Haifa; or, Life in modern PalestineOliphant, Laurence
History
Haifa; or, Life in modern Palestine
Oliphant, Laurence
Palestine -- Description and travel
Meantime, the scene, which the tradition of many centuries located
erroneously as the spot upon which the miracle took place, is exactly
above us as we wind along a rocky path cut in the precipice which
overhangs the Sea of Galilee. This huge impending crag is crowned by an
artificial plateau, which is two hundred feet long by one hundred broad,
and in the northwest angle are the remains of a wall and the ruins of a
building, probably a fortress of some sort. This spot was known in the
middle ages as the Mensa Christi, or Table of Christ. In olden time the
great Damascus high-road ran just below, and the fort above doubtless
commanded this pass; but it has become impassable, and the path now
follows the channel of an aqueduct hewn out of the living rock. For
about two hundred yards we find ourselves riding along the narrow floor
of this ancient watercourse. On our left the smooth rock rises
precipitously, and on our right it forms a wall from three to four feet
high, over which we could drop a stone perpendicularly into the waters
of the lake. The aqueduct which thus forms our singular roadway is about
three feet wide; emerging from it, after we turn the angle of the rock,
we find ourselves overlooking a little bay, into which rushes a brawling
torrent, the largest which enters the lake excepting the Jordan, and
which here turns a mill. It is, however, only a few yards long, as it
bursts from the ground in great force, in what is by far the most
powerful spring in Galilee, and is, without doubt, the celebrated
Fountain of Capernaum mentioned by Josephus as watering the plain of
Genesareth. This it did by means of the aqueduct which we had already
traversed, the distance from the fountain to the plain not being above a
mile. Besides the principal fountain, which is estimated as being more
than half the size of the celebrated source of the Jordan at Banias,
there are four smaller fountains, all more or less brackish, and varying
in temperature from 73° to 86°.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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