The following descriptions of some of the spots in the Holy Land which
excite a more particular interest, are extracted from Dr. Clarke’s very
valuable “Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa.”
“As we advanced, our journey led through an open campaign country,
until, upon our right, the guides showed us the mount where it is
believed that Christ preached to his disciples that memorable sermon,
concentrating the sum and substance of every Christian virtue. We left
our route to visit this elevated spot; and, having attained the highest
point of it, a view was presented, which, for its grandeur,
independently of the interest excited by the different objects contained
in it, has no parallel in the Holy Land. From this situation we
perceived that the plain, over which we had been so long riding, was
itself very elevated. Far beneath appeared other plains, one lower than
the other, and extending to the surface of the sea of Tiberias, or sea
of Galilee. This immense lake, almost equal, in the grandeur of its
appearance, to that of Geneva, spreads its waters over all the lower
territory, extending from the north-east toward the south-west, and then
bearing east of us. Its eastern shores present a sublime scene of
mountains, extending toward the north and south, and seeming to close it
in at either extremity, both toward Chorazin, where the Jordan enters,
and the Aulon, or Campus-magnus, through which it flows to the Dead sea.
The cultivated plains reaching to its borders, which we beheld at an
amazing depth below our view, resembled, by the various hues their
different produce exhibited, the motley pattern of a vast carpet. To the
north appeared snowy summits, towering, beyond a series of intervening
mountains, with unspeakable greatness. We considered them as the summits
of Libanus; but the Arabs belonging to our caravan called the principal
eminence Jebel el Sieh, saying it was near Damascus; probably,
therefore, a part of the chain of Libanus. This summit was so lofty,
that the snow entirely covered the upper part of it; not lying in
patches, as I have seen it, during summer, upon the tops of very
elevated mountains, (for instance, upon that of Ben Nevis, in Scotland,)
but investing all the higher part with that perfect white and smooth,
velvet-like appearance which snow exhibits when it is very deep; a
striking spectacle in such a climate, where the beholder, seeking
protection from a burning sun, almost considers the firmament to be on
fire.”