We are now at the entrance of the great PLAIN OF ESDRAELON, so memorable in the military history of the Jews as the scene of some of their greatest victories, and most disastrous defeats. It forms an irregular triangle, stretching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan valley, bounded on the north by the hills of Galilee, on the south by those of Samaria. Amongst the former Tabor is the most conspicuous, both from its height and its peculiar pyramidal form. The long ridge of Carmel stretches along the south-western side. The mountains of Gilboa and Little Hermon rise out of the plain itself at the eastern end. [Illustration: HEAD-DRESS OF EGYPTIAN FELLAHEEN.] Near the centre of the plain on a low flat-topped hill at the foot of the western extremity of Gilboa, are a cluster of wretched mud hovels, now called Zerin. They mark the site of JEZREEL, _the seed plot of God_ as the name means, and which it probably gained from the extraordinary fertility of the soil.[224] Here stood the “ivory palace” of Ahab and the temple of Astarte with its four hundred priests supported by Jezebel. On the eastern side overlooking a steep rocky descent into the plain was the house of Jezebel, from the window of which she was cast down at the command of Jehu. Killed by the fall, she was left to be devoured by the troops of pariah dogs which to this day prowl and snarl around every oriental city, and are its only scavengers. The ruins of an ancient tower probably mark the spot where the watchman stood looking out along the valley toward the Jordan, and saw Jehu driving furiously towards the city. Though only the lower courses of the original _Migdol_ or watch-tower remain, yet a view may be gained for miles in the direction from which Jehu was approaching, and every incident in the narrative can be made out. A smooth open space outside the city is pointed out as Naboth’s garden. The fountain by which he was slain, and where the blood was washed from the chariot of Ahab is likewise shown, but the biblical narrative seems to point to Samaria rather than to Jezreel as the scene of the murder and the retribution.[225] [Illustration: PLAIN OF ESDRAELON, WITH RUINS OF JEZREEL, AND GILBOA IN THE DISTANCE.] A few flat-roofed hovels are all that remains of the beautiful city whose only associations are those of idolatry and lust and bloodshed. One marble sarcophagus, and the fragments of two or three others lie outside the modern village. The crescent moon, the familiar symbol of the goddess of the Zidonians is sculptured upon them. It is possible, perhaps even probable, that these very coffins once held the bones of the royal house which “taught Israel to sin.” [Illustration: MOUTH OF THE RIVER KISHON.]