Haifa, Sept. 2.—The signs of progress to which I have alluded in former
letters as being manifest in Judea are not confined to Jaffa and
Jerusalem. The contemplated carriage-road to Jericho will be an immense
boon to the crowds of pilgrims who flock annually to the Jordan. The
first evidence of activity in this direction was at the Khan el-Ahmah.
Here are the ruins of an old building. Fragments of walls and broken
arches remain, and a deep well indicates that in former days it was
inhabited—probably as a half-way house of entertainment. Whether this be
so or not, I was glad to see a large force of stone-masons and builders
actively engaged, under the superintendence of a European, in erecting a
handsome khan or rest-house, which, considering that there is not at
present a single habitation between Jerusalem and Jericho, with the
exception of Bethany, distant only two miles from the former city, is
much needed.
This place has always had an evil reputation for thieves since the days
when the Good Samaritan performed his charitable offices to the
plundered and beaten wayfarer. Indeed, it is at this very place that the
spot is shown to the credulous pilgrim where the incident in the parable
is said to have occurred, and the guide-books solemnly warn the tourist
that he must be careful to be provided with an escort, because an
English traveller, Sir Frederick Henniker, was attacked here by
Bedouins, stripped, wounded, and left for dead in 1820. This is imputing
stagnation to the Turkish government with a vengeance. It moves slowly,
it is true, but the state of security has improved somewhat in
sixty-five years. Six years ago I rode alone with a friend from Jericho
to Jerusalem with no thought of danger. The Bedouins find it to their
interest to keep up the traditions of the guide-books, and travellers
continue to pay Bedouin sheiks blackmail which they might with perfect
confidence keep in their pockets. I consider the road from Jerusalem to
Jericho in the present day as safe as Broadway, at all events in the
daytime.
It might not be safe to venture along it quite alone at night, but the
same might be said of roads in other far more civilized countries.
Nevertheless, the road in places is so wild and desolate that it may
well appal the imagination of the timid traveller, notably so where it
enters the Wady Kelt, a deep, narrow gorge, flanked by precipitous
cliffs, honeycombed with caverns, above which rise white chalk hills,
presenting a tangled network of narrow water-worn torrent beds with
knife-like ridges between. Hundreds of feet below the path rushes a
mountain torrent, which is none other than the traditional brook
Cheritt. Here, if we leave the regular track, and make up our minds to
follow a dizzy path cut out of the precipitous cliff, which winds back
up the gorge, soon disappearing in the depth of its gloomy recesses, we
plunge into one of the wildest and weirdest scenes that the ingenuity of
nature has conceived in any country, so fantastic are the crags and so
labyrinthine the gorges. The only travellers who ever thus diverge from
the beaten route are Russian pilgrims, whose devotional instincts lead
them to pay their homage to every accessible shrine, and to the credit
of the Greek Church it must be said that it has contrived to perch
shrines on spots which nature only intended for eagles.
One of the most notable of these is the monastery which commemorates the
cave, to which the path we are now following will lead us, in which
Elijah is said to have been fed by the ravens. The monastery is
literally hung on to the face of the precipice, and consists of a series
of cells, and a hall supported on vaults through which lies the
entrance. A few Greek monks live, like birds perched on the edge of a
nest, in this singular abode, to which a chapel pinnacled on a rock is
attached, dating, if we may judge from the character of the masonry,
from about the twelfth century. Perhaps the little side chapel, with
rock-cut chambers, and the vault containing ancient bones, to which a
corridor covered with frescoes representing the Last Judgment leads, is
the oldest part of these buildings, which were apparently constructed at
three different epochs, as two layers of frescoes cover the wall, while
the newest is in its turn covered by the piers supporting the ribs of
the roof. Numerous caves, now inaccessible, are visible in the face of
the cliff, which for a distance of about thirty yards is covered with
frescoes now almost entirely defaced. In front of one of the cells is a
heavy iron bar, from which, no doubt, in former days a ladder depended,
the only means of access when these caves, now almost deserted,
contained quite a population of hermits. This curious place is well
worth a visit, and though lying so close to the tourist's route, I have
not seen it described in any guide-book.
On reaching the base of the hills where the Wady Kelt debouches into the
Jordan Valley, we find ourselves in the immediate presence of four
ancient sites. Three of these are the sites of three different Jerichos,
and one is the site of Gilgal. It is certain that the Jewish, the Roman,
and the Byzantine Crusaders' Jericho occupied three different positions.
The first has been identified with tolerable certainty as having existed
where mounds of rubble mark its site, near the spring called in old
times the Fountain of Elijah, and known now as the Ain es-Sultan. This
was the Jericho of Joshua, and these mounds of rubble may contain the
débris of the identical walls which fell to the sound of his trumpet. We
pitched our tents at the beautiful and copious spring which must have
supplied the old town with water, so as to have an opportunity of
examining the neighbourhood at our leisure. The spring comes out beneath
the mound on the east, and has on the west a wall of small masonry in
hard cement. In this wall there is a small semicircular niche, probably
intended to hold a statue of the genius of the spring. The reservoir
from which the water gushes forth is about twenty by forty feet, and,
though shallow, forms a delightful bath, with temperature slightly
tepid. The high tumuli behind had been excavated by Sir Charles Warren,
and I examined the traces of his cuttings. The mounds are formed for the
most part of a light yellow clay, which, on being touched, crumbles into
an impalpable powder. In some cases no strata could be discerned in the
clay, in others, layers of brick, stone, and mortar were clearly
visible. In another large mound, a little to the south, graves were
found six feet below the surface. All these except one were of sun-dried
brick. Bones appeared to have been thrown into these after the
decomposition of the bodies. Altogether Sir Charles Warren dug trenches
through no fewer than eight of the mounds, which form a conspicuous
feature in the plain in which the ancient cities of Jericho were
situated, as they stand to a height of about sixty feet above it; and
the result at which he arrived was that they are formed by the gradual
crumbling away of great towers or castles of sun-burned brick. Although
in some cases shafts were sunk to a depth of forty feet, nothing was
found except pottery jars, stone mortars for grinding corn, and broken
glass. In one were found, eight feet below the surface, the remains of a
large amphora, the neck, handles, and base of which were entire, and
which must have stood about five feet high. Sir Charles Warren's working
party consisted of one hundred and seventy-four men, and he thoroughly
exhausted the subject.
Near the spring is a ruin which may have been that of a small Roman
temple, a portion of an aqueduct, for the waters of the spring evidently
irrigated a large extent of the plain, and near by traces of ruins,
apparently Byzantine. Here are pillar-shafts, cornices, capitals, and
other indications of a city of later date than those we have been
considering.
The site of the Jericho of Herod, which existed at the time of Christ,
was at the mouth of the Wady Kelt, deriving its water supply from that
stream, and more than a mile from Ain es-Sultan. Here there are the
remains of a bridge, foundations of buildings which were evidently Roman
work, and two large artificial mounds, in one of which was found a
rectangular chamber, the outer wall built of sun-dried bricks, and the
interior of undressed stones cemented over.
The site of the third, or Crusading Jericho, was probably identical with
that on which the modern village of Jericho now stands; but no ruins of
importance remain there, though the whole surface of the plain between
the sites of the three Jerichos is covered with remains which attest the
denseness of the population which once inhabited it. That this should
once have been a large inhabited centre must ever appear an astounding
fact to the modern traveller who has suffered from the heat of the
plain. Except during the winter months all this region is not only
unbearably hot, but most insalubrious. The very Arabs desert it for the
hillsides. It is possible that neglect and inattention to irrigation
works may make the climate much less healthy than it was in former
times, but nothing can be changed in the matter of temperature, and
either the population must have deserted it for the mountains during
summer or they must have been far better able to bear heat than their
degenerate descendants. Sunk nearly twelve hundred feet below the level
of the sea, and shut in from all breeze by lofty ranges of barren
mountains on both sides, Jericho in summer must be one of the hottest
places on the earth's surface. Even Jerusalem, which is four thousand
feet above it, is pretty warm. On the other hand, Josephus vaunts the
wonderful fertility of the place, and calls it “a region fit for the
gods.”
Its magnificent and extensive palm groves were celebrated, but these
have disappeared since the eighth century, and there is only one
date-tree left. Still the abundance of the water, the richness of the
soil, and the warmth of the climate, wonderfully adapt it to the growth
of all tropical produce. All kinds of vegetables are in season all the
year round. Grapes, which are trellised on high poles, as in Italy, grow
to enormous size; indigo, cotton, and sugar would all flourish, but
there are no people to cultivate them.
The remains of the old aqueducts testify to the skilful manner in which
the ancients used their abundant water supply for the irrigation of this
extensive plain. I counted altogether nine different ancient aqueducts.
One or two of these are still utilized, and of late years a handsome
bridge has been built in connection with one of them, but the
engineering skill of the ancients holds its own with our more modern
constructions. Many of the bridges by which these aqueducts span the
ravines are very handsome. Some are on two tiers of arches, one above
another. In places they are tunnelled through the hills. One bridge of
massive masonry of large stones is one hundred and twenty feet long and
thirty-five feet high, with pointed arches. There is one aqueduct eight
miles long, consisting of a cemented channel two feet broad, and
terminating in a handsome cemented cistern. It is carried over several
bridges, one fifty feet long and thirty feet high.
I mention this system of aqueducts because I have never seen any account
of Jericho in the records of travellers or in guide-books which does
justice to them. They are important as showing how much money must have
been spent in developing the resources of this plain, and what a garden
it must have been in old times. So late as the thirteenth century we
hear that the sugar-cane was cultivated around Jericho, and I believe
that at this day there are few spots on the earth's surface which could
be turned to more profitable account. Here all the products of the
tropics could be raised without having to go to the tropics for them,
and many fruits could be conveyed from here to a European market, which
it would be impossible to preserve for the length of time which is now
required to transport them from the tropics. At a comparatively small
expense the ancient system of aqueducts could be repaired and the
abundant water supply utilized, which is now left to stagnate in marshes
and breed fever and pestilence. It is, in fact, impossible to appreciate
the magnificent capabilities which this plain possesses and not feel
convinced that in these days of civilized enterprise the question of
their development is only one of time.