DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11789#0086
76
FIRST SIGHT OP JERUSALEM.
hills or mountains present a very singular aspect.
It would seem as if the whole country had been
furrowed by vast and deep valleys running nearly
parallel to each other, and that other valleys, also
nearly parallel to each other, had crossed the first
at an oblique angle. The mountains in the vicinity
of Jerusalem present, at least at this season of the
year, an arid, sterile, and forbidding aspect. In fact,
their summits are generally, if not always, 'nothing
but a naked mass of stones or rock. The hills
are so steep, and the stones so abundant, that one
is almost at a loss to conceive how chariots could
ever have been used in this region of country.*
At length we saw the walls and towers of Jeru-
salem in the distance, but the appearance was far
less majestic and imposing than I had imagined.
It should, however, be observed, that the approach
from Jaffa is not favorable for seeing the city to the
best advantage. I have little doubt that, had I
first viewed it from the Mount of Olives, all my ex-
pectations would have been realized. But if I was
disappointed with the view from without, I was
much more so with the appearance within the walls,
* During the whole of our sojourn in Palestine and Syria,
I did not see a single wheeled vehicle of any kind—not even
a wheelbarrow.
FIRST SIGHT OP JERUSALEM.
hills or mountains present a very singular aspect.
It would seem as if the whole country had been
furrowed by vast and deep valleys running nearly
parallel to each other, and that other valleys, also
nearly parallel to each other, had crossed the first
at an oblique angle. The mountains in the vicinity
of Jerusalem present, at least at this season of the
year, an arid, sterile, and forbidding aspect. In fact,
their summits are generally, if not always, 'nothing
but a naked mass of stones or rock. The hills
are so steep, and the stones so abundant, that one
is almost at a loss to conceive how chariots could
ever have been used in this region of country.*
At length we saw the walls and towers of Jeru-
salem in the distance, but the appearance was far
less majestic and imposing than I had imagined.
It should, however, be observed, that the approach
from Jaffa is not favorable for seeing the city to the
best advantage. I have little doubt that, had I
first viewed it from the Mount of Olives, all my ex-
pectations would have been realized. But if I was
disappointed with the view from without, I was
much more so with the appearance within the walls,
* During the whole of our sojourn in Palestine and Syria,
I did not see a single wheeled vehicle of any kind—not even
a wheelbarrow.