Palestine

by C. R. Conder

The limestone both on Lebanon and on Anti-Lebanon appears to be honeycombed with great subterranean caverns, in which underground rivers, fed by the snows of the higher ridges, flow towards the plains. The Abana, which rises in the plain of Zebdâny, west of the main ridge of the Anti-Lebanon, springs up in a blue pool of unknown depth, where the snow-cold water rises with great force and feeds a considerable stream, which, when increased by the rushing fountain at ’Ain Fiji (one of the most picturesque spots in the region), becomes the “River of Damascus,” which Naaman rightly preferred to the muddy waters of Jordan. At Beirut, also, the Dog River rises in magnificent stalagmitic caves in the bowels of the Lebanon, and farther north the old castle of Krak (already noticed) looks down on a narrow valley where is the monastery of St. George, near the cave in which rises the famous Sabbatic River, whose intermittent flow was reckoned among the wonders of Syria by the ancients. This river springs from a pool in the cave, and at intervals of between four and seven days a rumbling sound is heard in the mountains, and torrents of water flow forth from the cavern, pouring down the valley for several hours. In the Hermon region there is another similar phenomenon, which is, however, only to be seen in winter. The plain near the village of Kefr Kûk is said yearly to be turned into a lake by a torrent which rushes out of its cavern with a roaring noise like that of the Sabbatic River.

Josephus (VII. Wars, v. I) has given us a correct account of the rise of the Sabbatic River, which Titus visited on his return from the Jewish war, but Pliny has inverted the facts (H. N., xxxi. II), and supposes the river to observe the Sabbath, flowing all the week and resting on the seventh day. The Bordeaux pilgrim makes the same mistake. In the Middle Ages the legend of the River Sambation became famous among the Jews, who identified it with the Ganges, and held that the ten tribes existed beyond its banks, and there awaited the day when, on the appearance of the Messiah, its waters should be dried up. Thus the true origin of the story was forgotten, and the situation of the river, which, however, still preserves its ancient name in the modern Arabic title, Nahr es Sebta.

The western slopes of the Lebanon fall abruptly into the sea, and the flat ground at the foot of the mountains is at most a narrow strip, while the coast road often leads over the rugged stony limestone of the promontories. There is no real harbour along the shore at all comparable to that of Smyrna, but the Phœnicians made the most of outlying reefs and shallow bays to construct their little ports. The harbour of Tripoli is reckoned the best in Syria by the captains of coasting steamers. The Bay of St. George at Beirut is subject to storms, as is also the gulf at Alexandretta, where in winter the gusts from the mountains are often very dangerous. At Latakia there is only an open roadstead, and Gebal or Byblus, famous as its sailors were in early historic times, presents only a shelving beach.

The shore scenery is throughout of most picturesque character, not unlike some of the South Italian coast; and the steep slopes, pine-dotted and riven with great gorges, rise to snowy summits, often wrapped in cloud even in summer. Near Tripoli the shore plain widens, and the Eleutherus flows through an open sandy flat. This river, which formed the boundary of Jewish conquest in the Hasmonean age, has often been mistaken for the Sabbatic River. Its source is in a sort of crater west of the Lake of Homs, a picturesque basaltic hollow plain, marshy and dotted with oak trees. The black basalt extends westwards along the open valley, which leads down seaward, confining Lebanon on the north; and the pass, which has always been important in history, is commanded by the great castle of the Knights Hospitallers, already mentioned, and perhaps the best preserved of the Crusading strongholds.

Into the wilder mountains of the Anseiriyeh it was not my good fortune to be able to penetrate. The thick copses here cover remains of ancient cities, of which but little is known. On the north the vale of Antioch divides this ridge from the great spur of the Taurus, which rises over the gloomy Gulf of Alexandretta. The steep mountains here spring from the sea, and a narrow, pestilent, swampy shore lies at their feet, making this port at the “gates of Syria” the most notoriously unhealthy place in the Levant. Many suggestions for draining the swamp may be found in consular reports; but the difficulty is that its level is only a few feet above the sea, allowing no fall for any irrigatory channels. If ever the great railway which may connect the Mediterranean with the Persian Gulf is made, it is to be hoped that the port will be chosen at the old harbour of Seleucia, at the mouth of the Orontes, and not in the fever-stricken and mountain-locked bay of Issus, as the Alexandretta Gulf was called when Alexander won on its shores the great victory over the Persians which made him master of all Western Asia.

The climate of the Lebanon is superior to that of Palestine on account of the brisk mountain air, some 4000 feet above the highest points reached by even the Galilean mountains, while the snow-fed rivers and streams give an abundant water-supply throughout. The modern inhabitants are a hardy and ruddy-faced people, whose cheerful independence contrasts with the dull fatalism of the Southern peasants. Thus from the dawn of history there has been perhaps more energy, enterprise, and civilisation in Syria than in Palestine; and trade and art flourished in Phœnicia and among the Hittites, while in the south the wandering Shasu ranged over an unsettled land. In order to preserve some method in briefly describing the early civilisation of this country, it will be best to adopt an historic sequence, for the centres of power were constantly changing, and a geographical treatment of the subject is difficult.

The earliest known notice of Northern Syria is in the time of Thothmes III., about 1600 B.C. After the great battle of Megiddo, which laid Palestine at his feet, the hardy Nubian advanced northwards, even beyond Aleppo and across the Euphrates. At Karnak he has recorded the names of 218 towns in Syria and Aram which he claimed to have conquered; and from this list we know that even as early as the seventeenth century B.C. many famous cities of later times were already in existence, including Hamath, Aleppo, Calchis, Circesium, Nisibis, Aradus, Carchemish, Pethor, and Kadesh on the Orontes.

Even earlier, however, than this time it appears that the Hittites dwelt in Northern Syria, which is called also the “Land of the Hittites” in the Book of Joshua. Thothmes I. is believed to have reigned about 1700 B.C., and began his career by attacking the Hittites, who, however, at that early period, may have extended their rule farther south.

Seven years after the battle of Megiddo, Thothmes III. attacked Kadesh on Orontes, and cut down the trees near it. Twice again in later campaigns he stormed the town on his way to Mesopotamia, and carried off silver and precious stones as tribute; but on his death the Hittites recovered their independence, and about 1540 B.C. they became a formidable power. The recently discovered Tell el Amarna tablets show us that an early Babylonian conquest of Phœnicia dates from that period. The kings of Egypt and of Mesopotamia were then in alliance, and governors who used the cuneiform script appear even to have been posted at Tyre and at Sidon; but the Semitic invaders were jealous of the Hittite power, and Tunep (now Tennib) appears then, as well as later, to have been a Hittite city.

Two centuries passed, and Rameses II. found the Hittite power as formidable as ever. The great battle of this period was fought near Kadesh; and the celebrated battle picture at Abu Simbel gives us most lively portraits of these great Mongol warriors in their chariots, and of their walled and tower-crowned city, with its name written over it, and its bridges over the Orontes and the smaller western stream, which together surrounded the mound now known as Tell Nebi Mendeh. The Egyptian advance followed the coast-line north of Beirut, where Rameses left his bas-reliefs cut on the cliff by the Dog River, and the army reached a town called Shabatuna, which some scholars place near the Sabbatic River, in which case their road lay, no doubt, up the valley of the Eleutherus, already noticed as the highway from Tripoli to Homs. Kadesh, we learn, was on “the west bank of Hanruta” or Orontes; and the incautious advance of the Pharaoh very nearly led to his defeat and death. The city was, however, again taken, and the great alliance, which included auxiliary forces from Aradus, Cyprus, Carchemish, and even from Mæonia and Southern Asia Minor, was defeated. The Egyptian conqueror pursued his way far north and west, and left his cartouche on Mount Sipylus, where the old figure of the “Weeping Niobe” had already been carved.