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given to students of the sacred writings; | thirty English miles of difficult ground; but there are more than that, for it seems and we see by studying the map what that we are beginning to open up ancient first-rate conduct it must have been that sites and buildings hitherto not known to be recognizable, and we have a glimpse of the geography of a not very remote land, which, independently of its grand associations, we are bound to be acquainted with. A few memoranda of the things already established by the survey will abundantly prove the service that has been done; so we will proceed to state what some of those points and places are, which, although they have for ages been seen by every religious mind, have never till to-day obtained their rightful recognition by geography.

kept it up so vigorously, crowned it with a signal victory, and obtained from the excursion such complete success that all the captives and goods were brought back again to the cities of the plain.

The same site of the encampment of Abram and Lot is close to Bethel, where Jacob dreamt his well-known dream, Bethel is but a ruin now; and on the other hand, that is, eastward, of the same site, is "Et Tel," the heap, which our surveyors had no hesitation in identifying as all that remains of Ai. Behind it is the valley where Joshua placed his ambush : The site of the encampment of Abram the plain or ridge down which the men and Lot at the time when their herdmen of Ai were drawn by the feigned retreat quarrelled, consequently the spot on can still be seen; and opposite is the hill which Abram and his nephew came to on which Joshua stood to give the signal the agreement that they would separate, to the men in ambush, who took the place can now be determined very approxi-“and made it an heap for ever, even a mately. It was a hill between Bethel and desolation unto this day." Bethel and Hai; and Bethel (now Beitîn) and the Ai being fixed, there was but little diffiheap which once was Ai, have been laid culty in finding Shiloh, its relative posidown in the survey. From this hill, as tion being accurately described in the we know, is visible the Dead Sea, which Book of Judges. A little way from Shiin Abram's day was the vale of Siddim, loh is a spring which indicates the posiand the whole plain of Jordan, so that tion of the vineyards where the daughters Abram's altar must have stood within a of Shiloh were dancing when the young limited area. The survey of the vale of men of Benjamin ran upon them and carJordan also enables us to estimate prop-ried them away for wives. It was at Shierly the brilliancy of the exploit which Abram performed in effecting the punishment of the reguli and the rescue of Lot. In this very vale of Siddim it was that the battle took place in which the native princes were beaten; and the invaders with their captives and spoil made off up the valley of the Jordan. Abram armed his retainers, and, with a following of three hundred and eighteen men, started in pursuit. The ground which he traversed can be seen now pretty much as it was in his day; for the deadness of that region for ages, which has caused the obscurity which is now being removed, has, at any rate, prevented much alteration of the natural features. Past Jericho and Gilgal the course leads up to Succoth and the Sea of Galilee, along the whole shore of which (afterwards a region of such celebrity) the pursuit must have been maintained; thence past the waters of Merom (now Lake Huleh) through the territories which were afterwards allotted to Naphtali and Dan, up to the sources of the river, across Mount Hermon, and beyond the boundaries of Canaan to Hobah, which is near Damascus. A smart chase indeed, over at least a hundred and

loh that Joshua divided the land, and it was here that the ark rested. The site is marked by a ruin now; "and a curious excavation in the rock in the side of the hill . . . might have been the actual spot where the ark rested, for its custodians would naturally select a place sheltered from the bleak winds that prevail in these highlands.”

A little north of Shiloh the scene changes, the country becoming broken and rugged, with many and steep ravines; but this is softened down at length, and the intersecting valleys wind or stretch out in remarkable beauty. One of these sweet little valleys, not more than 100 yards wide, is enclosed by two mountains, each of which rises 1200 feet above the vale. Their bases almost touch, although the summits recede ; and in the sides of both are circular indents facing each other, and so forming an amphitheatre capable of containing an immense concourse of people. Here stood, six tribes on one side and six on the other, the children of Israel to hear the words of the law and the blessings and cursings, as Moses had before directed that they should do. The northern mount

is Ebal, the southern Gerizim. The vale is the vale of Shechem, "unrivalled in Palestine for beauty and luxuriance." Shechem, the city of refuge, stood here. We are, of course, contemplating "the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph," and we know that close to it was a place called Sychar, and that "Jacob's well was there." Jacob's well is there the veritable well, undisputed in any age or by men of any religion, of which Jacob himself drank, and his children, and his cattle, and from which, in later days, Jacob's divine descendant asked a drink of water from the woman of Samaria.* It is close to the high road from Jerusalem to Galilee. About half a mile from the well is Joseph's tomb.

More to the north, but still within the territory of Manasseh, a hill named Dotan was found, which the explorers identified with the Dothan where Joseph came to visit his brethren and was so cruelly treated by them. Cisterns hewn in the rock are very numerous there: they are all bottle-shaped, with narrow necks, so that it would be difficult for any one who had been put inside to get out. It has been suggested that one of these was the pit into which Joseph was lowered.

We

North of Dothan is a very rough and barbarous country, indeed the country where the survey was slightly interrupted, as has been mentioned; but a little further yet to the north a clear survey was made of a region which, after the immediate vicinity of the Holy City, is the most interesting, as regards Old Testament history, of all in Palestine. did not know until we studied this survey, and possibly some of our readers may only now learn, how nearly on the same ground occurred a great many of the events of different periods. From the names of places being different in different books of Scripture, and from the stories being unconnected, one is apt to imagine a wholly different scene for each incident of the narrative. But the map and the account at once rectify any such error as this, as is exemplified in the not very extensive area which we are about to notice—namely, that between Mounts Gilboa and Tabor. This area is the valley of Jezreel, which, westward, leads towards the plain of Esdraelon, a frequent battle-ground. The brook or river Kishon flows across this plain, and on the edge of it is the ancient city of Megiddo, now El-Lejjun. It was along the western border of the flat, under the hills from Megiddo to Taanach, that Sisera's army was extended. Barak with Zebulun and Naphtali occupied Mount Tabor, which lay north-east from, and in sight of, the Canaanitish army, fourteen miles across the plain. The battle, as we know, took place on the banks of the Kishon. Sisera's army after being beaten received no quarter; and Sisera himself, alighting from his chariot, fled away on his feet. The wretched man made off over the Nazareth hills, across the land of Zebulon, passing the whole length of the Sea of Galilee until he reached the plain of Zaanaim. We do not know how long he was in getting there, but we now see that Jael's tent, which was at Kedesh, was forty miles from the battle-field, and over that distance at least of hill and dale he must have hurried to his miserable death. In the valley of Jezreel, too, was it that the Midianites and Amalekites were spreading terror when Gideon was commissioned to arrest their progress. Close well at some seasons, as the pitcher would have been behind Jezreel, and under Mount Gilboa, broken had it fallen upon the stones. It is probable the explorers found a beautiful spring, that the well was very much deeper in ancient times, for in ten years it had decreased ten feet in depth. Every one visiting the well throws stones down for the satisfaction of hearing them strike the bottom, and in this way, as well as from the debris of the ruined church built over the well during the fourth century, it has become filled

"Some men," says Lieutenant Anderson, "were set to work to clear out the mouth of the well, which was being rapidly covered up. A chamber had been excavated to the depth of to feet, and in the floor of the chamber was the mouth of the well, like the mouth of a bottle, and just wide enough to admit a man's body. We lowered a candle down the well and found the air perfectly good, and after the usual amount of noise and talking among the workmen and idlers, I was lashed with a good rope round the waist and a loop for my feet, and lowered through the mouth of the well by some trusty Arabs, directed by my friend Mr. Falcher, the Protestant missionary. The sensation was novel and disagreeable. The numerous knots in the rope continued to tighten and creak, and after having passed through the narrow mouth I found myself suspended in a cylindrical chamber, in shape and proportion not unlike that of the barrel of a gun. The twisting of the rope caused me to revolve as I was being lowered, which produced giddiness, and there was the additional unpleasantness of vibrating from side to side, and touching the sides of the well. I suddenly heard the people from the top shouting to tell me that I had reached the bottom, so when I begun to move I found myself lying on my back at the bottom of the well; looking up at the mouth the opening seemed like a star. It was fortunate that I had been securely lashed to the rope, as I had fainted during the operation of lowering. The well is 75 feet deep, 7 feet 6 inches diameter, and is lined throughout with rough masonry, as it is dug in alluvial soil. The bottom of the well was perfectly dry at this time of the (the month of May) and covered with loose stones. There was a little pitcher lying at the bottom unbroken, and this was an evidence of there being water in the

year

up to probably more than a half of its original depth."

which they do not doubt is the water where Gideon tested his forces by their modes of drinking, and selected his three hundred, all of whom had lapped the water with their hands. Again, it was

here that the ark of God, which had been who find a market for their goods at Dabrought to the camp from Shiloh, was mascus. The main line of survey kept taken by the Philistines and carried south of Libanus and Anti-Libanus, thence to the temple of Dagon. Here, crossed the Upper Jordan, and had its too, it was, by Gideon's spring, that Saul, northern terminus at Cæsarea Philippi, terrified by the Philistines, who were en- now the village of Banias. A point on camped at Shunem on the other side of the Jordan-i.e., the confluence with a the vale, took his resolution to consult united stream rising at the two points the weird woman at Endor, which is be- Banias and Tel-el-Kadi-was geographitween six and seven miles from his po- cally established. The Jordan, just above sition. We read that he disguised him- this point, is 45 feet broad, is of a dirtyself, and for doing so he probably had yellow colour, and flows between banks another reason besides a wish not to be 25 feet below the general level of the recognized by the woman. To get to plain. Below the confluence the stream her he had to skirt the enemy's camp, is 90 feet broad. For some way it flows and he ran of course a great chance of through a deep gorge, but at last it issues being taken prisoner. There are inhab- suddenly on the plain at a very low level. ited caves at Endor to this day, and it "Its very waters seem to flow suspiciouswas probably in one of these that the ly, as if they were going on a fruitless witch lived. The day after the visit journey, never to reach the sea." Below Saul's army was beaten and he slain in Lake Merom it flows once more in a narthe valley, the fugitive Israelites betaking row channel with precipitous banks; but themselves to the recesses of Mount it is already as low as the sea-level, and, Gilboa. Here, too, by Gideon's spring, of course, by the time it has passed must have been Naboth's vineyard, and close to it the scene of his murder. At Jezreel, close at hand, Jezebel paid the penalty of her misdeeds. There are crowds of starving dogs, it seems, still in the villages; "and we vividly realized," says Lieutenant Anderson, "how, when the men went out in the evening to bury Jezebel, they found no more than the skull, the feet, and the palms of the hands." A little eastward from hence is the ford over the Jordan at the mouth of the Jabbok, by which both Abram and Jacob crossed when they came from Ha

ran.

through the Sea of Galilee it is below the level of the Mediterranean. Then "the river rushes on boisterously; but it is too late to accomplish the great object of all other rivers, for its waters are now 600 feet below the level of the ocean." Just below Jericho it falls into the Dead Sea. Before leaving this general survey we may quote the account of a little adventure of the surveying officers:

sheikh of the village complained that a taxWhile we were encamped at Jezreel, the gatherer from the neighbouring town of Jenin had just paid them a visit, and had flogged our

water-carrier because the latter would not wait A little to the north-west of Mount Ta- upon him. The chief desired Captain Wilson bor lies the town of Nazareth, completely to make a report to the governor at Jenin, and surrounded by rugged and barren hills. our dragoman was accordingly directed to write It is a lovely little spot, the more so by a letter in Arabic and submit it for signature. contrast with the rough ground around. The dragoman's interpretation of his own letter was as follows: "To the governor of Jenin. Having reached this point, it may be expected that we turn aside and notice what send one policeman he come speak bad words The chief of the village of Jezreel, what you has been done in exploring the shores of and beat near to kill him one man what fetch the Sea of Galilee; but that we propose de water for one English Colonel. I come for to do further on, after we have reviewed see you presently." This was duly signed by the survey of Jerusalem. The reconnais- Captain Wilson; and as the chief insisted upon sance which we are at present considering, a scal being appended to the signature, an old kept to the line of watershed between monogram was cut off a sheet of note-paper Jordan and the Mediterranean as its main and affixed to the letter. This was supposed to direction. As we pass north of Nazareth prove the genuineness of the document, as a the points away from the river and lake man's seal cannot be forged. become less interesting, although it would It is now time to speak of the operaappear that there are many curious re-tions at Jerusalem, which were the earlimains in this little-known region. Ke-est, and which led to the other exploradesh, the city of refuge, is recognizable, tions of which mention has been made. as is also Laish. The hills of Naphtali Many will learn with surprise that up to are still well covered with oaks, but these the year 1864 no wholly reliable map or are being thinned by charcoal-burners, plan of the Holy City existed; which does

The

not mean that no attempt had been made we can find Calvary. But enough has to delineate it, because for many ages di- been done to show how with more labour agrams had been appearing; but it means great results may be obtained. The diffithat the maps were partial, that each was culties of searching underground are made to illustrate some particular points enormous, formidable in themselves, and only, and that one or two more recent sur- added to by the wilful impediments placed veys which aimed at being general and in the way by Turkish officials. Yet we accurate were not equally trustworthy in see now that all these may be overcome; all parts. Hence, when some eight years if little has been established, a great deal since the unhealthy condition of Jerusa- of error has been disestablished and altolem attracted to it observation and much gether eliminated; and we have at least sympathy, it was seen that an improved a conception of the vastness of the work water-supply and improved drainage which some of the kings of old were able which were clearly the principal require- to execute. ments could not be designed for want The Temple, the great glory of old Jeof a complete survey and levels. The rusalem, stood, as we know, on Mount brooks and springs of the city and neigh- Moriah, the hill on which Abraham had bourhood are many, the rainfall is consid-bound Isaac preparatory to offering him erable, and no city could from its situa- for a sacrifice, and on ground which Dation be more easy to drain; but then we vid in later days purchased from Araunah, know that the place is under Turkish rule, whose threshing-floor it had been. and so do not marvel that the distresses apex of the rock of that hill may still be of the inhabitants, uncared for by their seen - the sacred rock it is called-and own rulers, came to be adopted as a legit- around it is an artificial plateau in the imate concern of theirs by the "Franks." form of a rectangle, whose length is 1500 The means of paying for the necessary feet north and south, and its breadth 900 survey were provided by Miss Burdett feet east and west. It is enclosed by Coutts; and an officer (Captain Wilson) walls and is known as Haram ash Sharif, and five non-commissioned officers of the or the Noble Sanctuary. This is now Royal Engineers were detached from the the apparent top of the hill, which, becompanies employed on the Ordnance yond the southern wall of the sanctuary, Survey, and sent out to Jerusalem to exe- slopes downward to the south, and is a cute the work. Their duty was complet- tongue of ground running between two ed in 1865. It was, however, hardly pos- valleys which unite at its foot. The valsible for a scientific officer employed on ley on the west of Moriah is the Tyrothe survey of such a region to confine pean, that on the east is the valley of himself to superficial operations. Ac- Kedron or of Hinnom. Across the Tycordingly Captain Wilson made attempts ropæan and opposite the southern to penetrate some of the secrets that lie tongue of Moriah, is the upper city on hid beneath the masses of rubbish the another plateau; opposite and to the quantity of which is hardly conceivable, west of the Sanctuary is the summit as will be explained - which conceal the known as Zion or Acra. The valleys and ancient forms of the hills and valleys, and the sides of the hills are covered with the remains of nearly all the ancient rubbish, the depth of which is so great works of men. But he was unprovided that the walls of the Sanctuary cannot be with the necessary stores and implements seen for more than a half, a third, or a for subterranean exploration, and it was fourth of their height in most parts of the left to his brother officer, Captain Warren, enclosure; and the ancient, or, as we to follow out his designs, and to furnish may say, the real beds of the valleys have data for restoring the ancient, as he him- been entirely altered. We know by self had delineated the modern, Jerusa- means of the explorations where the channel of the brook Kedron used to be: the stream has a very different course now from what it had when sorrowing David passed over it at the time of Absalom's rebellion. Of the remains of the Sanctuary (and probably the same may be said of the upper city and Zion) that which is above ground is but a very small part. Its walls rest throughout their lengths on the rock; the levels of the foundations vary, therefore, accord

lem.

One perceives with regret, after having followed the energetic proceedings of these officers, which in themselves are highly interesting, that they have as yet been able to establish beyond controversy but very few of the sites which have been wrangled over for so many centuries. We cannot say positively where the Holy Sepulchre is, where Solomon's or the succeeding temples exactly stood, or where

ing to the outline of the rock, being at the Triple Gate in the south wall about a hundred feet higher than at the most depressed points. Seventy feet appears to be the least height, and a hundred and seventy feet the greatest. These high walls were at one time exposed to view, and could, with their magnificent superstructure, dazzle the senses by their grandeur. A building longer and higher than York Minster stood, as Captain Wilson explains it, on a solid mass of masonry nearly as high as the tallest of our church spires.

the excitement of wonder. If we can see the hill as Solomon and his architects saw it, we can recover pretty closely the considerations that no doubt moved them in determining the exact site of the first Temple. This will not give conclusive proof, but it will reveal a strong probability which, if supported by further discoveries, may at last amount to proof. Then, once we are morally certain about the site of Solomon's Temple, there will be less difficulty about Nehemiah's and Herod's. Now then, looking at the contoured plan or the model, it is at once Nearly everywhere there are about evident that appearance and economy of four feet of firm rich mould resting upon time and of labour, would require the the rock. Above the mould are many Temple to be on the plateau of the sumlayers of stone-chippings, cubical or hem- mit, where there was just room for it to ispherical in form, and mixed with lumps stand. If that was the site chosen, the of broken stone of various sizes. Here Temple area must have been bounded on and there a stratum of fat earth from one the south by a wall parallel to, and three to three feet thick may be found, but not hundred feet north of, the present south frequently. Sometimes the shingle is wall of the sanctuary; its north wall more or less cemented together by mud, would have been six hundred feet north which has percolated through it; but of its south wall, or nine hundred feet outside of the city walls, and particularly north of the present south wall; and its on the east side of the Kedron valley, it end walls would have been coincident with is quite loose, without a particle of cohe- portions of the present west and east sive matter, so that once set in motion it walls of the Sanctuary. This is an enruns like water. To get at the carto- tirely new argument, which, without the graphy (or an approximation to it) of the form of the hill, recovered by Captain ancient city, the wells, cisterns, aqueducts, Warren's labours, could not have been vaults and passages which lie in and be- used. The threshing-floor of Araunah, neath these masses of rubbish, must be we may fairly assume, was on the sumthoroughly examined. Captain Warren mit, as was customary, in order that the has already brought to light many and winnowing might be conveniently effectstriking facts which up to his time were ed; and as we know that the threshingunknown or not established; and others, floor became the site of the Temple, some no doubt, following in his footsteps and further strength is thus given to the supimitating him on other ground, will ac- position that the first Temple was placed cumulate evidence sufficient to decide as we have described. But further proofs many of the contested points. We will are forthcoming from the evidence of the state the principal of Captain Warren's buried walls. The level at which the discoveries, and then give some account | stones in any part of the wall begin to of the means by which he achieved them, be dressed and carefully-lined stones, as and the adventures of himself and party distinguished from the rougher foundaduring the execution of their works. tion-stones which were not intended to

Let us first mention, that Captain be seen, is a guide to the age of that Warren, by working through the rubbish part of the wall. Where the dressed and by exploring subterranean passages, stones are traceable down to the neighhas been enabled to find the rock of Mount Moriah and of its flanking valleys in so many places, that he could make a contoured plan of the whole area and what, to the eye unaccustomed to drawings of the ground, is more instructive, a model. A few feet of red earth overlie the rock pretty equally; so, then, having the form of the rock, we have the form of the hill, as it appeared to Solomon. And this work serves a far higher purpose than the gratification of curiosity or

bourhood of the rock, it may be concluded that the wall is of the age of Solomon or of the kings of Judah. Where there are many courses of rough foundationstones above the rock, it is a fair inference that the wall was built after the rubbish had begun to accumulate. Some Phoenician characters have been found on the chiselled stones of those parts where the dressed stones most nearly approach the rock, and this is another proof of the antiquity of these parts.

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