Phoenicia.—?Its Extent and Fertility.—?Origin of the Phoenicians.—?Their Commerce.—?Their Learning.—?Departure from Nazareth.—?Cana of Galilee.—?First Christian Wedding.—?Beautiful Vale of AbilÎn.—?Plain of Accho.—?City of ’Akka.—?Names.—?Metropolis of the Crusaders.—?Their Destruction.—?Gibbon.—?The Moslem Nero.—?Napoleon’s Defeat.—?Road to Tyre.—?Summer Palace.—?Excavations.—?Wild and dangerous Pass.—?Antiquity of Tyre.—?Three Tyres.—?Stupendous Water-works.—?Continental Tyre.—?Sins and Judgments.—?Glory departed.—?How Prophecy was fulfilled.—?Insular Tyre.—?Tyre of the Crusaders.—?Cathedral.—?Tomb of Hiram.—?Wonderful Temple.—?Sarepta.—?Zidon.—?Gardens.—?Ancient Glory.—?Wars.—?Harbor.—?Citadel.—?Tombs.—?Interesting Discoveries.—?Ornaments.

Historically, the Holy Land is divided into three great sections—Palestine, Philistia, and Phoenicia. The latter is that long maritime plain stretching for 120 miles from the Promontory of Carmel on the south to the River Eleutherus on the north. Not exceeding 12 miles in its greatest width, it is washed by the Mediterranean on the west, and is bounded on the east by a mountain barrier, through which there is but one practicable pass from the “Ladder of Tyre” to the island of Aradus.631 In addition to numberless streams, it is watered with the Rivers Kishon, Leontes, Aulay, Tamyras, Lycus, Adonis, HadÎsha, and Eleutherus. Deriving its Greek name from “a palm,” as significant of its richness, it is still fruitful where cultivated; and though only occasionally that celebrated tree is seen, yet groves of oranges and lemons environ its modern towns. While in its gardens are produced apricots, peaches, almonds, figs, dates, the sugar-cane, and grapes, which furnish excellent wine, its mountain slopes are covered with oaks, pines, acacias, tamarisks, and the majestic cedar. Divided into sections by bold promontories projecting far into the sea, its general surface is undulating, and its shore-line is indented with small bays, near which stood those renowned cities which have given celebrity to the whole plain.

Originally settled by the descendants of Sidon, the son of Canaan,632 Phoenicia was included in the promise to Abraham; but, either from inability or unwillingness to expel its powerful and wealthy traders, it was only nominally possessed by his posterity. The grandeur of that promise, the sublime purpose of Jehovah as to the material greatness of his chosen people, together with the religious mission of the Jews, demanded such a maritime possession. Had they had the advantages of a powerful navy and of a vast commerce, Palestine would have been the leading power on earth, and would have held the first rank among the mighty nations of antiquity. It is one of those stupendous facts which illustrate the infinite wisdom of Providence, and the relations of the Promised Land to all the world, that, as Palestine has given to mankind a religion, Phoenicia is the primeval seat of commerce and letters. From their splendid cities of Tyre and Sidon the Phoenicians launched out upon the hitherto unknown Mediterranean, and, having planted colonies on the islands of Cyprus and Rhodes, they sailed into Greece. Emboldened by success, and charmed with the excitement of a new life, they turned to the northwest, and, having visited Sicily, Sardinia, and the northern coast of Spain, they passed through the Straits of Gibraltar, occupied the Isle of Gades, penetrated as far northward as Britain, and returning, they stretched southward from the Straits and founded Carthage, the formidable rival of Rome, and the only one that threatened her destruction.633 It is a thought as beautiful as it is true, that, while holding commercial relations with all the nations on the shores of their native sea, and on the western coasts of Europe and Africa, and trafficking, by their caravans, with Persia, Arabia, and Asia, their intercourse with those distant nations was marked by the blessings of the arts of peace rather than by the calamities of war. Attaining the summit of their power and glory in the reign of Solomon, how changed would have been the moral aspects of the earth had those early mariners been Jews, disseminating a knowledge of the true God wherever they planted a colony, and illustrating a pure worship wherever they sold their “Tyrian purple.” Celebrated for their knowledge of architecture and of various mechanic arts, and also for their learning, it was from one of these Phoenician cities that Cadmus went forth, about 15 centuriesB.C., and laid the foundation of Grecian literature, the pride of succeeding ages, and the glory of modern scholarship. Nowhere upon the globe can be found a tract of land so small as this, where have originated three such powerful agents for “weal or woe” to mankind, and which, still operating, are affecting the opinions and moulding the characters of men in all lands.

So intimately blended are the events of sacred and profane history connected with all that region extending from the Hills of Nazareth to the Mediterranean, and from the Promontory of Carmel to the mulberry groves of Sidon, that the traveler scarcely realizes the transition from Palestine to Phoenicia. Reluctantly leaving those scenes sacred to the life and deeds of our Lord, we found ourselves, at the close of the day, in the midst of new associations, dating back to the earliest authentic records. Stopping for a moment at the Fountain of Seffurieh, around which Guy de Lusignan gathered the heroic Crusaders on the night previous to the fatal battle of HattÎn, we ascended the hill of ancient Sepphoris, and, crossing the beautiful plain of El-Buttauf, came to the ruins of Cana of Galilee. Situated seven miles to the north from Nazareth, it occupies a tongue of land extending into the plain, bounded on either side by a small ravine, and behind the town rises a rocky, barren hill. The home of Nathaniel the apostle,634 and the residence of the bride of St.John, here was celebrated the first Christian wedding on record; and, being present as a guest, here the Savior performed his first miracle,635 when

Here, at a subsequent visit, the Master was met by the “nobleman of Capernaum whose son was sick,” and, though 20 miles distant, he healed the youth, and commanded the father, “Go thy way; thy son liveth.”636

In the southern valley is a noble circular well, four feet in diameter, and probably the same from which the water was drawn for the miracle. An Arab, his son, and two daughters were resting there with their flocks, and from them we obtained a drink of the delicious water. But Cana is now a ruin, and is deserted. Not a house remains standing. Heaps of fallen buildings are overgrown with grass; and where the nuptials of the beloved John were celebrated the silence of death reigns unbroken, and rank weeds grow luxuriantly where Jewish maidens were wont to gather flowers to form the bridal wreath.

Turning westward, we entered the glorious Valley of AbilÎn. It is not wide, nor are the hills that inclose it high; but it is a scene of surpassing loveliness. Here are rolling hills covered with the richest verdure; wooded glens filled with oaks and acacias; soft lawns bright with flowers; running brooks falling over rocks into sparkling cascades, and birds of rare plumage singing their sweetest songs. Soon the sea, reflecting the sunlight from a smooth surface, burst like enchantment upon our view. Now the valley widens, the hills recede—they die away, and we are on the plain of ancient Accho. Carmel is seen to the south, the Scala Tyriorum to the north, while the Hills of Galilee are on the east, giving to the plain the form of a semicircle, with the sea-coast for a diameter. Eight miles wide and 20 long, most of it is a marsh in winter, but a fruitful garden in spring and summer. Falling to the lot of Asher, here “he dipped his foot in oil; his bread was fat, and he yielded royal dainties;”637 and “here he continued on the sea-shore, and abode in his creeks,”638 when Deborah called the nations to arms against Sisera.

Occupying a triangular neck of land, with a large bay on the south and the sea on the west, the town of ’Akka is large and well fortified. Having a population of 5000 souls, four fifths of whom are Moslems, it is the residence of the Pasha, whose jurisdiction embraces Nazareth, Safed, Tiberias, and Haifa. Regarded as of the first importance as a military position, it is garrisoned by a strong force. Though its massive fortifications, which were shattered in former wars, have never been repaired, its sea-wall, which is nine feet thick, is in a good condition, and is surmounted by several large guns. The buildings of the town are of stone, built square and high; the streets are narrow and shaded with matting, and the only structures of note within the city are the Mosque of JezzÂr and the Temple of the Knights Hospitallers. The mosque is high and square, and is surmounted with a balustrade; the faÇade is adorned with a fine portico; the open area within is paved with Syrian marble, and is surrounded with an arcade on which are small domes. Beneath the palm and fig trees old soldiers and venerable Turks were reclining in silence. Not far from the mosque is the city prison, consisting of an immense cellar, dark and loathsome, in which were 180 culprits of different ages, incarcerated for small and great offenses.

Called by Samuel Accho, by the Greeks Ptolemais, after Ptolemy, king of Egypt, and by the Arabs ’Akka, the Arabic of the scriptural name, the city is mentioned but twice by the sacred writers—once in connection with the tribe of Asher,639 and again as the landing-place of St.Paul on his way to Jerusalem.640 But it derives its chief importance from its relation to modern European history. Napoleon called it the “key of Palestine;” and, during the last 700 years, from Baldwin to Napier, it has been grasped by many a rude hand. As it bears three names, so it is remarkable for three historical events—the destruction of the Crusaders, the reign of JezzÂr, and the defeat of NapoleonI.

“After the loss of Jerusalem, Acre641 became the metropolis of the Latin Christians, and was adorned with strong and stately buildings, with aqueducts, an artificial port, and a double wall. The population was increased by the incessant streams of pilgrims and fugitives; in the pauses of hostility the trade of the East and West was attracted to this convenient station, and the market could offer the produce of every clime and the interpreters of every tongue. But in this conflux of nations, every vice was propagated and practiced.... The city had many sovereigns and no government. The Kings of Jerusalem and Cyprus, of the house of Lusignan, the Princes of Antioch, the Counts of Tripoli and Sidon, the Great Masters of the Hospital, the Temple, and the Teutonic order, the republics of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, the Pope’s legate, the Kings of France and England, assumed an independent command; seventeen tribunals exercised the power of life and death; every criminal was protected in the adjacent quarter; and the perpetual jealousy of the nations often burst forth in acts of violence and blood. Some adventurers, who disgraced the ensign of the Cross, compensated their want of pay by the plunder of the Mohammedan villages: nineteen Syrian merchants, who traded under the public faith, were despoiled and hanged by the Christians, and the denial of satisfaction justified the arms of the Sultan Khalil. He marched against Acre at the head of 60,000 horse and 140,000 foot; his train of artillery (if Imay use the expression) was numerous and weighty; the separate timbers of a single engine were transported in 100 wagons; and the royal historian Abulfeda, who served with the troops of Hamah, was himself a spectator of the holy war. Whatever might be the vices of the Franks, their courage was rekindled by enthusiasm and despair; but they were torn by the discord of seventeen chiefs, and overwhelmed on all sides by the powers of the sultan. After a siege of 33 days the double wall was forced by the Moslems, the principal tower yielded to their engines, the Mamelukes made a general assault, the city was stormed, and death or slavery was the lot of 60,000 Christians. The convent, or rather fortress, of the Templars resisted three days longer; but the great master was pierced with an arrow, and of 500 knights only 10 were left alive, less happy than the victims of the sword if they lived to suffer on the scaffold in the unjust and cruel proscription of the whole order. The King of Jerusalem, the Patriarch, and the Great Master of the Hospital effected their retreat to the shore; but the sea was rough, the vessels were insufficient, and great numbers of the fugitives were drowned before they could reach the Isle of Cyprus, which might comfort Lusignan for the loss of Palestine. By the command of the sultan, the churches and fortifications of the Latin cities were demolished: a motive of avarice or fear still opened the holy sepulchre to some devout, defenseless pilgrims; and a mournful and solitary silence prevailed along the coast which had so long resounded with the world’s debate.”642

Five centuries later ’Akka became the royal city of one of the most infamous characters in history, whose name is to be mentioned only with that of Herod, and whose cruelties constitute him the Nero of modern times. Rising by theft and perjury from the servitude of a common slave to the dignity of a pasha, JezzÂr—“the Butcher,” dishonored his pashalic with the most inhuman deeds, perpetrated without cause upon eminent citizens and upon the beautiful slave-girls of his harem.

But the city was destined to witness the exploits of the greatest warrior of our age. To the east of the town is a low mound, where, in 1799, the great Napoleon planted his batteries, and from the summit of which, after eight successive assaults, he witnessed the defeat of his army, and with that defeat disappeared forever all his bright visions of an Eastern empire.

The distance from Acre to ancient Tyre is 25 miles, and the journey is replete with interest. Mounting our horses at 11A.M., our path lay along the western border of the Plain of Phoenicia. In less than half an hour we passed beneath the Aqueduct of JezzÂr, supported by 100 arches. Through the neglect of a people who are indifferent to works of art, it is now a ruin, and in part overgrown with weeds. Two miles beyond is the summer palace of the late Abdallah Pasha. Sixty cypresses line the road-side, and within an inclosed garden, in the midst of orange and lemon trees, is the charming residence. Passing the site of Achzib, a town allotted to Asher,643 we reached, in an hour, the Scala Tyriorum, or “Tyrian Ladder,” forming the boundary-line between Phoenicia and the Holy Land. Abold promontory, with a white base dipping into the sea, it is the most southern root of Lebanon, and is the counterpart of Carmel. Sprinkled with shrubs and dotted with tufts of grass, its sides are broken and stony. The path over it is zigzag, and not unlike a flight of winding steps. The descent down the opposite side is exceedingly rough, now over low mountain spurs, and again through a narrow defile leading to a plain below. Passing over sections of an old Roman road, we came to the village of NÂkÛrah, and to the east of it, high up in the mountain ravines, was a company of French soldiers excavating a buried city which has neither name nor story. They had succeeded in uncovering one temple and a number of elegant sarcophagi, but no inscriptions had been discovered by which to ascertain the origin of the unknown town. Two miles to the north we came to the white cliffs of Ras el-Abyad, or the Promontorium Album of the ancients. This is one of the wildest, and, at times, the most dangerous passes on the Phoenician coast. The sides of the bluff are perpendicular, and the waves dash wildly against its base. The path is cut in the white limestone rocks 500 feet above the level of the sea, and in places it skirts the very verge of the precipice. Huge boulders have fallen from the cliffs above, and others seem ready to follow. Excited by the grandeur of the scene and the danger of the moment, we successfully cleared the pass in half an hour, when we gained our first view of the plain and peninsula of Tyre. Descending rapidly to the plain below, the dreariness of the journey was relieved by the glorious appearance of Hermon, whose snow-capped summits were bright in the evening light, while the plain over which we rode was darkened by the shadows of the adjacent mountains. Traveling on for hours over the deep sandy beach, we reached Ras el-’Ain in the dusk of the evening, and an hour after entered the solitary gate of the renowned city of the ancient Tyrians.

Few cities can boast of a higher antiquity, of grander edifices, and of greater renown than Tyre. Founded by the Phoenicians, rebuilt by the Romans, and again restored by the Christians, there have been three Tyres, the history of each of which would fill a volume. Called by Isaiah the “daughter of Sidon,”644 it was a “strong city” in the days of Joshua;645 it was the ally of Solomon;646 and it was a prize coveted by Shalmanezer, Nebuchadnezzar, and Alexander the Great. The cradle of commerce, Tyre became the mistress of the seas; her merchantmen traded in every port in the known world, and from her thriving shores she sent forth her sons, dotting the coasts of Europe and Africa with flourishing colonies. Nothing can excel the accuracy of detail and the elegance of graphic description contained in the 27th chapter of Ezekiel on the wealth and glory of Tyre; and now, after the lapse of twenty-five centuries, her scattered ruins attest the truth of prophecy. Her walls are destroyed, her towers broken down, her stones and timber are in the midst of the water, her ancient site is “a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea,” and the remains of her marble castles, gorgeous palaces, triple gateways, lofty towers, and spacious harbors are now seen half buried beneath the drifting sand or washed by the restless waves. Entering a small boat, and passing out of the inner basin into the larger harbor, we saw immense columns of red granite lying prostrate beneath the surface of the clear water, and others imbedded in the solid rock, or cemented together by some powerful agent.

The Sidonian colonists who founded Phoenician or Continental Tyre evidently settled on the main land, three miles to the south from the modern city, and a quarter of a mile from the shore. Here, at Ras el-’Ain, “the Fountain-head,” are the most stupendous water-works of ancient times. They consist of four immense fountains, the water of which descends through the mountains on the east, and, rising to the surface here, is collected into separate reservoirs, from which it was originally distributed to irrigate the plain. The most southern of these fountains is the largest. Octagonal in form, it is 66 feet in diameter and 25 high. The lateral walls are eight feet thick, and gently slope to their base. Three hundred feet to the eastward are the other cisterns, one 36 and two 60 feet square, constructed of well-dressed stones, joined by a fine cement, and built directly over the places where the water gushes up from the earth. Formerly the stream was carried from the lower to the upper pools by an aqueduct which is now a ruin; and from the upper reservoirs there can now be traced an old Roman aqueduct, resting on arches, to a mound two miles distant, crowned with the remains of a massive building, from which point it turns westward toward the city. Amid a thicket of willows and groves of mulberry-trees are a few wretched huts, and the only use to which this great water-power is now applied is to drive a single mill and slake the thirst of the transient traveler.

Though they are unquestionably of a high antiquity, the author and finisher of these great works are unknown. There is an Arab legend that Alexander the Great constructed a subterranean canal through which he brought the water from Bagdad! but a more pious tradition ascribes them to Solomon. Quoting Menander the Ephesian, Josephus informs us that they existed in the days of Shalmanezer, who, in his siege of Tyre, “placed guards at the rivers and aqueducts to hinder the Tyrians from drawing water.”647

Around these fountains, and stretching northward over this fertile plain, stood the old city of Tyre. Though neither temple nor column remains to mark the site, yet beneath the drifted sands of many centuries lie entombed those magnificent ruins which have escaped the hand of the spoiler, and which, of late, have been uncovered in part near the hill called Tell Habeish. During the reign of Hiram, Palai-Tyrus consisted of two parts, the larger and grander standing near the fountains on the main land, and the smaller on an island three miles to the north and not far from the shore.648 It was by retiring to this island that the inhabitants were enabled to maintain the defense of their insular city against the attack by Shalmanezer during a period of five years.649 Though subsequently besieged by Nebuchadnezzar for 13 years, yet it was reserved for the son of Philip to be the scourge of Providence, the destroyer of the city, and the accomplisher of prophecy. The continental city falling an easy prey to the victorious arms of Alexander the Great, he laid siege to the insular town for seven months. To capture this strong-hold, he removed a large portion of the materials of the former place, and with them built a causeway connecting the island with the continent. Advancing on this new military road, he took the city by storm; and, having slain 8000 of the citizens in the attack, he crucified 2000 others, and sold 30,000 more into slavery. Thus terminated the wonderful history of Phoenician Tyre, whose wealth was equaled only by her luxury, and whose power was excelled only by her pride. Abandoned to the worst forms of idolatry, she incurred the displeasure of an offended God; intoxicated with prosperity, she broke her “covenant” with the Hebrews, and confederated with other nations against them;650 haughty as she was impious, she scrupled not to demand the wealth and sacred ornaments of the Temple at Jerusalem, which the enemies of the Jews had sacrilegiously pillaged;651 forgetting the covenant with David and Solomon, she purchased the Jewish captives from their conquerors, and, loading her vessels with the human cargo, sold them into slavery in distant countries;652 and when Nebuchadnezzar had utterly destroyed the Holy City, and had subdued and wasted all the lands of the Jews, she exulted over their downfall, and insultingly exclaimed, “Aha! she is broken that was the gates of the people; she is turned unto me; Ishall be replenished now that she is laid waste.”653

For these sins God denounced against Tyre the severest judgments, and to-day she is a mournful proof of the accuracy and fulfillment of prophecy. Her royal palaces have given place to the abodes of poverty; her magnificent navy, with sails of embroidered linen from Egypt and ivory benches from the Isle of Chittim, has been exchanged for a few crazy fishing-boats; her famous mariners from Sidon and Arvad are superseded by boatmen whose nautical knowledge is not equal to a cruise on the Mediterranean five miles from land; and her vast commerce in the precious metals of Tarshish, the slaves of Javan, the horses of Togarmah, the coral and agate of Syria, the wheat of Minnith, the wine of Helbon, the spices of Sheba, the cassia and calamus of Dan, the precious clothes for chariots of Dedan, and the fine fleeces of Arabia, has dwindled down to an occasional cargo of millstones and juniper charcoal. Even her hill-sides, once rich in olive-groves, are now forsaken; and such have been the incursions of the sea, that the once fertile plain of Tyre has been transformed into a sandy waste, and she who was the “perfection of beauty is now smitten with baldness;” in her unrelieved desolation, her harps of gold and enchanting minstrelsy are forever silent, and winds and waves alone lament her departed glory. So complete is the ruin of the primal city, and so difficult to determine with exactitude the site of the Phoenician Tyre, that it is still true, “Thou shalt be no more; though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord God.”654 In removing the materials of the old town to fill up the arm of the sea between the island and main land, Alexander the Great fulfilled these astonishing words: “They shall break down thy walls and destroy thy pleasant houses; and they shall lay thy stones, and thy timber, and thy dust in the midst of the water.”655 And, as significant of the utterness of her ruin, the traveler of to-day beholds what the prophet saw in the heavenly vision; “Iwill make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more.”656

While the words, “Thou shalt be built no more,” are singularly and literally true when applied to Continental Tyre, yet the island city, which was not included in the prophetic denunciation, rose to great elegance under the Romans. Attaining to somewhat of the pristine splendor of the parent city in the first century, it resumed in part its ancient sway over the sea. Receiving Christianity at an early period, it was visited by St.Paul when on his way to Jerusalem, “who, finding disciples, we tarried there seven days.”657 Seized by the Arabs in 638A.D., it remained in their possession till June 27,1124, when it was captured by the Crusaders, who held it for 150 years, when it fell again into the hands of the Moslems on the evening of the day on which ’Akka was captured. Declining under their withering sceptre, at the close of the 17th century it was without a house, and its vaults were occupied by a few fishermen.658 Under the fanatical Metawileh, in 1766 it was partially restored. Modern Tyre is a village of 4000 inhabitants, equally divided in their religious faith between Christ and Mohammed. What was once Alexander’s causeway is now a sandy isthmus, and what was once an island is now a peninsula. Originally extremely narrow, but increased by the action of the winds and waves upheaving the loose sands, the isthmus is half a mile wide, and that which was formerly the island is a ridge of rocks parallel to the shore, nearly a mile long, three quarters of a mile broad, and half a mile distant from the coast-line. The general surface is uneven, in part strewn by rocks, and in part encumbered by the accumulation of rubbish. The present town occupies the northwestern portion of the peninsula, and is near the ancient harbor. Asingle gate admits the traveler to the city. Around it are the remains of old towers, and near it are two deep wells, from which the inhabitants obtain their principal supply of water. With few exceptions the buildings are mere hovels, the streets narrow and crooked, and the citizens filthy and ignorant. As if to hide the fallen glory of Tyre, there are a few palms and pride of India trees growing in the gardens. Within the shattered walls and along the shore fishermen were mending their nets, and in the gloomy bazars were a few bales of cotton and tobacco, several tiers of millstones, and heaps of charcoal. The Moslems have a mosque crowned with two domes, and from beside it rises a tapering minaret; the Christians have two small churches, which are remarkable neither for their size nor elegance. In the southeast corner of the town are the remains of the famous Cathedral of Tyre, erected in the fourth century by Bishop Paulinus, and consecrated by Eusebius, and by the latter described as the most splendid of all the temples of Phoenicia. It was 216 feet long by 136 broad, and its ruins indicate its great magnificence. The south wall, the east and west ends, together with the chancel, remain standing; but the arched roof, the massive columns which supported the triforium, and the lofty tower, with its spiral staircase, have fallen into a thousand fragments. Somewhere within these broken walls reposes the dust of Origen and of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

Five miles to the east of the town is the Tomb of Hiram, king of Tyre. It is an imposing mausoleum, and one of the most interesting monuments in the Holy Land. It is less remarkable for its beauty and ornaments than for its grandeur and durability. Crowning a graceful hill, it consists of a pedestal and a sarcophagus. The former is composed of four layers of immense blocks of limestone, about ten feet high; the latter is hewn out of a solid block, and is twelve feet long, eight wide, and six high, and is surmounted with a pyramidal lid five feet thick. The ends of the lid are beveled, the top rounded, and it is fitted on with such care that it is difficult to remove it. On the north side of the monument is an arched vault 20 feet square and 12 deep, which no doubt served as the place for the final repose of the royal family. Commanding a view of the City of the Great King, and of the sea beyond, the country around the tomb is strangely solitary; neither ancient ruin nor human habitation is near, but, standing alone, it is at once a venerable relic of the past and an impressive monument of the loneliness of death.

On the same road, but some distance to the west, the French have excavated one of the most splendid temples yet discovered in the environs of Phoenicia. Consisting of a nave, two side aisles, a chancel, and an altar-piece, it is 75 feet long by 36 wide. The roof and portions of the walls are gone. Of the 14 columns which formed the aisles only the bases of 11 of them remain, on each of which is sculptured the Maltese cross. But its great beauty consists in its magnificent mosaic pavement, covering more than two thirds of the entire area. Formed of small square blocks of white and black marble, it is arranged in the most curious manner. In the aisles are circles 30 inches in diameter, containing figures of sheep, fish, fowls, fruits, tigers, elephants, buffaloes, dogs, horses, rabbits, deer, lions, antelopes, and leopards, together with ten mythological busts, representing the gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome. Before the high altar is a lengthy inscription in Greek characters; but, owing to their curious forms and the numerous contractions, it was impossible to decipher it without reference to learned works. From all that we could learn from those having the work in charge, it was originally a heathen temple, was converted into a Christian church by the Crusaders, and, abandoned during the mediÆval wars, it has since remained buried beneath the accumulated sand and rubbish of centuries.

A single historic site breaks the monotony of the journey from Tyre to Sidon, a distance of 25 miles. The path follows the coast along the Plain of Phoenicia, over which “a mournful and solitary silence now prevails.”659 While the hills which bound it on the east are carefully cultivated, and the summits thereof are adorned with villages, this vast and rich plain is deserted. Less than two miles from the gate of Tyre we passed a large fountain, believed by the Arabs to possess medicinal virtues, and four miles beyond we came to the banks of the Leontes of the old geographers, and the Nahr el-KÂsimÎyeh of the natives. The third largest river in Syria, its highest source is not far from the ruins of Ba’albek; and draining the southern section of the BukÂ’a, with the adjoining sides of the Lebanon and anti-Lebanon, it bursts the everlasting gates of the former, and, descending through a wild ravine, crosses the plain to the sea. It is twenty-five feet wide; its clear waters flow rapidly through a deep gorge, which is now spanned by a modern bridge, having a single arch. Nine miles to the north is Khan el-Khudr, the Zarephath of the Old Testament and the Sarepta of the New. On a fine hill overhanging the plain is the large town of Surafend, the Arabic of the Scriptural name. The original city stood near the shore; its site is now marked by a Mohammedan tomb and a noble fig-tree. Driven by famine from his retreat by the “brook Cherith that is before Jordan,” hither Elijah came, and was received into the house of that poor widow whose “barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail,” and whose son, as a reward of faith and charity, the prophet raised to life.660 And here an early tradition has preserved the site of that touching scene of the meeting of Christ and the woman of Syro-Phoenicia, whose daughter he healed during his first and only visit “to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.”661

Ten miles to the north appeared the towers and minarets of Zidon, surrounded with the most luxuriant gardens in the world. In the intervening distance sections of the old Roman road can still be traced, and along the highway are several milestones. On one are inscribed the names of Septimius Severus and his son, M.Aurelius Antoninus, better known in history as Caracalla. The inscription bears the date of 198A.D. Entering the famous gardens of the modern Saida, we rode for an hour through lengthened avenues of acacias and tamarisks, and amid mulberry groves, and vast orchards of peaches, pears, apricots, plums, quinces, oranges, lemons, bananas, and citrons, which filled the air with a delightful fragrance, and presented to the eye a variety of finely-tinted and exquisite foliage. Interspersed through these beautiful groves are country seats possessing all the charms of an earthly paradise. Our rural path terminated at the very gate of the city, which was carefully guarded by Turkish soldiers. Entering the town, we found it situated on a small promontory projecting obliquely into the sea. Thoroughly Oriental in character and appearance, its narrow, shaded streets and groups of trees give it an air of repose. While many of its buildings are small, like those in most Syrian towns, there are several large and costly. The population is not less than 10,000, and is composed of Moslems, Maronites, Greeks, and Jews. The chief vocations of the citizens are the cultivation of fruits and the manufacture of oil and silk, which are exported into Egypt and to ports along the Mediterranean.

With an antiquity anterior to authentic history, Sidon is among the oldest of known cities. Mentioned by the inspired historian in connection with Sodom and Gaza,662 it is supposed it was founded by Sidon, the grandson of Noah.663 Increasing in wealth and power, the city had achieved such fame at the time the Hebrews entered Canaan that it is designated by Joshua the “Great Zidon.”664 As early as the Trojan war the Sidonians were celebrated for their skill in the arts, especially for the manufacture of gorgeous robes, to which Homer alludes:

Increasing in population and commerce to such a degree as to demand another city, the Sidonians passed down the coast and founded Tyre, which is called by Isaiah the “daughter of Zidon,” and which in after years divided with the parent city the empire of the seas.666 Excelling all other nations of that period in art and science, her architects were employed by Solomon in building his magnificent temple.667 According to early historians, the Sidonians were versed in astronomy, geometry, and philosophy, and the vastness of their commerce evinces their knowledge of navigation. But with them, as with all the other great nations of antiquity, the usual vices attended their prosperity, and the increase of luxury was counterbalanced by the decline of national virtue. Practicing the worst forms of idolatry, indulging in the grossest immoralities, and violating the most solemn treaties with God’s people, they drew down upon themselves the severe denunciations of Jehovah’s prophets. Sentenced by the Lord to the calamities of war, the prophetic judgments were executed by Shalmanezer in 720B.C.; by Artaxerxes Ochus four centuries later; by Alexander the Great, who entered the gates of the city without a struggle; and subsequently it has been pillaged and destroyed as often as rebuilt, by the Ptolemies, the Syrian kings, the Romans, the Moslem invaders, the Crusaders, until at present its port is without a merchantman, and the town of Beirut, to the north, has become the successful rival of the once affluent and powerful Sidon.

The three great objects of interest connected with the modern town are the harbor, the citadel, and the tombs. The harbor is formed by a low ridge of rocks running parallel to the shore and extending out from the northern point of the peninsula. On the rocks stands an old castle, weather-beaten and much dilapidated, connected with the main land by a bridge of nine arches. On a commanding hill to the south of the city is the shattered tower of LouisIX., which is now the citadel of the town. On the plains and in the hill-sides to the east of Sidon is the cemetery of its ancient inhabitants, called MÛgharet Tubloon. The surface of the rock has been cut away to form a perfect level, and here are the mansions of the dead, arranged in the form of catacombs, from 10 to 30 feet below the surface of the ground. From a deep, broad avenue, doors open into lateral halls and rooms, in which are cut the receptacles for the dead. Descending to the depth of 20 feet, we entered a broad avenue 25 feet long, which had just been opened. Running at right angles with the former was a spacious passageway, in the sides of which are six niches, each five and a half feet deep, four wide, and ten long. In these niches are magnificent marble sarcophagi, their sides, ends, and lids being adorned with sculptured lion heads, horns of plenty, and garlands of flowers. On one, which Itook to be the sarcophagus of a queen, is carved the bust of a female in relief, surrounded with a wreath of roses. Passing into another chamber, more elegant than the rest, and which is 20 feet deep, Itraced the beautiful floral paintings on the sides and ceilings of the vault. Here, in the very centre of the floor, are three entire sarcophagi, of equal grandeur with the others, measuring eight feet long, three wide, and as many deep. The largest of the three, which had that day been uncovered for the first time, was filled with clear water, and on the bottom were human bones, and what appeared to be a fine sediment—perhaps the dust of the departed. How the water came there remains a mystery. Some suppose it had percolated through the rocks above; but this will hardly account for the equally remarkable fact that the other sarcophagi are dry. Neither inscription nor symbol had been discovered revealing the name and history of the dead, and Iwas left to the reflection that Iwas gazing upon the disorganized forms of those who had lived and died nearly 4000 years ago. Several sarcophagi have been removed to a museum of antiquities within the city. Male and female figures are sculptured on them, the faces of the former resembling the facial features of Nero, and of the latter those of Minerva. Among the relics is a leaden coffin beautifully moulded with beaded work, flowers, and leonine heads; and in the “Cabinet of Ancient Coins and Curiosities” are a Phoenician tear-bottle, gold rings, gold coins of the age of Alexander, a Crusader’s silver cross which was worn in battle, and many rare jewels of great intrinsic value.