Ali replied that it was called Wady Haman.
"I thought so," answered the Doctor. "By going up that valley we might visit the caverns which are mentioned by Josephus and other writers."
Frank asked for what these caverns were celebrated, and how large they were.
"They are partly natural and partly artificial," was the reply, "and are large enough to shelter five or six hundred persons. The openings are protected by walls, and at every exposed point there is a bastion or something of the kind, so that the occupants could defend themselves with great ease.
"They are mentioned in the Bible, but more fully in the works of Josephus, who calls them fortified caverns. They have been occupied at different times as resorts of robbers, or as strongholds of regular soldiers, and in either case it was a matter of great difficulty to take them. In the time of Herod the Great they were held by robbers, who plundered all the surrounding country, and made themselves so troublesome that the king determined to get rid of them.
HEROD'S PLAN OF ATTACK.
"He sent his soldiers to attack them, but the position of the robbers was so strong that they repelled every assault. Finally he ordered some strong boxes to be made, and suspended over the face of the cliff by means of iron chains, and when all was ready he filled the boxes with soldiers, and lowered them down in front of the caves.