Haifa; or, Life in modern PalestineOliphant, Laurence
History
Haifa; or, Life in modern Palestine
Oliphant, Laurence
Palestine -- Description and travel
I was determined to push my explorations to the summits of the rocky
crests which frowned above, and are called the Horns of Hattin.
Scrambling up the steep, rocky hillsides, we found ourselves at last
obliged to leave our horses and make our way on foot over the huge
blocks of basalt which are thickly strewn around these singular peaks.
On reaching the top we found that they had been artificially
superimposed one on the top of another, so as to form a rocky rampart of
immense solidity. Both crests had, at some period of remote antiquity,
been thus fortified. Beneath one of them were the foundations and ruins
of an ancient town which the inhabitants call “Medinet el-Inweileb,” or
“the ruins of the long tower.” At the southeast of the hill is an oblong
cavern cut in the rock and eased with cement, which may formerly have
been a cistern; and not far from it are the foundations of a building
which the natives say was a Christian church before the conquest of the
country by the Mohammedans, who subsequently converted it into a mosque.
Nothing could be more striking than the view from the summit of the
highest horn. Immediately beneath us, some six or seven hundred feet
below, I looked down into the gloomy gorge, with the white walls of the
Neby Schaib contrasting with the black basalt rocks, its terraces
covered with groups of brightly costumed Druses, their songs as they
danced in circles reaching us on the still air of evening, and beyond,
the modern village of Hattin, surrounded by orange-groves and
fruit-gardens of the most brilliant green. Stretching away on all other
sides were vast uplands of waving grain, till they either sunk away into
valleys or terminated at the base of hills which rose abruptly above
them. To the northeast the precipitous sides of the Wady Hamam,
honeycombed with caves, formed a vista through which appeared in the
distance a green strip of the plain of Genesareth; beyond it the waters
of the Sea of Galilee, seventeen hundred feet below us, gleamed in the
setting sun. From its eastern margin rose the steep cliffs above which
is the vast plateau of Jaulan, once the grazing lands of the flocks and
herds of Job, while a line of conical volcanic peaks, backed by
snow-clad Hermon, closed the prospect.
THE JEWISH FEAST OF THE BURNING AT TIBERIAS.
Haifa, July 8.—In the early days of May there is annually celebrated at
Tiberias a festival in honour of the Rabbi Mâir, at the large shrine
built above his tomb, within a few hundred yards from the sulphur baths.
Thither, having terminated my visit to the Druses, I determined to
repair to witness the nocturnal ceremonies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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