=Conquest of Ai and Bethel.= The strong tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, under the leadership of Joshua, took the more direct western road over the heights above Jericho. While at this period the true home of the Canaanites was still on the plains, certain of them, or else the descendants of later immigrants, had already ascended these heights and built small upland villages. The soil was not sufficiently rich to support a large population. Probably the inhabitants still depended to a great extent upon their flocks for sustenance. At the head of the upland valley, along which the road ran, was the village of Ai, sufficiently strong to repulse the initial attacks of the Hebrews. It was finally captured, however, by means of strategy, in which the wily sons of the desert were adept. In the same way they captured the sacred city of Bethel, which is generally identified with the present Beitin,^{(77)} two or three miles to the northwest of Ai. The ruins on this site are so meagre that its identification is by no means certain. If they represent the ancient city, it was always insignificant--a place of pilgrimage rather than of residence. The present village lies on a gradually sloping hill, strewn with large limestone rocks. It lacks the commanding view characteristic of the other high places of Palestine. Its outcrop of rock furnished abundant sites for ancient altars and for the rocky pillow on which, according to Hebrew tradition, rested the head of the fugitive Jacob. It is important strategically, because near it converge the ancient roads from the east, the north, and the south. It was captured by a sudden attack which caught the inhabitants unprepared.