At Soba we mounted the steep hill to the Shooneh, or small look-out tower at the summit, enjoying the breadth of landscape and the stretch of the Mediterranean before our eyes.
In the village we found remains of old masonry, most likely the basement of a fortification of early Saracenic or the Crusaders’ era; besides which there was a piece of wall in excellent condition of the best character of Jewish rabbeted stones.
One man invited us to see some old stones inside of his house; but they formed a portion of the basement above-mentioned, against which the rest of his house was built. The people were unanimous in declaring that there was nothing else of such a nature in the village. So that our researches issued in no corroboration of Soba being Modin.
Leaving the place we descended to the high road of Jaffa to Jerusalem, and saw a number of olive-trees dead of age; none of us, however long resident in Palestine, had seen such before or elsewhere; we concluded them to have been withered by age from their bearing no visible tokens of destruction, while the ground was well ploughed around them, and from finding others near them in progressive stages of decay, down to the utter extinction of foliage.
Arrived at Kalôneh upon the highway, certainly the site of a Roman garrison or “colonia,” (see Acts xvi. 12,) leaving Kustul behind, which is also a derivation from the Latin word for a castle.
Near the bridge of Kalôneh, where there are good specimens of ancient rabbeted stones, one gets a glimpse of ’Ain Carem through the olive
plantation; and the return that day was by a cross way from Dair Yaseen through vineyards to Jerusalem.
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It is only at a comparatively late period that attention has been directed to the text of Eusebius and Jerome in the “Onomasticon,” where it is distinctly said that Modin was near Lydd, and that the monuments were at that time (in the fourth century) still shown there.
Porter considers that therefore Latroon is the true site of Modin: in this supposition I wish to concur; for the general run of the Maccabæan history becomes peculiarly intelligible when read with the idea in the mind that Modin lay in just such a situation, namely, upon a hill, rising alone from the great plain, but adjacent to the mountain ridge, and to defiles into which the insurgents might easily retire, or from which they might issue suddenly and surprise regular armies in their camp. I know of no place so suitable for such operations as Latroon.