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[Illustration: TABOR.]
TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.
A Record of Discovery and Adventure.
BY
CLAUDE REIGNIER CONDER, R.E.,
OFFICER IN COMMAND OF THE SURVEY EXPEDITION.
Published for the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. W. WHYMPER.
New Edition.
[Illustration]
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY & SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen.
1887.
[_All Rights Reserved._]
TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
THE PRINCE OF WALES
This Work is Dedicated,
WITH HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS’ GRACIOUS PERMISSION,
BY THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
The Survey of Western Palestine was commenced under Captain Stewart,
R.E., in January, 1872. Ill-health obliged that officer to return almost
immediately. Lieutenant Conder, R.E., was appointed to the command, and
arrived in Palestine in the summer of the same year. The work meantime
had been conducted under the charge of the late Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt
Drake.
Lieutenant Conder returned to England in October, 1875, having surveyed
4700 square miles.
The remaining 1300 square miles of the Survey were finished by
Lieutenant Kitchener in 1877.
The present volume contains Lieutenant Conder’s personal history of his
work, without specially entering on the scientific results. These will
be published with the great map in the form of memoirs, twenty-six in
number, one to every sheet.
Lieutenant Conder’s conclusions and proposed identifications are, it
will be understood, his own. The Committee do not, collectively, adopt
the conclusions of any of their officers.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
PREFACE v
INTRODUCTION xi
I. THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM 1
II. SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS 15
III. THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA 41
IV. THE GREAT PLAIN OF ESDRAELON 58
V. THE NAZARETH HILLS 71
VI. CARMEL AND ACRE 88
VII. SHARON 103
VIII. DAMASCUS, BAALBEK AND HERMON 121
IX. SAMSON’S COUNTRY 139
X. BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA 145
XI. JERUSALEM 160
XII. THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY 182
XIII. JERICHO 199
XIV. THE JORDAN VALLEY 214
XV. HEBRON AND BEERSHEBA 236
XVI. THE LAND OF BENJAMIN 251
XVII. THE DESERT OF JUDAH 260
XVIII. THE SHEPHELAH AND PHILISTIA 273
XIX. GALILEE 289
XX. THE ORIGIN OF THE FELLAHÎN 298
XXI. LIFE AND HABITS OF THE FELLAHÎN 315
XXII. THE BEDAWÎN 336
XXIII. JEWS, RUSSIANS, AND GERMANS 350
XXIV. THE FERTILITY OF PALESTINE 364
XXV. THE FUTURE OF PALESTINE 375
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
TABOR--_Frontispiece_.
From the summit of Jebel Dŭhy. From a water-colour sketch by the
Author.
TITLE-PAGE.
From a sketch by the Author. A theodolite-party at work.
JACOB’S WELL 15
From a sketch made by the Author in the vault over the well; looking
south.
TOMB OF PHINEHAS 41
From a sketch by the Author; looking south-west.
HEROD’S COLONNADE AT SAMARIA 43
From a photograph; looking east.
GUEST HOUSE 52
From a sketch by the Author made in the village of Kuriet-Jit.
VIEW FROM JENIN 58
From a water-colour sketch by the Author; looking north.
CHURCH OF ST. ANNE, AT SEFFURIEH 71
From a photograph by Lieut. Kitchener, R.E.; looking east.
CARMEL 88
From a water-colour sketch by the Author; looking west from near the
village of Mujeidil.
CONSTANTINE’S BASILICA AT BETHLEHEM 145
From a photograph by Lieut. Kitchener, R.E.; looking east.
MAR SABA 157
From a photograph; looking north-east.
THE DOME OF THE ROCK 160
From a photograph; looking north.
THE TEMPLE WALL 182
From a sketch made by the Author in a chamber outside the west wall,
near the north corner.
GILGAL 199
From a sketch made by the Author on the spot; the view is north-west,
over the Plain of Jericho.
DEBIR 236
From a sketch by the Author; looking south-west.
THE VALLEY OF MICHMASH _to face_ 256
From a photograph by Lieut. Kitchener, R.E.; looking east.
ENGEDI 260
From a sketch by the Author; looking south.
GATH 273
From a sketch by the Author; looking south-east.
COLUMBARIA, NEAR BEIT JIBRÎN 275
From a photograph by Lieut. Kitchener, R.E.
THE SEA OF GALILEE 289
From a water-colour sketch by the Author; looking north from Kaukab el
Hawa.
A DERWÎSH 298
From a sketch by the Author.
COSTUMES OF MOSLEM PEASANTRY NEAR SHECHEM 315
From a sketch by the Author.
MALE DANCERS 325
From a sketch by the Author.
A BEDAWI WOMAN 336
From a coloured sketch by the Author.
HAIFA 364
From a water-colour drawing by the Author. View from the shore west of
the German Colony; looking east.
INTRODUCTION.
The Survey of Palestine was actually commenced at the end of the year
1871. Preliminary _reconnaissances_ of parts of Palestine had been
previously made by Captain Anderson, R.E., and Captain Warren, R.E., and
the Ordnance Survey of the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, with the line of
levels from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, and from Jerusalem to
Solomon’s Pools, had been executed by Major Wilson, R.E.
It was by the advice of these experienced explorers that the Committee
of the Palestine Exploration Fund undertook the Survey of Western
Palestine, to the scale of one inch to the mile, the object being the
complete examination of the whole country, with an amount of accuracy
approaching that of Ordnance work.
The officer to whom this great work was entrusted was Captain Stewart,
R.E., and his staff consisted of Sergeant Black and Corporal Armstrong,
R.E.; Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake was also appointed as linguist and
archæologist to the expedition.
The work met with a most serious check at its commencement. Captain
Stewart, arriving in the most unhealthy time of the year, and engaged in
a most unhealthy part of the country, while measuring the base line, was
struck down with fever and invalided home. The Committee then honoured
me with the offer of the command, as his successor, and I was instructed
to proceed as soon as possible to Palestine.
In the meantime the little party, under the care of Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake,
pursued its labours, and carried the Survey up the country to Jerusalem,
and thence to Nâblus, accomplishing in the first half of 1872 about 500
square miles. This work has since, under my direction, been re-examined,
and the excellent character of this part of the map reflects the highest
credit on the zeal and care of the two surveyors, who, though ignorant
of the language and unaccustomed to the style of work required, yet
succeeded in recovering everything of value in the district; nor does it
less reflect credit on the tact and judgment of my lamented friend Mr.
Tyrwhitt Drake, on whom devolved the arduous task of organising and
managing the infant expedition.
I reached Palestine on the 8th of July, 1872, and from that date, until
the 1st October, 1875, the work was pushed on with scarcely any
interruption, except during my absence for four months in 1874, when I
returned to England to recruit my health, which was seriously impaired
by the hardships encountered in the Jordan Valley.
After the attack on the party at Safed in 1875, the work was suspended
for a year. When I left Palestine four-fifths of the Survey was
completed, and the remaining fifth was happily carried out during the
year 1877 under the command of Lieutenant Kitchener, and the great map
now extends over 6000 square miles, from Dan to Beersheba, and from
Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea.
Palestine is thus brought home to England, and the student may travel,
in his study, over its weary roads and rugged hills without an ache, and
may ford its dangerous streams, and pass through its malarious plains
without discomfort.
This work was thus carried out by a party never stronger than five in
number as regards Europeans, and was completed in little over five years
in the field. The account given of the country will, I hope, be more
complete than anything of the kind yet attempted for any Eastern land.
The results of the Survey are published as follows: First, a map in
twenty-six sheets to the scale of one inch to the statute mile.
Secondly, a reduced map engraved on copper to the scale of 660 yards to
the inch.
The one-inch sheets are each accompanied by a memoir containing all the
information collected by the Survey Party. Section A gives a
geographical and topographical account of the country included in the
sheet. Section B is an archæological description of the ruined sites.
Section C includes the ethnographical notes and the local traditions of
the district. The text of this memoir, with exception of Sections A and
B, for sheets 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, has been my work, under the editorship
of Mr. G. Grove and Colonel C. W. Wilson, R.E. The nomenclature of the
Survey, including about 9000 Arabic names, has been arranged in indexes
for each sheet, and edited by Professor E. H. Palmer. The memoir will
contain information which I have at various times carefully abstracted
from more than fifty standard works, including Egyptian, Samaritan, and
Talmudic writings, the early Christian Itineraries, and the mediæval
chronicles, besides the Bible narrative, and the works of Josephus and
other classical authorities.
It is evident that so great a work requires some general _résumé_, to
bring it within the reach of the general public, who might not read the
memoir, or would fail to obtain from it any very vivid idea of
Palestine, or of the discoveries made there during the execution of the
Survey.
The present volume is intended to supply this want, and to form a
popular introduction to the work of the Survey Party.
The main object of the Survey of Palestine may be said to have been to
collect materials in illustration of the Bible. Few stronger
confirmations of the historic and authentic character of the Sacred
Volume can be imagined than that furnished by a comparison of the Land
and the Book, which shows clearly that they tally in every respect.
Mistaken ideas and preconceived notions may be corrected; but the truth
of the Bible is certainly established, on a firm basis, by the
criticisms of those who, familiar with the people and the country, are
able to read it, not as a dead record of a former world or of an extinct
race, but as a living picture of manners and of a land, which can still
be studied by any who will devote themselves to the task.
The study is threefold. It includes the minute investigation of the
detailed topography of the Bible. Former explorers have done much in
this respect; but it may be claimed for the Survey that the new
discoveries are almost as numerous as all those of former travellers put
together.
The second branch is that of archæology. The Survey includes a complete
examination of the ancient condition of the country. The old cultivation
is traced by the wine-presses, olive-presses, ruined terraces, and rude
garden watch-towers. The ancient sites are recognised by their tombs,
cisterns, and rocky scarps. Thus we are entitled to draw conclusions as
to the ancient cultivation, climate, and water-supply of Palestine, in
Bible times.
The third branch is the study of the people. To this I offer a
contribution in the chapters devoted to the peasantry and to other
inhabitants of Palestine. I trust they may serve to show how rich a
field of inquiry is opened to the student among the ancient indigenous
population of the Holy Land.
In concluding these remarks, I would say a few words on the subject of
identification. What is an identification? It is the recovery of an
ancient historic site, still known to the natives under its original
name, or a modification of that name, though unknown to Europeans. It is
evident that the requisites for a satisfactory identification
are--first, the suitability of the position to all the known accounts of
the place; second, the preservation of all the radical parts of the
name; third, in the case of the loss of the name, we require definite
indications--such as measured distances, or some connection with
existing buildings, or relative position to known sites. The site must
show traces of antiquity, and the name must be placed beyond the
suspicion of being of recent or spurious origin; the correspondence of
the modern and ancient titles must, also, not be merely apparent, but
must be radically exact. Failing these requirements, no identification
will stand the criticism which is now brought to bear on newly-proposed
discoveries.
A second question is intimately connected with this subject--namely, the
authority of Christian tradition. We should not underrate this valuable
means of tracing ancient and sacred sites, which has, we may hope,
handed down to us the positions of such holy places as the Grotto of
Bethlehem, and Jacob’s well at Shechem; nor lay aside tradition because
it _is_ tradition, disregarding one of the few ways of settling the
locality of places which were quite as sacred in the fourth century as
they are now.
On the other hand, a careful and minute inspection of the fourth-century
writings cannot but lead to one conclusion: that Christian tradition can
be taken only as an indication, not as an authority. Unsupported by
other evidence, the tradition is not, in itself, sufficient to fix any
site as authentic; yet most valuable hints may often be obtained by a
study of these early descriptions of the land.
We may take as an example the famous Onomasticon of Eusebius and Jerome.
We are now able to point out, on the map, almost every place, the
position of which is clearly defined in the Onomasticon by measurement,
or by reference to neighbouring places; for in almost every case the
name still exists, and these places number about 200 in all.
There is thus no question that the land was thoroughly well known to
Jerome and Eusebius; but when we turn from their facts to their
theories, we find that the confusion is hopeless; the places proposed as
identical with those noticed in the Bible are quite as often impossibly
guessed as correctly fixed. In fact, the early fathers too often jumped
at conclusions, and, in the fourth century, there were no critics to
contradict them. This view may be supported by any number of instances.
In the cases of Shiloh and Bethhoron, the sites mentioned are those now
accepted. In those of Nob and Ajalon, Jerome’s identifications are not
in any way capable of being reconciled with the Scripture narrative.
Thus it is only as regards personal acquaintance with ancient Palestine
fifteen centuries ago, that the Onomasticon has any real value.
The observations which apply to this work--the earliest and ablest of
the Christian descriptions of Palestine--apply with equal force to all
succeeding accounts; and few writers would attempt to justify the wild
theories of the mediæval chroniclers, whose identifications, in many
cases, contradict alike the Biblical accounts, and the views of the
earlier Byzantine pilgrims.
With a single exception, Christian tradition regarding sacred places
cannot be traced back earlier than the fourth century--the exception is
the Grotto of Bethlehem. But Christian sites appear often to be fixed by
Jewish tradition: and when such is the case, their reliability is
evidently increased, their history being carried back to an earlier
source. This latter really reliable class of traditions is distinguished
by the fact that the Jewish or Samaritan, and generally the Moslem
traditions point, in such cases, to the same spots venerated by the
Christians. The sites of the Temple, and of Jacob’s well, with Joseph’s
tomb, the sepulchres of the Patriarchs, and of Joshua, Phinehas, and
Eleazar, are pointed out at the same spots by Jew, Christian, and
Moslem; and there is every reason to suppose these to be authentic
traditions.
It is, therefore, by _consent of evidence_ that the true and indigenous
origin of a tradition may be tested. Where this consent does not exist,
it is to the Jewish and indigenous, rather than to the later Christian
tradition, that we should turn, as the latter must evidently be in such
cases of foreign origin.
This distinction will be carefully observed in the following pages; and,
by pointing out the cases in which there is a general consent of the
Jewish, Moslem, and Christian traditions, it is hoped that everything of
real value preserved by tradition will be finally selected.
C. R. C.
_Christmas, 1877._
TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.
CHAPTER I.
THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM.
The morning of Monday the 8th of July, 1872, brought us in sight of the
coast of Palestine, near Jaffa. The town rose from the shore on a brown
hillock; the dark, flat-roofed houses climbing the hill one above
another, but no prominent building breaking the sky outline. The yellow
gleaming beach, with its low cliffs and sand-dunes, stretched away north
and south, and in the distance the dim blue Judean hills were visible in
shadow.
Jaffa is called the Port of Jerusalem, but has no proper harbour at
present. In ancient times the “Moon Pool,” south of the town, now silted
up, was perhaps the landing-place for Hiram’s rafts of cedar-wood; but
the traveller passes through a narrow opening in a dangerous reef
running parallel with the shore, or, if the weather is bad, he is
obliged to make a long detour round the northern end of the same reef.
By ten in the morning the land breeze rises, and a considerable swell is
therefore always to be expected. The entrance through the reef is only
sufficient for one boat, and thus every year boats are wrecked on the
rocks and lives lost. It is said also that each year at least one person
is killed by the sharks close to land.
The little Russian steamer was anchored about two miles from shore, and
rolled considerably. The decks were crowded with a motley assemblage,
specimens of every Levantine nationality. Each deck passenger had his
bedding with him, and the general effect was that of a great rag-heap,
with human faces--black, brown and white--legs, arms, and umbrellas,
sticking out of the rags in unexpected places. Apart from the rest sat a
group of swarthy Bedawin, with their huge head-shawls, not unlike a
coal-scuttle in effect, bound with a white cord round the brow. They
wore their best dresses, the black hair cloak, with red slippers. The
rugged dark faces with white beards and sun-scorched eyes wore a curious
mixed expression of assumed dignity and badly concealed curiosity
concerning the wonders of civilisation surrounding them.
The colouring of these various groups would have been a treat to an
artist. The dull rich tints were lit up here and there by patches of red
leather and yellow silk. Like all oriental colour, it was saved from any
gaudiness of effect by the large masses of dull brown or indigo which
predominated.
The steamer was soon besieged by a fleet of long flat boats with sturdy
rowers, and into these the passengers were precipitated, and their
luggage dropped in after them. The swell was so great that we were in
constant danger of being capsized under the accommodation-ladder. As we
rowed off, and sank in the trough of the waves, the shore and town
disappeared, and only the nearest boats were visible high up on the
crest of the rollers.
The exciting moment of reaching the reef came next; the women closed
their eyes, the rowers got into a regular swing, chanting a rude rhyme;
and waiting for the wave we were suddenly carried past the ugly black
rocks into smooth water close to the wharf.
The landing at Jaffa has been from time immemorial an exciting scene. We
have the terrible and graphic account of the old pilgrim (Sæwulf) who,
“from his sins or from the badness of the ship,” was almost wrecked, and
who witnessed from the shore the death of his companions, helpless in a
great storm in the offing. We have the account of Richard Lion-Heart
springing, fully-armed, into the surf and fighting his way on shore. The
little port, made by the reef, has been long the only place south of
Acre where landing was possible; but the storms which have covered the
beach with modern wrecks were equally fatal to the Genoese galleys and
Crusading war-ships.
The town of Jaffa contains little of interest, though it is sufficiently
striking to a new comer. The broad effects of light and shadow are
perhaps enhanced here by the numerous arched streets and the flights of
steps which climb from the sea-level to the higher part of the town. The
glory of Jaffa consists in its beautiful gardens, which stretch inland
about a mile and a half, and extend north and south over a length of two
miles. Oranges, lemons, palms, bananas, pomegranates, and other fruits
grow in thick groves surrounded by old cactus hedges having narrow lanes
between them deep in sand. Sweet water is found in abundance at a
moderate depth. The scent of the oranges is said to be at times
perceptible some miles from land, to approaching ships. Still more
curious is the fact that the beautiful little sun-bird, peculiar to the
Jordan valley, is also to be found in these gardens. How this African
wanderer can have made its way across districts entirely unfitted for
its abode, to spots separated by the great mountain chain, it is not
easy to explain.
Outside the town on the north-east is the little German colony, the neat
white houses of which were built originally by an American society which
was almost exterminated by fever, and finally broken up by internal
differences, caused, I understand, by some resemblance in the views of
the chief to those of Brigham Young. The land and buildings were bought
by the thrifty German settlers, members of the Temple Society, with the
views and history of which sect I became further acquainted during the
following winter.
The soil of the Jaffa plain is naturally of great fertility. Even the
negligent tillage of the peasantry produces fine harvests. The Germans
ploughed deeper, and were rewarded by a crop of thistles, which to a
good farmer would have been a subject of satisfaction as proving the
existence of virgin soil, only requiring to be scoured by other crops
for a year or two in order to yield fine harvests of corn. At this time
of year, the barley had been gathered in, and only the dry stubble was
left.
Our first ride was not a long one, as we only intended to reach Ramleh
that night, and we arrived before sundown in sight of the town, which is
first visible from a rise of ground on the road. The long olive-groves
here formed a dark oasis in the treeless plain, and above them rose the
beautiful tower of the “Forty,” belonging to the fine old ruined
building called the “White Mosque,” built in the fourteenth century by
the son of Kalawûn. The Forty were, according to the Moslems,
companions of the Prophet; according to the later Christian tradition,
forty martyrs of Cappadocia. A second mosque, now in use, exists in the
middle of the town. This I was afterwards able to visit, and found it to
be probably the most perfect specimen of a fine twelfth century church
in Palestine, unchanged except that the beautiful western doorway is
closed, a prayer recess scooped in the southern wall, and the delicate
tracery of the columns defaced by whitewash and plaster--a vandalism not
peculiar to Moslem restorers.
This fine church, which we were the first to examine and plan, is
probably that visited by the old English pilgrim Sir John Maundeville,
dedicated according to him to the Virgin, “where Our Lord appeared to
Our Lady in the likeness which betokeneth the Trinity.”
Ramleh, like many another town in this ruined land, is full of contrasts
of past prosperity and of present squalor and decay. The walls of fine
stone houses are enclosed in wretched hovels of mud. Here and there an
ornate Cufic or Arabic inscription is left, telling of Moslem conquerors
and munificent Caliphs; but the bazaars are deserted, and starved dogs
and helpless lepers meet the eye on every side.
Many attempts have been made to identify Ramleh with some ancient site.
Thus the learned Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela regarded it as the birthplace
of Samuel, while Christians have supposed it to be Arimathæa or Ramoth
Lehi. But, against all such views, the testimony of historians, both
Moslem and Christian, is decisive. They agree in representing Ramleh as
founded by the son of the Caliph ’Abd el Melik early in the eighth
century, after the destruction of Lydda. In Crusading history the town,
which was then walled, plays a conspicuous part, and under the early
successors of Saladin it rose to considerable importance; but the site,
which is, as its name indicates, “sandy,” is not a natural one for a
great city, and the water-supply is entirely artificial, from wells and
huge tanks having Cufic inscriptions on their sides. Picturesque as is
the scene, especially from among the palms on the east, Ramleh is
nevertheless a modern place, when compared with the high antiquity of
sites near to it.
In crossing Palestine at any point three districts are passed through,
each of which receives a distinctive name in the Bible and in Jewish
writings. First we cross the flat sea plain, in part sandy and barren,
scattered with the black tents or reed cabins of the small encampments
of Bedawin, a pastoral race gradually losing ground before the
peasantry; in part a cultivated and very rich corn land, with wretched
villages of mud perched on eminences whence the breeze is better felt.
To the new comer these hamlets, most of which represent sites older than
the time of Joshua, have a deserted appearance. The eye misses the
contrast between roof and wall, and the glazed windows and wooden doors
seen in Europe. The peasant hut in the lowlands of Palestine consists
merely of four walls of mud, with a roof of boughs covered also with
mud; hence the village, which consists of perhaps fifty or sixty such
cabins huddled together without plan or order, and gradually climbing
the slope so that the floor of one is level with the roof of another,
has an uniform grey colour only broken by the whitewashed dome of the
little chapel dedicated to the patron “Prophet” or Sheikh. In the plain
there are scarcely any springs, and the village is supplied as a rule by
cisterns and by a pond of stagnant rain-water banked round freshly every
year. The most conspicuous object outside is the huge rubbish-heap where
refuse of every kind is thrown. Savage mangy half-starved dogs keep
watch above, and annoy the stranger until boldly attacked in turn. They
belong to no one, are cared for by no one, and their only food appears
to be an occasional carcass of a donkey or bullock. It is said that they
eat mice and beetles when nothing else is to be found. All night they
vie with the jackal in their howls, and they are often really dangerous
when rearing their puppies.
Upon the refuse-heap, in the shade of the wall, the village elders may
be seen seated smoking in rows, whilst the blue-gowned women toil up the
hill with the goat-skin water-bags bound to their heads or the red
pottery jars balanced upon them, holding in their tattooed lips the
corner of the white head-veil which prevents their mouths being visible.
The plain once passed, the traveller enters the district called
Shephelah, or “lowlands” in the Bible, consisting of low hills, about
500 feet above the sea, of white soft limestone, with great bands of
beautiful brown quartz running between the strata. The broad valleys
among these hills forming the entrances to the third district produce
fine crops of corn, and on the hills the long olive-groves flourish
better than in either of the other districts. This part of the country
is also the most thickly populated, and ancient wells, and occasionally
fine springs, occur throughout. The villages are partly of stone, partly
of mud; the ruins are so thickly spread over hill and valley that in
some parts there are as many as three ancient sites to two square miles.
All along the base of these hills, commanding the passes to the
mountains, important places are to be found, such as Gath and Gezer,
Emmaus and Beth Horon, and no part of the country is more rich in Bible
sites or more famous in Bible history.
With dawn on the 9th July we entered the “lowland” district, and before
us were some of the ancient places above noticed. South of the great
road, Gezer, on the road, Latrûn, north of it Emmaus.
The recovery of the site of Gezer we owe to M. Clermont Ganneau. The
position is one well suited for an important place, and Gezer was a
royal city of the Canaanites. The modern name, Tell Jezer, “Mound of
Gezer,” represents the Hebrew exactly, the meaning being “cut off” or
“isolated.”
The origin of the title is at once clear, for the site is an outlier--to
use a geological term--of the main line of hills, and the position
commands one of the important passes to Jerusalem. As is the case with
many equally important places, there is not much to be seen at Gezer.
The hill-side is terraced, and the eastern end occupied by a raised
foundation, probably the ancient citadel. Tombs and wine-presses, cut in
rock, abound, and there are traces of Christian buildings in a small
chapel, and a tomb apparently of Christian origin.
Beneath the hill on the east there is a fine spring, which wells up in a
circular ring of masonry; it is called ’Ain Yerdeh, or the “Spring of
the Gatherings,” and its existence is a strong argument in favour of the
antiquity of the neighbouring site.
The little Mukâm, or Moslem shrine, on the hill, commands a fine view of
the plain of Sharon. On the south-west are the bare sandy dunes of
“barren” Ekron, beyond which is Makkedah, and Jamnia famous for its
school of learned doctors of the law, where the Sanhedrin sat after
Bether had fallen. Due south the white cliff of Gath projects into the
plain; on the north-west Ramleh stands among its olive-gardens, palms,
and cactus hedges, and the great tower of the “Forty” rises like a
belfry above them: farther north another white minaret is seen above the
Church of St. George at Lydda, and olive groves again hide the houses in
their midst. Many of the towns of Dan, now mere mud hamlets, are
scattered over the plain, and the view is bounded by the range of yellow
sand-dunes and the shining waters of the great sea; on the east rise the
Judean mountains, the third district, which we were about to enter.
A most interesting and curious discovery was made in 1874 at Gezer. M.
Ganneau was shown by the peasantry a rude inscription deeply cut in the
flat surface of the natural rock. It appears to be in Hebrew, and to
read “Boundary of Gezer,” with other letters, which are supposed to form
the Greek word Alkiou. M. Ganneau has brought forward an ingenious
theory that Alkios was Governor of Gezer at the time this boundary was
set, and he supports it by another inscription from a tomb on which the
same name occurs. This theory might seem very risky, were it not
strengthened by the discovery of a second identical inscription close to
the last, containing the same letters, except that the name Alkiou is
written upside down. In both it is true the letters are hard to read,
being rudely formed, but they are deeply cut, and of evident antiquity,
whilst it can scarcely be doubted that the inscription is the same in
both cases. M. Ganneau attributes them to Maccabean times; it is curious
that they should thus occur in the open country, at no definite distance
from the town, and unmarked by any column or monument. Altogether they
are among the many archæological puzzles of Palestine, and their origin
and meaning will probably always remain questionable.
On the road itself stands the old Crusading fortress, called Castellum
Emmaus, and apparently also Toron of the Knights, according to Benjamin
of Tudela. From the latter name (an old French word, meaning a hill) the
present name, Latrûn, seems derived; by a process common enough in the
Fellâh dialect, el Atrûn has taken the place of el Turûn, as Ajfât is
the common pronunciation of Jefât, or Ajdûr of Jedûr. In the sixteenth
century, however, a curious explanation of the name is given. It is
called the Castle “Boni Latronis” of the good or repentant thief Dismas,
but this is quite a late explanation. In the earlier chronicles of the
twelfth century Latrûn is called the town of the Maccabees, and in the
fourteenth their sepulchral monuments were shown there; but this nation
cannot be traced back in earlier chronicles, and there is nothing at
Latrûn which seems older than Crusading times.
The third site north of the road is one of even greater interest. The
rude village of ’Amwâs preserves the name of Emmaus, famous in Maccabean
history. The early Christians recognised this place as being also the
Emmaus of the New Testament to which the two disciples walked upon the
Resurrection Day. This view continued to be held till the fifteenth
century, when it was observed that the distance given in most texts of
the Gospel is “sixty furlongs,” whereas the present site is just 160
from Jerusalem. This is generally held to be fatal to the tradition,
although the Sinaitic Manuscript actually reads 160 stadia instead of
sixty.
The neighbourhood of Emmaus was the scene of the second great Maccabean
struggle. Judas had already overthrown the army advancing on Jerusalem
by the northern pass, the famous Beth Horon battle-field. A second, yet
more formidable army was encamped at the mouth of the western approach
to the Holy City, and so certain were its leaders of victory, that
merchants accompanied the camp with money to give for Jewish slaves, and
fetters to put on their limbs when sold. The battle of Emmaus was the
Maccabean Austerlitz. The little band of devotees came down by night
from the ancient praying-place at Mizpeh, and whilst the main part of
the Greek host was enticed into the hills, the Jews advanced northwards
on the camp, and took it, cutting off the retreat of the heathen. Never
again in the history of this struggle did any Greek general attempt to
attack Jerusalem from the western pass.
There are still ruins of the little chapel in Emmaus, which the early
Christians built on the supposed spot where the Lord was recognised in
breaking bread. Near to it also was a spring, thought to have healing
virtues. This tradition is of Rabbinical origin, but the Christians
added to it the assumption that its power was due to the touch of
Christ. The name Emmaus itself means a “healing bath,” as Josephus
informs us, speaking of the Galilean place of the same name. At the
present day a well is shown at ’Amwâs by the peasantry, called the
“Well of the Plague,” and it is said that a great plague originated from
the spot.
Leaving Latrûn, we entered the third district--the mountain
country--through the well-known pass called Bâb el Wâd, or the “Gate of
the Valley.”
In the conformation of the Judean hills the secret of the immense
vitality of the Jewish nationality is probably to be found. Had the
capital of Judea been placed at Cæsarea, on the high-road from Greece to
Egypt--had it even been permanently fixed at Shechem, accessible through
the open valley of Samaria, it cannot be doubted that Greek or Egyptian
influence would have affected far more the manners and religion of the
Jews. Remote and inaccessible in its rugged mountains, Jerusalem was
removed from the highway by which the hosts of the Pharaohs advanced on
Assyria. It could only be reached by one of three difficult passes,
unless the whole country of Samaria were in the hands of the enemy.
Hence in the mountains of Judea the national faith had a secure home.
The Philistines overran the plains and even came up into the Shephelah;
Egyptian and Assyrian monarchs conquered Samaria and Galilee, but a
small band of undisciplined peasants was able, under the Maccabees, to
hold at bay the armies of the Seleucidæ, and it required the fullest
efforts of Roman energy and discipline to compass the destruction of
Jerusalem under Titus or under Hadrian. The history again repeats itself
in Crusading times. The Judean hills resisted long after all other parts
of the country had been lost, and Saladin held Jerusalem undisturbed
while Richard overran the plains.
The same natural conformation renders the construction of a railway to
Jerusalem an engineering project of no little difficulty. Within the
distance of a few miles the hills rise suddenly from the level of the
Shephelah towards the narrow plateau, 2500 feet above the sea, on which
the city stands; the ascent is rough and steep, and the valleys very
deep, with rugged stony sides, and ledges of hard grey rock, thickly
covered with shrubs, principally lentisks and arbutus, while here and
there terraces have been artificially built up with dry stone walls for
the cultivation of the olive.
Near the Gate of the Valley there is a little ruined Mukâm or “station”
sacred to the famous Imâm ’Aly, to whom the deeds of Samson and Joshua
are commonly accredited by the peasantry. It is conspicuous from the
fine group of aged terebinths which shade the little mihrab or prayer
niche. Ascending thence past the ancient village of Sarîs, we reached at
length the hill above the modern Kuriet el ’Anab, a place which calls
for more special description.
Kuriet el ’Anab, or the “town of grapes,” is generally called Kurieh
only by the peasantry, and this suggests its identity with Kirjath of
Benjamin, in the territory of which tribe the village appears to lie. It
was supposed in the early Christian times to be the site of Kirjath
Jearim, the “town of forests,” but this appears to be an unsatisfactory
identification for several reasons. The place seems scarcely on the line
of the boundary of Judah, as Kirjath Jearim was; it is not a hill with a
“high” place, as we should gather Kirjath Jearim to have been from the
account of the hill where the ark was kept; and lastly, the important
part of the name bears no reference to the ancient title, derived from
some mountain covered with thick wild growth which does not exist near
the village.
The Crusaders fixed upon Kuriet el ’Anab as being the ancient Anathoth,
their reasons being as usual very difficult to understand. They erected
a magnificent church over a spring in the valley north of the village,
dedicated to Saint Jeremiah of Anathoth, and this structure remains
almost intact. On its walls the dim shadows of former frescoed paintings
can be traced, and over these the names of pilgrims rudely scrawled like
those of the modern tourists. The church is peculiar from the careless
manner in which it has been constructed, the walls not being at right
angles; thus the east wall is two and a half feet longer than the west,
as we found in making the plan.
The village itself consists of stone houses of better appearance than
those in the plain, surrounded by beautiful vineyards, the vines
trailing over the stone walls like a green cataract flowing to the
valley. The place, which derives its name from these vineyards, was once
the seat of the famous native family of Abu Ghôsh. The most notorious of
its chiefs, a robber, who held all pilgrims to the capital in terror,
was killed by the Egyptian Government, pursuing its usual policy of
exterminating the great native families; since death he has been
canonised, and a Mukâm erected to him near the village. At Easter, the
children of the place (which is often called Abu Ghôsh after the
family) are to be seen seated along the road offering water in spouted
bottles to the pilgrims. This charitable custom is rare in Palestine,
though occasionally in use on some of the other pilgrim routes.
The next ascent brought us in sight of a very remarkable village on the
right, now called Sôba. It is separated from the ridge on which the road
runs by the deep and impassable valley which, for the greater part of
its length, forms the northern boundary of Judah. The place struck me
much at the time--a high conical hill crowned by a village surrounded by
steep rocky ledges with thick growth of wild shrubs mingled with olives.
I had afterwards occasion to visit it, and found it to be undoubtedly an
ancient site. Not only are there traces of a Crusading fortress, which
was called Belmont, but also many ancient Jewish sepulchres cut in rock.
The peasantry say it was the palace of the Sultan of the Fenish, and
that his daughter lived at a certain ruined convent near the road, which
we saw surrounded with ancient trees--the wilderness formed from its
original garden.
Since the telegraph line has been laid to Jerusalem, this tradition has
been supplemented with the detail that the Fenish had a telegraphic wire
from the hill palace to that in the valley. Another favourite abode of
the daughter was not far from Latrûn. Again at Beit Jibrîn and at
Keratîya we found a cavern, a garden, and a castle of the Fenish; and
the fact that this tradition is confined to the district south of the
Jerusalem road and on the edge of the hills, leads one to suspect that
the Fenish were no other than the Felish or Philistines, for the
peasantry almost invariably change their L’s into N’s in this manner.
But to return to Sôba. This fine site, standing out black against the
sky, with its grand ravine and wild copses, is evidently an important
spot; yet the name Sôba does not recall any Scriptural place, though not
far different from the Hebrew Zuph where Saul met Samuel. In modern
Arabic it means “a heap,” such as the grain-heaps of the
threshing-floors, a title which applies well to the shape of the hill,
but probably this is a corruption of some older word.
Sôba also was at one time honoured, like Latrûn, as the ancient Modin,
the true site of which was however known to Saint Jerome, east of Lydda,
where El Medieh is now found. The distance of El Medieh from Jerusalem
is close on that given in the Talmud for Modin, although the tomb
supposed by M. Guérin to have been that of the Hasmoneans proves to be
of Christian origin.
And now at length we arrived at the top of the ascent, and spurring
along under the stony knoll on which the little village of
Kŭstŭl--an ancient “castellum” of the Roman conquerors--stands, we
fully expected to see Jerusalem. Instead of this we saw before us a huge
valley over 1000 feet deep, and beyond it a straight line of hills more
lofty and barren than those before passed. We could well picture the
disappointment, so graphically described by the old chronicler, of the
weary hosts of women and children who toiled footsore and thirsty in
rear of the Crusading army, faintly asking, as each height was passed
and a new view opened, “Is that Jerusalem?” If to us, well mounted and
well fed, the journey was wearisome, what was it to the pilgrims
harassed by Saracen skirmishers, and afraid to stop and bury those who
fell, lest, as one writer says, a man might be found to be but digging
his own grave.
A stony winding road led down to the bottom, a stony winding ascent led
up on the other side. Around us were mountains of strikingly wild and
barren character, with the dark iron-grey rocks tinged in parts with
black and russet and capped by a softer white chalk. The long blue
shadows, the large rounded outlines, the hardness and ruggedness of the
slopes, combined to produce a scene of wild grandeur more striking than
anything yet met except the dark thickets of the Sôba ridge.
The valley beneath is full of grey olive-groves; the white torrent bed
is sinuous and winds gradually round west. In the hollow, south of its
course, the village of ’Ain Kârim stands on an eminence, and close to it
the white convent wall, with its dark cypresses, marks the traditional
birthplace of John the Baptist.
The valley is a place famous in Jewish history. It commences north of
Jerusalem, and leads down past Lifta (Eleph) to a little village called
Kolônia which was on the road beneath us. Thence by ’Ain Kârim
southwards to join the Bether valley, and by Kesla it runs down to
Zoreah and Eshtaol and widens out into the great corn valley of Sorek,
and so past Ekron and Jamnia to the sea. Thus it was one of those passes
by which the Philistines were able to penetrate into the heart of the
Jewish mountains. It was down this valley that Samuel drove the
defeated host from Mizpeh, north of Jerusalem, to Ebenezer, a place
probably at the entrance of the hills. In their flight they passed under
Bethcar, which is not impossibly the present ’Ain Kârim. Along the stony
bed of this great valley at our feet, we may picture to ourselves the
nomadic hosts with their mail-clad champions flying before the followers
of the prophet, while far away on the white hills the tabernacle would
be seen high on the ridge of Mizpeh.
The valley was also once the scene of more peaceful events at the yearly
festival of “tabernacles.” Kolônia has near it a ruin called Beit
Mizzeh, the ancient Motza or “Spring-head,” a town of Benjamin. The
Talmudic doctors tell us that Motza was a _colonia_ or place free from
taxes, whence the origin of the modern name, and beside the banks of the
stream from the spring-head grew, and still grow, the willows used at
the feast. By the restaurant and the ruins of a small monastery, the
stream flows under a little bridge; and round its course shady
orange-gardens and olive-yards, beneath the village perched on the
hillside, often tempt the inhabitants of Jerusalem to come out for an
afternoon siesta. It would seem also that on the Day of Atonement this
place used to be the scene of a festival so peculiar and so unlike any
other part of Jewish custom that we are tempted to believe that it was
an innovation of the later Hellenising faction. The daughters of
Jerusalem were encouraged to come out to meet the youths who were
celebrating the newly-acquired purification from sin, with palms in
their hands and songs and dances. Twice a year this festival of maidens
took place, and the contrast to the stern precepts of the Talmudic
doctors, who discountenanced any gaiety in which women took part,
forbade a student to speak to or look at any woman but his wife, and
even counselled that the less he talked to her the better, is certainly
suggestive of foreign origin for the feast of Motza.
Passing by this little oasis in the hills, which has thus from time
immemorial been the site of festal excursions from the capital, we began
the long ascent which led, not, as we hoped, to Jerusalem, but to the
edge of the plateau on the opposite side of which the city stands. The
road, afterwards so familiar to me, seemed longer when the distance was
unknown than when every way-mark was recognised as showing nearer
approach to the end of the journey; and we did not halt to admire, as I
often did afterwards, the fine view from the brow of the hill.
From that brow the great valley is seen winding southwards, and the high
rounded ascent to Kŭstŭl bars out the view of the plain.
Northwards the conical point of Neby Samwîl, crowned with its minaret,
is a conspicuous object, and in the evening when the long shadows steal
up the rugged hillsides, and the western slopes are ruddy in the setting
sun, the breadth and grandeur of the colouring of the wild shapeless
mountains is extremely striking, and grows upon one every time the scene
opens before one’s eyes.
The first approach to Jerusalem from the west is decidedly
disappointing. From the east, north, and south, the aged walls, the
mosque, and Holy Sepulchre, come into view at some distance, and the
scene is striking; but from the west the city is approached within less
than a quarter of a mile before it is seen. The first object is the huge
Russian cathedral outside the town, built in 1864. The white walls and
heavy leaden roofs in the Neobyzantine style block out ancient
Jerusalem. Standing on the approximate site of the old tower of
Psephinus, the Russian Hospice commands the whole town, and is thought
by many to be in a position designedly of military strength.
When, however, these ugly modern buildings are passed, together with the
many white stone villas, country residences of Europeans or rich Jews,
which form “New Jerusalem,” the traveller at length comes in view of a
long grey battlemented wall, a tower, the dark trees of the Armenian
convent garden, and behind all the pale blue line of the Moab hills. He
enters between groups of tawny, groaning camels, and black donkeys
loaded with firewood, under a dark archway, and forcing a path through a
noisy bright-coloured crowd of peasantry, under the shadow of the great
Tower of David he alights at a German hotel within the walls of
Jerusalem.
[Illustration: JACOB’S WELL.]