[p.318] ground is for the greater part uncultivated and without trees. At two hours and a quarter is Khan Djob Yousef (Arabic), or the Khan of Josephs Well, situated in a narrow plain. The Khan is falling rapidly into ruin; near it is a large Birket. Here is shewn the well into which Joseph was let down by his brothers; it is in a small court-yard by the side of the Khan, is about three feet in diameter, and at least thirty feet deep. I was told that the bottom is hewn in the rock: its sides were well lined with masonry as far as I could see into it, and the water never dries up, a circumstance which makes it difficult to believe that this was the well into which Joseph was thrown. The whole of the mountain in the vicinity is covered with large pieces of black stone; but the main body of the rock is calcareous. The country people relate that the tears of Jacob dropping upon the ground while he was in search of his son turned the white stones black, and they in consequence call these stones Jacobs tears (Arabic). Josephs well is held in veneration by Turks as well as Christians; the former have a small chapel just by it, and caravan travellers seldom pass here without saying a few prayers in honour of Yousef. The Khan is on the great road from Akka to Damascus. It is inhabited by a dozen Moggrebyn soldiers, with their families, who cultivate the fields near it.
We continued to descend from Djob Yousef; the district is here called Koua el Kerd (Arabic), and a little lower down Redjel el Kaa (Arabic). At one hour and a half from the Djob Yousef we came to the borders of the lake of Tiberias. At a short distance to the E. of the spot where we reached the plain, is a spring near the border of the lake, called Ain Tabegha (Arabic), with a few houses and a mill; but the water is so strongly impregnated with salt as not to be drinkable. The few inhabitants of this miserable place live by fishing. To the N.E. of Tabegha,
HOTTEIN
[p.319] between it and the Jordan, are the ruins called Tel Houm (Arabic), which are generally supposed to be those of Capernaum. Here is a well of salt water, called Tennour Ayoub (Arabic). The rivulet El Eshe (Arabic) empties itself into the lake just by. Beyond Tabegha we came to a ruined Khan, near the borders of the lake, called Mennye (Arabic), a large and well constructed building. Here begins a plain of about twenty minutes in breadth, to the north of which the mountain stretches down close to the lake. That plain is covered with the tree called Doum (Arabic) or Theder (Arabic), which bears a small yellow fruit like the Zaarour. It was now about mid-day, and the sun intensely hot, we therefore looked out for a shady spot, and reposed under a very large fig-tree, at the foot of which a rivulet of sweet water gushes out from beneath the rocks, and falls into the lake at a few hundred paces distant. The tree has given its name to the spring, Ain-et-Tin (Arabic); near it are several other springs, which occasion a very luxuriant herbage along the borders of the lake. The pastures of Mennye are proverbial for their richness among the inhabitants of the neighbouring countries. High reeds grow along the shore, but I found none of the aromatic reeds and rushes mentioned by Strabo.[Greek. l.16, p.755] The N.W. and S. shores are generally sandy, without reeds, but large quantities grow at the mouths of the Wadys on the E. side.
In thirty-eight minutes from Khan Mennye we passed a small rivulet, which waters Wady Lymoun. At about one hours distance from our road, up in the mountain, we saw the village Sendjol (Arabic), about half an hour to the west of which lies the village Hottein (Arabic). In forty-five minutes we passed the large branch of the Wady Lymoun. The mountains which border the lake here terminate
TABARIA
[p.320] in a perpendicular cliff, which is basaltish with an upper stratum of calcareous rock; and the shore changes from the direction S.W. by S. to that of S. by E. In the angle stands the miserable village El Medjdel (Arabic), one hour distant from Ain-et-Tin, and agreeing both in name and position with the ancient Magdala. The Wady Hammam, in which stands the Kalaat ibn-Maan, branches off from Medjdel. Proceeding from hence the shore of the lake is overgrown with Defle (Solanum furiosum), and there are several springs close to the waters side. At the end of two hours and a quarter from Ain-et-Tin, we reached Tabaria (Arabic).
June 23d.—There being no Khan for travellers at Tabaria I went to the Catholic priest, and desired him to let me have the keys of the church, that I might take up my quarters there; he gave them to me, but finding the place swarming with vermin, I removed into the open churchyard.
Tabaria, the ancient Tiberias,[Tel el Faras, the southern extremity of Djebel Heish, bears from a point above Tabaria N.E. by E.] stands close to the lake, upon a small plain, surrounded by mountains. Its situation is extremely hot and unhealthy, as the mountain impedes the free course of the westerly winds which prevail throughout Syria during the summer. Hence intermittent fevers, especially those of the quartan form, are very common in the town in that season. Little rain falls in winter, snow is almost unknown on the borders of the lake, and the temperature, on the whole, appears to be very nearly the same as that of the Dead sea. The town is surrounded towards the land by a thick and well built wall, about twenty feet in height, with a high parapet and loop-holes. It surrounds the city on three sides, and touches the water at its two
[p.321] extremities; but there are some remains on the shore of the lake, which seem to indicate that the town was once inclosed on this side also. I observed, likewise, some broken columns of granite in the water close to the shore. The town wall is flanked by twenty round towers standing at unequal distances. Both towers and walls are built with black stones of moderate size, and seem to be the work of not very remote times; the whole being in a good state of repair, the place may be considered as almost impregnable to Syrian soldiers.