DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0118
94
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
peace.' Again the procession advanced. The road descends a slight declivity, and the glimpse
of the city is again withdrawn behind the intervening ridge of Olivet. A few moments and
the path mounts again ; it climbs a rugged ascent, it reaches a ledge of smooth rock, and in an
instant the whole city bursts into view. As now the dome of the Mosque El Aksa rises like
a ghost from the earth before the traveller who stands on the ledge, so then must have risen
the Temple tower; as now the vast enclosure of the Mussulman sanctuary, so then must have
spread the Temple courts; as now the gray town on its broken hills, so then the magnificent
city, with its background—long since vanished away—of gardens and suburbs on the western
plateau behind. Immediately below was the Valley of the Kedron, here seen in its greatest
depths as it joins the Valley of Hinnom, and thus giving full effect to the great peculiarity of
Jerusalem, seen only on its eastern side—its situation as of a city rising out of a deep abyss.
It is hardly possible to doubt that this rise and turn of the road—this rocky ledge—was
the exact point where the multitude paused again, and ' He, when He beheld the city, wept
over it.
The road from Bethany to Jerusalem leaves Siloam (Silwan) on the left. This village
(see pages 85, 115), which derives its name from the pool at the mouth of the Tyropceon
Valley, stretches north and south in a straggling, irregular manner along the lower slopes of
the Mount of Offence. Entering the village at the northern end, the visitor has on his left
hand a high cliff, which was evidently worked as a quarry at some early period. The houses
and the streets of Siloam, if such they may be called, are filthy in the extreme, and the
villagers are notorious thieves, sometimes not over-courteous to visitors. Their principal
occupation is carrying water from " Job's Well" for sale in Jerusalem, and they have an
ingenious way of blowing out the sheepskins in which the water is carried, so that they may
appear filled when containing only half the proper quantity of water. About one hundred of
the villagers form a group apart from the rest, called " men of Dhiban," the descendants
apparently of a colony from the capital of King Mesha, which at some remote period crossed
the Jordan and established itself on the borders of Kedron. Siloam, the village, is unmen-
tioned in ancient times, but it may possibly mark the spot upon which Solomon built high
places " for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of
the JVloabites, and for Milcom (Molech) the abomination of the children of Ammon." The
Mount of Offence (see page 107) behind the village would in this case be the " mount of
corruption" of 2 Kings xxiii. 13, as it certainly is the " mons offensionis " of early travellers,
the " opprobrious hill " of Milton.
Jerusalem is surrounded by cemeteries, ancient and modern. Without the Zion Gate,
near the tomb of David, are those of the Latins, Greeks, and Armenians ; and here may be
seen the grave of the ill-fated Irishman, Costigan, who, after having successfully descended
Jordan in a boat, and reached the southern end of the Dead Sea, died in the Latin convent at
Jerusalem. Here, too, a little to the south of the Latin cemetery, two members of the
American Mission, Dr. Dodge and Mrs. Thomson, were buried. The present Protestant
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
peace.' Again the procession advanced. The road descends a slight declivity, and the glimpse
of the city is again withdrawn behind the intervening ridge of Olivet. A few moments and
the path mounts again ; it climbs a rugged ascent, it reaches a ledge of smooth rock, and in an
instant the whole city bursts into view. As now the dome of the Mosque El Aksa rises like
a ghost from the earth before the traveller who stands on the ledge, so then must have risen
the Temple tower; as now the vast enclosure of the Mussulman sanctuary, so then must have
spread the Temple courts; as now the gray town on its broken hills, so then the magnificent
city, with its background—long since vanished away—of gardens and suburbs on the western
plateau behind. Immediately below was the Valley of the Kedron, here seen in its greatest
depths as it joins the Valley of Hinnom, and thus giving full effect to the great peculiarity of
Jerusalem, seen only on its eastern side—its situation as of a city rising out of a deep abyss.
It is hardly possible to doubt that this rise and turn of the road—this rocky ledge—was
the exact point where the multitude paused again, and ' He, when He beheld the city, wept
over it.
The road from Bethany to Jerusalem leaves Siloam (Silwan) on the left. This village
(see pages 85, 115), which derives its name from the pool at the mouth of the Tyropceon
Valley, stretches north and south in a straggling, irregular manner along the lower slopes of
the Mount of Offence. Entering the village at the northern end, the visitor has on his left
hand a high cliff, which was evidently worked as a quarry at some early period. The houses
and the streets of Siloam, if such they may be called, are filthy in the extreme, and the
villagers are notorious thieves, sometimes not over-courteous to visitors. Their principal
occupation is carrying water from " Job's Well" for sale in Jerusalem, and they have an
ingenious way of blowing out the sheepskins in which the water is carried, so that they may
appear filled when containing only half the proper quantity of water. About one hundred of
the villagers form a group apart from the rest, called " men of Dhiban," the descendants
apparently of a colony from the capital of King Mesha, which at some remote period crossed
the Jordan and established itself on the borders of Kedron. Siloam, the village, is unmen-
tioned in ancient times, but it may possibly mark the spot upon which Solomon built high
places " for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of
the JVloabites, and for Milcom (Molech) the abomination of the children of Ammon." The
Mount of Offence (see page 107) behind the village would in this case be the " mount of
corruption" of 2 Kings xxiii. 13, as it certainly is the " mons offensionis " of early travellers,
the " opprobrious hill " of Milton.
Jerusalem is surrounded by cemeteries, ancient and modern. Without the Zion Gate,
near the tomb of David, are those of the Latins, Greeks, and Armenians ; and here may be
seen the grave of the ill-fated Irishman, Costigan, who, after having successfully descended
Jordan in a boat, and reached the southern end of the Dead Sea, died in the Latin convent at
Jerusalem. Here, too, a little to the south of the Latin cemetery, two members of the
American Mission, Dr. Dodge and Mrs. Thomson, were buried. The present Protestant