The large marble cruciform font has been removed and it now lies in the courtyard adjoining the mosque, where two other Christian symbols may be seen, viz. a bishop's staff, and chalice in marble.
Another view of the history of this mosque is given by the Archimandrite Meletius Metaxakis, in an article on the Madaba Mosaic Map, in Nea Sion, March and April 1907, pp. 262-304, in which he states that the modern authors of Guides to Palestine hold that the Eudoxian Church is the modern Great Mosque, Djamia-el-Kebîr, taking into consideration, it seems, the information that the Eudoxian Church was to be built in the middle of the city. If, however, we are to accept that the sketch on the chart shows the Eudoxian Church, then we ought to treat the Eudoxian Church as identical, not with the mosque, but rather with the Modern Orthodox Church, built in 1856, during the Patriarchate of Kyrillus II (1845-1872), and through the expenditure of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre. With regard to its position, the Greek Church is wholly identical with the sketch on the chart.
With regard to the mosque, this is really a three-branched church, being perhaps one of the churches built by Marcian; the columns of this church (having no connection with those from Constantinople for the Eudoxian Church) appear to have been transported from some Hebrew synagogue, perhaps that of Cæsarea, because there is engraved on one of them a seven-branched lamp, under which appears the Hebrew and Greek inscription, "Hananias the son of Jacob."
FOOTNOTE:
[43] The reader is referred for additional information to Chap. XIV, "Inscriptions," in Meyer's History of the City of Gaza.
CHAPTER XIX
GAZA—THE KEY OF SYRIA
Gaza—the outpost of Africa, and the door of Asia—is situated in the south-west of Palestine, and is only about twelve miles to the north of Reifah (formerly Raphia), which marks the Turko-Egyptian boundary, running down to Akaba. Who founded the city is unknown! It is the commercial and administrative centre of all the surrounding sixty-two villages, and for many of the Beduin tribes who pitch their tents in the plains. The area of Gaza is about 2,100 square kilometres. The present city is about two miles from the sea,[44] and lies on an artificial mound which is about 100 feet high above the plain, and 180 feet above the sea-shore. Five minarets break the outline of the flat roofs. There are no scavengers.
The encroachment of the rolling dunes of sand is one of the most serious evils now to be dreaded on the coast of Palestine. Nothing is done to arrest this enemy around Gaza.