DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0190
162 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
When we come to places which still existed at the epoch of Joshua's conquest we are treading
on firmer ground. At page 159 we have an illustration of one of the few remaining architec-
tural ruins of the plain in the Convent of Kasr Hajla, the ancient Beth Hogla. Beth Hogla
is only mentioned in Scripture as on the boundary line between Judah and Benjamin, and
belonging to the latter. The only trace of the place, which must always have been insigni-
ficant, is the name which, with the tenacity of Oriental nomenclature, still clings to an isolated
BATHING-PLACE ON THE JORDAN.
spring, Ain Hajla. Leaving Er Riha, the modern Jericho, and crossing a stony plain, which
might with very little care and irrigation be again made a fertile garden, at the distance of
about five miles we come upon a patch of perennial verdure with a few inconspicuous shrubs.
In the centre is a beautiful clear blue pool of tepid water surrounded by an old wall of solid
masonry about five feet in circumference, which scarcely reaches above the ground, and over
which the spring pours forth its stream of life. It is utterly neglected. No path leads to it,
When we come to places which still existed at the epoch of Joshua's conquest we are treading
on firmer ground. At page 159 we have an illustration of one of the few remaining architec-
tural ruins of the plain in the Convent of Kasr Hajla, the ancient Beth Hogla. Beth Hogla
is only mentioned in Scripture as on the boundary line between Judah and Benjamin, and
belonging to the latter. The only trace of the place, which must always have been insigni-
ficant, is the name which, with the tenacity of Oriental nomenclature, still clings to an isolated
BATHING-PLACE ON THE JORDAN.
spring, Ain Hajla. Leaving Er Riha, the modern Jericho, and crossing a stony plain, which
might with very little care and irrigation be again made a fertile garden, at the distance of
about five miles we come upon a patch of perennial verdure with a few inconspicuous shrubs.
In the centre is a beautiful clear blue pool of tepid water surrounded by an old wall of solid
masonry about five feet in circumference, which scarcely reaches above the ground, and over
which the spring pours forth its stream of life. It is utterly neglected. No path leads to it,