The King of Gezer was defeated by Joshua, and later the city was captured by a king of Egypt, who was one of Solomon’s three hundred-odd fathers-in-law. The story is that Pharaoh gave Gezer to Solomon as a dowry with his daughter, and that Solomon rebuilt the city. At the time of the Crusades Richard Cœur de Lion and Saladin fought over it, and it was an important fortress at the time of the Maccabees.
The archæologists of the Palestine Exploration Fund have discovered bronze pots, ivory tablets, statues, and jewels and other treasures of a half-dozen different periods of history. In one of the cities a complete olive press made of stone was unearthed, and in another an Egyptian statuette about four thousand years old. The figure was that of a man with a beard and a wig. Bronze tweezers were found as well as many articles of Greek and Roman times. One of the most interesting discoveries was a reservoir with a capacity of four million gallons. Another was a place supposed to belong to one of the Maccabees.
Camels and donkeys, as well as bullocks, are hitched to the low, one-handled wooden ploughs of Palestine, the same to-day as centuries ago
The children are what we like best in the Holy Land, even though they have generally learned from their elders the habit of begging for backsheesh
The ass of this sheeted Balaam opens his mouth but only a bray comes forth. The roads are so fearful that many places may not be reached by wheeled vehicles and the sure-footed donkey is usually the best mount
The Palestine Exploration Fund is not a religious body, but rather a scientific and historical society. It has spent about fourteen thousand dollars a year on such work, most of the sums being collected in amounts of five dollars or less from English and Americans all over the world. The Fund has made great discoveries in Jerusalem. It has surveyed and mapped a great part of Palestine and has added many Bible sites to those already known.