Gaza: A City of Many Battles (from the Family of Noah to the Present Day)Dowling, Theodore Edward
History
Gaza: A City of Many Battles (from the Family of Noah to the Present Day)
Dowling, Theodore Edward
Gaza
"We have been induced to record the above by our having heard that Musa
el-Burtu and his partner, Ibn Halaweh, of the people of Gaza, bought
land at Gaza for six hundred dollars; and that when Musa went to his
land, and was working and digging in it, he found a little door. He
entered by it into a cave divided into two chambers, and, entering
through the second door, he found a coffin of hard wood. And he opened
it, and in the coffin was another of crystal. And he broke this, and
inside it he found one of the old queens embalmed, and on her head
a crown adorned with precious stones, and on her neck a necklace of
pearls, and three chains besides on her breast; and above her head
was a candlestick of gold with a spout, a metre and a half long, and
another at her foot a metre long. And he collected all these things and
brought them to Beirût, and thence to Egypt; and we have learnt that he
sent to his partner in Gaza to pay to the workmen a sum of five hundred
napoleons.
"And when the Government heard of this they sent, on their part, a
number of people to the said place to preserve and protect it, because
the tomb in which the queen was found is of marble, and her portrait is
carved on it. And there are other graves besides."
We are, fortunately, able to supplement this by an account sent to us
by Mr. Emil G. Knesevich, of Gaza, who has also kindly forwarded a
photograph of the sarcophagus.
"At the commencement of 1910, some men were digging out stones in their
orange garden, about two miles to the north-west of Gaza, and after
reaching a depth of six metres, came upon the ruins of an old door,
which led to a big cave about five metres by six metres, and about
three metres in height. In the floor and walls of this cave, some tombs
were found containing bones, the remains of dead bodies, and a number
of idols resembling men, monkeys, eagles, and dogs. These were made of
clay and plaster of Paris, and were tinged with a beautiful green tint.
In the cave another door was observed; this led to another small cave
about two metres by three metres, and two metres in height, in which
was found the sarcophagus, of which the following is a description--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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