The date of this building is incidently mentioned by Epiphanius, who relates that one Joseph, a native of Tiberias, was authorized by Constantine to erect a, number of such edifices in the Holy Land, and that he fulfilled the intention of his sovereign at Tiberias, Capernaum, and Diocesarea. Reland, upon the authority of Theophanes, places its destruction in the year 339 of the Christian era, when the town was demolished on account of the seditious conduct of its inhabitants. It is perhaps worthy of notice, that Dr. Clarke examined some pictures which had been recently discovered among these ruins. One appears to represent the interview between our Saviour and the two disciples at Emmaus, when in the set of making himself known to them by the breaking of bread. Another exhibits the Virgin bearing in swaddling-clothes the infant Jesus; and a third seems to illustrate the same subject in circumstances somewhat different. They are said to bear a great resemblance to those used in the churches of Russia, being executed upon a square piece of wood about half an inch in thickness. As they were not valued highly by the person into whose hands they had accidently fallen, the Englishman bestowed a trifle on the ignorant Mohammedan, and "took them into safer custody."[163] The vale of Zabulon divides the village just described from the ridge of hills which look down on Acre and the shores of the Great Sea. This delightful plain appears everywhere covered with spontaneous vegetation, flourishing in the wildest exuberance. The scenery is described by Dr. Clarke as not less beautiful than that of the rich valleys upon the south of the Crimea. It reminded him of the nest parts of Kent and Surrey. The prickly-pear, which grows to a prodigious size in the Holy Land, sprouts luxuriantly among the rocks, displaying its gaudy yellow blossoms, and promising abundance of a delicious cooling fruit. Off either side of the road the ruins of fortified places exercise the ingenuity of the antiquarian traveller, who endeavours, through the mist of tradition and the perplexing obscurity of modern names, to identify towns which make a figure in Jewish and Roman history. All remains of the strong city of Zabulon, called by Josephus the "city of men," have disappeared; and its "admirable beauty," rivalling that of Tyre, Sidon, and Berytus, is now sought for in vain among Arab huts and scattered stones.