DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Treasure %oom THE GOUGE or THE EMISHA =IJEBAT^0W„ LONDON. I S,VIRT-aEa-.C9.1.miTI4I3. VOL. Mi LON DON. J 5, VI RTU E C° limited. ffSiO,. PICTURESQUE PALESTINE SINAI AND EGYPT EDITED BY COLONEL SIR CHARLES W. WILSON K.C.M.G., C.B., R.E., D.C.L., F.R.S. Formerly Engineer to the Palestine Exploration Society ASSISTED BY THE MUST EMINENT PALESTINE EXPLORERS EiC. WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS ON STEEL AND WOOD IN FOUR VOLUMES VOL. III. LONDON J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., Limitko. 294, CITY ROAD Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/picturesquepales03wils V,3 CONTENTS. VOL. III. PAGE PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. By the Rev. Dr. SAMUEL JESSUP i Husn Suleiman.— Baal Worship.— Tripoli.— Kadisha, the Sacred River.— Government of the Lebanon.— Edhen.— The Maronites. — Cedars of Lebanon. — Sources of the Adonis.— Temple of Venus. — Natural Bridge. — The Dog River. — Assyrian and Egyptian Tablets.— Beirut : its Schools, Ancient and Modem.— Druses. — Sidon. — Ancient Commerce.— The Modern Town and Gardens of Saida.— The Necropolis.— Phoenician Inscriptions. — Tomb of King Ashmanazar. — The Moabite Stone and Siloam Tablet. THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN. By the Rev. CANON TRISTRAM, LL.D., F.R.S 49- Sarepta.— The River Leontes.— Tyre : the Modern Town, Es Sur.— Ruins of the Cathedral.— The Phoenicians.— Tomb of Hiram.— The Ladder of Tyre.— Wady Ashur.— Kul'at el Kurn, the Mountfort of the Crusaders.— Ancient Sites in the Plain of Acre. — The River Belus. ACRE, THE KEY OF PALESTINE. By Miss M. E. ROGERS 73' Approach to 'Akka from the Sea. — The City Walls. — Egyptian Rule in Syria. — Bombardment of 'Akka. — Markets and Bazaars, Private Houses and Public Buildings. — Early History of 'Akka. — Accho.— Ptolemais. — Coins of the Ptolemies. — The Stronghold of the Crusaders. — Crusading Coinage. — Destruction of the City in 1291. MOUNT CARMEL AND THE RIVER KISHON. By Miss M. E. ROGERS 91 Bay of 'Akka. — Vegetation of the Plain of 'Akka. — Gardens of Haifa. — The Modern Town of Haifa. — Haifa el 'Atikeh. — German Colony of Temple Christians. — Sycaminum. — Mount Carmel. — The Convent. — The Pilgrim's Spring. — Arab Fables. — Druse Villages. — El Mahrakah, the Place of Elijah's Sacrifice. — The River Kishon. MARITIME CITIES AND PLAINS OF PALESTINE. By Miss M. E. ROGERS 109. Ancient Coast Road. — Athlit. — Rock-cut Defile. — Fountain of Dustrey. — A Night at Kefr Lamm. — Tedious Voyage to Tanturah, "sailing slowly." — Abu Habib, the Custom-house Officer. — The Plain of Dor. — Solomon's Purveyors. — Crocodile River. — Arab Fable. — Plain of Sharon.— Caesarea. — Port of Abil Zabura. — Melon Harvest. — Arsfif. — Antipatris. — Joppa. — Road from Jaffa to Ramleh. LYDDA AND RAMLEH. By COLONEL SIR CHARLES WARREN, K.C.M.G., R.E. . . '. . 145 View from the Tower of Ramleh. — The Plain of Sharon. — Church of St. George at Lydda, the ancient Ludd. — 'Amwas and Lalron. PHILISTIA. By COLONEL SIR CHARLES WARREN, K.C.M.G., R.E 149 The Philistines. — Encroachment of Sand on the Corn Plains of Philistia. — Zorah, the Birthplace of Samson. — Ekron. — The Valley of Sorek. — 'Ain Shems, the Site of Bethshemesh. — Wady es Sunt, the Valley of Elah. — The Scene of David's Encounter with Goliath. — Tell es Safy. — Gath. — Yabneh, the ancient Jabneh. — Mejdel, the ancient Migdol. — Ruins of Ascalon. TPIE SOUTH COUNTRY OF JUDAEA. By the Rev. CANON TRISTRAM, LL.D., F.R.S. . . .167 Approach to Palestine from the South. — Rock-cut Wells. — From Abu Jerar to Gaza. — Ajlan, the ancient Eglon. — Libnah. — Khflrbet Gat. — Beit Jibrin. — Artificial Caverns.. — Ruins of the Church of St. Anna. — AduUam. — Road to Hebron. — Ramet el Khtilil. — Tekoa. — Engedi. h IV CONTENTS. THE SOUTHERN BORDERLAND AND DEAD SEA. By Professor PALMER, M.A 193 Abraham's Oak. — Tree Worship. — Hebron. — Cave of Machpelah. — Ancient Pools. — Tell Zif. — Land of Moab. — Kerek. — " Cities of the Plain." — Jebel Usdum, a Mountain of Crystalline Rock Salt. — The Dead Sea. — Wilderness of Engedi. — Beersheba. — Kadesh Barnea. — Idumea. — Petra. — Rock-cut Tombs and Temples. — Pharaoh's Treasury. MOUNT HOR AND THE CLIFFS OF EDOM. By Aliss M. E. ROGERS .217 Through the Ravine to Petra. — Ascent to Ed Deir. — Josephus. — Mount Hor. — To the Shrine of Neby Harun on its Summit.— Sacrifice of a Goat on Aaron's Terrace. — Wady 'Arabah : its Shrubs and Flowers. — Animal Life in the Desert. — Site of Ezion Geber. — The Peutinger Tables. — Elath. — Castle of 'Akabah. — Pharaoh's Island. THE CONVENT OF ST. CATHERINE. By Miss M. E. ROGERS 230 The Shores of the Gulf of 'Akabah. — View of the Land of Midian. — Change of Escort. — Enter the Mountains through the Nukb el Abweib. — 'Ain el Hudhera. — Hazeroth. — Tomb of the Prophet Saleh. — Festivals in his honour. — Arrival at the Convent. — Church of the Transfiguration.— The Library. — The " Codex Sinaiticus." — Ascent of Jebel Musa. — St. Stephen's Gate. — The Convent Servitors. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOL. III. ENGRAVINGS ON STEEL. The Gorge of the Kadisha, Lebanon Frontispiece Convent of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai Vignette Map of Palestine. Bay of Beirut to face page 34 SiDON 42 Tyre 54 Mount Carjiel 94 C^sarea 126 Jaffa, the ancient Joppa 142 Gaza . 170 Hebron , 183 Entrance to the Valley of Petra 217 ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. Hasrun, a Maronite Village .... The Valley of the Kadisha (the Holy River) Convent of the Mullawiyeh, or Dancing Dervishes Tripoli The Castle of Tripoli, a Stronghold of the Crusaders The Castle of Museilihah (" Place of Weapons ") Map of Northern Lebanon The Natural Bridge of Akura .... Clififs of Akura, in the Mogheriye Valley, Lebanon The Fountain of Afka (Apheca) The Valley of the Adonis (Nahr Ibrahim) . Lebanon Coast near the Mouth of the Adonis River The Natural Bridge, Lebanon .... Under the Natural Bridge, Lebanon . The Chasm of Neb'a el Lebban .... Roman Bridge near Juneh Limestone Rocks, Ajeltun, Lebanon . Beirfit, from Jaita . . . . , A Lebanon Cafe . The Slopes of Lebanon Cliffs and Sculptured Tablets .... The Nahr el Kelb (Dog River) .... Modern Aqueduct on the Nahr el Kelb Bath and Cafe, Beirut Pigeon Rocks, Beirut Beirut Castle PAGE I 9 1 1 12 13 15 16 17 19 20 21 23 24 25 28 29 33 I 36 ■ 3. j 39 I 40 j PAGE Khan Neby Yiinas (the Khan of the Prophet Jonah) . 44 The Castle and Harbour of Saida, the ancient Sidun . ^5 The Citadel of Saida, the ancient Sidon . . -47 A Peasant Woman churning ..... 48 Site of Sarepta -49 The Bay of Sidon from Sarepta ..... 51 Bridge over the Nahr el Kasimiyeh (the Leontes) . 52 The Valley of the Leontes, near the coast . . -53 The Gate of Tyre (Sur) 55 Ruins of the Cathedral Church at Tyre . . -56 Kabr Hiram 57 The Remains of Tyre -.59 Reservoirs of Ras el 'Ain and part of the Roman Aqueduct 60 Aqueduct, Ras el 'Ain Oi Ras el Abyad (White Cape), the Ladder of Tyre 64, 65 Looking towards Tyre from Nakurah . . . .68 Ras en Nakurah 69 The City of Acre ('Akka) from the North-east . . 72 The City of Acre from the South .... 72 Gate of 'Akka (St. Jean d' Acre). . . - -73 Ruins of an Aqueduct east of 'Akka .... 75 General View of 'Akka from the north-east, Carmel in the distance -7^ Ablutions after a Mid-day Meal 77 The Plain of 'Akka from the slopes of Carmel . . 80 VI LIST Oh ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE PAGE A Well in a Garden of Haifa 8l Ploughing in the Plains of Philistia .... 160 The Bay of 'Akka from the Slopes of Carmel 83 Tell es Safy, the supposed Site of Gath 161 The Convent of Mount Carmel 84 Yabneh, the ancient Jabneh 162 The Grotto known as " the School of the Prophets " . 85 Eshdud, the ancient Ashdod ..... 165 The Northern Point of Mount Carmel 88 El Mejdel, the ancient Migdol . 167 El Mahrakah, the Place of Elijah's Sacrifice 89 Ruins of Ascalon, from the north-east 169 Well at the Place of Elijah's Sacrifice, and a View Ruins of Ascalon, from the south-west • ( • 172 from the Heights above it T- Ruins of Ascalon, from the north .... 173 The River Kishon from El Mahrakah 93 Ghiizzeh, the ancient Gaza ..... 175 The Plains of Esdraelon from the Heights above El A Well in the Plain of Philistia 176 INfahrakah, looking towards the south-east . 96 The Castle of Beit Jibrin, by starlight . . 177 The River Kishon 97 Subterranean Labyrinth of Tell Sandannah (Beit 100 Jibrin) 179 Ruins on the west side of Athlit lOI The Valley of Beit Jibrin i8c^ View of the Great Sea from Athlit .... 104 The Church of St. Anne, Beit Jibrin . . . . 181 Remains of a Crusading Fort at Tanturah . 105 The Valley of Berachah ...... 184 The Castle of Caesarea . . . 108 The Wilderness of Judasa 185 Columns in the Sea, Caesarea 109 Teku'a, the Site of Tekoa 188 Part of the North Wall and Moat of Caesarea III Ramet el Khiilil, the Site of Mamre .... 189 Tower of the Castle at Caesarea . . . n2 Wady et Tuffah, commonly called the Vale of Eshcol 192 Remains of a Fortified Khan at Mukhalid . 113 Abraham's Oak, Hebron 193 Neby Ben Yamin (Tomb of the Prophet Benjamin) 116 The Pools of Hebron 196 Kefr Saba 117 Ruined Wely, Hebron . . . 197 The Castle of Mirabel 120 The Dead Sea, looking north-east from Engedi . 200 The Nahr el Aujeh from Kul'at Ras el 'Ain 121 The Mountains of Moab from Engedi 201 Sacred Tree called Sheikh et Teim .... 124 Engedi, the Fountain of the Kid ('Ain Jidy) 203 The traditional Tomb of Joshua ..... 125 The Southern End of the Dead Sea from Engedi 204 Landing at Jaffa 128 The Cliffs of Engedi 205 129 The Wilderness of Engedi 208 131 Bir es Seba', the Site of Beersheba . 209 The traditional House of Simon the Tanner 132 'Ain el Weibeh, on the Border of Edom 210 View of the Rock-encircled Harbour at Jaffa 133 Rock-cut Tomb or Temple, Petra .... 212 A Roadside Fountain and Tomb .... 136 Detached Tombs, Petra . . . . 213 Public Fountain at Jaffa . . . . . 137 The Rock-hewn Amphitheatre, Petra 216 Scene in a Jaffa Garden . . . 138 Mount Hor 217 Scene in the Bazaar at Jaffa 140 Rock-cut Tombs, Petra 218 Sanctuary of Imam 'Aly . . . 141 Cliffs of the Sik, Petra 219 The Tower at Ramleh 144 The Deir, Petra 221 Ruins of the Church of St. George at Ludd, the Jezirat Far'on, the Isle of Pharaoh . . . . 224 ancient Lydda 145 Letter of Admission to the Convent of St. Catherine . 225 The Plain of Sharon from the Tower, Ramleh . 148 A Peep into one of the Courts of the Convent 228 Sur'ah, the ancient Zorah 149 The Upper Chambers of the Convent . . . . 229 The Ruined Fortress of Latron, from 'Amwas . 152 View from the North-eastern Galleries 232 Shrine of Sheikh Samat, at Sur'ah (Zorah) . 153 Interior of the Church of the Convent of St. 'Ain Shems, the Site of Beth-Shemesh 155 Catherine 233 The Valley of Sorek 155 The Crescent and the Cross 235 Tibneh, the Site of Timnath 156 Gate of St. Stephen the Porter 236 Wady es Sunt, the Valley of Elah .... 157 Well in the Garden of the Convent of St. Catherine . 237 Shocoh, the Camp of the Philistines .... 159 Eastern Tower of the Convent of St. Catherine . 238. PHCENICIA AND LEBANON, " With these came they, who from the bordering fiood Of old Euphrates, to the brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names Of Baalim and Ashtaroth." " And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and the Hivite, and the Arklts, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite." HASRUN, A MARONITE VILLAGE Of North Lebanon, on the summit of a precipice on the south side of the gorge of the Kadisha (the sacred VOL. III. THIS ethnological record in the tenth chapter of Genesis, the most ancient in existence, eives us the earliest account of the Phoenician aboricjines. Hamath, on the north-east, and Accho (Acre), on the south-west, were the extreme borders of ancient Phoenicia. The Sidouians occupied the coast from Gebal, or Byblos, the modern jebeil, on the north, as far as Accho, or Acre, on the south. One division of the Hivites occupied Shechem and Gibeon, and the other the chain of Anti-Lebanon from Baal Hermon to Hamath. The Arhites lived in the plain north of Lebanon, between the mountains of Akkar and the Nahr el Kebir, their name still remaining in the Tell and river of Arka. B 2 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE, One of the most striking historic names in Northern Syria is Kul'at Kadmus, about twelve hours south-east of Ladakiyeh, probably the former home of Cadmus, who first brought letters into Greece. In prosecuting our journey through Phoenicia from north to south we will begin at the northernmost relic of Phoenician architecture in Syria, the secluded " Husn Suleiman." In company with the Rev. S. Jessup, of Tripoli, and Professor Dodge, of the S. P. College in Beirut, we visited this then unexplored and comparatively unknown ruin a few years since. We spent Tuesday night at Mahardee, near the castle of Seijar, on the Orontes, north-west of Hamath ; and on Wednesday took a south-west course to the foot of the Nusairiyeh mountain range, then ascended a rocky precipitous steep, several hundred feet in height, through tangled forests of oak, to the summit of the range near 'Ain esh Shems, or Fountain of the Sun. Farther to the west we rode down a narrow valley to 'Ain ez Zahib, or Gold Fountain, and then turning southward over a high rounded ridge, came suddenly in sight of the green secluded vale in the midst of which stand in weird solitude the ruins of " Husn Suleiman." The ruin is of unknown origin and of great antiquity. Like Baalbek, it is of three styles of architecture, the colossal Phoenician, the Greek, and that of the Crusaders. There are two quadrangular courts a short distance from each other and quite distinct. The southern or larger one is a rectangle of four hundred and fifty feet long by two hundred and eighty feet wide, with a wall formerly forty feet in height. In the centre of each side is a great portal ten feet wide, twenty feet high, and eight feet thick. On the soffit of the east and west portals is an immense eagle with a caduceus in his talons and a retreating Ganymede on either side. The work resembles that at Ba'albek, but is far less elaborate. We spent six hours in sketching the ruins, and the engravings from these hasty sketches (in the Second Statement of the American Palestine Exploration Society) were the first pictures of the ruins published in Europe and America. The lintel over the eastern gate is a monolith twenty-one feet long, ten feet wide, and five feet high. It is chastely carved with a cornice of dice and flowers, with a king's head in the centre. On each end is a winged image in high relief, draped from the waist down, supporting the upper portion of the cornice on his shoulders, the arms being uplifted. At the bottom of the cornice is a Greek inscription, which reads somewhat thus : " Theobaitus possessed it. Servants of his household built it in the 682nd year." The cornice of the western portal has alternate dice, flowers, and grotesque faces in relief The lintel of the east gate alone remains perfect ; the western is broken in two pieces, the northern in three, and the southern has fallen. Inside the northern portal, on a tablet six feet by three, is an inscription in Greek and Latin. The Latin inscription has been translated by Dr. Ward. It states that the Emperor Valerianus and his son Gallienus and grandson Saloninus intrusted the province of Asia to Marcus Aurelius and others, &c., commanding them to see that the distant kingdoms over against the turbulent Parthians remain to them intact. The date is between 253 a.d. and 259 A.D., but the inscription is evidently of far later date than the building, and was not improbably cut in a tablet from which an older inscription had been effaced. PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 3 The rectangle is built of huge stones, the largest of which on the north-east corner is thirty feet long, nine feet nine inches high, and four feet seven inches wide, and at an elevation of thirty feet from the ground on the inside. The most of the stones are of similar dimensions, some thicker and narrower and some shorter and wider. Those on the south side have a wide coarse level or draft, and unfinished attempts at a moulding on the top of some of them. The quarry is on the slope of the hill a few rods from the north-east corner. The north- east corner block has a rude lion carved in high relief on its northern face. The corresponding block on the north-western corner has a lion standing by a cypress tree. This style of rude ornament is still in use among the Syrian stonemasons, and even the Arab women use the lion and cypress tree in decorating the interior mud walls of their rude houses. On both the inner and outer sides of the north portal are niches with canopies for statues. On the inside was once a portico forty-five feet wide and seventeen feet deep. Its roof and columns are fallen and mostly buried beneath the debris. The capitals of the pilasters on the main wall are early Corinthian. In the southern central part of the rectangular area is the Ionic temple, its cella being seventy- five feet by forty-five feet. To the north are two flights of steps of the width of the temple, covering a space sixty feet in length northward. The temple is built of the same light- coloured limestone with the court, but the blocks are much smaller, varying from six to ten feet long, and from three to four feet in breadth and thickness. It is surrounded by half columns, which become at the corners three-quarter columns. There are four at the south end and five on each side, all being three feet five inches in diameter and twenty-seven feet high. In the interior lie piles of fallen blocks and half columns in utter confusion. In the winter a fine fountain gushes out from under it, and in its original state the fountain was doubtless, as at Fijeh (see page 202, vol. ii.) and Afka (Apheca) (see page 16), the attractive feature of the spot, and connected with the worship of those ancient days, now so completely enwrapped in mystery. The water is sweet, cold, and pure ; it escapes from beneath the western wall of the enceinte, its former place of exit being buried beneath the debris. The northern ruin is also a rectangular enclosure, standing north-west of the great court, and at an angle with it. It contained several small temples, one on the south-east corner, another at the south-west corner, and one outside the western wall forty-five feet by fifteen feet. Behind the platform at the south-west corner are the pedestals of numerous columns, which may have surrounded the cella of a temple whose portico occupied the platform. The little temple on the south-east corner has a portico thirteen feet by twenty-six feet, and twenty feet high, now in ruins, and a vestibule twenty-six feet by forty feet. The portal between them is seven feet wide by ten feet high, its lintel being a monolith thirteen feet long, having an unfinished moulding and cornice, with an egg cornice under the dice and flowers common to the portals of the great court, and a spread eagle above. The stone above the lintel is fifteen feet long. The stones are laid up without mortar, and beautifully joined, like those in Ba'albek and Palmyra. The only building laid up in mortar is the ruined Crusaders' Church on the eastern 4 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. side, ^vith its apse towards the north-east. A semicircular projection of tlie northern wall would indicate the apse of some former edifice wdthin the wall at that point. The whole mass of ruins is a mystery. It was evidently one of the holy places of the Arvadites, at once a temple and a stronghold. M. Ray, of Paris, in his report on the remains of the military architecture of the Crusaders in Syria, styles this place the best specimen of re/xevo? that exists in Syria. Its name, " Solomon's Fortress," would indicate the prevailing ancient tradition as to its origin. The whole Arab race believe Ba'albek (see page 215, vol. ii.) and Tiidmur (Palmyra) (see page 191, vol. ii.) to be the work of Solomon aided by the genii, and this Phoenician quadrangle very naturally bears his name. It is not impossible that when Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and built store cities or magazines for storing grain in this district, his men may have made this a store city. The word Hamath means Husn, or fortress, and the fame of Solomon must have extended through this entire region, then inhabited by the Phoenicians and Hittites ; and it is no improbable supposition that this retired and almost inaccessible spot may have been selected as a stronghold in which to store grain for his subjects in Northern Syria, or even as a military fortress. The small temples were probably of much later date. Leaving this lovely valley we rode to Burj Safita, the " Castel Blanc " of the Crusaders, and now, with its Protestant church and schools, a veritable white spot in this dark mountain. Thence, on the ist of June, we rode down for six hours over the undulating chalk hills towards the coast, when suddenly we came upon the modern town of Tartus, the ancient Antaradus of the Phoenicians. The town contains about one thousand five hundred people, four-fifths Muslims and one-fifth Greek Christians. The majority of the people live within the walls of the castle, an immense structure, whose vaulted halls and chapels, built by the Crusaders, are still in excellent preservation. The castle stands on the seashore, protected from the waves by a massive sloping buttress. On the land side the castle was surrounded by two walls and two moats, one between the walls and one beyond. These are in fine preservation, especially on the north-east side. The ancient structures are solid and beautiful, the modern of the most abject character. Taking the Arab shakhtur, or sloop, which plies between the town and its insular sister, we sail across the two and a half miles of sea to the ancient island of Arvad, now Ruad. This island is three-quarters of a mile in circumference, with a population of two thousand. It was surrounded by a wall intended to serve as a fortification, and a dyke to protect the town from the sea. A portion of the wall still remains, composed of blocks of stone from fifteen to twenty feet in length. The finely drafted stones indicate its Phoenician origin. The rock interior is full of cisterns to supply water to the inhabitants. The inscriptions in Greek begin with the words, " The Senate and People," &c. On the north-east side was the harbour, formed by two moles built of immense stones brought from the quarries at 'Amrit. The present population are chiefly fishermen, whose boats supply fish to Ladakiyeh, Tripoli, and even Beirut, and carry lumber from Mounts Casius and Amanus to the cities of Southern Phoenicia, PHCENICIA AND LEBANON, 5 6 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. After the union of Arvad with the Sidonians it still retained its own king as a vassal of the Phoenician monarch. To this brave and hardy insular population, who vied with the Tyrians and Sidonians for the palm as navigators of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, belonged the two towns opposite on the coast, Antaradus (Tartus) and Marathus ('Amrit), where are found the most perfect, important, and beautiful remains of Phoenician architecture. The trip to Ruad can be easily made in the summer months, and generally in the spring, unless the wind blows a gale, as the sailors of Ruad are skilful and perfectly fearless. From Tartus we rode southward along the coast to 'Ain el Haiyeh and 'Amrit. It was the time of wheat harvest. The whole country was golden yellow with the ripened or newly harvested grain, and the muzzled oxen were treadino^ out the corn on the circular earthen threshing floors. South-east of Tartus stands the Cathedral of the Crusaders, a fine edifice one hundred and thirty feet by ninety-three feet, divided into nave and aisles by two rows of clustered pillars. As is usual in the Syrian cities, this grand Christian edifice is now the property of the Muslims, and we found a Muslim sheikh seated on a mat teaching a dozen little unwashed boys to read the Koran. It is partly roofless, but not an utter ruin. It is a painful and interesting sight, yet such sights abound through this entire region from Aleppo to Tripoli. The beautiful lordly castles of the French and English Crusaders, with their Gothic chapels and spacious halls, are now turned into stables or filthy hovels, or used by Turkish mudirs and their zabties and servants. Leaving the Tartus Cathedral, we reach in one hour the ruins of 'Amrit, so thoroughly explored by M. Renan, and which he has admirably illustrated in the plates of his " Mission de Phcenice." The ruins of 'Amrit are peculiar and striking, being the most perfect Phoenician structures in Syria. There are three lofty massive monuments, one of which is composed of a pedestal sixteen feet square and six feet high, with sculptured lions at the corners ; on this stands a monolithic shaft fourteen feet high. The second has a pedestal fifteen feet square and ten feet high, on which stands a huge cylindrical block, and the whole is surmounted by a cone- shaped stone, the extreme height being thirty-three feet. Beneath each structure are sepulchral chambers hewn in the rock, with loculi of a large size, measuring eight and a half by three and a quarter feet. The third is partially destroyed. Lenorniant regards these cone-shaped monuments as having a peculiar meaning in the ancient Baal-worship — " At Paphos, the stone representing Ashtorethwas of a conical form." In the island of Malta, in one of the Phoenician sanctuaries, was a very lofty semicircular recess, which was the " Holy of Holies," and " in Giganteja there was found in this recess the conical stone which, as at Paphos, was the emblem of the nature goddess." "We cannot enter here on an explanation of the brutal and obscene symbolism that was the origin of this representation of the divinity by a conical stone. Two monoliths, or enormous stone cylinders, terminated at the summit by a cone or a rounded cap, called by the Arabs of our day ' mughazil ' (spindles), were placed like the Egyptian obelisks before the temple of Atargatis at Bambyce. Probably there were some also at the temple of PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 7 Melkarth at Tyre, for in the temple of Jerusalem (an exact reproduction of its arrangements), in order to efface all vestiges of a symbolism so contrary to the spirit of the worship of Jehovah, they were replaced by the two columns with bronze capitals, Jachin and Boaz. Three monoliths of the same type are still to be seen among the ruins of Marothus ('Amrit)." It is probably impossible for one in our day to imagine the depth of immorality and abominable licentiousness which was inwrought in the very spirit and fibre of the old Phoenician Baal-worship. " . . . . Baal next, and Ashtaroth, And all the idolatries of heathen round, Besides their other worse than heathenish crimes." Around their religious system gathered, in the external and public worship, a host of frightful debaucheries, orgies, and prostitutions in honour of the deities, such as accompanied all the naturalistic religions of antiquity. Creuzer, as quoted by Lenormant, says, " This religion silenced all the best feelings of human nature, degraded men's minds by a superstition alternately cruel and profligate, and we may seek in vain for any influence for good it could have exercised on the nation." Their human sacrifices to Baal Moloch were followed by feasts in which deep sorrow and frantic joy alternated. The Phoenicians are described by ancient writers as both unruly and servile, gloomy and cruel, corrupt and ferocious, selfish and covetous, implacable and faithless. It is well for us to have these peculiarities of the old Baal- worship in mind as we are proceeding on our journey south through the maritime cities, the Lebanon strongholds, and the characteristic temples of the ancient Phoenicians. Just to the north of the three conical symbolic shafts of 'Amrit is the extraordinary rock- hewn temple of "'Ain el Haiyeh," or Serpent Fountain. The name is appropriate to the place, for no part of Syria is more infested with venomous serpents than these cretaceous hills along the coast of the Arvadites. On every journey in this region we hear stories of their ravages. While riding ahead of my companions near this very temple I heard a sudden rustling in the wheat stubble ; my horse started back, and I saw a repulsive-looking snake about two feet in length, of a dark yellow hue, and about as thick as my wrist from head to tail, floundering along towards a rejnieli, or stone heap. The boy with us exclaimed, "Beware, a serpent!" It was of the most venomous character. Michaud relates, in the history of the Eighteenth Crusade, that when the Christian army remained three days on the banks of the river Eleuctera (Nahr el Kebir), fifteen miles south of 'Amrit, they were assailed by serpents called tnrenta, whose bite produced death. The Crusaders were stricken with terror, but the remedy proposed by the natives surprised them even more. It was of a nature so vile as to remind one of the abominable rites of the ancient Baal-worshippers of the same plains. On the north-east of the fountain is an excavation a quarter of a mile long, cut in the rock, ninety feet wide at the top, descending in steps to the bottom. The rock-hewn temple consists of a court one hundred and fifty feet square, cut nine feet deep from the ledge of rocks, smoothly hewn on the floor, the north side being cut away to form an opening towards the stream. In the middle of the northern opening a square block of the native rock is left, sixteen and a C 2 8 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. half feet square and nine feet high. On this are four huge blocks of stone, one at each side, one at the back, and over them a colossal mass fourteen feet by twelve and a half feet, CONVENT OF THE MULLAWIYETI, OR DANCING DERVISHES, TRIPOLI, With a distant view of the snow-crowned summits of Lebanon. In the foreground flows the Kadisha (the sacred river), called also Nahr Abfi Ali. On the pathway may be seen a water-wheel and two millstones. and seven feet thick, concave below, forming a canopy over this immense throne. Here once sat the chief idol of the Arvadites. Around the ruins are ancient sarcophagi, ruined PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 9 walls, and signs of an ancient town. The site is beautiful. To the south the green plain of Akkar extends for miles, sweeping around the curving level shore in graceful perspective to the cape and islands of Tripoli, thirty miles away. Beyond, to the south-east, rise the snow- THE CASTLE OF TRIPOLI, A STRONGHOLD OF THE CRUSADERS. It was converted into an imperial penitentiary by Midhat Pasha, when he was Governor-General of Syria. It stands on a narrow ridge, which slopes on the west towards the town, and on the east to the bed of the Kadisha. crowned summits of Northern Lebanon (see page 8), while to the west sparkle the blue waters of the Bahr er Rum, " Sea of the Greeks " (the Mediterranean) (see page 5). Three hours south of Tartiis a magnificent fountain of crystal water rises up from a circular basin, about twenty rods from the seashore, and flows down in full volume to mingle its waters with the sea. This is the famous 'Ain el Hishy, notorious for ages as the resort of highwaymen and cut-throats, who hid themselves in the low copse along the shore and waylaid the passing lO PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. traveller. The Turkish Tartar postmen, however well armed, were often shot by Nusairiyeh brigands in these dreary thickets. At the time of our visit a Greek merchant had built a house and Avas living here, and we spent the night unmolested. Not the least interesting feature in this region is the people who now inhabit it — the Nusairiyeh. They are justly regarded as the descendants of the old Canaanites, never converted to Judaism, Christianity, or Islamism, but retaining the old Baal and star worship of the Canaanites, with their sacred shrines in groves on " every high hill," and at the same time having borrowed various features from both Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Ali is their God. When they speak of Allah they always mean Ali. They practise circumcision, use wine at their sacrament, a secret rite bound by terrific oaths, and their principal prayer is a series of dire curses upon all other sects. Their present name was derived from Abu Shuaib ibn Nusair in 840 a.d. They are a secret society with mysterious signs and passwords. When one of the initiated dies they believe that Mars or Jupiter descends and takes his soul to the sky, where it becomes a star in the " Darub et tibban," the " Milky Way." They believe in transmigration, and that the souls of Muslims pass into donkeys, of Christians into swine, of Jews into monkeys, and of Nusairiyeh into other men. Women are not allowed to be initiated into their secret rites, nor even attend their worship. " Devils were created from the sins of men, and women from the sins of devils." The soul leaves the body through the mouth, and hence death by hanging is regarded by them with horror. The Turks look upon them as Kafirs, or infidels, and hence for ages have persecuted and oppressed them in the most cruel manner, driving them to desperation. Blood revenge and highway robbery are common. At present they are somewhat better treated, but their fertile mountains have been turned almost into a wilderness. Native writers on the Nusairy religion insist that the initiated sheikhs offer their wives to their guests when visiting each other, but this is not confirmed by credible testimony. Physically they are a fine race. Some of their sheikhs are men of splendid personal appearance, and their girls and boys who have enjoyed the advantages of education in the Christian schools at Ladikiyeh have proved themselves equal to any class of Syrian Arabs in intellect and capacity. South of Tartus we meet but few villages of the Nusairiyeh, and on entering the Lebanon district beyond Tripoli we find only a Mohammedan, Christian, and Druse population. Crossing the broad and fertile plain of Akkar, we reach Tell Arka, on a river of the same name, where dwelt the Arkites. The Tell is evidently the site of the old Arkite capital. Fragments of columns, sarcophagi, and blocks of stone lie scattered on the slope and in the deep rocky gorge of the river. A four hours' ride from this point takes us along the seashore, across the Nahr el Barid, and thence to the famous " 'Ain el Bedawy," or " Sheikh el Bedawy," known as the " Mosque of the Sacred Fish." Just below the road, down a grassy slope and on the edge of the rich green gardens and orchards of the Tripoli plain, is a circular birkeh, or pool, into which flows the clear sweet water of a fine fountain. The pool is about one hundred feet In diameter, and the water two or three feet in depth. In it are hundreds of fat light-coloured fish, from three to twenty inches in length, resembling river bass. They are PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. II fed by visitors to the mosque, who come from Tripoli, three miles distant, and from the surrounding region on the religious fete days to make vows at the shrine of Sheikh el Bedawy, 1-% ' THE CASTLE OF MUSEIUHAH ("PLACE OF WEAPONS"). It stands on a precipitous rock by the Nahr el Jozeh, in the middle of a wooded valley, and commands the pass. It was until recently occupied by a band of brigands, the terror of travellers. or receive a blessing from the sacred fish. These fish are regarded as inhabited by human souls, and killing them is looked upon as murder. The Muslims say that during the Russian 12 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. War not a few of them disappeared and went under the sea to fight the Russians. They claim that any one eating them will speedily die, but as I ate of them more than twenty years ago in the house of a Greek aristocratic family in Tripoli, I can confidently deny the assertion. The ride from this point to Tripoli is a delightful one. With dense olive orchards on the right towards the sea, and fig and mulberry gardens on the left, we ride along the level macadamised road, the white roofs, domes, and minarets of Tripoli gradually rising in the foreground, until our horses' hoofs clatter on the pavement at Bab et Tibbaneh, and we enter this peculiarly Oriental city. It seems a strange and sudden transition to glance from the ancient khans, Muslim tombs, vaulted streets, and crowding throngs of Bedawin and Nusairiyeh cameleers to the brilliantly painted and gilded cars of the Tripoli tramway, which here has its eastern terminus. It is the East and the West in conjunction, the Syria of the past and the Syria of the future. Tripoli was probably founded about 700 B.C., but it has no continuous history. The Seleucidan prince, Demetrius I., erected a palace here, which was succeeded by splendid edifices erected by the Romans, but owing to frequent and destructive earthquakes few traces of the ancient city PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 13 remain. The Muslims occupied the town at the time of the Islamic invasion, but the THE NATURAL BRIDGE OF AKURA. In front of a vast cavern from which issues a stream called the Neb'a Ruweis, a tributary of the Adonis (Nahr Ibrahim). Crusaders failed to capture it until five years after their arrival at Antioch in 1104. Wlien the Christian army finally took the city, a valuable library of one hundred thousand volumes was destroyed. This famous library, celebrated through all the East, contained the monuinents of the ancient literature of the Persians, the Arabs, the VOL. Ill, D i 14 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. Egyptians, and the Greeks. A hundred copyists were constantly employed in transcribing manuscripts. The Kadi sent into all countries men authorised to purchase rare and precious books. After the taking of the city a priest attached to Count Bernard de St. Gilles entered the room in which were collected a vast number of copies of the Koran, and as he declared that " the library of Tripoli contained only the impious books of Mohammed," it was given up to the flames. Ibn Abu Tai says that the library contained three million volumes, and that the Christians exhibited at the taking of Tripoli the same destructive fury as the Arabs had done who burned the library of Alexandria. Novairy fixes the number of volumes at one hundred thousand. In 1289, when the city was destroyed by the Sultan Kilawun, it was said to have contained four thousand looms for the weaving of silk, and the ainjidr Tarabulusy, or Tripoli silk girdle, is famous even to the present day. The Arabs call the city Tarabulus, the Arabic form of Tripoli. The Turks usually speak of it as " Kochuk Sham " (Little Damascus), and it is well worthy of the name. It stands on the eastern extremity of the triangular plain, a mile wide, at the base of the elevated plateau called El Kura, from one hundred to three hundred feet high, which reaches to the foot of the Lebanon range (see page 5). The sacred river Kadisha, which rises at Bsherreh, just under the cedars of Lebanon (see page 237, vol. ii.), runs twelve miles through a wild ravine to the plain, then cuts through the plateau for eighteen miles in a deep gorge to Tripoli (see pages i and 5), where it breaks out into the level plain, forming a tortuous and picturesque valley, at the mouth of which, on both sides of the river, the city of Tripoli is built (see pages 8 and 9). The roaring Kadisha, called by the Muslims Abu Ali, runs through the city, crossed by two stone bridges, besides the new bridge of a tramway farther down the stream. On the right bank, the houses on the hill are chiefly rough structures of the Maronite fellahin ; those below, between the river and the Bab Tibbaneh, being Muslim. The Christian quarter is on the left side of the river, and stretching far to the southern Blacksmith's Gate is the populous Muslim quarter. The population consist? of twelve thousand Muslims, four thousand Greek Christians, five hundred Maronites, and a few Protestants, Papal Greeks, and Jews. These sects live in distinct quarters, and the different trades of the city, as in Damascus, occupy separate streets. From a fine fountain five miles south-east of the city, the water of the Zghorta river is brought in an aqueduct, which crosses the Kadisha a mile from the city on the Kunatir el Brins, or Prince's Arches, a structure dating back to Raymond of Toulouse, Count of Tripoli. The distributing reservoir is a small room below the castle, whose floor is punctured with holes a few inches in diameter, through which the water flows in earthen pipes to all parts of the city. Every house, mosque, and khan has its anhiih and birkeh, in which the water runs constantly day and night, giving a cheerful aspect to the houses, refreshing in summer, but chilling and damp in the winter. The houses are built of the yellow porous sandstone from the reefs along the seashore, and there are few dry houses in the city. The ground floors are PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 15 often green with damp and mould, and the entire population, with the exception of the poorer classes, sleep on the second floor. The city is well paved, and many of the streets are arched over, so that, as in Sidon and intramural Beirut, they have the appearance of vaulted tunnels. Over the door of the Hammam el Jedid is a curious stone chain. The keystone of the arch, two arch stones mich\a\ down the arch, the huge links of the chain, and a massive stone tassel hanging in the middle, are all cawed from one block of stone. Not a few quaint Saracenic arches and doorways can be seen in various parts of the city. Among the objects of interest is the w^ell-pre- served castle of Raymond of Toulouse, recently transformed by Midhat Pasha into an imperial penitentiary (see page 9). It was either built or greatly en- larged by Raymond, and was a strong- hold of the Crusaders for one hundred and eighty years during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Before its con- version into a prison, access could be obtained to the charminsf view from the top of its walls. On the east you look down into the river gorge, with its roar- ing water's, the Mullawiyeh Convent, and the orans^e groves, with snowy Lebanon in the background piercing the clouds (see page 8). On the west, the verdant plain, the blue sea in the distance, its shore broken by the Mina, or marine city, and the five old towers alonof CLIFFS OF AKURA, IN THE MOGHERlVE VALLEY, LEBANON. Lvery available space in this valley is cultivated. On the ledges of the cliffs fruit-trees flourish and wheat is grown. D 2 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. THE FOUNTAIN OF AFKA (APHECA). Source of the Adonis (Nahr Ibrahim). Close to this spot are the remains of a famous Temple of Venus, which was destroyed by order of Constantine, the northern beach, while the snow- white roofs, walls, domes, and minarets of the city form the foreground at your feet. From a residence of several years in Tripoli, I can testify to the ever-changing beauty of its scenery, the lusciousness of its fruits, as well as the courtesy and hospitality of the better portion of its people. Passing beyond the castle, and descend- PHCENICIA AND LEBANON, 17 i8 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. ing rapidly into the gorge of the river, you wall-c for a few minutes among trees and flowers and murmuring waters to the convent of the Mullawiyeh dervishes, who perform their sacred dances every Friday afternoon, at certain seasons of the year. I have seen it crowded with men below and women above behind the latticed screen, when eight or ten of the dervishes whirled in the literally giddy mazes of the dance for two hours, until the performers fell on the floor exhausted, and the audience retired. This charming spot is a favourite resort of the Tripolitans, and in the month of April, when the orange and lemon groves below and around are in full bloom, and the air filled with the delicious fragrance, this quiet retreat is a place one never wearies of visiting (see page 8). Between the mouth of the Kadisha, on the northern shore, and El Mina, are several fine towers of cut stone, standing like sentinels along the shore. They are called Burj Ras en Neb'a, Burj es Seb'a (Lion's Tower), Burj et Takiyeh (Traveller's Rest), Burj el Mugharibeh (Algerines), and Burj esh Sheikh Affan. These are evidently mediaeval structures, and were built on foundations made up of ancient granite columns and fragments of Greek and Roman edifices. They are now being rapidly razed, to supply stone for more modern structures. El Mina (see page 5) has a population of seven thousand, chiefly Greek fishermen and sponge-divers, who obtain an ample livelihood from their laborious and perilous profession, the sponge crop amounting to ^20,000 a year. The steel-tracked tramway from Tripoli passes down the broad level road between the gardens to the Mina gate, and thence to the seashore. The modern Tripolitans are proud of their fine scenery, their gardens and sparkling waters, their fruits and flowers, their sea and mountain landscape. The Greco-Syrian women of Tripoli are noted for their beauty, and not a few of them are acquiring, through education in Christian schools, the higher charm of intellectual and moral cultivation. The Boys' High School and the Female Seminary, on the American mission premises, are affording the youth of both sexes good advantages for education. The French Sisters of Charity have also an institute for girls. The Orthodox Greeks have opened schools, and the Mohammedans have formed a " Society of Benevolent Intentions " to maintain schools for girls and boys. The proposed railway from this point to Hums (Emesa) and the Euphrates valley will, if completed, make Tripoli the most important commercial port on the entire Syrian coast. The range of Lebanon, extending for a hundred miles, is a great treasure-house of interest in its geology, botany, ethnology, and archaeology. Its lofty summits, its frightful chasms, its deep caverns and subterranean lakes, its magnificent fountains and cascades, its noble cedars, its vineyards, walnut and olive groves, its ruined temples and nameless vestiges of hoary antiquity, its monasteries, churches, khulwehs (Druse chapels), and palaces, its geological structure, its one thousand two hundred villages, and its peculiarly Oriental population, combine to make it a fruitful theme of study, alike interesting to the passing traveller and the most scholarly and patient explorer. Lebanon, the White Mountain, or Mont Blanc of Syria, receives its name from the gleaming white limestone rocks. The Arabs divide Lebanon into three longitudinal belts or zones — the Sahil, the Wasat, and the Jird. ist. The Sahil is the littoral or maritime. PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 19 which we may call the Palm-tree belt, extending from the sea-level to an elevation of about one thousand five hundred feet. On this belt are the cities of modern Phcenicia— Tripoli, Jebeil, Beirut, Sidon, Tyre, and Acre. It is the most fertile in soil, salubrious in climate, and attractive in scenery. The palm, olive and mulberry, orange, pine, lemon, apricot, oak, peach, grape, and Pride of India abound. 2nd. The Wasat, or medial zone, which we may style the Walnut belt, extends from an elevation of one thousand five hundred feet to four thousand feet above the sea-level. It is a highly favoured region, noted for its numerous villages, its silk " filatures," and monasteries. Here the bulk of the population reside, and the climate is one of the finest in the world, mild both in winter and summer. 3rd. The Jird, or Jurud, the naked summit belt, from four thousand feet to ten thousand feet above the sea. LEBANON COAST NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE ADONIS RIVER. which we may call the Cedar belt, in- The iron-stained soil of the sandstone strata is annually washed down into the river by the heavy winter rains, and the discoloured stream can be traced far cludpt^ the rpdpr o-rr>-\7P'C mon-i? r^f tl-iti iVo out in the blue sea. This gave rise to the belief that the river was tinged with ciuucb Llie t-euar groves, many 01 tne ice- the blood of Adonis every year, in memory of his death. cold fountains, and the great desert solitudes of the highest ranges. It is of vast extent, running for a hundred miles north and south, and contains some of the finest scenery in the world, although scant in its vegetation. Before the massacres of i860 Northern Lebanon was under a IMaronite kaimakam, and Southern Lebanon under a Druse, an arrangement well calculated to keep the population in a 20 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. THE NATURAL BRIDGE, LEBANON. It is called in Arabic " Jisr el Hajr " (the Bridge of Stone). It spans the chasm through which flows the Neb'a el Lebban (Fountain of Milk), one of the sources of the Nahr el Kelb (the Dog River). PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. UNDER THE NATURAL BRIDGE, LEBANON. The stream, after passing under the bridge, descends the mountain-side through a glen like a huge fissure, and then dashes over a ledge of rock in sheets of foam. VOL, III. E 22 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. ferment and to obstruct the administration of justice. The Turks were determined to break up this European compromise and place an OsmanH pasha over the whole of Lebanon. The result was a bloody war, the frightful horrors of Deir el Kamr, Hasbeiya, Rasheiya (see pages 133 and 138, vol. ii.) and Damascus (see page 177, vol. ii.), which forced the intervention of Europe, and resulted in the new Nizam or Reglement of Lebanon, which guarantees a Christian pasha for the whole mountain under the joint protectorate of the six European Powers. Under the pasha are several kaimakams, generally chosen from the most numerous sect in the locality. Rustem Pasha is noted for his uncompromising hatred of bribery, his even-handed justice, his efforts for civilising the people, and for road and bridge building in Southern and Central Lebanon. He promises like improvements in this well-nigh roadless district of Northern Lebanon. Before ascending eastward to the cedar amphitheatre, let us cross over the dazzling white chalk clifts of Ras esh Shuk'ah to the valley of Nahr el Jozeh and visit the rock fortress of El Museilihah (see sketch map, page 12). The Tripoli coast-road to Beirut crosses over this lofty promontory, called by the Greeks Theou Prosopon (Cape of the Divine Countenance), and down its southern precipitous face on a slippery road, which follows the deep ravines worn by the rains, and which change their course with every winter's storm. At the foot of this dangerous descent and on the right bank of the Walnut river, " Nahr el Jozeh," stands on an isolated mass of cretaceous limestone the ancient " Kul'at el Museilihah" (see page 11). The name signifies " The Place of Weapons," and there is probably no pass in Syria, unless it be Wady el Kurn, on the Damascus road, where more robberies have been committed. The castle is one of the most picturesque in the East, rising abruptly on its isolated rock, seemingly a part of the rock itself, surrounded by wide-spreading trees and murmuring waters, and overhung by lofty and precipitous chalk cliffs. We now cross the Kura Plain eastward to the fine village of Kesba, plunge into the ravine of the KacUsha, and begin the ascent to Ehden. This village is perched on a lofty spur of the Jird, nearly five thousand feet above the sea, and commanding one of the sublimest landscape views in Lebanon. The magnificent fountain at Mar Sarkis sends a deep, broad, and crystal stream of almost ice-cold water through and around the village, producing a luxuriant growth of walnut, fir, mulberry, pine, and oak, with summer vegetables in abundance ; wheat, maize, and the potato being largely cultivated. Ehden, or Eden, as it has been called, is the paradise of the Maronite priests, where, as in Bsherreh, Hasrun, and Kesrawan, they hold undisputed sway; but, under the impartial rule of the present pasha, their former theocratic and despotic civil rule over the people has been reduced to a mere religious authority. Our present limits will not allow more than a passing allusion to the history of the Maronite sect, now the dominant one in Lebanon. Their name is derived from Mar Marun, a hermit who lived in the Buka'a, near Neb'a el 'Asy, in the fifth century. His followers were condemned by the Council of Constantinople, a.d. 681, as holding the monothelite heresy, and, being driven from the cities and towns of Syria, they took refuge in the fastnesses of Lebanon. PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 23 They adhered to the Papal Church in 1 182, and now pride themselves on their devotion to the Pope of Rome, yet it was not until 1438 that they consented to acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope in matters of ecclesiastical discipline. Their parish priests are married men, and they use the Syriac lanofuao-e in their Church Service. Their patriarch yields only in dignity to the Pope himself. The present patriarch is Boulos (Paul) Butros Masaad, taking the name Butros (Peter) as an official title. Under him are thirteen bishops, one thousand priests, one thousand two hundred monks, six hundred nuns, and seventy-one monas- teries. The Maronite people number two hundred and fifty thousand, the mass of whom are grossly ignorant. The immense revenues of the monasteries are devoted to the support of the monks and nuns or the private emolument of a few who control the monastic estates. The total number of monasteries of all sects in Lebanon is one hundred and seventeen, with two thousand five hundred monks and nuns. Ehden, we have said, is a typical Lebanon village, with its Dar or great house, surrounded by the flat earth-roofed stone tenements of the peasantry, its numerous churches with their clear-toned bells, its village convent at Mar Sarkis, its copious water, its primitive oven, consisting of a large earthen jar sunk in the ground, its brawny youth, and buxom girls Avith their unique head ornaments of an inverted silver cup, over which the white veil is thrown, its comfortless houses in which the people sleep on the earthen floors, the catde, goats, and sheep sharing the one large room with the husband, wife, sons, and daughters. THE CHASM OF NEE'A EL LEEBAN. Just above the Natural Bridge (Jisr el Hajr). E 2 24 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. Yonder village of Hasrim (see page i) is noted for die beauty of its women and girls, many of whom, for a wonder, are light-haired and blue-eyed. After two and a half hours' ride over the undulating moraines which extend east of Ehden, and form the curved shelf around the base of the encircling amphitheatre of giant mountains, we descry on our right, far down in the east end of the Kadisha gorge, the large crowded village of Bsherreh, with its churches and convents, its water and trees, and east of it the roaring cataract w-hich leaps down the rocks from the fountain of the sacred river. Still higher up, standing solitary and alone, is the dark compact cluster of trees known as the Cedars of Lebanon (see page 237, vol. ii.). We hasten our pace, if it be in April, over the scattered snow-drifts and muddy fields, or, ROMAN BRIDGE NEAR JUNEH, It spans a little stream called Ma'amiltein, which in the winter flows from the hills to the beautiful bay of Juneh. Adjoining the bridge there is a Syrian khan. if in August, over the dusty, parched, and cracked earth, to the sacred grove called " Arz er Rub," that is, " The Cedars of the Lord." There are three hundred and ninety- three trees, some ten or twelve of which are of giant girth, though the loftiest is not more than eighty feet in height. The twelve largest trees are called by the fellahin " The Twelve Apostles," and they have a curious tradition that our Lord and His apostles came to this spot and left their walking staves standing in the soil, which sprouted into cedar-trees. A Maronite chapel stands in the grove, and the patriarch claims the sole right to the sacred trees. The clergy have cultivated the superstition that those cutting the trees for fuel will be smitten with disease or calamity by the guardian divinity of the grove. It is pleasant to find that one at least of the thou.sand superstitions of Syria has been of some utility to the people in the conservation of PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 25 valuable trees.* The range of Lebanon for a hundred miles along the Jird was doubtless once covered with cedar forests. We have visited eleven distinct groves of cedars in * H.E. Rustem Pasha, Governor-General of the Lebanon, has surrounded this grove with a well-built stone wall with two strong gates, and appointed guardians to prevent the ravages of the goats on the young trees, and to compel travellers to pitch their tents outside the enclosure. 26 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. Lebanon : — i. The ancient " Cedars of the Lord" above Bsherreh, three hundred and nhiety-three in number (see page 236, vol ii.). 2. The grove at the fountain of Ehden, fifty trees. 3. The oreat orove between El Hadeth and Niha, numbering tens of thousands of trees, covers an area of nearly twelve miles. 4. A smaller grove farther south on the summit and brink of the precipice. 5. The scattered trees above Duma. 6. The Ain Zehalteh grove of ten thousand trees, cut down by Murad Akil, and now growing up again. 7. A small grove on the cliff overhano-incr El Meduk. 8. A small cluster near Kul'at el Bizzeh. 0. The fine grove of Masir el Fukhkhar, about three hundred trees, some of great size. 10. The forest of Jird el Baruk, thousands of trees. 1 1. The eastern grove of Baruk, about two hundred trees. The first historical notice of the cedars of Lebanon is in the reign of David, when this monarch built himself a palace of cedar-wood (2 Samuel v. 11). Solomon caused cedars to be brought from Lebanon for the building of the Temple, and they were floated down the coast from Jebeil to Jaffa, after being cut by the " four score thousand hewers in the mountains." Li 536 B.C. Zerubbabel hired the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon "to bring cedar-trees from Lebanon to the Sea of Joppa." The cedar was also used in ship-building and in idol manufacture. Tiglath Pileser, after his successful campaigns against the Khatti and the Hittites and the subjugation of Carchemish, visited the Lebanon for the purpose of obtaining cedar-wood to adorn the temples and palaces of Kileh Shergat. The groves of Lebanon have thus been despoiled for three thousand years by the kings of the adjacent countries, until the upper ranges are quite denuded, and the voracity of the flocks of goats in nipping the tender shoots, and the rapacity of the fellahin, are preventing the growth of new forests from the seed. Were it not for the energetic action of the Lebanon Government the v/hole mountain W'ould .soon be stripped of its forest glory. The geological formation of Lebanon is the lower cretaceous limestone with a stratum of ferruginous sandstone running through it almost from one end to the other, and here and there an outcropping of trap, amygdaloid or partially columnar. Li the sandstone is a well-defined stratum of bituminous coal or lignite, which crops out at Kornail and elsewhere in the district of El Metn, east of Beirut (see sketch map, page 12). The Jura limestone has been found by Professor Lewis, of the Beirut College, in but one place, at Mejdel Shems, on the southern slope of Mount Hermon, where the Jurassic fossils, such as half-crystallized Ammonites, &c., have been found in great profusion. The strata of the Lebanon rocks, upheaved by mighty internal convulsions of nature, stand at every conceivable angle of inclination. On the very top of Ard Akluk is a singular battlemented hill called Jebel Akluk, looking in the distance like an artificial fortress. Passing around it on the west, we turn south-east and begin the four-mile descent to Akura, which lies at the head of the great valley of Mogheriye, or " little cavern." To the east of the village rises a rock wall one thousand feet in height, through which a narrow chasm has been rent, opening a highway to the east, the shortest route from this point, via 'Ain Rumeh, to the Cedars and to Baalbek, via Yamuneh (see page 15). The village is small, but the sides of PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 27 the valley below are everywhere cultivated and verdant in the summer, with mulberry, walnut, and other fruit-trees, and with fields of wheat and barley. After a half-hour's ride southward along: the base of the griant cliff overhaneino- the valley, we reach the natural bridge of El Akura, over the mouth of a cave (see page 13). It is formed by a fallen rock which once evidently constituted the roof of the cavern's mouth, and has now settled down, covering the channel of the Neb'a Ruweis, which issues from the cave. Leaving our horses on the bridge, under the overhanging cliff, we took our staves to steady our steps over the mud-slimed stones in the bottom of the cave, and, lighting our wax candles, slid down the declivity into the mouth of the cavern. The roof is from ten to twenty feet in height, and we walked or groped along for four hundred feet, when the cavern suddenly divided into two branches, the one on the right muddy and rough, and that on the left clean, overarched with wax-like stalactites, and floored with stalagmitic mounds, between which, on a pebbly bed, runs a stream of water so crystal clear, that I stepped into a pool a foot deep, supposing it to be dry. We traced this bright gallery for about four hundred feet, when it terminated suddenly in a lofty arched room, Avhose perpendicular wall stopped our progress. But some twenty feet up the side of this wall is the mouth of another vast cavern, which could not be reached without ladders, and we were obliged to retreat. From El Akura (see page 15) to the fountain of Afka (see page 16) is a ride of an hour and a half along a tableland overhanging a valley covered with wheat-fields and scattered trees, until, turning to the south-east, we come to the Maronite village of El Mnetira, which faces southwards towards the fountain, to which we descend over a steep rocky road. This historic fountain of Afka (Apheca) issues from the cave, and from the limestone strata below it, which descend in stair-like gradations to the road, and below it to the deep gorge of the river Adonis (Nahr Ibrahim) (see page 17). The great cliff wall rises abruptly above the fountain from one thousand to fifteen hundred feet, and the water bursts forth from the recess formed by the sudden turning of the cliffs from a north and south to a westerly direction, and dashes down into a rock basin fifty feet below. We cross this basin on a bridge, which leads us to a ruined temple one hundred feet in length by fifty in width ; this is without doubt the ancient temple of Venus, which was destroyed by the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century. A fountain still issues through the vaulted passage under the ruins, and there were probably artificial outlets for the water at various points under the temple. This is the principal source of the river Adonis of the ancients, and latterly known as the Nahr Ibrahim. Here was the scene of the ancient mythological fable of Venus and Adonis, and of the weeping for Adonis annually by the maidens of Phoenicia. The Lebanon maidens chanted, " I mourn Adonis ; the fair Adonis is dead : dead is the fair Adonis, whom the gods lament." Adonis Avas Adon, the Baal god, the sun — the same in meaning with Tammuz, the present Arabic name of the month July, which was the month of the feast of Adonis. The scarlet anemone of Lebanon was thought to be stained with his blood. Leaving the Temple and Fountain of Afka (see page 16), we ascend gradually towards 28 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. the south-west and ride on by Neb'a el Hadid (Iron Fountain) and around the ridge, returning eastward through the wheat-fields above Fareiya to the Neb'a el 'Asal (Fountain of Honey), the northern source of the Nahr el Kelb. It rises amidst a mass of boulders, angular masses of rock, and loose stones, in a recess of the north-west slope of the Sunnin range, and the crj'stal water runs westward amid its stony banks with not a tree or shrub to shade it. In winter it is buried under snowdrifts and is inaccessible. The Arabs say, " the fountains edge of the of milk and honey run into the Dog's mouth." We now pass on 1 from the honey fountain to the fountain of milk. A I half-hour's ride to the west brings us to the Jisr el Hajr, the largest natural bridge in Syria, under which flow the waters of the Neb'a el Lebban (Fountain of Milk) (see pages 20 and 23). One might cross it with- out being aware of its existence, its surface being on a A beautifully situated village north of the Dog River (Nahr levd with the ficlds On both sideS. But a glailCe el Kelb), on the heights above the gorge. In the distance, „ , , , pi 4.1 U 1 beyond St. George's Bay, the sandy promontory of SuftlCeS tO rCVCal the great ChaSm 01 the SOUUl DranCll Beirtit appears. of the Dog River, flowing from Neb'a el Lebban, BEIRUT, FROM JAITA, PHCENICIA AND LEBAXON. 29 fifteen minutes farther up, under the base of the mountain. Climbing down into the chasm from the south-west side, we look up to the bridge from the south. It appears as a lofty circular arch of one hundred and twenty-five feet span, and about eighty feet high (see page 21). The thickness of the rock above the arch is thirty feet. The breadth of the roadway on the top is about one hundred feet. The arch on the north side is angular and broken, and the chasm which descends to the north towards Wady Fareiya is filled with the singular forms of . . A LEBANON CAF6, rock wrought out by the detrition of ages, pleasantly situated by a mountain stream and sheltered by the dense foliage of carouba trees (Cfra/o^frt sj7!5?(n). The presence of one of these way- follow the irrio'atin'^ canal which ^''^'^ resting-places always indicates a good site for an encampment, for it * ^ is sure to be near a supply of good water. carries the water of Neb'a el Lebban doAvn through Upper Kesrawan, and hasten onwards to the great Convent of Ajeltun, which stands in the midst of a singular region of projecting limestone rocks (see jDage 25). The strata stand VOL, in. F PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. in a vertical position, and the rains and storms of centuries have worn away the softer parts, leaving the harder veins standing upright, often to a height of forty or fifty feet. They assume the most grotesque shapes, resembhng " cokmms, blocks, houses, round and square towers, castles, fortresses," spires and shafts; and the road passes through the midst of them, sometimes iDy very narrow clefts. In the western part of the village is a good camping ground, but -every available rod of soil is occupied by the mulberry, the staple product of this part of Lebanon. This district is the Kesrawan, or broken region, a chaos of rugged mountains, and the stronghold and holy mountain of the Maronites. Monasteries, nunneries, and churches are :seen in every direction ; the monks own the best part of the land, and the people are largely their tenants. The industry of the people is remarkable. They have quarried the rocks and l)uilt terrace walls like steps up the sides of these steep mountains, and wrest a livelihood from the soil. The insecurity of the great plains east and north-east of Lebanon has driven the people into these mountain fastnesses ; and in the civil wars of Lebanon, when the Druses :south of the Damascus road have everywhere defeated the Maronites, this region has been regarded as impregnable. The Maronites are a fine race, and if once freed from the ecclesiastical tyranny of the bishops and monks and given possession of the immense monastic estates for the purposes of education, they would become a power in the East. As it is, they are forcing their way upward and reaching positions of influence throughout Syria and Egypt. From Ajeltun (see page 25) we descend gradually over a rocky road towards the sea, 'having on our left the deep chasm of the Nahr el Kelb (see page 21), and in front to the -west a fine view of the promontory of Beirut (see page 28), some twenty miles distant. About three miles and a half from the mouth of the Dog River, on the north side of the gorge there are three grottoes, from two of which water issues, and from these comes the chief .-supply of water in the summer, when the fountains of 'Asal and Lebban are diverted for irrigating purposes. The late Dr. Thomson, the author of " The Land and the Book," first noticed these caves, but the first full exploration of them was made in September, 1873, by W. T. Maxwell, C.E., aided by H. G. Huxley, C.E., Dr. Bliss, President of the S. P. College in Beirut, and Dr, Brigstocke, M.R.C.S., of Beirut, Provided with a raft of inflated goat-skins ' .and a small boat, with a good supply of lights and magnesium wire, they brought their boat •and raft into the entrance, down the rugged descent to the main grotto, and launched forth on the still, clear waters of the subterranean lake. After sailing six hundred feet, they reached •a rock barrier fifteen feet in height, which compelled them to leave the raft. They then •climbed over the rock screen and along a lofty ledge for seven hundred feet, when, lighting a magnesium wire, a scene of great magnificence burst upon their vision. As one of the party ■says, " From the lofty vaulted roof and precipitous sides hung massive stalactites, between which the rocks were studded with others of a more slender and graceful make, while from below shot up in wild profusion stalagmites which towered aloft, In some cases almost reaching their pendant com^^anlons." From these caves we pass down the river gorge by the stone aqueduct and the weir of PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. the London Waterworks Company, then by the ancient Roman aqueduct on the north bank, where a wonderful discovery has just been made by ]\Ir. J. Loyted, a Danish architect in Beirut, in company with Dr. Hartmann, Chancellor of the German Consulate. On a line with the ruined abutment of the old Roman bridge they found a series of Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions, engraved on a rock eight metres and forty centimetres long and twelve metres in height. The modern aqueduct (see page 37) passes above it. These inscriptions have not 3'et been fully translated, but it has already been ascertained that one of them relates to the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and his name occurs more than once upon the tablet. From this point we cross the ancient bridge (see page 36) and observe an almost obliterated Arabic inscription at the base of a rock on the south bank, supposed to have been the work of Sultan Selim in 15 17. Farther on towards the sea, on the left of the |)aved road, is a Latin inscription (of 173 a.d.) which settles the identity of the Lycus flumen of the ancients with the Dog River, the wolf having given place to the dog. There is another short Latin inscription of Antoninus farther west towards the sea. On the rock-cut road round the promontory south of the Dog River (see page 33) are to be seen the collection of Assyrian and Egyptian tablets for which this pass has long been celebrated. There are nine tablets in all, three Egyptian and six Assyrian. W. St. Chad Boscawen has arranged them as follows Height. Breadth. Depth. ft. in. ft. in. in. Date, &c. 1. Egyptian, squars-headed . . 7 6 3 8 6 By Rameses 11. , dedicated to Phtha. 2. AssjTian, square-headed . . 6 7 4 5 4i By Assur-ris-ilim (?), B.C. 1140. 3. Assyrian, square-headed 5 I 2 4 5 By Tiglath-pil-esir, B.C. 1140. 4. Assyrian, round-headed 6 I 2 6i 4i By Assur-Nazir-pal, B.C. SS5. 5. Assyrian, round-headed . . 6 4 2 9i 5 By Shal-men-esar, B.C. 85o. 6. Egyptian, square-headed . . 7 6 3 8 5* By Rameses H., dedicated to Ra. 7. AssjTian, round-headed 7 3 3 8i 5i By Sennacherib, B.C. 702. 8. Egj'ptian, square-headed 7 4 3 8 5i By Rameses II., dedicated to the Theban Ammon. g. Assyrian, round-headed 6 3 I 6 By Esar-haddon, B.C. 681 — 571. At the top of the pass on the modern road is a pedestal, and near by it a fragment of a Roman milestone. Here, according to tradition, once stood the statue of a dog, which gave its name, Nahr el Kelb, to the river. Among the striking features of the pass are the old road beds cut in the solid limestone rock by successive monarchs of antiquity. The foot-holes of the horses and the grooves worn by the chariot wheels of armies are still distinctly traceable in the rock. Here passed Pul, Tiglath Pileser, Sesostris, Shalmaneser, Sargon, and Sennacherib; here swarmed the hosts of Alexander the Great en route for Egypt ; here passed the Romans,, the later Greeks, the Arabs, the Turks, and the Crusaders ; and here pass constantly the traders and travellers of the East. South of the Adonis river, riding down the coast, we cross a lofty paved bridge, pass- numerous khans and rock tombs on the right of the road, and then come down to the low clifts which skirt the northern shore of the Bay of Juneh. Following an old Roman road hewn in the face of the precipice above the water, we come down on the sandy beach to the river Ma'amiltein. This little torrent is spanned by a round-arched Roman bridge in fair state of preservation (see page 24). It is called Ma'amiltein, or " Two Districts," as it divided F 2 THE SLOPES OF LEBANON. With a characteristic Maronite village in the foreground, the principal feature of which is its strongly fortified monastery. PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 33 the pashaliks of Tripoli and Siclon (see pages 9 and 45) in ancient times. A Syrian khan stands near it, offering kindly shelter to man and beast. We gallop over the sandy beach to the Nahr Beirut, entranced by the landscape. The promontory of Beirut, crowned with its cream-coloured sandstone houses, palaces, churches, and mosques, its colleges and schools rising from the water's edge to the ridge of the cape, the pine-crowned ridges of Lower Lebanon to the east, form a picture only equalled by the Bay of Naples (see page 28). St. George, or Mar Girgius, as he is called by Oriental Christians, is the favourite saint in the Syrian CLIFFS AND SCULPTURED TABLETS. On the rocky promontory which projects far into the sea, south of the Nahr el Kelb (the Dog River), rising to the height of about one hundred feet. 34 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. calendar. The Moslems call him El Khidr. Near the bridge of seven arches over the Nahr Beirut is a Muslim mosque or mazar, said to be his place of burial, and farther on towards the city is a ruined tower on the north side of the road, claimed to be the place where St. George killed the Dragon and washed his hands of the bloody stains. We now enter Beirut, the metropolis of modern Phoenicia, and its most beautiful and most enlightened city. Its situation is all that could be desired, on the northern slope of a promontory which runs west for three miles from the Nahr Beirut to Ras Beirut (see page 28). Here where the changes of temperature through the successive months of the year are so gradual that autumn fades imperceptibly into winter, and winter itself is a genial spring, and spring warms into summer with hardly a change of half a degree a day, you have the perfection of climate, and do not wonder that the Greek poet should call it "the nurse of tranquil life." Beirut is the Berytus of the ancients, and was probably founded by the Phoenicians. It is the common opinion that its name is derived from its wells, Beer-oth, but M. Renan labours, in his " Mission de Phenicie," to prove that the name was taken from its Pineto or Pine Groves, " called in the Chaldee ni-15, Beeroth, and rendered in the Arabic Bible snohar, or pine- trees." But in this view M. Renan stands alone. In the verse Cant. i. 17, to which he refers, the Chaldee word is rendered, in Dr. V. Dyck's Arabic translation of the Bible, sent, or cypress. Robinson gives both cypress and pine as the meaning of " Beroth." Beirut has been celebrated both for its wells and its pines, and the pine grove of Beirut is certainly a more striking feature than its brackish wells could have been in former times, but the weight of traditional authority is in favour of the wells. Strabo first mentions the city in 140 e.g., when it was destroyed by Tryphon during the reign of Demetrius Nicator. The Romans rebuilt it and colonised it with veterans of the fifth Macedonian and eisfhth Augustan legions. It was here that the two sons of Herod the Great were tried unheard and in their absence, and condemned to death by their cruel and unnatural father. The Elder Agrippa greatly favoured the city, and adorned it with a splendid theatre and amphitheatre, besides baths and porticoes, inaugurating them with games and spectacles of every kind, including shows of gladiators. Here, too, after the destruction of Jerusalem, Titus celebrated the birthday of his father, Vespasian, by similar exhibitions in which many of the captive Jews perished. In the middle of the third century a celebrated Roman law school was founded here. Students flocked to it from all countries, including Gregory Thaumaturgus and Apion, the martyr. Apollinaris taught grammar here in the fourth century. After the death of Julian the Apostate the Emperor Jovian compelled one Magnus, who had demolished the Church of Berytus, to rebuild it at his own cost. From 250 a.d. to 550 was the golden age of literature in Beirut, which reached its zenith in the reign of Justinian, who regarded the Beirut school with special favour. On the 9th of July, 551, this city was destroyed by an earthquake, and its learned men went for a season to Sidon. In the seventh century Khaled, " the Sword of Mohammed," swept over the land. Beirut fell into Muslim hands, and its decline was rapid and complete. A > to / d o 5 PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 35 In I no Baldwin I., with the Crusading army, captured Beirut, and they long held it as a religious and military centre, the Maronites of Lebanon acting as a friendly barrier to the Muslim hordes of the east. Saladin occupied it for a short period, but the Christians were not permanently displaced until after the battle of Hattin, in 1187. From that time until the days of the famous Druse prince, Fakhr ed Din, it continued in obscurity. This energetic man rebuilt the city and planted new pine groves. In 1840 the English fleet bombarded the city to expel the Egyptian army of Ibrahim Pasha. In August, i860, it was occupied by six thousand French troops, sent by Napoleon III., with the consent of the European powers, to check the tide of massacre and civil war which had overwhelmed the land. The antiquities of Beirut are few. Columns of granite and porphyry are scattered everywhere, and built into the old castles at the entrance of the harbour (see page 41). Stone, earthen, and leaden sarcophagi are constantly dug up in excavating for the foundation of houses : three massive granite columns are still standing near the Russian church ; old Roman mosaic floors are often uncovered ; a Greek inscription is still legible over the Bab ed Dirkeh ; and a picturesque Roman aqueduct crosses the Nahr Beirut a few minutes' ride above the stately bridge just built by H.E. Rustem Pasha. Smaller relics, such as lachrymatories, jewellery, and various articles of bronze and glass, are often discovered. , The ancient coins of Beirut are adorned with various temples and porticoes, and it was once noted for its castles, of which four were standing a few years since. The most lofty and imposing, Burj el Kesshaf, stood outside the south-east corner of the old city, but was recently sold to a native merchant, who razed it to the ground for the stone. The military hospital covers the site of the old round tower, and the two remaining ones guard the entrance to the harbour. These castles were evidently built by the Crusaders from the ruins of ancient Beirut, as the foundations are laid up with granite columns from the old Roman porticoes and temples. But it is modern Beirut which is chiefly interesting to the traveller in our day. This favourite city of Justinian has become again the literary centre and pride of Syria. Here are gathered its colleges and seminaries, and its chief hospitals and churches, journals and printing presses. The American Mission, founded in 1820, preceded all other agencies in the work of education. Thousands of youths have been taught, and there are noAv under its care one hundred and four schools, with more than four thousand pupils, a college and medical institution, three female seminaries, and eight high schools. It has seen Beirut rise from a town of eight thousand to a city of eighty thousand. The cactus-bordered lanes have become macadamised streets of well-built houses, furnished with native-made furniture vieing with that of Europe. The native sects most hostile to education are falling under the influence of educated young men and women, and Mohammedans, Greeks, Maronites, Papal Greeks, and Jews have established schools of their own. Other foreign societies, as the British Syrian Schools, the Prussian Deaconesses of Kaiserswerth, and the Established Church of Scotland, have opened schools for girls and boys, until there are to-day in Beirut three thousand five hundred children m Protestant schools, and seven thousand in the schools of the native societies. Of the twelve 36 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. THE NAHR EL KELB (DOG RIVER), And ancient bridge connected with the rock-cut coast road, summer the river is fordable here. In journals now published in Beirut, seven are in the hands of Pro- testants, four belonging to native Syrians. All the sects and com- munities have literary, benevo- lent, or educational societies, and the old spirit of religious fanaticism is gradually disappearing. Mohammedans glory in the edu- cation of their girls, and Greek young women form "women's societies " for the promotion of education. In Syria and Palestine are two hundred and forty-four Protestant schools, wdth thirteen thousand children. The number of American and European labourers is one hundred and twenty, with four hundred and thirty-tw^o native teachers and preachers. The radiating centre of influence for all these movements is in Beirut. The finest edifices in the city are the PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 37 Syrian Protestant College, the Hospital of St. John, and the colleges of the Jesuits,Maronites, and Papal Greeks, the various female seminaries. American, British, and German Protestant, and of the Roman Catholic sisters of charity and sisters of Nazareth. Not a few of the natives are attaining some eminence for their contribu- tions to literature, and the various presses are filling the land with readinsf matter, translated and original. As in the days of the khalifs of Baghdad, the Arab race must draw their literary and scientific treasures from the lano-uages of Europe. The Syrian Protestant College stands at the head of the literary institutions of Syria. The language of instruction is English, and in its various departments, medical, literary, and VOL. HI. G MODERN AQUEDUCT ON THE NAHR EL KELB, Near to which are the newly discovered Ass}Tian tablets relating to Nebuchadnezzar. 38 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. scientific, it is fitting young men for the highest spheres of usefuhiess in the future. The vernacular Arabic, together with the French, Turkish, and Latin languages, are also taught. The astronomical and meteorological observatory is in daily telegraphic communication with Constantinople, London, and Washington. The American, British, and German Protestant seminaries for girls are training hundreds of the choicest daughters of Syria. The Jesuits have established a college and printing house on a scale of great magnificence, and the Maronite, Papal Greek, Orthodox Greek, Mohammedan, and Jewish academies are educating a vast body of youth, while the Sceurs de Charite and the Dames de Nazareth have under training about seven hundred and thirty Arab girls. The massacres of i860 drove thousands of Christians from the interior into Beirut, many of whom have made this city their permanent home. Its fine climate, pure water, educational advantages, commercial importance, and security from the perils of civil war and massacre have made it the favourite refuge for all sects and classes. Beirut is connected with Damascus by a fine French macadamised road, with diligences running through twice a day (see pages 142 and 143, vol. ii.). The Mutserrif and all executive and judicial officers are appointed by the Sultan, but the municipality are elected by the people. The Christians of all sects outnumber the Mohammedans two to one. There is an increasing Jewish population and a small European element. Beirut has been noted for its silk culture and manufacture for many centuries, and its modern jewellers and weavers excel in silver and gold filigree work and in the exquisite fabrics of silk, woollen, and cotton, now so greatly in vogue in civilised countries for curtains, cushions, and divans. The silk and gold cloth curtains woven at Zidv, near the Dog River, are sought for to adorn the palaces of Europe. The future commercial importance of Beirut will depend on the terminus of the great trunk railway from the Mediterranean to India. But its literary importance and its eligibility as a home for the most enlightened of Syria's sons in the future can never be materially changed. Its people, largely descended from the vigorous races of Lebanon, are enterprising and capable of high cultivation. The city is growing year by year in beauty and in influence in the East, and its institutions bid fair to be far more potent for good than its famous university in the golden age of Justinian. About one mile south-west of the College, the cape of Ras Beirut terminates in an abrupt cliff at the Rausheh, the old Syriac name for ras, or headland. The cliff is worn away in a curve, at the base of which is a deep grotto or cavern only to be approached by rowing boats. Opposite the mouth of the cavern, and in the focus of the semicircle formed by the cliff, rise the two picturesque Pigeon Islands, under one of which is a natural tunnel. Not only pigeons, but vast shoals of seals formerly added interest to the spot. The cretaceous rock presents a curious appearance with its alternate strata of white chalk and black flint, and the distortions and curvatures of the strata are beautifully marked in the islands. On a recent visit during a westerly gale the scene was one of indescribable grandeur. The mighty waves came rolling in from the deep sea, and, striking upon the ledges outside the islands, burst into milky foam PHCENICIA AXD LEBANON. 39 and swept around and behind the islands with deafening roar, dashing far up the cKffs and fahing back into the boihng abyss of waters (see page 40). South of the city, and for four miles along the beach, is the drifting sandbank called " Ramel Beirut," which for ages has been creeping slowly northward and eastward, threatening BATH AND CAFlfi, BEIRUT. Of late years a great impetus has been given to fishing on this coast. During the summer nights fishermen may often be seen out on the rocks and reefs with torches and cressets, by which certain kinds of fish are attracted. the destruction of the city. Within twenty-five years, to m}- own knowledge, it has advanced in some places not less than one hundred feet. The prevailing west winds drive it up from the seashore on the south-west, and during the rainless summer months it drifts like new-fallen snow towards the city. Nuinerous houses have been removed to make way for it, and orchards G 2 1' 1 JL-- 8)- -ive municipality have obtained permission from the Porte to remove the sand or check its farther progress. Leaving Beirut for Sidon, we pass the great pine grove of Fakhr ed Din and tlie rich gardens and oHve orchards of the plain, emerge upon the beach at Kossis, pass the ruins of Kuldeh, and lunch at the iron bridge over the deceitful Damun From thence we reach the Khan Neby Yunas, near which is the Wely Neby Yunas, \nth a white dome, marking the place where, according to Muslim tradition, the prophet Jonah was thrown up by the fish (see page 44). The part of Lebanon between Beirut and Sidon is PIGEON ROCKS, BEIRUT. In the cliff, from which these island rocks have broken away, there is an enormous cavern which can be entered by small boats. PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 41 known as Druse Lebanon, from the Druses, that extraordinary people who inhabit it. Their rehgion is a secret pohtico-religious code. El Hakim is their incarnate god, and while they may, when convenient, profess any or all other religions, they still continue Druses at heart. Courteous, brave, united, and industrious, they are the puzzle, the unsolved problem of BEIRUT CASTLE. Built by the Crusaders, but partly with materials which had been used in earlier structures, for there are many granite columns introduced transversely into the lower part of the walls. Syrian society. They speak pure Arabic, and are English in their political bias. Leaving Neby Yunas, we ride over the successive sand beaches and rocky nukkars for three hours, until we reach the river Auwaly, where we have the ancient cit)' of Sidon in full view (see pages 45 and 47). 42 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. SAIDA, OR SIDON. " Sidonii que lares .... Sidonaque pulchram." " The gods of Sidon .... Sidon the beautiful." These two lines from two of the later Latin poets sum up the two striking features in the history of Sidon, the antiquity of its religious cult, and the beauty of its scenery. Sidon was the Divine City, which gave gods to the Phoenicians, and through them to Greece, Italy, and Carthage. It was the Jerusalem of Baal worship. Here was worshipped that divine couple of the Phoenician religion, Baal Sidon and Ashtaroth, the same which at Gebal (Jebeil) was called Thammuz and Baalath, at Carthage Baal Hamon and Tanith, among the Hittites Shed and Shedath, and in Damascus Hadad and Atargath. Here was the home of — " Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called Astarte, queen of Heaven with crescent horns : To whose bright image nightly by the moon, Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs." The hardy navigators of Sidon and Tyre, in pushing their adventurous prows into the Euxine, the y^igean, and beyond the Pillars of Hercules, carried with them their religion and their peculiar divinities. Their Ashtaroth became Aphrodite in Greece, and the temple of Thasos in the y^igean was dedicated to Melkarth, the Tyrian Hercules. In the island of Malta a dedicatory inscription speaks of " the lord Melkarth, Baal of Tyre." Old Sidon, named by the grandson of Noah, and styled Great Zidon by Joshua, is, perhaps, the oldest living city in the world, and claims the honour of being mentioned both in the book of Genesis and in the Homeric poems. Homer speaks of Sidon as rich in ore ; but its ores were not native, excepting the iron, brought down from Southern Lebanon. Its tin was brought from Britain (Ber-et-tanic), Spain, and the Caucasus, its steel from Colchis, its gold and copper from the Red Sea and Cyprus, and the Sidonian and Tyrian artificers became famous for their bronzes and other works in metallurgy. The Sidonians were already a commercial nation when the Egyptians expelled the shepherd kings, and from the first half of the seventeenth till the end of the thirteenth century B.C., the Sidonians were subject to the Egyptians. A papyrus in the British Museum contains the account of an imaginary journey made by an Egyptian officer into Syria, at the end of the reign of Rameses II., which indicates that Beirut, Sidon, and Tyre at that time were peaceful tributaries of Egypt. The Sidonians supplied the mercantile and military navy of Egypt, and during this period, when no rival navy existed, Sidonian trade and commercial prosperity reached their highest point. Beyond the Nile valley, the sailors of Sidon and Beirut coasted along the shores of Africa and founded Cambe, afterwards Carthage, and Hippo. The Egyptians had a superstitious horror of the sea, regarding it as impure, and as the domain of Set, the god of evil, the adversary of Osiris. An Egyptian navy was therefore out of the question. Sidonian officers and seamen manned the Egyptian fleets in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and I— ' PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 43 the commerce of Solomon between Ophir and his ports of Elath and Ezion Geber was carried on by Tyrian sailors, the descendants of the old Sidonian navigators. But, alas ! Great Sidon is now only little Saida, " the place of fishing." Its seamen are mere coasting sailors running their little feluccas and shakhturs along the Syrian shores, Avhile its contracted harbour can hardly shelter its tiny craft (see page 45). The ancient city, so often built, destroyed, and re-built, is now a town of nine thousand inhabitants, and in its want of business life and enterprise, a typical oriental city. The Israelites never conquered it, but the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Persians subdued it, and it opened its gates to the two-horned Alexander in 332 ii.c. Under the Romans it was a wealthy city, and it continued such during the New Testament times, when our Lord visited the borders of Tyre and Sidon. St. Paul found Christian friends here on his voyage to Rome. Its Bishop Theodorus was present at the Council of Nice, 325 a.d. During the Crusades, Sidon was alternately in the hands of the Franks and the Muslims, and suffered terribly from capture and re-capture by the hostile armies. The town is situated on the north-western slope of a low promontory extending down to the sea. In front of the sea wall a chain of island rocks runs from north to south, formerly enclosing a harbour large enough to hold fifty galleys ; but the Druse prince, Fakhr ed Din, filled it up with stones and earth to prevent the entrance of Turkish ships, and now only the little shakhturs of Kozta Jiz and his fellow sailors can find anchorage in the shallow waters. Sidon is a walled town, and, unlike Beirut, which has overleaped its walls and spread for miles around, it keeps closely pent up within its narrow limits. A more compact city could hardly be imagined, for not only are the streets too narrow to allow loaded camels to pass each other with facility, but the houses are to a great ■extent built on arches over the streets, so that one can ride or walk from one end of the town to the other under dark, gloomy tunnels. \\'ithin the town are six great khans, called by the people wakkaleh, or agencies. They are quadrangular, built around a large paved courtyard, two stories high, Avith numerous rooms for travellers and storehouses for merchandise. But Beirut has destroyed the commerce of Sidon, and the caravans, bringing the wheat and butter of the Hauran to Beirut and carr)-ing back the wares of Europe, pass by Sidon, outside the walls. About seven hundred of the people arc Muslims, five hundred Jews, and the rest Catholics, IMaronites, and Protestants. There is a female seminar)- under the care of the American Mission, with forty-five boarders and ninety day scholars, and a boys' high school. The French Sceurs de Charite have also a girls' school, the Jesuits a school for boys, and the Muslim Benevolent Society a bo)-s' school. The fruit gardens and orchards of Sidon, extending half a mile from the walls, arc the pride of its people, and abound in oranges, lemons, sweet lemons, figs, apricots, pomegranates, almonds, plums, apples, peaches, pears, citrons, and bananas, which are exported by sea to Beirut and Alexandria, and by land to all the towns of Lebanon and to Damascus. The view of the plain and town from the Neby Yahia, or Tomb of John the Baptist, a mile to the cast, in the month of April is extremely beautiful. A more verdant glade than that south of the 44 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. gardens cannot be seen even in the charming scenery of southern England. But its verdure is vernal only, for while the gardens and orchards, irrigated by the Auwaly, retain their fresh green aspect throughout the year, the plain and hillsides are burned by the summer sun to an arid and dusty brown. The most interesting antiquities about Sidon are the fragments of mosaic pavements on the north, the hill of broken murex purpura on the south-west, from which the Tyrian purple dye was extracted, and KHAN NEBY yOnAS (THE KHAN OF THE PROPHET JONAH). Adjoining a Muslim shrine sacred to his memory. Close to it there is a group oi mulberry-trees, and beyond are groves of olive and fig trees belonging to the village of Neby Yiinas, called also El Jujeh. the famous Necropolis on the plain south-east of the town. This city of the dead, as mapped by Renan, contains a vast number of tombs of various kinds, which are deeply interesting. There are rectangular grottoes, which are the most ancient, entered by steps cut in the sides of a vertical shaft, from which doors lead into rock- hewn chambers similar to those in Egypt. The vaulted grottoes are entered by flights of steps, and have side niches for sarcophagi, many of which are still in place. There are also grottoes lined with lime cement, painted in the Graeco- Roman style, some having Greek inscriptions. In the rectangular grottoes are marble sarcophagi of the PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 45 VOL. ITT. H 46 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. Phoenician anthropoide style, fitted to the shape of the embalmed body. There are also sarcophagi in lead, such as are constantly found in the villages east of the city. Those in the vaulted grottoes are generally of pottery, and those in the decorated tombs are square, profusely decorated with garlands and other sculptured ornaments. About ten minutes south-east of the Acre Gate of Sidon is the Mugharet Ablun, or Cave of Apollo, where, in 1855, was discovered the beautiful black basalt sarcophagus now in the museum of the Louvre in Paris. The Phoenician inscription of nine hundred and ninety words on its lid is well cut and perfectly preserved. European scholars have made several translations of it, which agree in the essential features. " In the month Bui, in the 14th of my reign, King Ashmunazar, the king of the Sidonians, son of Tabnith, Idng of the Sidonians, grandson of King Ashmunazar, king of the Sidonians, spalce, saying, I am snatched away before my time, like the flowing of a river ...... " Every royal person, and every man who shall open this funeral couch, or who shall take away the sarcophagus of this funeral couch, he shall have no funeral with the dead, nor be buried in a sepulchre, nor leave behind them son or posterity .... and the holy gods shall cut off that royal person, nor shall his root be planted downward, nor his fruit spring upward, for I am Ashmunazar, king of the Sidonians, son of Tabnith, king of the Sidonians, grandson of Ashmunazar, king of the Sidonians, and my mother, Immiastoreth, priestess of Astarte, our sovereign queen, daughter of King Ashmunazar, king of the Sidonians " It is we who have built this temple of the gods — in Sidon by the sea, and the heavenly powers have rendered Astarte favourable. It is we who have erected the temple to Esmuno and the sanctuary of Ene Delil in the mountain .... the temple of Baal Sidon, and the temple of Astarte, the glory of Baal, lord of kings, who bestowed on us Dor and Joppa and ample corn lands which are at the root of Dan " This inscription is written in the Phoenician character, and is one of the most important Phoenician inscriptions yet discovered, the next in interest being that of Mesha on the Moabite stone, the Siloam tablet,* and a tariff of sacrifices of Punic origin. The various Phoenician cities possessed rich archives and regular records, preserved with care from the most ancient times, the most valuable of which is the Graeco- Phoenician work of Sanchoniathon the Beirut scholar, and dedicated to Abi Baal, king of Beirut. It is the opinion of Professor Sayce, that remains of the old Phoenician libraries must still exist somewhere in the unexcavated ruins of Syria. The gardeners of Sidon are constantly on the watch for new treasures, as they plough the soil or dig foundations for building. The citadel of Sidon, called by the Arabs Kfilat el Mezzeh, is an ancient tower, said to have been built by Louis IX. in 1253. Near its base two colossal statues were recently exhumed. The Kul'at el Bahr, or Castle on the Sea, stands on a small island connected with the land by a bridge of nine arches. It was built in the thirteenth century, the large blocks belonging to a more ancient structure. The * As the " Siloam tablet " had not been discovered when Colonel Wilson wrote his description of the Conduit and Pools of Siloam (see page 102 et seq., vol. i.), a few words respecting it must be added here. The inscription was first observed, in June, 1880, by a pupil of Herr Schick, an architect who has long resided in Jerusalem. He was wading along the rock-cut channel which conveys water from the Fountain of the Virgin to the Upper Pool of Siloam, when he suddenly slipped and fell into the water ; as he rose he noticed " some marks which looked like letters " on the rocky wall of the channel, which in this part is not more than two feet wide ; its length is one thousand seven hundred and eight feet, but the direct distance from the Fountain to the Pool is only one thousand one hundred and four feet, for the channel deviates considerably from a straight line. The inscription is in a recess at the lower end of the conduit, and about nineteen feet from the place where it opens out into the Upper Pool of Siloam (see page 78, vol. i.). Before the inscription could be copied it was necessary to reduce the level of the water till the stream was not more than six inches in depth ; but in this the copyist was obliged to crouch down in a cramped attitude, for the last line was still only just above water. Nevertheless Herr Schick and Professor Sayce each made a copy, and Lieut. Conder afterwards obtained a squeeze of the inscription from which casts were made for distribution, and thus many independent translations (which only slightly vary) have been made. The language is primitive Hebrew, the characters are Phoenician of the sixth to the eighth century B.C. The record implies (according to Professor Sayce and others) that the channel was excavated from both ends, and that the workmen met in the middle. "Behold the excavation ! Now this is the history of the tunnel. While the excavators were lifting up the pick, each towards the other, and while there were yet three cubits to be broken through, the voice of one called to his neighbour, for there was a (crookedness ?) in the rock on the right. They rose up ... . they struck in the west of the excavation, each to meet the other, pick to pick ; and there flowed the waters from their outlet to the Pool for a distance of a thousand cubits, and (three-fourths ?) of a cubit was the lieight of the rock over the head of the excavation here." — [M. E. R.] PHCENICIA AND LEBANON. 47 island on the west and south-west was once covered by a massive sea-wall, protecting the harbour from the waves, but after the destruction of the harbour by Fakhr ed Din, the THE CITADEL OF SAIDA, THE ANCIENT SIDON. Now called the Kul'at el Mezzeh. It stands on the south-eastern extremity of the town, on a heap of rubbish in which layers of the purple shell still are visible. huge blocks were removed for building purposes, and in rough weather the sea makes a clean breach over the rocks into the little harbour. The old seats of Phoenician art and commerce have fallen into ruin and dcca)'. Arvad, Gebal, Sidon and Tyre are hardly II 2 48 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. known to modern commerce, while Beirut is monopolizing the Syrian trade. The art of extracting the purple dye from the murex purpura, millions of whose broken fragments A PEASANT WOMAN CHURNING. The churn is made of the tanned skin of a goat stripped off whole ; it is partly filled with milk, and the extremities being securely closed, it is suspended in any convenient place by four ropes fastened to the skin of the legs ; it is then regularly moved to and fro, with a jerk, unt.l the process is completed. form a hill at the south-west gate of Sidon, is hopelessly lost. The arts of gold and silver fancy work and the weaving of silk and wool have left Sidon and Tyre for the more thriving markets of Beirut and Damafxus. SITE OF SAREPTA. As early as the thirteenth century this city was in ruins, and now only fragments of its foundations exist, chiefly on a headland called 'Ain el Kantarah and also along the shore south of it, extending for a mile or more. Early Greek and Roman writers speak highly in praise of il.e wines of Sarepta. THE PHOENICIAN PLAIN PIE route from Sidon to Tyre is by the seashore, generally pastureless and uninteresting, yet, in its ease and the absence of rugged stone-heaps and slippery rocks, a great contrast to the ordinary road of Palestine. Though the sea is tideless there is generally a broad belt of sand, not too soft or heavy. Behind this runs the narrow Phoenician plain, rich and well watered. Wells and springs are frequent throughout, often affording pure and sweet water within a feAv feet of the sea itself. Beyond the plain the bare but terraced hills rise abruptly, steep and rocky. Several streams intersect the path, across which have been bridges in Roman and perhaps in later days, but floods and neglect have left only traces of what once was, in a few buttresses and here and there the spring of an arch. In winter it is often difficult to ford or swim the swollen rivers, especially the Nahr ez Zaherany, or " Flowery River " (so named from the mass of oleanders Avhich fringe it), shortly before reaching the village of Surafend, which represents the Zarephath of the Old Testament, the Sarepta of the New (see above). There is little to mark the spot where Elijah sojourned so long with the hospitable widow and blessed her exhaustless cruse, for the ancient site, open and unprotected, close to the shore, has long been deserted, and its inhabitants have made a new settlement more than two miles inland, under the shelter of the hills, to which they have transferred the ancient name, and where they are safe from the raids of Bedawin horsemen. All that is left of old Zarephath are a few heaps of stones, the greater part of the materials having been carried off for modern 50 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. buildings to Beirut. There is, ho\vever, a little wely called El Khidr, the Arabic name for St. George, who is reverenced as a Muslim as well as a Christian saint ; and the wely is reasonably believed to be the successor of the Christian chapel which the Crusaders built over the traditional site of the house of Elijah's hostess. A double interest attaches to this spot, from the tradition (for which we must confess there is no absolute historical ground, but surely much probability) that Sarepta was also blessed by the presence of a greater than Elijah, and that here our Lord showed mercy on the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman. We know that the village He visited was somewhere in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. The context seems to imply it was beyond Tyre, and this is almost the only village which would meet these requirements. What more natural than that He should visit the place where His great forerunner sojourned so long ? The modern inhabitants of Surafend have moved the sacred localities to their new home, and point out in the present village the house of the widow and the spot where our Lord met the Syrophoenician widow. But nothing is more certain than that until after the times of the Crusades the place was close to the shore. Along the lonely strand skirting the fertile but scarcely cultivated plain we proceed towards Tyre. Strange that such desolation should have overtaken one of the chief cradles of early civilisation ! Now lawlessness and barbarism have driven Phoenicia back into the rocky hills, and the weary peasant, with his tools on his shoulder, spends half his time in journeying from security to his field, and in toiling back at sunset to his rocky home. The route to Tyre continues near the shore. Not a village is to be seen : — here and there ancient tombs and a few piles of stones. Several little streams have to be forded, till at length we reach the banks of the Kasimiyeh, the ancient Leontes, still known higher up as the Litany, when we turn inland by the traces of a Roman road towards one of the few bridges which remain unbroken in the country. Here the plain and the valley of the river (see page 53) are well cultivated. There is a khan, not in ruins, for the convenience of travellers, and several villages on either side of the river's course, one just to the south of the bridge. The stream is far too deep and rapid to be forded, and hence the bridge has been of necessity rebuilt (see page 52), a rare, perhaps unique exception to the ordinary system of the country. Hence we might in a short hour ride to the historic capital of Phoenicia. But a day is well spent in an expedition up the tortuous course of the Leontes. For several miles inland the river winds through a rich corn plain of some extent, into which it suddenly emerges from a deep fissure in the long range of the wall of Galilee. The plain is for the most part treeless, though the banks of the stream are richly fringed with oleanders. The country is best understood by riding through the corn-fields on the north bank. Under the foot of the hills is a charming piece of olive ground, with grateful shade, and a village behind it, nestled at the foot of the cliff". It is more than half an hour's very rough scrambling for the horses to reach the crest, when we find ourselves, not on the top of the hill, but on the brow of an upland down studded with villages, and with a noble view seawards, which well repays the climb. The villages are generally three or four miles apart and have names evidently derived from the Hebrew, as Rezieh, Zerayiyeh, THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN. 51 Zara, Athshit, Shukin, and the like. But although part of the old tribe of Asher, the survey of the Palestine Ex- ploration has halted at the bank of the Leontes, and no research has as yet been de- voted to their identification, beyond the very few names mentioned in the Book of Joshua. Each of these villages is surrounded by a grove of fig-trees, bare enough in winter, but without which in summer these uplands would be dreary indeed. In the centre of many of them is a mound or heap composed of the debris of the old Phoenician fort. Thouo^h as we ride alons: we are very near the Leontes, the river crives no si^n of its neighbourhood. It is never mentioned in Scripture, yet is the largest river in the country after the Jordan, and has some peculiar features. Rising near Ba'albec, far away north in the Buka'a, or Coelo-Syria, it has its farthest source, like the Jordan and the Orontes, in the plain which commences the separation between the Lebanon and A nti- Lebanon (see small map, jDage 12). We may stand on a slope of Lebanon and see the orimn of the Avatersheds of the three rivers from the same spot, and C5 o ^ (-1 >> s a, = E o g ? O OX! iz! 0) c c it is difficult to realise, as we gaze, 52 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. how utterly different is the subsequent career of each. For many miles the tiny streamlets of Litany and Jordan flow southwards in almost parallel lines, while the Orontes takes a due northward course. The almost imperceptible rise which separates them gradually swells into a ridge, forming a watershed between Lebanon and Hermon, till the Litany makes a rift through Northern Galilee, a stupendous gorge, which affords the grandest scenery in the country, as by the natural bridge of El Kuweh (see page 134, vol. ii.) Dashing through a glen some thousand feet deep in places, just below the great castle of Shukif it meets a mountain barrier, a spur ;/l -m '^f Lebanon running east and west. Exit seems impossible. The y,' ' _ river rushes straight against the mighty wall and turns at right angles to the west, working its way by a fissure wholly invisible till the traveller is close upon its edge, and which splits the apparently continuous range to its very centre. The tableland to the north of the river continues without any prominent hills or deep valleys from the ridge above the mouth of the Kasimiyeh (called in its upper course the Litany, doubtless its old Phoenician name, corrupted by the Greeks into Leontes), as far as Shukif and the range which forms the watershed of the Jordan. Returning again to the Phoenician plain, the path lies for six miles along the shore on hard, smooth sand. The sweep of the land makes a fine embayed coast line, with the headland by Sarepta forming one end of the bow, and the moles, buildings, and ruins of Tyre, in front, THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN. 53 forming the other (see page 57). Tyre, no longer an island but a peninsula, stands out boldly into the sea, and the first view is very imposing, whether we approach it from the north or the south. A bare strip of sand intervenes between the port and the plain behind, which of late years is rapidly becoming a bright oasis of mulberry and orange groves and gardens, such as have long adorned the environs of Sidon. But these do not reach the shore, and we pass them on the left. On the right several grim skeletons of vessels, driven ashore from the dangerous anchorage THE VALLEY OF THE LEONTES, NEAR THE COAST. The river, the Nahr el Kasimiyeh, is of considerable depth at this point, of the roadstead, StaUcl OUt frOUl the shalloW and flows hence to the sea in a very serpentine course. sea ; and just opposite to them is a fine old fountain, an arched building covering several cisterns fed by springs beneath, and much resorted to by the inhabitants of this side of the cit}'. Twenty years ago Tyre, now called Es Sur, was a miserable, squalid village ; but it has latterly much increased, and though still chiefly a labyrinth of ruins, yet contains a population of over seven thousand, with some bazaars fairly stocked. A few small craft may generally be seen In the roadstead, and a number of fishing VOL, III. I 54 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. vessels in the inner harbour. Just at the north gate of the city, by which we enter, is the principal market, where scarlet leather, millstones from the Hauran, and tobacco, are the staples of commerce. The inhabitants are chiefly fishermen and some dyers, though the old Tyrian dyes are no more, and we may search in vain for Tyrian purple. The streets are most wretched, very few feet wide and wattled over at intervals with palm leaves and decayed brushwood ; while windowless, mud-floored hovels nestle among huge fragments of polished granite and porphyry columns prostrate in rubbish. The strip of sand between the well and the gate has accumulated on the causeway by which Alexander the Great united the city to the mainland ; for Tyre originally was an island rather less than a mile in length, containing about one hundred and twenty-five acres, and with the harbours between it and the mainland, on which was the larger city of Palaeotyrus. The moles or breakwaters of the ancient harbours can still be seen both on the north and the south sides of the peninsula, the greater part of which consists of ruin-strewn fields, affording a charming camping ground, ■especially to the west of the modern town, where the tents can be pitched within a few yards of the Avaves, looking down on the mass of granite columns and marble blocks which pave the bottom of the clear sea (see page 59). The ruins of Tyre above the water are few indeed, and beyond the moles and harbour are none which carry us back to the times of Phoenician glory and supremacy, before its conquest by Alexander the Great. One, and one only, iDuilding of any interest remains, and its associations are far indeed removed from the history which must most absorb the traveller's thoughts, the story of the queen of commerce, the mistress of the seas, and the mother of mighty nations. The Cathedral of the Crusaders occupies a conspicuous position at the south-east angle of the shrunken city, and though roofless, and at the west end wholly demolished, is still comparatively perfect (see page 56). It is one of the largest of the many Crusading churches of Syria, and occupies the site of a much older and yet more historic building, the basilica of Constantine. Within the last few years the German Government have obtained a sort of protectorate over it, and prevented the utter '/demolition which threatened it as a mere quarry for building. They have also excavated much of the debris which choked the interior, and revealed many details of its architecture, Comte de Vogtie, the first living authority on Syrian architecture, fixes the date of its foundation 1 1 25 A.D., by the Venetian Crusaders, who dedicated it to St. Mark. But it has an earlier history still. The original church was built by Constantine, Paulinus was its bishop, and the historian Eusebius delivered the oration at its consecration, which he has preserved at full length in his Ecclesiastic History, simply stating that it was the address delivered on the occasion by a certain man of moderate merit. In that church were laid the bones of the great father of the Church, Origen. But in evil times and national convulsions it had become, we know not how, a ruin, and the Crusaders nobly restored it. It measured two hundred and sixteen feet long by one hundred and thirty-six feet wide, and though we dare not controvert the architectural decision of De Vogue, it is evident to every one who sees it that the restoration was on the old lines, on the Greek basilica model, not on the Latin. There are the three . '1 THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN. 55 apses at the east end, which the Muslims have since incorporated into the city walls, and I cannot but think that both the greater part of these apses as well as the lower corners of the walls are the original work of Constantine. A few years ago the interior was crowded with squalid hovels clustering oa the sides. Now all have been cleared out, and the area is only strewn by the colossal red granite columns, which once stood upright and supported the roof. These shafts and pilasters, some of them double, are from six to eight feet in diameter and THE GATE OF TYRE (SOR). There are two springs of fresh water on the north side of the peninsula, one of which is close to this gate. It has been conjectured that they are connected with tlie fountains of Ras el 'Ain. about twenty-six feet long, yet they are only broken fragments, and no doubt were utilised by Constantine from some of the condemned heathen temples. Though their removal has been more than once attempted by the Muslims, they proved too massive to be broken, too heavy to be lifted. Of the resting place of Origen no mark remains. Frederick Barbarossa's body is believed to lie under the central apse. The emperor died at Tarsus, and all doAvn that long coast of Syria day after day the funeral procession marched, till, halting at Antioch, there was I 2 56 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. deposited the heart and intestines of the grand Crusader, while his bones were carried on hither, to be lain wdthin the limits of the Sacred Land. Few churches, indeed, can vie in historic memories with the Cathedral of Tyre. Yet when we climb up, and, standing on the apse of that old church, look forth upon the RUINS OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH AT TYRE. Eusebius describes this building as the most splendid of all the temples of Phoenicia. Among the ruins there is a (Rouble column of red syenite granite, now prostrate, consisting ot two parallel connected shafts of great size. sand-heaps on our left, the sea beyond, and the breakwaters, and see the red jagged fragments to the right, the long history of that church is but of yesterday when compared with the remote THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN. 57 memories behind it. Egypt and Assyria may carry us many centuries farther still, but what is their direct connection with us when compared with Phoenicia ? That strange and mysterious people, where are they ? What descendants have they left ? Where can we trace them ? They were scarcely of the land. Like some fowl of the sea, which never touches shore or visits the land, save to rear its young, the Phoenician asked no territory, con- quered no nations, yet was found on every coast. These original settle- ments of Tyre and Sidon, what are they ? Along that straight, mono- tonous, havenless Syrian coast, the very last we should have imagined to have fostered a spirit of commerce and enterprise, here and there in front of some sandspits, or at the foot of some headland, there rises from the water a ridge of reefs, or a rocky islet. Like some sea-swallow, the Phoenician seized on this. There he made his perch, and took breath for a while between his adventurous voyages. Such rocky islets or head- lands are Tyre (see above), Sidon (see paofe 4.^), BervtUS, Gebal, BotrVS, And the neighbouring village of Hanawieh, with a view of the peninsula of Tyre as \ r £> T-J/' J ^ J f it appears from this spot. Tripoli, and Aradus [the modern Beirut (see pages 28 and 41), Jebeil, Batrun, Tarabalus (see pages 5 and 9), and Ruad], most of them very similar in position, and three of them — Jebeil, Batrun, and Tarabalus, in their little reef of rocks fronting and parallel to the headland, close reproductions of the site of Tyre. Tyre, though historically the daughter of Sidon, soon became the leading city of the TOWP GF KiR/\!v^.-' KABR HIR.Ul. 58 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. federation. What does not Europe owe in the way of civilisation to these decaying villages ? We have but to look to the o-lowinsf denunciations of Ezekiel to see how vast and how varied was their trade. Tyre was the inventress and the cradle of glass manufacture, and for centuries she retained her pre-eminence. It was from Tyre that some adventurous monks, pilgrims from the coasts of Northumbria, brought into England the secret of the manufacture, and planted on the banks of the Wear the first glass works of the West, in the days of the Saxon heptarchy. Hence came the brilliant dyes which made resplendent the royal robes of kings, hence the bronze and metal which equipped the armies of antiquity. The tiny crafts of Phoenicia penetrated into unknown seas, and brought back to the East the news of a world beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Tyre worked the mines of Spain, and freighted her ships with the tin of Cornwall. From this little rock sprang the men who dotted the western shores of the Mediterranean with their colonies. She was the mother of that Carthage which succeeded her as mistress of the seas, and all but wrested the empire of the world from her rival, Rome. But chief of all, to Phoenicia we owe our alphabet. Hence Cadmus borrowed those characters which have enshrined the strains of Homer, and have become the framework for the expression of every language of Europe. When this marvellous city rose we know not, for its indigenous literature has perished, and we have but a few inscriptions and a few characters on coins to tell us what was its language. But at the time of the Exodus, 1450 B.C., it was a strong city (Joshua xix. 29), and in the reign of David it was famous, not only for its maritime prowess, but for its arts and skill ; its seamen brought him cedars from Lebanon, its masons and carpenters built his palace. Still closer Avas the intercourse between Hiram and Solomon, who formed a treaty of alliance and commerce. Israel fed the great city, which supplied the architect, the workmen, and many of the materials for the Temple. But of the Tyre of that day we can trace nothing, unless it be the massive substructions of the harbour. Yet throughout the long period of Persian supremacy. Tyre and her sister cities escaped all miolestation. Careful to maintain their trade, the men of Tyre always made judicious alliances, and having no ambition for territory on shore, were voluntary allies rather than vassals, and though Sidon was conquered by Ochus, Tyre remained until its capture by Alexander after a seven months' siege. The numberless granite columns, which strew the shore and form the bed of the sea, all belong to the second Tyre, which soon rose from its ashes, and continued to flourish till destroyed at the end of the second century by Pescennius Niger. Again it rose and maintained its prosperity till the time of the Crusades. It was long held by the Christians, and in its cathedral was celebrated one of the last religious services held before the final embarkation of the last remnant of the chivalry of Europe. The final blow to its prosperity was given by the conquest of Syria by the Ottomans, in 15 16 a.d. But we must not run on into a history of Tyre. We have been led to muse on the past, as we wonder how she has become so utterly ruined and where her ruins are. Perhaps they have served as a quarry for the whole coast, and her stones may now be for the most part in Acre and Beirut. It has been the fate of places which have been continuously inhabited to have far THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN. 59 less to reveal of their old history than have those \Yhich have been destroyed and then deserted. Still the evidences of a great past are not far to seek. As we stroll along the shore, especially on the south side of the promontory, the shingle is composed of broken pottery almost as much as of natural pebbles, the old columns lie in every direction, pierced by the pholas and festooned with seaweed. The south side gives the clearest idea of the plan and position of the ancient city, on the foundations and massive sea-walls of which we may note the fishermen •day after day spreading their nets, while the columns and capitals have been cast into the sea, and " her stones and dust in the midst of the water " (see below). The mole on this side seems to have pro- THE REMAINS OF TYRE. The shore is strewn from one end to the other, along the edge of the water and in the water, with columns of red and grey granite of various dimensions, the only remaining monuments of ancient Tyre. tected a harbour, the Egyptian, larger than that which still exists at the north end of the island, known to the ancients as the Sidonian harbour, and it is very possible there may have been quays and wharfs where is now the broad belt of sand south of Alexander's Causeway. This was very narrow at first, but the ■current has rapidly silted up the shallow bay, till the neck is almost as wide as the island itself. The process has long been going on, for at the south-east angle of the former island, and on what was once sea, stands what is called the Algerian tower, a portion of an old line of fortification constructed of the materials of earlier buildings, yet itself certainly not later than the time of the Crusaders, and probably part of their line of defence. The present gate (see page 55) is probably also on the site of the mediaeval portal ; but, though duly guarded, its use 6o PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. has gone, for only fragments of tHe wall remain beyond the limits of the shrunken town, and on all sides the place is completely open, almost every street having a free exit into the open ground beyond. If we are inclined to wonder at the paucity of the remains of old Tyre, we must remember that for ages the site has been a quarry for building material. We noticed RESERVOIRS OF RAS EL 'AIN AND PART OF THE ROMAN AQUEDUCT. Close to this spot stood Palseotyrus, of which no vestige now remains, the materials having been carried away by Alexander (332 B.C.) to construct the mole or causeway which unites insular Tyre to the mainland. close to the modern houses a pit recently excavated for this purpose, not less than thirty feet below their level. Yet even at that depth the walling was composed of the broken columns and material of still older buildings. Lower still, therefore, must lie buried the Tyre of Hiram and of Solomon. THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN. 6i We stroll oil a little farther. What are those great heaps on the plain a little way back from the shore ? They are simply masses of sea-shell, of two or three species {Miirex triLU cuius and Murex bran- dai'is). In the north they would be taken for kitchen- middens like those of Denmark, claim no pre-historic antiquity ; they are simply the silent witnesses of an extinct industry of Tyre. From the fish which inhabited these shells the purple dye was obtained, only one drop from each mollusc. Well may the colour have been so costly. From the south side we can proceed to the reservoir of Ras el 'Ain, " the head of VOL. Ill, AQUEDUCT, RAS EL 'AIN. Of Saracenic origin, its slightly pointed arches are in many places almost concealed by luxuriant vegetation. K 62 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. the fountain," the farther limit of Old Tyre, or Palseotyrus (see page 60). The mainland Tyre, as this really was, claimed to be the original city, though we may feel certain that the island Avas from the very earliest existence of the colony inhabited and fortified, and the commercial centre. There are few if any remains of the mainland Tyre above ground, but sufficient in the way of foundations to show the great extent of the city. Ras el 'Ain is an hour's ride, about four and a half miles from insular Tyre, and along the shore, from- the one to the other, the city extended. It was not fortified, and doubtless many of the dwellings were suburban, with orchards and gardens extending back towards the hills. But all is now corn-plain or waste. A\''e can trace the line of the aqueduct by which water was conveyed from these springs to the island. Ras el 'Ain itself is a picturesque group of ruins, with some water-mills and hovels, and the group of trees are refreshing. The springs are numerous and copious. The drainage of the sandstone strata appears to be concentrated towards this spot, and gushes forth with great force. It is collected in great tanks of masonry, each built round a great spring, which pours immense volumes of water with great force from the bottom of the reservoirs (see page 60). The original intention of these massive structures, which in some points recall the masonry of the Pools of Solomon, near Bethlehem (see page 145, vol. i.), has evidently been to force the water up to a sufficient height to supply the aqueduct. This is now completely ruined, but can be traced the whole way along the plain, first of all trending rather inland, till almost opposite the island it reaches a massive ruin, probably another great cistern, from which the aqueduct turned westward to the shore (see page 57). The masonry of the aqueduct, the shape of the arches, point to the Roman period as the probable date of its construction (see page 60), but the reservoirs themselves may claim a much greater antiquity. Tradition and mediaeval writers popularly assign them to King Solomon, and some later writers ascribe them to Alexander. But the great conqueror had enough to do to take the city and at once left it, and it is scarcely likely that he should immediately after his conquest have set about such a great work. Far more reasonably may we believe that here, if nowhere else, we have a silent evidence of the genius of the old Phoenicians ; and I am not aware of any similar work elsewhere constructed by the Romans. That they constructed the aqueduct we may well believe, but probably on the lines of a previous channel, for we may be very sure that the first operation of any besieger, whether Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Greek, or Roman, would be to interrupt this great water supply. Indeed, one aqueduct is as late as the Saracenic or Crusading times (see page 61). It starts from the fourth and smallest cistern, has pointed arches, and has been used for the purpose of irrigating the plain. The largest cistern is octagonal, sixty-six feet in diameter, inside measure, twenty-five feet high, and its wall, which is massively revetted, slopes gently from the ground to the summit, where the masonry is eight feet thick. This wall, of this enormous strength, is bound with the finest and hardest cement. The water is impregnated with lime, and has thickly encrusted all the reservoirs, as well as formed massive stalagmites both round the cisterns and along the course of the aqueduct. The only use to which this mighty work is now applied is the turning of a water-wheel for a THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN. 63 corn-mill, and the water running through leaks and over the masonry, is wasted as it works its way uselessly to the sea. These springs are first mentioned in the records of ancient Tyre as having been cut off by Shalmaneser when he withdrew from the siege, which certainly implies their importance at that very early date. In the time of the Crusades the water was used for the irrigation of the whole plain, which was cultivated and full of fruit-trees, and especially of sugar-cane, in strange contrast to its present half-desolate state. But what must this plain and Old Tyre have been in the days of Israel, when, relying upon the impregnable insular fortress and their fleets which ruled the sea, the merchant princes had their villas and palaces all along the plain for many miles in the open country (for the fortifications never extended to Palaeotyrus), and all the wealth and art of the age was lavished on the furniture, the gardens and the baths of her " whose builders had perfected her beauty " and " set forth her comeliness." Ebony and ivory, the gems of India and the riches of the East, bright tin from Cornwall, the gold of Tarshish, the spices of Arabia, the fine linen and broidered work of Egypt, silver and lead, tin and iron from afar, coral and agate from Syria, rich fabrics from Mesopotamia, such were some of the treasures and the decorations of the mother of commerce. But now she " is broken by the seas in the depth of the waters, and her merchandise and all her company in the midst of her are fallen." Yet it would be difficult to find a more lovely moonlight walk than along this beach from Ras el 'Ain to Tyre, with the light beaming far on the water, where now no gallant galley with oars can be seen, but the ghost-like black columns, gaunt in the moonlight, look like spectres on the sea, mourning the fate of their proud city. The ride to Hiram's Tomb (see page 57) may be accomplished from Ras el 'Ain as easily as from Tyre, following the line of the aqueduct (see page 60) for two miles and then turning towards the hills, which here rise very gradually from the plain. \^er}- near Hiram's Tomb, to the southward, is the little village of Hanawieh, surrounded by orchards and olive yards, with many tombs in the sides of the hills. In these tombs have recently been discovered many interesting specimens of Phoenician or at least pre- Roman glass. In a sepulchre, which this year was opened by a charcoal-burner in digging up an old tree root, a complete set of funereal glass was found, undisturbed as when first placed in the newly-occupied tomb, which was a very small niche just large enough for a body and about four feet high, hewn at the foot of a rock against which earth and rubbish had accumulated. At each of the four corners of the tomb was a lachrymatory, much larger than the ordinary or later Roman ones and with a very long neck. At the upper part of the tomb were placed two flat dishes, one about six inches, the other twelve inches in diameter, for the meat and bread offerings for the dead, and a glass flask of antique and graceful shape for the wine. The tombs in all these hills may be counted by thousands, but they have been rifled and rifled again centuries ago ; many of them afford evidence of successive occupation by the dead of epochs distant from each other. For instance, to many of the old Phoenician tombs, which may be recognised at once by the style of their sculpture, there have been added Roman or Greek facades in \-arious different styles, and niches for statues, subsequent to the original PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. RAS EL ABYAD (WHITE CAPE), THE LADDER OF TYRE, From the south side. The rock cut undulating road, with its shallow steps, is in many places nearly two hundred feet above the sea. THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN. 65 construction. Some contain excavations in tlie flooring' of the cave just large enough to contain a body and roughly hewn to its shape, with a Sfroove runnino^ round to admit the covering slab. On the top of this we shall find the rich marble sarcophagus of a later date. Examining again, we shall find rudely carved Christian symbols, of the period of those of the catacombs of Rome— the equilateral cross, the sacred monogram in a variety of forms, the a and «i, and the like. Hiram's Tomb, " Kabr Hiram," as it is called, by far the most interesting relic of Tyre left intact, is very near the little village of Hanawieh. It stands slighdy retired from the brow of the uplands, close by the way- side, corn-fields behind it, and the quiet orchard ground in front. W'hether it be the tomb of the ^reat Phoenician monarch or not there is no possibility of RAS EL ABYAD. Showing the north or Tyrian side. The little tower in the distance is a Turkish guard-house where tolls are levied, as it commands the pass to and from Acre. 66 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. proving. One argument for its great antiquity is its extreme simplicity and its dissimilarity from any sepulchral structures of the Greek age. The great repertory of Phoenician monu- ments is on the wonderful plain of Amrit, in Northern Syria, the ancient Marathus, opposite the island of Ruad, or Arvad. There is not a solitary inscription among them all, and Renan has demonstrated to the satisfaction of antiquaries that they are all long prior to the time of Alexander the Great. But the most archaic of those unique and massive sepulchres are in style and workmanship decidedly later than Hiram's Tomb, and yet they are formed on a similar model. The natural inference to any one seeing the tombs of Marathus and this of Tyre for the first time, would be that the architects of the former were familiar with such constructions as this, but had no idea of the Greek or Syro-Greek sepulchral architecture. The Tomb of Hiram, for so we love to believe it as well as call it, is a grand massive sarcophagus, laid on a massive megalithic pedestal of dressed limestone, but without any trace of the Phoenician or Jewish bevel, standing in solitary desolation, commanding the sea and that city of Tyre over which Hiram ruled. The pedestal is composed of three courses of great stones, more than twelve feet by eight, and six feet thick. The third course is still thicker and projects over the others. On this is placed the great sarcophagus, hollowed out for the body, and over it still remains the lid, slightly pyramidal in form, a single block, twelve feet long by five thick. Immediately behind the tomb two flights of steps have recenriy been opened out, evidently coeval with it, and leading to a vaulted chamber not under but exactly behind the mausoleum. This was cleared out and examined by Renan, but no trace of inscription or indication of its purpose or date discovered. From Hiram's Tomb it is little more than half an hour south-east to the village of Kanah, with its name unchanged since the days of Joshua, when it was a town of Asher. The whole district is strewn with broken sarcophagi, but there are some very interesting Phoenician sculptures, rarely visited, on the side of a very rocky hill overhanging a dell to the north of the road half-way to Kanah, called the Wady el 'Akkab, or by others El Afid. Here have been quarries very extensively worked in ancient times, and the rock in many places has been cut down perpendicularly. On many of these faces are rude sculptures and especially many cartouches, somewhat Egyptian in style, but very different in type as regards the figures within the cartouch. On one face of rock, besides the cartouches are nine figures in a row, the largest in the centre seated, the others, four on each side, about four feet high, standing. On another rock is a female draped figure standing, much more Assyrian than Egyptian in the style of dress, which is full. All the figures have been cut in the rou^h face of the rocks, which have not been squared or dressed to receive them. From Kanah there is a lovely ride into the interior, an excursion which will well repay the traveller for the extra day it will cost, or he may traverse the valleys of Asher and Naphtali till he reaches the magnificent mediaeval castle of Tibnin. The route is up the Wady 'Ashur. It is a narrow valley with a very steep descent, which winds down to the coast in a serpentine, meandering course. Frequently it contracts into a romantic rocky glen, so narrow at the THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN. 67 bottom that it is difficult for a horseman to pass a laden camel without dismounting, and where he may touch the cliffs on either side with his stick. The sides of the enclosing hills gently slope back, timber being absent, but its place taken by dense brushwood, lentisk, myrtle, arbutus, the lovely storax, and the Judas-tree all in blossom together, with an undergrowth of endless variety of flowers, generally very different from those of Esdraelon and Galilee, and partaking more of the character of the Lebanon flora — especially a number of ferns of northern type. Just at the mouth of the valley is a little plain, and high up in the rocks on the north side of this opening are some very curious sculptures. On the face of the cliff is cut a square recess about thirty- two inches square, and thirt}^ inches deep. It is set in a bevelled frame of five steps, each two inches deep, cut in the rock. On the back wall of the niche is a fine piece of delicate sculpture, rather weathered. There is a group of five figures, the central one seated and two standing on each side, apparently offering gifts. Over the group is engraved the Egyptian symbol of eternity, with the outstretched wings, the disk, serpents, and other emblems. In many of these Phoenician remains we have the Egyptian, in others the Assyrian recalled, but nowhere has yet been found anything resembling the Hittite type. When we reach the head of the Wady 'Ashiir, north of the village of Kefra, the summit of the hill affords a magnificent view. Three thousand feet beneath is the strip of the Phoenician plain, with Tyre conspicuous, jutting out from its neck of sand into the sea, fringed by the Mediterranean. Turning round, Hermon (see pages 96 and 137, vol. ii.) and the craters of the Lejah stretch from north to south, with the great castle of Shukif distinct, perched on its crao: south-west of Hermon. One bit of snow behind it marks the beeinninof of the Lebanon (see page 99, vol. ii.), while on the top of an isolated cone immediately to the east frownis the castle of Tibnin, as though still impregnable, and giving the idea of a stupendous fortress, lookincr all the laro'er from its isolation. And now, having surveyed the highlands, we will descend by that charming glen again to Ras el 'Ain (see page 60), and after a farewell glance at its dripping cisterns and fairylikc festoons of maiden-hair fern, we continue along the shore till we reach the bluff headland of Ras el Abyad, " White Cape," which boldly projects into the sea, the sharp and clearly defined boundary of the Phoenician plain (see page 65). The chalky headland is often called the Ladder of Tyre, and a true ladder it would be Avere it not that many of its rungs are wanting, and the path, being worn in the cliff's side without the slightest bridge or fence and overhanging the sea two or three hundred feet below, is somewhat trj-ing to novices in Palestine riding. From the crest of the pass is a very impressive view of the Phoenician coast. Desolate as the plain is, it is, at least in early summer, green, and shows well with its girdle of sand curving gracefully as it recedes and then runs out in the headland of Tyre. Curving again inwards, from this point we can follow it beyond the promontory of Surafend, which forms the head of the second bow. The ridge of the limestone hills behind varies in colour, through blending shades of purples, reds, and yellows, closing with the white and glittering brow on which we stand, while behind all tower the snowy ranges of Jebel Siinnin and Jebel esh Sheikh (Hermon), from forty 68 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. to sixty miles distant. From tlie Ladder of Tyre is a very narrow stony plain, extending in a crescent shape for about six miles as the crow flies, but over eight to ride, to the next headland, Ras en Nakiirah (see page 69), beyond which commences at once the plain of Acre. Between the two promontories, slightly retired from the shore, are the ruins of a considerable town without a history, save that here Alexander encamped after the capture of Tyre, in honour of which a city was founded, called Alexandro- schene, still preserving the name of Iskan- deruneh. The embayed coast is here fringed by a rough LOOKING TOWARDS TYRE FROM NAk6rAH. An old olive-tree in the foreground and a Muslim cemetery on the hillside. Stony plain, or rather a gradual crescent-shaped slope, soon rising into low hills. One conspicuous Doric column still stands erect in the wilderness, with the shafts of many others, which have formed a colonnade, strewn around. A little farther on, marble fountains, fragments of tesselated pavement, gateways and architraves may be seen half buried in the thickets, with THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN. 69 many pieces of sculpture, some with emblems of Ashtaroth, or the moon goddess. No inscription has been found here, nor is there now a solitary inhabitant in the bay till we reach Nakurah at the next pass. The road or stony track keeps close along the shore and then RAS EN NAKURAH. The road over this headland, which has also been called the " Ladder of Tyre," has lately been greatly improved. South of it there is a spring called 'Ain el Husheirifeh. climbs by the brow of the headland of Ras en Nakurah, the second Ladder of Tyre, the southern side of which is shown oh this page. So soon as the crest of the pass has been surmounted a fine view bursts suddenly upon the traveller. The rear of the rocky platform is shut in by Jebel jMushakka, and in front is spread the whole expanse of the plain of Acre, at least of its shore-line as far as Carmcl. As the eye VOL. III. L 70 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. follows the fringe of sand, a brown knob a few miles off marks the site of Zib, the ancient Achzib, the frontier town of Asher. Far beyond, another spit of sand is crowned by the buildings of the historic Acre, one of the few spots in Syria which has drawn to its focus a concentration of historic episodes, which link its name with almost every chapter in the story of Syria's fortunes for two thousand years. Beyond it again, in the far distance, the glass reveals the white spot in a crescent of green which, nestled under Carmel, marks the now flourishing Haifa. We here get our first view of Carmel from the north (see page 72). While able to realise its full extent, the effect of this outline is rather tame, as it gradually slopes towards the sea ; yet the length of the ridge rising suddenly at this point of view from the plain, and forming a barrier across the horizon, makes it a conspicuous feature. But the nearer view, a green cultivated plain many miles in extent, studded with olive groves, with their grey-blue hue spangling the carpet, and each grove half concealing a village, affords a striking contrast to the solitudes of the Phoenician coast. The road to Acre lies along the shore, but there are too many objects of interest to allow us to hurry onwards. Zib itself possesses nothing but its name to delay us. It is simply a modern village built on a mound of ruins. The valley of the little stream, Wady Kurn, which is almost lost in the sands as it reaches Zib, where in ancient days it may have formed a creek for the fishing boats of Asher, is one which well repays a few days' exploration. The stream, swarming with fish, winds through a wooded glen which pushes into the plain, and forms one of the several spurs which, running from the Galilean hills, practically divide the plain of Acre from that of Esdraelon. A ride of four and a half hours from El Bussah, in a south-east direction, brings us to the mediceval fortress known as Kul'at el Kiirn, the mons fortis, Montfort of the Crusaders. Few travellers have entered it, but it is one of the finest ruins of Palestine. It is the first of that great chain of fortresses, stretching from the sea to Mount Hermon, by which the knights bade defiance to any attempted invasion from the north. Montfort was the apex of a triangle with the strongholds of Tyre and Acre at each extremity of its base. Thence a short day's march east found the battlements of Tibnin. From that citadel, a few hours distant, the impregnable walls of Shukif (Belfort) commanded the passage of the Litany. South of Shilkif and Tibnin, on the hill where now stands the village of Kaukab el Hawa, Belvoir overlooked the passage of the Jordan and the bridge south of the Sea of Galilee, while northwards frowned Hunin (see pages 99 and 102, vol. ii.), commanding the plain of Huleh ; and within sight of it again the mighty fortress of Subeibeh (see pages 116 and 117, vol. ii.), overhanging Banias, under Hermon, and guarding the eastern approaches from the Hauran. Every one of these was, while sufficiently garrisoned, impregnable under the conditions of mediaeval warfare, and no invader could dare to leave them unmasked in his rear. None of these, though the most decayed may compare with any other ruin in the country (for the Saracens, though they may have captured, took care to do no more than dismantle them), can rival Kul'at el Kurn in its state of preservation. Seven miles from the coast, one thousand THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN. and fifty feet above the sea, and five hundred and sixty above the stream at its foot, a tongue of rock stands out between two ravines with perpendicular sides, not more than twenty yards wide and two hundred yards long, and cut off from the ridge behind by a deep artificial chasm. Where needful its sides have been coated with masonry, each tier sloping inwards, but the course above projecting three inches, so that scaling was impracticable. On the top are four successive fortresses, each successively defencible, and under each enormous cisterns, securing an independent supply of water. From the masonry of the lower structures it would seem that the fortress was originally Phoenician, that it was afterwards enlarged, and, perhaps, rebuilt by the Syrian Greeks or the Romans, and finally strengthened as we now see it by the Christian knights. It is, indeed, one of the most interesting relics of the long and hardly won, and still more hardly kept, dominion of our Norman ancestors. Yet all that history tells us of it is, that it was built by Hermann, grand master of the Teutonic knights, in a.d. 1229, and captured by Sultan Bibars in a.d. 1291, The knights, however, did little more than restore and strengthen fortifications of far earlier conquerors, as Phoenician, Greek or Maccabaean, and late Roman work, can be successively traced below the mediaeval structures. From Kul'at el Kurn the road to Acre passes through a partially wooded undulating plain for about four hours, till the maritime plain, drained by the classic river Belus (see page 72), now the Nahr Na'man, is reached. The spurs of the Galilean lower hills run far down and ■form a low barrier between the plain of Acre and the plain of Esdraelon. From these spurs are fed the springs which supplied the aqueduct on the north. From the south-east the Belus (see page 72) works its way through its marshy bed, the sand almost absorbing it as it nears the shore. The whole of this plain of Acre is studded, especially at the foot of the surrounding hills, with mud-built villages, many of them inheriting ancient names, but none bearing any other signs of antiquity. Thus we find to the south-east of Acre, Kabul, the Cabul of Joshua and Kings, and north of it Amkah, the old Beth-emek ; Semiriyeh, anciently Sherivron-meron ; Abdeh, or Abdon ; Jefat, the Jotopata of Josephus ; and many others. The fame of the river Belus arises from the Greek tradition, that the invention of glass manufacture was due in the first instance to the accidental discovery on its banks of a vitreous mass produced by a fire of seaweed among the flints and sand, which some sailors had lighted when camping here. There are no traces of glass works to be seen, but we know that the Tyrians were the first manufacturers, and the tradition may very probably be true. From the springs of the Nahr Na'man is an interesting ride up a gentle wooded slope to Shefa 'Amr, one of the principal villages of the district. We know nothing of its biblical name or history. It first came into notice in the time of the Crusades, and Avas the head-quarters of Saladin when endeavourinof to raise the siesfe of Acre. On the crest of the hill are the ruins of an extensive mediaeval castle, apparently of Saracenic construction. Nothing of interest beyond its massive walls remains. There is a very fine view of Acre, Haifa, and the plain from this castle. Not a mile to the south, on the opposite hill, is another smaller ruined castle, El Burj. L 2 72 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. Shefa 'Amr, which is chiefly Christian, also possesses a church and schools of the Church Missionary Society. From Shefa 'Amr is a beautiful ride through wooded glens— almost the only park-like scenery with fine timber left on the west side of Jordan, but, alas ! rapidly perishing under the THE CITY OF ACRE (AKKA) FROM THE NORTH-EAST. Mount Carmel is seen in the -distance, beyond tlie bay. Muslim cemetery and aqueduct in the foreground. axe of the charcoal-burner— till we reach the large village of Sefuriyeh, the ancient Sepphoris, Dioceesarea of the Romans, Kitron of Joshua, eight miles to the south-east, girt with olive groves. Here are ruins reminding us of the part that Sepphoris played in the history of the Herods and of the Crusades. The central apse of the Crusaders' church still exists, and above THE CITY OF ACRE FROM THE SOUTH. The mouth of the Nahr Na'man, the ancient river Belus, in the foreground, where, tradition says, glass was first produced by an accidental combination of the necessary materials. it on the hill is the castle ; the lower portion of the work of the Herods, or even earlier, but the gateway and pointed arches above of the Crusading period (see page 48, vol. ii.). The place which once boasted a Roman mint is now a squalid Muslim village. From Sefuriyeh good horse-paths lead both to Nazareth and to the coast. GATE OF 'AKKA (ST. JEAN D'ACRE). It is the only entrance to the city, and is situated near the south end of the eastern land wall, close to the head of the shallow harbour. ACRE, THE KEY OF PALESTINE, — I ^ROM every point of view tlie external appearance of 'Akka (Acre) is pre-eminently picturesque, and especially so from the deck of a yacht or steamer approaching the shore on a calm bright moonlight night, or, as an Arab would say, " when God's lantern is in the sky." The bold western front of the city appears suddenly to rise up before us out of the sea, with its loopholed battlemented walls, its square towers, and its serviceable lighthouse at its southern extremity. In the northern division of the city, the lofty and curiously buttressed dome of the great mosque of Jezzar Pasha vividly reflects the moonlight (see page 76), and near to it the formidable-looking citadel is conspicuous. No city in Syria or Palestine so completely carries one back in fancy to Crusading and feudal times as does this city of 'Akka, especially when thus beheld from the sea ; if the tall minaret of the great mosque were not 74 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. there to remind us of the local supremacy of the followers of the prophet Muhammecl, we might easily imagine ourselves to be steering towards a stronghold still occupied by Crusading kings and by those Knights of St. John to whom the place owes its familiar European name of St. Jean d'Acre. We glide round the formidable-looking redoubt at the southern point of the promontory or rocky reef on which the city is built, and are soon safely anchored in the bay south of the shallow harbour (see page 72). The broad plain of 'Akka (see page 80) is flooded with white mist which quivers in the moonlight, and makes the undulating hills of Galilee far away in the east, and the level range of Carmel in the south, look strangely unsubstantial and foundationless. But morning dawns and the mists are cleared away, and our illusions are to a great extent dispelled by a nearer approach to the city. The distinctive feature of 'Akka is its complete isolation. There are people still living who remember when (during the peaceful rule of Suleiman, who became pasha of 'Akka a few years after the death of the tyrant Jezzar Pasha, in 1804) the plain north of the city was planted with pines and firs and groves of the rapidly growing Melia Asederacli, commonly called the " Pride of India," a favourite tree for plantations in Syria and Palestine, with tender green foliage and pendent lilac blossoms, which are succeeded by clusters of yellow berries. But all the trees within a mile and a quarter of the city were cut down by order of Abdallah Pasha (the successor of Suleiman as governor of 'Akka, in 1820), lest they should serve as places of ambush for an enemy. The cleared space is now occupied by cotton-fields, melon grounds, and vegetable gardens, skirted by the aqueduct from El Kabry, while near to the seashore there is a strip of fever-producing marsh-land. But there is nothing to intercept the view of the city (see page 72). Nearly all other important walled towns of Syria and Palestine are by degrees over- leaping their boundaries and losing their original characteristics. The walls of Beirut (see page 28) have altogether disappeared except on the eastern side of the city. This is the natural result of peace and prosperity. Even the city of Jerusalem is rapidly extending iDcyond its walls, but happily only on the northern and western sides (see steel plate facing page 4, vol. i.). Colonel Sir Charles Wilson thus describes the impression made upon him by his recent visit to that city. " The approach to Jerusalem was to me a painful one. When I left in 1866, the only buildings outside the town were the Russian convent and two or three small houses ; now new Jerusalem is almost as large as the old one. I had always liked to think of Jerusalem as the walled city, with its gates closed at nightfall, surrounded by olive gardens, which I had learned to know so well during the Survey, and it was anything but pleasant to ride over the hard metalled road through a long suburb, such as one sees round a third-class Italian town." This refers to the approach to Jerusalem from the north-west by the carriage road from Jaffa. There is no prospect of any such innovations at 'Akka. The city is of irregular fqrm, ACRE, THE KEY OF PALESTINE. 75 RUINS OF AN AgUEDUCT EAST OF 'AKKA. The position of the stork is quite characteristic, as storks instinctively take possession of lofty deserted' structures, where they may build their huge nests in safety. and contains an area of fifty acres. Its western sea front is its longest facade in a direct line, and leads one to expect to find the city very much larger than it really is. On the land side, facing the north and east, there is a double line of fortifications and a deep fosse (see page 76). The outer line was commenced by Jezzar Pasha in 1799, imme- diately after the retreat of Napoleon I., Avho had for sixty days besieged the city in vain, notwithstanding his eight deadly assaults on it. Napoleon's transport ships, which Avere to have landed his heavy ordnance and stores at Haifa (see page 83), were PICTURESQUE PALESTINE, cleverly intercepted and captured by Admiral Sir Sydney Smith, and used in defence of 'Akka. Jezzar Pasha's outwork, which was completed and extended by the above- mentioned Abdallah Pasha in 1820, is four hundred feet in advance of the inner line of forti- fication, which Avas con- structed by the celebrated Sheikh Dhaher-el-'Amer, who, having made himself master of Central Pales- tine, chose this city as his place of residence in the year 1749. It is conjec- tured that these two lines of fortification coincide with those of the Cru- saders (see engraving). The sea-wall along the south front of the city is of great strength ; it is built of very large stones with marginal drafts and rustic bosses, characteris- tic of the work of the Crusaders. The harbour is formed by the curve of the narrowing reef on which the city is built towards the south-west, corresponding with the curve of the opposite shore to the south-east. There are the remains of ACRE, THE KEY OF PALESTINE. 77 an ancient mole, visible under water, running eastwards from the south-east point of the reef, but within this line the average depth of the harbour is now only three feet. This partly arises from recent silting, but chiefly from having been purposely filled up early in the seventeenth ABLUTIONS AFTER A i\lID-DAY JHCAL. Of all the people of the East it may be said, " except they wash their hands diligently, eat not," and after a meal it is urgently necessary when fingers have been used instead of forks. century by the renowned rebel Druse chieftain, the Emir Fakr-ed-Din, who held supreme sway over Syria and Palestine from the year 1595 to 1634. He, however, greatly strengthened the city and revived its commerce ; he also built the large and convenient khan near the south- VOL. III. M 78 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. eastern end of the reef, called (in memory of its occupation by European merchants and factors) the Khan of the Franks. In a corner of this khan there is a Franciscan monastery, famous for its lofty-terraced roof. The port of ' Akka extends one thousand feet from north to south, and seven hundred feet from east to west, but it affords no protection in stormy weather, and ships then seek refuge at the opposite side of the bay in the sheltered haven of Haifa (see page 83), which is formed by a deep curve of the shore at the foot of the headland of Carmel (see page 88). It was at Haifa that Ibrahim Pasha, stepson of Muhammed Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, and commander of the Egyptian army, caused his artillery and stores to be landed preparatory to his investment of 'Akka in November, 1831. His cavalry and the bulk of his infantry marched through the desert from Egypt, entered Palestine at El Arish, and without opposi- tion took possession of Gaza and Jaffa (see page 129). At the latter place Ibrahim arrived simultaneously from Alexandria, with a large fleet carrying siege material and the remainder of the troops. He landed at Jaffa with his staff and marched northwards up the coast, at the head of his army of between thirty and forty thousand men, and, rounding the promontory of Carmel, approached Haifa. To the great terror of the townspeople, the fleet at the same time steered towards the shore and safely landed the siege material. Ibrahim thence marched onwards to 'Akka, skirting the bay (see page 80), while his squadron proceeded to attack the city by sea, thus enabling the land forces to take up their position before it, under great advantages, on November 27th, 1831. The siege was not, at the onset, scientifically conducted. For more than five months a furious and reckless bombardment was kept up, during which time thirty-five thousand shells were thrown into the heart of the city, causing terrible destruction to life and private property, while comparatively little damage was done to the walls and ramparts. A breach which had been made in February, and assaulted twice unsuccessfully, had been successfully repaired. Muhammed Ali, impatient of delay and of the waste of ammunition without any results, sent Roset, a Neapolitan engineer of great experience, to 'Akka to organize the siege, and fifteen days after his arrival, the place, though defended with great vigour and bravery by Abdallah Pasha, was taken by storm. The final assault was made on May 27th, 1832, soon after daybreak. The conflict continued through all the heat of the day, and it was not until late in the afternoon, when hundreds of men had been killed in the breach, that the city surrendered — exactly six months after the commencement of the siege. The place was given up to pillage, and terrible scenes ensued. The whole country soon became subject to Muhammed Ali, and 'Akka speedily rose out of its ruins, but as an Egyptian fortress. The public buildings were restored, streets and bazaars rebuilt, a military hospital erected on the site of the Hospice of the Knights of St. John, and the fortifications strengthened until they were deemed almost impregnable. In the meantime all citizens who had survived the siege or who had taken refuge in distant towns were encouraged to re-establish themselves in 'Akka, and a great impetus was given to ACRE, THE KEY OF PALESTINE. 79 trade and commerce. The city was occupied by the elite of the Egyptian army under Colonel Seve (a former aide-de-camp to Marshal Ney), and was kept constantly stored with five years' provisions and abundant ammunition. Ibrahim Pasha caused the long western sea-wall to be almost entirely reconstructed, with stones carried away from the fortress of 'Athlit (see page loo). The scarps of this wall are from thirty to forty feet in height; in its centre stands the Burj el Hadid (the Iron Tower) ; at the northern end there is another important tower called Burj el Kerim, while Burj Sanjak (the Flag Tower), also built by Ibrahim with stones from 'Athlit, protects the southern extremity. But as soon as the city had to all outward appearance recovered from the terrible effects of the siege of the year 1832, it had to undergo another bombardment. The fleets of England, Austria, and Turkey united to expel the Egyptian invaders from Syria and Palestine, just when the people in the district of 'Akka were becoming somewhat reconciled to the rigorous rule of Ibrahim Pasha. But the siege on this occasion, though most disastrous, was of very short duration. The British fleet appeared off 'Akka on the 3rd of November, 1840, and the Egyptian colours were immediately hoisted at the Citadel and the Flag Tower, in defiance. Admiral Stopford directed the operations of the squadron from a steamboat. Commodore Napier, commanding the northern, and Captain Collier the southern division, led their ships close up to the fortress, and took up their positions at two o'clock in the afternoon, under a tremendous fire from the batteries. But the Egyptian artillery officers had not anticipated that the fleet would venture so near to the ramparts, and they fired very much too high. The result was that Avhile the ships poured in their broadsides in a terrific manner, and with great effect, the balls from the fortress flew over their hulls almost harmlessly. There was an uninterrupted roar of guns and the atmosphere was darkened with smoke. At about four o'clock a terrible explosion took place within the fortifications on the land side. The whole of the arsenal and one of the principal magazines, containing five hundred barrels of powder, were blown up, and two entire regiments (consisting of at least sixteen hundred men), who were formed in position on the ramparts above it, were at once annihilated. An unknown number of women and children and animals perished at the same time. Everything within an area of sixty thousand square yards was destroyed, and masses of solid buildings, blown to a great height in the air, descended in a shower of fragments, greatly damaging the fortifications on the land side. This accident naturally hastened the conclusion of the contest. At sunset the firing ceased from the ships and from the batteries ; the fleet then retired into deep water. SJon after midnight a boat put off from the shore conveying to the fleet the startling intelligence that the Egyptian troops were hastily quitting 'Akka. An armed force immediately landed and took possession of the cit}-' without opposition, and thus it became once more a Turkish fortress. Daylight disclosed a terrible state of devastation — scarcely a dwelling-house in the city had escaped injury. Ordnance stores, however, of every description, and in extraordinary abundance, were found in excellent order ; no fortress at that period could have been better provided with munitions of war ; but the destruction of life had M 2 8o PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. been so great in a few hours that this was of no avail to the besieged. The scene of the explosion of the magazine and arsenal is said to have resembled the crater of a volcano ; it was a vast holloAV, a mile in circumference, lined with smouldering debris and surrounded to a great distance with dead bodies. Unhappily, there was another explosion two days THE PLAIN OF 'AKKA FROM THE SLOPES OF CARMEL. Showing the grove of palm-trees which extends from Haifa nearly as far as the mouth of the river Kishon. afterwards near to this spot ; five case- ments filled with ammunition blew up in rapid succession, and an unknown number of people were killed, including many women who were seeking for the bodies of their husbands among the ruins. There was great difficulty at first in restoring order in the city, owing to the propensity to plunder and the confusion of languages. But authority finally prevailed, and under the energetic direction of British and Turkish officers the work of reparation commenced, and by degrees 'Akka once more rose out of its ruins. When Muhammed Ali heard of the loss of 'Akka he sent instructions to Ibrahim Pasha to evacuate the whole of Syria and Palestine immediately ; these provinces were accordingly restored to the Turkish Empire. ACRE, THE KEY OF PALESTINE. 8i The only land entrance to 'Akka is at Burj Kepi (the Gate Tower), near the southern extremity of the short eastern land-wall, which meets the sea-wall nearly at right angles at the head of the harbour. There is a good representa- tion of this gate on page 73. It will be seen that the place of entrance, within an arch of horseshoe form, is on the south side of the tower, and after passing through it, it is necessary to turn to the left, that is west- ward, to enter the city. This is characteristic of entrances to walled towns in the East, they being very rarely direct. (For an interior view of a gate of similar con- struction see page i, vol. i.) Towards the gate of 'Akka many roads converge ; not roads on which carriages can travel, but not very bad roads for horses, mules, donkeys, and camels, except in the .'Si A WELL IN A GARDEN OF HAIFA. Showing a machine, called a sakiyeh, raising water to fill the adjacent tank, on the right. 82 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. rainy seasons. There are the old coast roads from the north and south, the much-frequented road from Jenin via the plain of Esdraelon (see page 20, vol. ii.), the roads from Safed (page 90, vol. ii.) and Sefuriyeh (page 48, vol. ii.), but the road from the great, treeless, corn-producing plain of the Hauran, the chief granary of the whole country, is by far the most important. Wheat in that highly-favoured region yields eightyfold, and barley a hundredfold (see Matthew xiii. 8). Its semi-transparent " hard wheat" is very highly valued and largely exported ; and during the season thousands of camel-loads of this grain arrive at 'Akka. The road which unites the Hauran with this city, its natural seaport, must have been much used, if not made, by the Romans. It passes through southern Jaulan, the ancient Gaulanitis, crosses the Jordan south of the Sea of Galilee, and after being joined by an old road from Tiberias (see page 65, vol. ii.), takes an almost direct course to 'Akka. At other seasons this road is traversed occasionally by camels laden with millstones made of basalt, which abounds in the Lejah (Trachonitis), a rocky region of the Hauran, of volcanic origin, situated to the east of Jaulan (Gaulanitis, see page 102, vol. ii.) and north-east of the great corn-plain above mentioned, which owes its extraordinary fertility to the fact that its soil is composed of basaltic trap in a state of disintegration. In forming millstones, especially of this extremely hard material, considerable skill is required. The stones for hand-mills are usually from eighteen to twenty-four inches in diameter, but larger ones are made to be worked by wind or water power (see page 8). The upper surface of the nether millstone is slightly convex, and fits into a corresponding concavity in the upper millstone, which is called in Arabic rdkih, " the rider," corresponding with the Hebrew j-ekeb, 25-1., "chariot." They are each pierced through the centre, and in the hole of the lower stone a strong pivot is fixed, on which the upper millstone "rides." When two women are "grinding together at a mill" they sit opposite to each other, grasping the upright handle fixed near to the edge of the upper stone, and moving it together steadily in a circle, so as to cause the " rider " to rotate regularly. The woman whose right hand is disengaged throws the grain into the cup-like aperture in the centre as required (see page 127, vol. i.). The mill is sometimes fixed in a kind of cement which rises round it in the form of a shallow bowl, and receives the meal as it falls from between the stones. The " nether millstone," to which the heart of " leviathan " is compared in Job xli. 24, is frequently formed of a denser kind of stone than the upper one. The basaltic district of the Hauran furnishes stones of every degree of density, but all of extreme hardness, and mills made from them are so much in demand on account of their great durability, that notwithstanding the expense of transport (a pair of ordinary millstones being a load for a camel), they are sent in great numbers to 'Akka, and thence widely distributed by land and by sea. Comparatively few camels are possessed by the peasantry of Palestine, At harvest times and for special services they are hired of the Bedawin who frequent the regions east of the Jordan, and whose chief wealth consists of herds of camels, which are absolutely ACRE, THE KEY OF PALESTINE. .83 necessary to the existence of nomadic tribes. Camels uhich are used for bearing burdens are called jemel (see page 189, vol. i.), and those which are bred and trained for riding dJichil (see page 159, vol i.) ; the difference between them is as great as that between a race-horse and a cart-horse. At certain times, for a few days in succession, strings of camels approach 'Akka, carrying baskets of rice from the valley of the Jordan. From nearer districts baggage mules bring bales of cotton, sacks of olives, and jars of oil, or packages of scammony and madder {ali::ari), all in due season ; but every day, early in the morning, troops of doi'xkeys and peasants arrive from the neighbouring gardens and villages with fruit and vegetables, eggs and milk, while fishermen land their spoils from the sea ; and in fine weather, during the busy season, the scene THE BAY OF 'AKKA FROM THE SLOPES OF CAKMEL. With the ruined castle of Haifa in the foreground and a glimpse of the town of Haifa at the foot of the castle-hill ; in the distance the city of 'Akka is clearly shown. is further enlivened by little boats hurrying to and fro with merchandise or provisions for ships in the offing, • AI Hariri (1052 — 1123), the most famous Arabic poet of the Muhammcdan era, who flourished during the First Crusade, wrote, in the last of his Assemblies (JNIakamat), words in praise of a seaport town which are perfectly applicable to 'Akka : — "This is the pleasant place of meeting, the meeting-place of the ship and the camel, where lizards may watch the leaping sca-fish, where the camel-driver communes with the sailor, and the fisherman astonishes the tiller of the soil with stories of the sea." 'Akka contains, according to a recent estimate, about nine thousand inhabitants, of whom seven thousand five hundred are Muhammedans, includincr the trarrison of Turkish soldiers ; the rest, with the exception of a few Jews and Protestants, belong, really or nominally, to the 84 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. THE CONVENT OF MOUNT CARMEL. Its terraced roof commands extensive views along tlie coast, north and south. The building on the left is used for the accommodation of native pilgrims, and is surmounted by a lighthouse four hundred and seventy feet above the sea. Latin, the Greek, and the Greek CathoHc Churches. Of these the Greek Cathohcs, who are also called Melchites, and are affiliated to the Latin Church, form by far the largest com- munity. During a residence of several years at Haifa, with my brother Mr. E. T. Rogers, when he was H.B.M. Vice-Consul there, I had frequent opportunities of visiting 'Akka. We could row across the bay in an English boat in an hour and a quarter, or gallop along its sandy shore in two hours and a half (see page 83). There were always kindly greetings for us in Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Italian, French, or English (somewhat broken English, ACRE, THE KEY OF PALESTINE. t>- r^^ '■ TTIE GROTTO KNOWN AS "THE SCHOOL OF THE PROPHETS," To which pilgrimages are made by Muhammedan?;, in honour of Elijah. The house on the left is modern, but occupies the site of an ancient chapel. It is opposite the entrance to the cave. but none the less pleasant to hear) as we crossed the open space within the gate of 'Akka, where there is orenerallv a little crowd assembled during the business hours of the day. Close by is the great corn market, sometimes almost blocked up with its heaps of golden grain, its busy buyers VOL. III. N 86 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. and sellers, and heavily laden porters. Beyond are the bazaars. The prhicipal one is well- built and substantially roofed, and largely supplied with silks from the looms of Aleppo and Damascus, Manchester cottons printed and plain, glass, cutlery, and crockery ware from Marseilles and Trieste, and jewellery from Constantinople. The smaller bazaars for provisions and more homely merchandise are sheltered with planks and mats or carpets. A very excellent kind of fine matting is made here, to measure, for covering floors of stone or cement. There are many well-built and commodious private houses in 'Akka, some of which (chiefly those occupied by foreigners and native Christians) are furnished in semi- European style, where Eastern and Western customs are agreeably blended. Especially to be remembered is the home of Mr. Girgius Giammal, with its cheerful-looking many-windowed saloon over- looking the sea, in which I have often been kindly welcomed. In the Muhammedan establishments there are, as a rule, very few Western innovations. The illustration on page 77 gives a good idea of the general appearance of a thoroughly Oriental reception-room in an ordinary house. The bare walls and the small barred windows are especially characteristic. The broad cushioned divan, which occupies three sides of the apartment, serves as a sleeping place by night, the necessary mattresses and quilted coverlets being kept in readiness, in a deep recess concealed by a curtain or in a closet, in the lower part of the room ; for in a genuine Eastern home there are no chambers set apart as bedrooms, the roof or any apartment may be used as a sleeping place as occasion requires, and every bed is portable (Mark ii. 11); thus a great number of guests may easily be enter- tained at the same time. In the centre of the room dinner and supper are served ; the latter is taken at sunset, and is the chief meal of the day. A round tray of tinned copper or of brass, two or three feet in diameter, and more or less enriched with engraved ornament and inscriptions, serves as the dinner table. It is placed on a stool about fifteen inches high, made of wood, and often inlaid with mother-o'-pearl or ivory, like the one in the illustration (on page 77), on which a coffee-pot and coffee-cups are arranged. Of all people of the East it may be said, " except they wash their hands diligently, eat not " (Mark vii. 3). And this is particularly necessary where knives and forks are not used, and each one " dips his hand into the dish " with his neighbour. When the dinner or supper is ready a servant brings in a large metal basin [tisJit), with a perforated cover and a raised perforated receptacle for soap in the middle, and places it before the chief or most aged person present, who takes the soap and rubs his hands, while a stream of water is poured gently over them from a long-spouted ewer [ibrzk) ; the water disappears through the pierced cover, so that when the basin is carried to a second person no soiled water is visible. The same process is repeated after a meal. It is an after-dinner washing of hands that is shown in the illustration on page 77. The elder man, who is bHnd, has already performed the ablution, and is waiting for his nargileh to be lighted, after which coffee will be served. It need hardly be said that no ancient buildings are left standing in 'Akka ; the most ACRE, THE KEY OF PALESTINE. 87 important of the modern structures owe their origin to Ahmed Pasha, surnamed Jezzar (the Butcher), who died in 1804, and who has been compared to Herod for his cruelt)^ as well as for his delight in building. The great khan of Jezzar Pasha occupies the site of a Dominican convent ; the galleries surrounding it are supported by ancient columns of red and grey- granite, hence it is known as Khan el Amid (Khan of the Columns). The great mosque of Jezzar Pasha, which has been restored again and again (the present buttressed dome having been erected since 1863), occupies the site of a cathedral. It is formed chiefly of ancient materials, the columns of various coloured marbles and granite having been brought from Csesarea and Tyre. It is an elaborate but not a beautiful structure. It stands, however, in the centre of a magnificent quadrangular court, planted with cypress and palm trees and flowering shrubs, which shelter some tombs of white marble. This court is surrounded by cloisters supported by ancient columns, and divided into apartments for the accommodation of the mosque attendants and pilgrims. The domed roofs of these retreats may be distinguished in the illustration on page 76. The doves hovering over the great dome and settling upon it are characteristic of the place, for these birds are alwa)-s safe within the precincts of a mosque, and this gives rise to the Arabic expression, " As safe as a dove in the Haram " (the sacred enclosure). The ramparts of 'Akka, to which access can only be gained by special permission of the Pasha, form a pleasant and interesting promenade, and though the battered walls bristle with cannons and mortars (among which are some of those which Sir Sydney Smith captured from Napoleon's transport ships), yet the place looked peaceful enough when I last walked there, for many little wild plants were growing out of the crevices, and there were some fine specimens of the acanthus in full blossom. SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF 'AKKA. It is recorded in Judges i. 31, 32, that the tribe of Asher, to whom the city of Accho, i33J ('Akka) was assigned, did not succeed in driving out its inhabitants, " the Canaanites," but "dwelt among them." The fragments of buildings which have been found here, formed of small and highly sun-dried bricks with a mixture of cement and sand, characteristic of structures of the remotest ages, may be regarded as relics of this period. No further mention is made of Accho in the Old Testament, but it is occasionally alluded to by classic authors as Ake, a city of Phoenicia, and mention is made of it by Menander as having yielded to Assyria when Tyre was attacked by Shalmanasar. Akkon is its Ass)Tian name. That this city was a place of importance when Alexander the Great, B.C. 333, wrested Syria, Palestine, and Eg}'pt from Persian rule, is proved by the existence of numerous very fine gold and silver coins of the Macedonian monarch struck at 'Akka. When Alexander's vast dominions were divided among his generals, who were his successors, Egypt fell to the share of Ptolemy, who subsequently acquired 'Akka, b.c. 320. For a long period the city was under N 2 88 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. With the lighthouse on its summit. The sandy point below is Ras Kerfim (the head of the vineyard). The city of 'Akka appears in the distance, and beyond it are the white cliffs of Ras en Naktirah. the rule of the Ptolemies, who greatly enlarged and beautified it, and gave it the name of Ptolemais. But of this, probably its most brilliant era, no relics which can be with cer- tainty identified remain, except the coins of the Ptolemies which were struck here. They are distinguished from other coins of the Ptolemies by the initial letters of Ptolemais, ttt, on the obverse. The rule of the Ptolemies in 'Akka was not continuous ; they lost and regained the city several times during their contests with the Seleucidsean Kings of Syria (see i Mac- cabees xi., xii.). Ultimately this much-con- tended-for city passed into the hands of the Romans. It was greatly embellished by Herod, though it was not actually within his jurisdiction, ACRE, THE KEY OF PALESTIXE. 89 and when Paul abode there one day (Acts xxi. 7) on his way from Tyre (see pages 55, 56, At the south-eastern point of the range of Car- mel. In the foreground is the green knoll called Tell el Kassis (the Hill of the Priests), close to which the Kishon flows. and 59) to Caesarea (see page 108), it had already been raised to the rank of a Roman colony, and must have been a splendid city. The im- perial coinage of Ptolemais extends from the reign of Claudius to the time of Salonina (a.d. 41 to A.D. 268). The obverse bears the head and titles of the sovereign. The in- scription of the reverse is generally COL PTOL. The most striking reverse types are on the coins of Trajan and Hadrian — a female figure wearing a mural crown (the genius of go PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. the city) seated on a rock, at her feet a river (the Behis), and in her right hand ears of wheat ; and on coins of Caracalla — a hexastyle temple in which Fortune stands crowned by Victory, who is placed on a column beside her. At an early period this city became an episcopal see. Clarus, Bishop of Ptolemais, attended the Council of Caesarea a.d. 198 (see page 108). In A.D. 638 the Muhammedans took possession of Ptolemais, and its Semitic name of Accho, which had evidently been cherished by tradition, was immediately revived under the form of 'Akka. The next great change was the conquest of the city by the Crusaders under Baldwin L A.D, 1 104, when it became their chief stronghold and landing-place. The Venetians, Genoese, and Pisans, whose fleets continually conveyed pilgrims and Crusaders, stores and merchandise to the port of 'Akka, had special quarters assigned to them for trade, and the place rapidly grew in importance; yet it surrendered to Salah-ed-din (Saladin) without resistance, a.d. 1187, after his decisive victory at Hattin. (For a view of Hattin see page 58, and for a description of the battle of Hattin see pages 63 and 64, vol. ii.) 'Akka was regained by the Crusaders in 1 1 9 1 , after a long siege, by the timely arrival of Richard Plantagenet and Philip Augustus with fresh forces. The city remained in their possession for exactly one hundred years, during which time many splendid buildings, churches, palaces, monasteries, and aqueducts were erected. It became the head-quarters of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and acquired its European name of St. Jean d'Acre. The coinage of the Crusaders is very interesting, but there is one series of coins so remarkable as to be worthy of special notice here. To facilitate dealings with the Arabs, the Venetians, who may be regarded as the money farmers of the Crusaders, struck from time to time, at Tripoli (see page 9), 'Akka, and Jerusalem, gold coins in imitation, more or less exact, of the dinars of the khalifs. On these coins the name and titles of one of the khalifs appeared on the obverse, and on the reverse the declaration of the Muhammedan faith, in Arabic in the Cufic character. This practice continued for a long period, and the fabricated coins passed current throughout the country. When Eudes de Chateauroux, the Legate of Pope Innocent IV., arrived at Acre with Louis IX., he was enraged to find that coins, the legends of which declared that Muhammed was the Apostle of God, were struck and issued under the auspices of the Crusaders. Excommunication was pronounced against " the evil-doers " and ratified by the Pope. But the want of gold coinage was such a serious inconvenience that the Venetians of 'Akka resorted to a subterfuge to get over the difficulty. They once more imitated the coins of the khalifs, but substituted Christian legends for the Muhammedan ones. For instance, one example has on the obverse within a circle (where the name of a khalif ought to appear) the words, " The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, One God," and in the margin, "Struck at 'Akka in the year 1251 of the incarnation of the Messiah." On the reverse, " We glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, by whom we have our salvation, our MOUNT CARMEL. 91 life, our resurrection, and by w'hom we have been delivered and pardoned." Another coin dated as above has within the square of the obverse, " One God, one faith, one baptism," with a small cross in the centre, and on the reverse a declaration of trinity in unity, with the words, " Glory to God from age to age. Amen," in the segments of the circle. Christian rule in Palestine came to an end in a.d. 1291, when the Egyptian sultan, ]\Ielek- el-Ashraf Khalil, son of Kalaoun, took the city of 'Akka by storm, after a siege of one month. He gave orders for the demolition of its walls and churches ; but a gateway of one of its churches was preserved and carried to Cairo (El Kahireh) as a trophy of victory. El Makrizi, the celebrated Arab historian (refer to page 238, vol. ii.) relates the circumstance, and speaks with enthusiasm of the beauty of this gate, saying, " It is one of the most admirable that the hands of man have made, for it is of white marble, novel in style, surpassing in workmanship, its bases and jambs and columns all conjoined (clustered), and the whole was conveyed to Al Kahireh." It forms the entrance to the mosque tomb of Melek-en-Nasr Muhammed, brother and successor (1293 — 1341) of the above Melek-el-Ashraf Khalil (1290 — 1293), in the Suk en Nahhasin, one of the main thoroughfares of Cairo ; and it often puzzles travellers who do not know its history. This gateway is especially interesting, being the only perfect relic now left of the numerous churches built by the Crusaders at 'Akka. A traveller in Palestine in the middle of the fourteenth century (Ludolf de Suchem) describes 'Akka as empty and desolate, but he says that its churches, towers, and palaces were not then so comipletely destroyed as to have rendered their restoration impossible. About sixty Saracens were left to guard the place and port. They supported themselves by the culture of silk and the sale of doves and partridges which swarmed there. The city was still in ruins when it passed into the possession of Selim I., the Sultan of Turkey, a.d. 15 17, and it did not begin to revive until the seventeenth century. The only remains of Crusading work now distinguishable are the subterranean magazines beneath the modern military hospital, a range of immense vaults under the ramparts, traces of the churches of St. Andrew and of St. John, and portions of the city wall. About one mile due east of 'Akka stands the " Mount Turon " of the Crusaders, where Richard Coeur de Lion encamped in 1191, and where, in 1799, Napoleon planted his batteries in vain. It is an isolated and apparently artificial mount, ninety-six feet in height, completely dominating the city of 'Akka and overlooking the plain. The Arabic name of this hill is Tell el Fokhar, " the hill of potter's clay," but it is sometimes called Napoleon's Mount, and is also known as the Mount of Antikdr, the name g-iven to Kincr Richard in the numerous Arabian chronicles of the Crusades. MOUNT CARMEL AND THE RIVER KISHON. The distance, in a straight line, from the promontory of 'Akka to the headland of Carmel (Ras Kerum, literally " the head of the vineyard ") is eight miles (see page 88). Between these 92 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. two points the coast recedes considerably, and the distance along the shore is more than twelve miles. The bay thus formed widens towards the south, measuring not more than a mile near to 'Akka, but at least three miles opposite the mouth of the river Kishon (Nahr Muktitta'), south of which the curvingr shore forms the haven of Haifa, which faces the north (see page 80). The broad smooth beach of fine sand which leads from 'Akka to Haifa (see page 83) is separated from the fertile plain by a broad belt of drifted sand-dunes, which extends from south of the Belus (see page 72) to Haifa, inter- rupted only by the ever-shifting mouth of the Kishon, a distance of nine miles. In the middle of the bay this belt of sand-hills is a mile in width. But it is not ^ entirely devoid of vegetation. M There are frequent tufts of H marram grass {Psamma areuaria) ■ binding the sand with its long B tangled roots, clumps of the beautiful sea holly {Eryu.giuvi WELL AT THE PLACE OF ELIJAH'S SACRIFICE, AND A VIEW FROM maritiniuni), and broad patches THE HEIGHTS ABOVE IT, Embracing a long line of the coast of the plain of 'Athlit, with a strip of blue sea beyond, of alkali (saltwort), interspersed MOUNT CARMEL.. 93 here and there with half-buried shrubs, stunted trees, and thickets of tamarisks ; while south of the Kishon, the narrowing sand-ridge is crowned with palm-trees {Ph(£nix dactylifera\\A{\z\\ form an extensive grove, the chief glory of Haifa, and one of the most picturesque places in Palestine (see page 80 and the VOL. III. THE RIVER KISHON FROM EL MAHRAKAH, The place of Elijah's sacrifice. A Bedawin encampment in the foreground, and the hills of Galilee in the distance beyond a forest of oak-trees. Steel plate entitled "Mount Carmel"). Within the sand- dunes north of the Kishon the plain extends eastward for four miles to the foot of the hills, where there are numerous villages surrounded by olive- groves. The plain is in many parts well cultivated, and yields cotton and o 94 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. tobacco, good crops of wheat and barley, and vegetables of many kinds ; liquorice grows wild. The marshes by the river Belus (Nahr Na'man), and near the fountain of Jidru, are in the spring-time bright with blossoming reeds and rushes, and the blue and yellow iris springs up at the edge of every little pool of water (see Job viii. ii) ; while large expanses of firm ground bordering the marsh-land are carpeted as early as February with anemones— scarlet, crimson, white, blue, purple, pink, and lilac — with patches of clover and mallow here and there, and golden buttercups. Meadow grass grows quickly here, after the winter rains, to the height of two feet or more, and it is curious to see the frail speedwell and pimpernel, with long pale stems, struggling upwards through it towards the light. But this grass of rapid growth quickly falls while yet green, and there is no attempt at haymaking (see Job viii. 12). Many horses, however, are sent here from Haifa to graze during this short season of plentiful pasturage. The gardens of Haifa are pleasantly situated between the palm-grove above mentioned and the slopes of Carmel (see page 80), and extend from near the east gate of the town to Wady Selman, whose winding channels and large lagoon are fringed with oleasters and sea lavender, and haunted by egrets, herons, and kingfishers. My brother's garden was about a mile and a half from Haifa, and just opposite Wady Rashmia. It produced fruit and vegetables of many kinds, but it was most famous for its large white mulberry tree, and we often rode there to spend the hour before sunset with a few friends, when its fruit was ripe, resting on mats in its shade, or on the broad stone parapet of the raised pool close by. There were a few rose-bushes and carnations round the rustic dwelling of the gardener and his two wives, who seemed to live very amicably together, although the first wife was an Arab woman, no longer young, and the second was an Egyptian girl whom he had avowedly married because he required an extra assistant, and knew that she was clever at gardening, especially in the cultivation of tomatoes, the bamieh (Hibiscus esculentus), and the purple €gg-plant [Melongena badiiijan). But the illustration on page 81 reminds me of another garden, the first I visited at Haifa. It was close to the east gate of the town. We made our way, one pleasant afternoon in October, down a short narrow lane of prickly pears {Cactus opuntia), and soon came to a little mud-and-stone hut, the dwelling-place of the gardener and his family. They were all Egyptians (who are generally considered more skilful than the Arabs in the cultivation of the ground, but they are content with more clumsy machinery). Fig-trees, olives, pomegranates, almonds, oranges and lemons, and large beds of cucumbers flourished under their care, and a few date-palm trees embellished the enclosure ; the fruit hangs in golden clusters from these trees year after year, but it does not arrive at perfection in Palestine. A pleasant sound of falling water attracted us towards a rudely built stone reservoir, round which were seated a company of fezzed and turbaned Arabs smoking, chatting, and eating the long rough-skinned but juicy cucumbers for which this garden was especially famous. Water was falling with considerable force into the reservoir from a duct supplied by a series of earthenware jars attached to ropes made of palm fibre, which revolved round a vertical cog-wheel; moved by means of a horizontal wheel also cogged, which was MOUNT CARMEL. 95 kept in motion by a blindfolded mule. As the creaking wheel turned round, the jars dipped into the well and were filled with water, and as soon as they reached the top of the wheel they emptied themselves into the trough, and so on again and again as long as the mule kept up his monotonous round, urged on by a little barefooted boy, stick in hand (see page 8i). (This machine is called a sdkiyeh; it is said to be of Persian origin and is much used in Egypt.) A hole in the lower part of the wall of the reservoir was every day unplugged for a certain time, and the water allowed to flow into the little furrows or channels which intersected the beds of vegetables and encircled the trees (see page 46, vol. ii.). The town of Haifa occupies a space in the form of a parallelogram on a gently rising slope close to the seashore, and is protected by well-built stone walls. It has two embattled gates, one at each end of the main thoroughfare, which is parallel with the shore, and has an open space in the middle where camels and their drivers often bivouac by lantern or moonlight. The houses are very irregularly distributed, and with few exceptions have flat roofs, on which the grass grows freely after the winter rains. Those occupied by consuls, foreign merchants, and the wealthier of the townspeople are large substantial two-storied structures, some of which have central verandahed courts paved with marble. The ground- floor premises are generally used for stabling or stores. The town is rapidly rising in importance, and its markets and bazaars are well supplied. Many houses have recently been erected outside the walls. When I first arrived in Haifa in 1855 there were no suburban dwellings except the huts of the gardeners, and the population was not much more than two thousand ; but according to a recent estimate it contains five thousand inhabitants, of whom more than half are Christians of various communities. The remainder are Muhammedans and a considerable number of Jews. Immediately behind the town rises a steep hill, a spur from Mount Carmel, dotted with olive and terebinth trees and crowned by a small castle called Burj Haifa, in which English cannon balls of 1840 are embedded (see steel plate " Mount Carmel," and page 83). Although both town and castle have a somewhat venerable appearance they are quite modern, and only date from 1761. The old historic Haifa which was taken by the Crusaders in the year iioo, regained by the troops of Saladin in 1190, and retaken and refortified by Louis IX., was a mile and a half north-west of the present town, and extended nearly as far as Ras Kerum (see page 88). It was called by its Christian conquerors the " Seigneurie de Caiphas," and among its successive rulers were Tancred, after\vards Regent of Antioch, and Rorgius, who had previously been "Lord of Hebron." But the city was lost to the Crusaders, and almost destroyed by the Muhammedans, at the end of the thirteenth century. It still existed, however, in 1761, when Sheikh Dhaher-el-'Amer was ruler of Central Palestine (refer to page 76); but he found it so dangerously exposed to the incursions of nomadic tribes from the plains of Athlit (see page 92), that he determined that it should be entirely abandoned. Having bombarded the place, he used its stones to build the walls of the new town. He also constructed the serai and the castle (see page 83). The people of Haifa by degrees built o 2 96 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. H o CO (D Q a. p >, J J3 > -S O w t/5 M K " o - K S3 o W „ o s <; 1—, W tsi Cn o O