Haifa; or, Life in modern PalestineOliphant, Laurence
History
Haifa; or, Life in modern Palestine
Oliphant, Laurence
Palestine -- Description and travel
Near this fountain are some old foundations and traces of ruins, but
these for the most part cover a series of mounds where a few walls are
visible, but no traces of columns, capitals, or handsome blocks of
stone, and much smaller in extent than those of Tell Hum. Indeed, the
whole area is not more than two hundred yards long by one hundred broad,
and this is one reason for supposing that it cannot be the site of that
important city. The khan itself is at least as old as the twelfth
century, being mentioned by Bohaeddin in his life of Saladin. A road
from here leads up the steep hillside to Safed. The view from it, as we
ascend to some elevation above the plain, is very beautiful. That
fertile expanse which Josephus calls “the ambition of nature,” lies
stretched at our feet, with the waters of the lake rippling upon its
pebbly beach, while we look right up the gorge of Hammam, its beetling
cliffs on both sides towering in rugged cave-perforated precipices to a
height of twelve hundred feet above the tiny stream which, compressed
between these lofty walls of limestone and basalt, winds its way to the
lake.
But it is not up the wild mountain-side that our present way lies; so,
taking our last look at the crumbling walls of the old khan, at the
picturesque water-mill, the ruin-strewn mounds, and the grassy lagoon,
we prepare to skirt the rocky flank of the ledge which here dips into
the waters of the Sea of Genesareth, and by which we hope to reach the
ruins of Bethsaida.
THE SCENE OF THE MIRACLE OF THE FIVE LOAVES AND TWO SMALL FISHES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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