DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0199
JERICHO.
171
prickly jujube-bushes, then upon a rude fence of boughs thrown lightly on the ground, but
impenetrable from the sharp recurved thorns with which every twig is studded. An artificial
rill of water nurtures the crop, and we are within the slovenly farmed oasis of Jericho. We
ride through a varied wilderness of indescribable luxuriance, the little plots of corn, melons,
or tobacco interspersed among a dense tangle of false balsam-tree {Balanitis A^gyptiaca) or
zukkum, agnus casti, and dom-tree, not to omit the apple of Sodom (Solanum melongena), with
its potato-blossom and bright red or yellow fruit. Yet among all these where are the trees
from which Jericho of old obtained its name, its fame, and its wealth—the palm ? Not one
remains. There are no stragglers in that wild and thorny tangle which have survived from
the destruction of the gardens of Cleopatra; not one sorghum stem springs by the water-side
as a relic of the plantations which yielded vast revenues to the Knights of Jerusalem ; no
balsam-tree lingers in the maze of shrubbery; and, above all, the last palm has gone, and its
graceful feathery crown waves no more over the plain, which once gave to Jericho its name
of the City of Palm-trees. Immediately in front towers the Ouarantania, the Mount of
Temptation, with its precipitous face pierced in every direction by ancient cells and chapels,
and the ruined church on its topmost peak. We halt in front of the famous spring, the
Prophet's Fountain, Ain-es-Sultan (see page 172), shaded by a fine fig-tree, where an immense
volume of clear warm water, 840 Fahr., very pure, and swarming with fish, bursts from the
shingle at the foot of a great mound, evidently artificial, and composed of the remains of
ancient Jericho, full of fragments of pottery and frequent morsels of nacreous glass. Behind
the spring, and partially enclosing it, is a ruined edifice, apparently a small Roman temple ;
and strewn about are fragments of shafts and Byzantine capitals. The copious stream is
tapped within fifty yards of its exit by various artificial watercourses, through which the Arabs
lead the life-giving liquid from time to time over their patches of cultivation, through jungles
of cane and tamarisk. From the great " tell," or mound of ruins, the ground steadily rises
till we reach the foot of Jebel Ouarantania (see page 173). Old Jericho stood midway
between the pass up to Jerusalem on the south and the passes of Benjamin towards Bethel on
the north. There are three great springs which water it, and as we look towards the hills we
can see how easily Joshua's spies could avoid observation as they stole up through the ravine
choked with jungle and cane-brake to Ain-duk, and thence to the mountain, amidst the caves
and ravines of which they might be searched for in vain. In the oasis of Jericho, whose
beauty was such that Wisdom compares herself with its rose-plants (Ecclus. xxiv. 14), Strabo
tells us that for the space of a hundred stadia by twenty, opobalsamum, henna, myrrh, and all
sorts of spices were grown.
From the Prophet's Fountain we may set out to search for the traces of Gilgal, the
neighbour and contemporary of the older city. It had long passed away from history,
and its name was almost lost to local memory, when a German traveller recovered it in a
mound called Tell Jiljul, and an artificial pond, Birket Jiljulia. It is on the direct road
to the upper ford at the Convent of St. John, about four and a half miles from it,
171
prickly jujube-bushes, then upon a rude fence of boughs thrown lightly on the ground, but
impenetrable from the sharp recurved thorns with which every twig is studded. An artificial
rill of water nurtures the crop, and we are within the slovenly farmed oasis of Jericho. We
ride through a varied wilderness of indescribable luxuriance, the little plots of corn, melons,
or tobacco interspersed among a dense tangle of false balsam-tree {Balanitis A^gyptiaca) or
zukkum, agnus casti, and dom-tree, not to omit the apple of Sodom (Solanum melongena), with
its potato-blossom and bright red or yellow fruit. Yet among all these where are the trees
from which Jericho of old obtained its name, its fame, and its wealth—the palm ? Not one
remains. There are no stragglers in that wild and thorny tangle which have survived from
the destruction of the gardens of Cleopatra; not one sorghum stem springs by the water-side
as a relic of the plantations which yielded vast revenues to the Knights of Jerusalem ; no
balsam-tree lingers in the maze of shrubbery; and, above all, the last palm has gone, and its
graceful feathery crown waves no more over the plain, which once gave to Jericho its name
of the City of Palm-trees. Immediately in front towers the Ouarantania, the Mount of
Temptation, with its precipitous face pierced in every direction by ancient cells and chapels,
and the ruined church on its topmost peak. We halt in front of the famous spring, the
Prophet's Fountain, Ain-es-Sultan (see page 172), shaded by a fine fig-tree, where an immense
volume of clear warm water, 840 Fahr., very pure, and swarming with fish, bursts from the
shingle at the foot of a great mound, evidently artificial, and composed of the remains of
ancient Jericho, full of fragments of pottery and frequent morsels of nacreous glass. Behind
the spring, and partially enclosing it, is a ruined edifice, apparently a small Roman temple ;
and strewn about are fragments of shafts and Byzantine capitals. The copious stream is
tapped within fifty yards of its exit by various artificial watercourses, through which the Arabs
lead the life-giving liquid from time to time over their patches of cultivation, through jungles
of cane and tamarisk. From the great " tell," or mound of ruins, the ground steadily rises
till we reach the foot of Jebel Ouarantania (see page 173). Old Jericho stood midway
between the pass up to Jerusalem on the south and the passes of Benjamin towards Bethel on
the north. There are three great springs which water it, and as we look towards the hills we
can see how easily Joshua's spies could avoid observation as they stole up through the ravine
choked with jungle and cane-brake to Ain-duk, and thence to the mountain, amidst the caves
and ravines of which they might be searched for in vain. In the oasis of Jericho, whose
beauty was such that Wisdom compares herself with its rose-plants (Ecclus. xxiv. 14), Strabo
tells us that for the space of a hundred stadia by twenty, opobalsamum, henna, myrrh, and all
sorts of spices were grown.
From the Prophet's Fountain we may set out to search for the traces of Gilgal, the
neighbour and contemporary of the older city. It had long passed away from history,
and its name was almost lost to local memory, when a German traveller recovered it in a
mound called Tell Jiljul, and an artificial pond, Birket Jiljulia. It is on the direct road
to the upper ford at the Convent of St. John, about four and a half miles from it,