One other great city occupied our attention from the Mejdel camp, namely Lachish, a place which seems to have been still known in the fourth century. We visited Umm Lags, the site proposed by Dr. Robinson, and could not but conclude that no ancient or important city ever stood there, nor has the name any radical similarity to that of Lachish. Much nearer indeed would be the title El Hesy, applying to a large ancient site with springs, near the foot of the hills, about in the proper position for Lachish. The modern name means “a water-pit,” and, if it is a corruption of Lachish, it would afford a second instance of a change which is well known to have taken place in the case of Michmash—the K being changed to guttural H. The distance from Beit Jibrin to Tell el Hesy, is not much greater than that given by the Onomasticon for Lachish, while the proximity of Eglon (’Ajlân), and the position south of Beit Jibrin, on a principal road, near the hills, and by one of the only springs in the plain, all seem to be points strongly confirming this view.
On the 15th of April we marched fourteen miles south to Gaza, over rolling corn-lands with patches of red sandy cliff, and by brown mud villages, with white domes, and large ponds in which the little red oxen were standing knee-deep. Riding up a low ridge, we came upon a great avenue of very ancient olives, which stretches south for four miles to the houses of Gaza.
This ancient city, the capital of Philistia, is very picturesquely situated, having a fine approach down the broad avenue from the north, and rising on an isolated hill a hundred feet above the plain. On the higher part of the hill are the Governor’s house, the principal mosque (an early Crusading church), and the bazaars. The green mounds traceable round this hillock are probably remains of the ancient walls of the city.
Gaza bristles with minarets, and has not less than twenty wells. The population is now eighteen thousand, including sixty or seventy houses of Greek Christians.
The Samaritans in the seventh century seem to have been numerous in Philistia, near Jaffa, Ascalon, and Gaza. Even as late as the commencement of the present century, they had a synagogue in this latter city, but are now no longer found there.
There are two large suburbs of mud cabins on lower ground, to the east and north-east, making four quarters to the town in all. East of the Serai is the reputed tomb of Samson, whom the Moslems call ’Aly Merwân or “Aly the enslaved.” On the north-west is the mosque of Hâshem, the father of the Prophet. The new mosque, built some forty years since, is full of marble fragments, from ancient buildings which were principally found near the sea-shore.
The town is not walled, and presents the appearance of a village grown to unusual size; the brown cabins rise on the hillside row above row, and the white domes and minarets, with numerous palms, give the place a truly Oriental appearance. The bazaars are large and are considered good.
Riding round the town to the east, I found the Moslem inhabitants celebrating a festival, in tents pitched in the cemeteries, where black-robed women, wearing the Egyptian veil, sat in circles, singing and clapping their hands to keep time. On the south-east of the city is a very conspicuous isolated hill called El Muntâr, “the watch-tower;” and on it another place sacred to ’Aly, a little white building, with three domes, surrounded with graves. This is traditionally the hill to which Samson carried the gates of Gaza, and a yearly festival of the Moslems is held here.
An interesting discovery was made in 1879 at Tell el’Ajjûl south of Gaza. A statue, fifteen feet high, was found buried in the sand, representing an old man with a beard. There can be little doubt that it is the statue of Marnas, the Jupiter of Gaza, whose temple was still standing near the city in the fifth century of our era.
On the 16th of April I rode out to a point north-east of Gaza, accompanied by Corporal Brophy and by a native soldier from the town. The Teiâha Arabs were at war with the ’Azâzimeh, who had called in the Terabîn to assist them, and battles were being fought within a few miles of the city, quite unnoticed by the Turkish Governor.