Buried Cities and Bible Countries

by George St. Clair

But how intensely interesting the exploration of the district becomes when we learn that underneath these towns of Roman date are the dwellings of the earlier inhabitants! For example, Burak is a city of the Hauran which has been identified with the episcopal city Constantia, founded, it is supposed, or at least embellished, by Constantine. But Rev. W. Wright tells us that while the houses seem to stand on a mound of black earth, they are in reality built on the foundations of houses of a more remote antiquity. In one place he descended to a depth of 16 or 18 feet, to see some pottery which had lately been discovered, and he found the walls at that depth formed of enormous undressed and unsquared stones, unlike the stones of the superstructure, which are small in size and have been better prepared for the walls. “Nor will it be doubted” (he says) “that beneath that raised mound are buried the remains of one of the ‘three-score cities’ that once existed in Bashan, and which still exist under changed circumstances, sometimes under different names.”

At another place, called Dra’a, Dr S. Merrill desired to explore the underground caves or chambers which were known to exist, and the sheikh sent his son as a guide. They went through several chambers, galleries, and avenues, and then entered a small room, and followed a passage leading out of it that had been cut in the solid rock. Soon they were obliged to go on their hands and knees, and after proceeding about thirty yards the guide came upon a human skeleton, at which he was so shocked that he refused to go any farther, and the party were obliged to return. How the skeleton came there was a mystery: some wild beast may have dragged a body to the place, or a murder may have been committed, or some person may have been trying to explore the caverns and failed to find his way out. Dra’a ought to be a rich field for excavations, because at least three cities exist there, one beneath another. The present Arab buildings and heaps of filth are, for the most part, on the top of a Greek or Roman city, as is evident from the walls which are exposed in a multitude of places, and the masons’ marks which appear on them. And the Roman town appears to rest on one still older, in which bevelled stones were used. But whether there are two or three cities above ground, there is certainly a large one beneath them, entirely excavated in the rock on which the upper cities stand.

The underground dwellings at this place had been visited some years before by Dr J. G. Wetzstein, and he also was prevented from making a thorough exploration; for when his attendant’s light went out he was so impressed with a sense of the danger they would be in if both lights went out together, that he thought it prudent to retreat. But he had seen a good deal. After passing a difficult passage he found himself in a broad street which had dwellings on both sides of it, and whose height and width left nothing to be desired. Farther along there were several cross streets, and soon after they came to a market-place, with numerous shops in the walls, exactly in the style of the shops that are seen in Syrian cities. After a while they turned into a side street, where a great hall attracted his attention, the roof formed of a single slab of jasper, and supported by four pillars. Dr Wetzstein speaks of this remarkable place as “old Edrei, the subterranean labyrinthine residence of King Og.”

Herr Schumacher has also visited this underground city of Dra’a or Ed Der’aah, and describes it, giving plans, in his work, “Across the Jordan.” He regards such cities as the work of the earliest inhabitants of Hauran, the so-called giants of Scripture. He was assured by the sheikh Naif, and by many others, that this underground city extends below the whole of Ed Der’aah.

Although the chambers and passages were ventilated, the question arises, why any people should choose to live in such gloomy seclusion instead of in the light of day? Mr Schumacher’s conjecture is that they did ordinarily live in the daylight, and that these subterranean places were hollowed out in order to receive the population in time of danger. They were thus prepared to stand a siege, as long as their magazines were filled with food, their stables with cattle, and their cisterns with water. If, however, the enemy had found out how to cut off their supply of air, by covering up the air-holes, the besieged would have been compelled to surrender or perish. Another circumstance also might have proved disastrous—if armies of wasps found their way into the underground city the inhabitants would be driven out. Some writers think that this occurrence is actually spoken of in Exodus xxiii. 28—“And I will send the hornet before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before thee;” and Deut. vii. 20—“Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves, perish from before thee”—they that are left, and hide themselves!

Herr Schumacher and Mr Laurence Oliphant find many names and traditions which lead them to regard the country of Western Hauran as probably the land of Uz. “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job” (Job i.). The old village of Sheikh Sa’ad is a spot which from the most ancient times has been held sacred to the memory of Job (Neby Ayyub). We find there the ruins of the Monastery of Job (Deir Ayyub), much venerated by the ancient people of the Hauran. At the south-eastern extremity of the long low hill upon which the village is built, and elevated about 40 feet above the surrounding plain, is the “Rock of Job,” which stands now in a mosque. Here, so says the legend, Job sat when he was leprous, and received his friends. The rock is a monolith of basalt, 7 feet high and about 4 feet broad, and on its surface are some illegible letters. There may be no truth in the legend; but it serves to show how closely the name of Job is associated with this region.

About half a day’s journey due east from Bethshan is a place called Mahneh, which several writers, on account of the similarity of name, have been inclined to identify with Mahanaim, where Jacob met the two companies of angels, and where David sojourned during Absalom’s rebellion. A mound exists here, and Dr Tristram picked up some pieces of old pottery, scattered about, so that it might be worth while to excavate: but we must look elsewhere for Mahanaim.

Mahanaim must have been some little distance north of the Jabbok, because Jacob came to it before he crossed that stream. It must have been in or near the Jordan Valley, for Jacob, in his prayer at that place, says, “With my staff I passed over this Jordan,” language which would not have been used if the Jordan were not within sight. The city was assigned to one of Solomon’s commissariat officers (1 Kings iv. 14), from which we may infer that it represented a district. These conditions appear to point to Khurbet Suleikhat, a large ruined city at the mouth of Wady Suleikhat, 9 miles north of the Jabbok. If we fix Mahanaim here we can understand why the name is in the dual form—the two Mahans or camps—for the ruins lie on both sides of the stream which here runs down the Wady Suleikhat into the Jordan. Khurbet Suleikhat is some 300 feet above the plain, and among the foot-hills, in such a way that it overlooks the valley, while the road running north and south along the valley passes nearly a mile to the west of it. A watchman from a tower could see to the north a considerable distance, also clear across the valley to the west, and down the valley to the south a long stretch, nearly or quite to the point where the Jabbok and the Jordan unite, at the foot of Kurn Surtabeh.

We can now understand the account of the messengers who bore the news of Absalom’s death to David. The battle between Joab and Absalom took place a little to the south-east of Mahanaim. Josephus says that Joab “put his army in battle array over against the enemy in the great plain where he had a wood behind him” (Antiq. vii. 9, 8, and 10, 1–5). Absalom’s men were routed, and fled through the forests and valleys, pursued by David’s men. The battle was scattered over the face of all the country (2 Sam. xviii. 8), and probably extended to the foot-hills. The two messengers appear to start from some point on the hills, where Joab stood on vantage ground. “The Cushite,” an Ethiopian slave of Joab’s, attempted to go across over deep wadies and broken ground; but Ahimaaz, who knew the country better, struck down to the Jordan Valley, and ran by the way of the Plain (the Kikkar) where he had a level and smooth road all the rest of the way. Consequently, although he started second, he arrived first. David sat between the two gates at Mahanaim, and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate unto the wall, whence he descried the messengers approaching.