the existence of the Round Fountain. I
conceive that its claims to be the Capharnaum of .Josephus
must now be admitted, as being " prolific," " fertilizing," and
" irrigating the plain."
We may observe, in corroboration, that frora Matt. xiv. 35
and Mark -vi. 55, our Lord appears to have healed many on
His vjay from the shore to Capernaum. This would naturally
occur, when, after the boats had been run ashore on the beach
at the mouth of the Wady Mudawarah, Jesus walked across
the plain to His own city — Capernaum being placed at Ain
Mudawarah. The positions of Bethsaida and Chorazin at Ain
Tabighah and Tell Hum respectively would naturally follow,
as Dr Robinson has shown, Bethsaida being to the north of
Capernaum, and probably between it and Chorazin.
Wherever the cities stood, the absence of remains and the
obliteration of their very naraes more utterly than of those of
Sodom and Gomorrah, testify to a fulfilment of that prophetic
woe, which, though not denounced against the walls and stones,
but against those who dwelt in them, is illustrated by their
erasure from the face of the earth — " cast down to hell," lost,
and forgotten, though consecrated by the presence and mighty
works of the Divine Saviour. Capernaum in its oblivion
preaches to Christendom a sermon more forcible than the
columns of Tyre or the stones of Jerusalem.

APPENDIX V.

From Tristram's " Land of Israel,'^ p. 499.
April 6. — At sunrise I bade farewell to my faithful coad
jutors and Mr Sandwith, and with Mr Zeller accompanied Mr
Egerton-Warburton's party, for our eleven hours' ride, by
Beisan, sending the mules direct to Jenin. Our course, for
road there was none, lay across a long series of rolling plains,
reminding us of the Sussex downs in their general appearance,
though the soil was rich and loamy. The ride to Beisan
(Bethshean of old, and the Scythopolis of later antiquity)
occupied four hours. We saw not a tree; and the rolling
downs, as we inclined eastward, developed into wadys, which
convey occasional streams to the Jordan. We came to one
inhabited and apparently flourishing village, Kefrah, with sorae
ancient ruins of large stones, bearing the so-called Jewish bevel,
one of these ruins having belonged to an edifice of sorae size ;
also several ruined villages, whose grass-grown sites were marked
afar by a deeper green than clothes the rest of the downs, one
of them called Marusseh (?) ; and these were all we passed till
we reached Beisan.
The whole of the rocks are limestone, with many boulders
and fragments of basalt sprinkled over them, and in one place
we crossed a continuous basaltic dyke. Generally, however,
the igneous formation was extremely superficial.
Half a mile north of Beisan stand the ruins of a noble
Saracenic khan, with many of its arches, and its courtyard
perfect. Three of the four columns which supported a canopy
over a marble fountain in its centre, are still standing. The
whole is built of large dressed blocks of black basalt and white
crystalHne limestone alternating, and has a very beautiful effect.
416

416 APPENDIX.
After riding through these ruins, we descended into a little
valley, the Nahr JalAd, where a perennial stream of sweet
water was fringed with canes and oleanders in full bloom.
This we crossed by a fine Roman bridge of a single arch, much
decayed. Constructed, however, of hard black basalt, it has
been able to withstand in sorae degree the ravages of time
and the carelessness of Moslems. Higher up the sarae stream
we saw another bridge of three arches, and lower down the
buttresses and spring of the arch of a third, these latter both
built of limestone, and very finely worked.
Just beyond, and separated by a narrow ridge, is a second
stream, also perennial ; and on the peninsula formed by these
two, with a bold steep brow overlooking the Ghor, stood the
citadel of ancient Bethshean — a sort of Gibraltar or Con
stantine on a small scale — of remarkable natural strength, and
inaccessible to horsemen. No wonder that it was long ere
Israel could wrest it from the possession of the Canaanites.
The eastern face rises like a steep cone, most incorrectly stated
by Robinson to be "black, and apparently volcanic," and by
Porter, " probably once a crater." Certainly there are many
blocks of basalt lying about ; but if any person walks round to
the east side of the hill, he will see that it is simply a limestone
bluff. We could easily recognise the spot where Burckhardt must
have stood, when he saw but one column standing, though
frora other positions we could count more than twenty. But
Sheikh Ibrahim's visit was evidently a very hurried one.
Having tied our horses to some standing columns at the foot
of the Acropolis, we climbed to a raedlseval ruin, under the
shade of which we ate our luncheon, sheltered frora the glare
of the noonday sun, and looking down on the extraordinary
bridge which, with its high-peaked arch, seems once to have
carried a wall or a fortification across the ravine. A black
kite came down to share our meal, which we shot, as also the
ortolan bunting, being the first of either of these migrants
which we had seen.
Climbing to the surarait, we enjoyed the finest panorama,
next to Gerizim, which Central Palestine affords, and spent
half an hour in exaraining it with delight. Spread at our feet,
yet far below us, the vast plain of Jordan stretched north and

TRISTRAM'S VISIT TO BEISAN. 417
south far as the eye could reach ; and in its centre we might
trace the strangely tortuous course of the river, marked by a
ribbon of dark shrubs and oleanders, through the otherwise
treeless plain. Facing us, nearly ten miles to the north, was
the gorge of the Hieromax ; nearly opposite was a long narrow
plateau, raised a few hundred feet above the Ghor, on the edge
of which the glass enabled us to descry the ruins of Tubaket
Fahil, the ancient PeUa, Gradually sloping back to the crest
of its lofty plateau, picturesquely dotted with oaks, but nowhere
in a forest mass, and scarred by the ravine of the Y4bis and
the Seklab, stretched the whole front of Gilead ; to the south
east the lofty Castle of Kefrenjy towered, and behind it rose
the higher summits of pine-clad Ajlun, the scene of our weU-
reraembered ride from Suf, untU they sloped down to the deep
valley of the Jabbok, Beyond this, through a thin haze, we
could detect the blue outline of the supposed Nebo, and the
mountains of Moab in a long ridge fringing the Dead Sea, the
view of which was shut out by the spur of Kurn Surtabeh,
projecting frora the west, I could thus console myself, that
though baulked of my projected ride down the Ghor, I had
traversed most of it, and seen the whole of it, excepting six
miles to the north of Surtabeh, and was quite satisfied I had
lost nothing of the slightest interest.
The Ghor, clothed with a rich robe of clovers and lucernes,
was everywhere dotted with the black paraUelograras which
mark the Beduin caraps, the only habitations of man till the
wretched vUlage of Jericho is reached. Turning again from
north to west, the noble Crusading ruin of Belvoir stood
beetling on the highest point overhanging the plain by Wady
Bireh; and just behind it rose snow-streaked Hermon, then
Jebel Duhy (Little Hermon), between which and Gilboa the
plain of Esdraelon gently sloped toward us, showing the reach
along which Jehu drove his chariot from the ford in our front
up to Jezreel, To the south a range of sparsely wooded hills
embayed the valleys and the Ghor as far as Kurn Surtabeh,
How clearly the details of the sad end of Saul were recalled
as we stood on this spot ! There was the slope of Gilboa, on
which his army was encamped before the battle. Round that
hill he slunk by night, conscience-stricken, to visit the witch of
Endor. Hither, as being a Canaanitish fortress, the PhiHstines
vol. II. 2 D

418 APPENDIX,
most naturally brought the trophies of the royal slain, and
hung them up just by this waU. Across the ford by the
Y^bis, and across that plain below us, the gallant men of
Jabesh Gilead hurried on their long night's march to stop the
indignity offered to Israel, and to take down the bodies of th'^ir
king and his sons.
Descending from the ancient fortress, where the ruins of
the more modem citadel were in large measure composed of
beautiful marble columns, and some capitals built horizontally
in tiers or lying across the massive walls, we next came to the
remains of a very perfect amphitheatre, with aU the vomitories
and corridors intact, though not of very large size. We noticed
the oval recesses half-way up the galleries mentioned by Irby
and Mangles.
Then crossing the third stream (a very small one, with water
slightly sulphurous), we visited the ruins of a fine Greek
church, since perverted into a mosque, with a Cuphic inscrip
tion inserted over an inner doorway, but now nearly roofless,
excepting two or three arches and a small tower. Here there
is a fourth little stream, and the modern village, a collection
of earth and stone built kennels, circular and flat-roofed, about
twelve feet in diameter, and each having one aperture about
three feet square. They were the very worst among all the
miserable hovels of this wretched land. It is scarcely conceiv
able how any human beings can inhabit such styes : but such
is the contrast, nowhere more startling than here, between
ancient civilisation and modern degradation. These people
are Egyptian immigrants, and are grievously oppressed by the
neighbouring Beduin. To us they were civil and obliging, no
doubt in awe of Agyle's horsemen. I noticed a clump of
palms, the last lingering relics, and also a quantity of the
medicinal aloe {Gasteria farsaniana, H. and Ehr,), growing
wild on the slope, from the ruins to the Joi'dan valley, — another
relic doubtless of past cultivation.

END OF VOL. II.

MOREAT AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBUHGn.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 05047 9840

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