Haifa; or, Life in modern PalestineOliphant, Laurence
History
Haifa; or, Life in modern Palestine
Oliphant, Laurence
Palestine -- Description and travel
and that their fame is so great that they are visited by invalids from
Aleppo and Damascus. The fact, however, that Tiberias, which is five
hours distant, is the nearest place in which supplies of any sort can be
procured, and that the only accommodation to be obtained is the
patient's own tent, must operate as a serious obstacle to the use of
these springs, about whose curative value, however, there can be no
doubt.
Our way from Amatha lay back across the Jordan valley, which at this
season of the year is a sheet of waving grain, cultivated by a branch of
the Beni Sukkr Arabs, whose large encampment, with the handsome tent of
the sheik in the centre, we pass without stopping, for we are in full
pursuit at the moment of five gazelles, which scamper across country,
giving us a good run, in which we should have certainly overtaken them
had we not been checked by a ravine. We cross the Yarmuk at a point near
its junction with the Jordan, and where it carries a volume of water
certainly equal to that stream. The Jordan here falls in a fine rapid of
about thirty feet in a distance of less than a hundred yards, and would
furnish splendid water-power for mills in a part of the country which is
much in want of them. The ancient Jisr el-Medjamieh spans the stream at
this point, guarded by a government toll-house. Crossing it, we
determined to try a short-cut up the little-known Wady Bireh, which is
watered by a clear, purling brook, which, if it were utilized, would
make this valley one of the most fertile and attractive in this part of
the country. After following its winding course for some miles, we found
it finally narrowing into a crooked gorge, the sides of which approach
so closely as scarcely to admit the passage of a loaded camel between
the overhanging rocks. Indeed, when we afterwards described our route to
the natives they said it was never used by them. However, it gave us an
opportunity of seeing some most romantic scenery, and by shortening the
way enabled us to reach Nazareth, jaded and worn out, it is true, the
same night.
A DRUSE RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL.
Haifa, May 27.—Travellers who have gone from Nazareth to Tiberias must
be familiar with the singular outline of a mountain which they perceive
to the left of the road, with its two rocky crests separated from each
other by a hog's back about a quarter of a mile long, and called the
Horns of Hattin. The summit of the higher peak, one thousand feet above
the sea, and about three hundred feet above the plain across which they
are riding, forms a conspicuous object in a landscape which, at this
point, is one of singular interest and beauty. Rising like a gigantic
natural pulpit, tradition has since declared it to be the Mount of the
Beatitudes, and asserts that it was from this picturesque elevation that
Christ delivered that sermon which has exercised so vast an influence on
mankind ever since.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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