Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and AdventureConder, C. R. (Claude Reignier)
History
Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure
Conder, C. R. (Claude Reignier)
Palestine -- Description and travel
and this place we learn from the Bordeaux Pilgrim was ten miles from
Jezreel on the road to Cæsarea. This distance evidently points to
Rummâneh south of Lejjûn, seven and a quarter English miles from
Jezreel. But we are still no nearer to the satisfactory fixing of
Megiddo, for we have to depend on Jerome, first for the fact of Hadad
Rimmon being a town at all (a fact disputed by many authorities who make
it the name of an idol); secondly, for the town, if it was one, being
the same as Maximianopolis. Supposing these premises both to be granted,
it still does not follow that the town Megiddo was west of the Plain of
Megiddo; nor, if it were, does it follow that it was at Lejjûn.
Such is the flimsy chain of argument which has been considered
sufficient to fix the site. When we discover that there is a large ruin
between Jezreel and Bethshean, which still bears the name Mujedd’a, a
name which occurs in no other part of Palestine, these arguments cannot
be considered worth weighing against so important an indication; and the
new site, as will afterwards be seen, seems perhaps to fit better the
few requirements for the ancient Megiddo.
Lejjûn was indeed once a large town, with a fine water supply from a
beautiful spring, but Legio appears to have been the chief town of this
part of Palestine, and to it the ruins are plainly to be ascribed, the
distance from Taanach fitting with that given by Jerome.
North of Lejjûn the Great Wâdy el Milh runs down from the white plateau
of the “Breezy Land,” which it separates from the southern end of
Carmel. Here at the mouth stands a huge Tell or mound called Keimûn, on
which are remains of a little Byzantine chapel, and of a small fort
erected by the famous native chief Dhahr el ’Amr. The Samaritans have a
curious legend connected with this site. According to them Joshua was
challenged by the giants, and enclosed here with his army in seven walls
of iron. A dove carried his message thence to Nabih, king of the tribes
east of Jordan, who came to his assistance. The magic walls fell down,
and the King of Persia, Shobek, was transfixed by an arrow which nailed
him on his horse to the ground.
The present name is a slight modification of the ancient Jokneam of
Carmel, but the Crusaders seem to have been puzzled by it, and
transformed Keimûn into Cain Mons, or Mount Cain, whence arose the
curious legend that Cain was here slain with an arrow by Lamech, which
they supposed to be the murder referred to in the Song of Lamech (Gen.
iv. 23). The chapel no doubt shows the spot once held to be the site of
the death of Cain, but the derivation of the name was as fanciful as
that of Haifa from Cephas or from Caiaphas the high-priest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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