Not two miles to the southeast is the Arab town of Rîha. It is small and filthy, and contains a few hovels occupied by from fifty to one hundred inhabitants, who are guilty of the sins of Sodom. Within a rude court-yard is the only reservoir of the village, and near it stands a rough stone tower thirty feet square and forty high. It is the barrack of the Turkish garrison, stationed here for the protection of the government lands, for the defense of the peasants of the Ghôr, to collect the taxes imposed upon the miserable villagers, to punish offenders, and to serve as the escort of travelers _en route_ for the Jordan and the Dead Sea. Though bearing the name of Jericho, it is more probably the site of ancient Gilgal. In view of the silence of historians on the point, it is impossible now to decide whether Gilgal was the name of a city or the designation of a tract of land, though the former is more in harmony with the scriptural account of the place. Accepting Josephus as authority, Gilgal was ten stadia, or less than a mile and a half, from Jericho, and fifty stadia, or more than six miles, from the Jordan.[263] The old Tower of Rîha coincides in its location with this description, and may be regarded as indicating with sufficient accuracy the scene of so many memorable events. Few names in sacred history recall scenes more thrilling and momentous than Gilgal. Removing the twelve monumental stones from the bed of the Jordan, Joshua caused them to be placed here as the memorial of the miraculous dividing of the river;[264] around them the Israelites first pitched their tents within the Promised Land;[264] here they rolled away the reproach of Egypt by the renewal of the rite of circumcision;[265] here they kept the Passover for the first time in Canaan;[266] here Joshua saw, in a day-vision, the captain of the Lord’s host “standing over against him with his sword drawn in his hand;”[267] and here the tabernacle was first set up in Palestine, where it remained till removed to Shiloh.[268] Four centuries later Samuel held his court nigh unto this ruined tower, and offered sacrifices for the people then assembled.[269] Here Saul of Gibeah was made King of Israel,[270] and two years thereafter, upon the very spot of his coronation, he lost his kingdom by acting “foolishly.”[271] After the death of Absalom the tribe of Judah assembled here to hail the return of David.[272] And here, in the reign of Jehoram, Elisha healed the poisoned pot,[273] restored Naaman to health, and cursed Gehazi with leprosy for his cupidity.[274]