DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0204
176
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
Leaving the sites of the deserted Cities of the Plain, we ascend from the Prophet's
Fountain to Ouarantania, following the course of an aqueduct still full of water, brought down
from Ain Duk, and passing the ruins of extensive mills. Besides the road to Jerusalem on the
south bank of the Wady Kelt, no less than three mountain tracks leading into the hills of
Benjamin all start from this point: one, the southernmost, along the edge of the crags between
the Ouarantania and Wady Kelt to Deir Diwan and Ai ; a second turns north and, passing
Ain Duk, ascends to Taiyibeh, with a branch to Rummon, the ancient Rimmon ; the third runs
straight up from Ain Duk to Deir Diwan, and thus joins the first. We can hardly doubt
which of these was the route taken by Joshua and the army of Israel, when after the fall of
Jericho they advanced into the interior highlands. It must have been by the first path, since they
came to Ai before Bethel. By this track passed Samuel on his way to Gibeah of Benjamin ;
and down this mountain path Elijah and Elisha descended together for the last time. But
Mount Ouarantania derives its fame from later events, and from the not unnatural tradition
that here was the wilderness, the scene of our Lord's temptation after His baptism. Certainly
a spot more apparently remote from the haunts of men it would be difficult to find in any
populous neighbourhood. Though by no means the highest point of the range, no other has
so abrupt a face, nor one so admirably adapted for the construction of the hermits' dwellings
which stud its front towards the Jordan, and also towards the Kelt. There are few more
impressive views in Palestine than may be obtained in the clear bright atmosphere when
pausing in the ascent of Ouarantania. The debris, which rises some two hundred feet above
Ain-es-Sultan, slopes from our feet to the oasis. Beyond it is the desert plain, then the Jordan
belt, the plains of Shittim, and the bold headlands of Ajalon and of the Moabite range, Hesbon
and Nebo rising straight from the north end of the sea. At our back rises the yellow cliff,
the bluff of Ouarantania, perhaps nine hundred or one thousand feet sheer. The great griffon
vultures, singly or in parties, sail majestically past us backwards and forwards, spreading their
wings ten feet across ; the cliff swallows and swifts dash with their sharp scream within a few
inches of our faces ; and the clear ringing note of the orange-winged grakle from time to time
seems to startle the caverns with its echo. In front of many of the cells seats have been
scooped out of the rock, where the anchorites might sit and meditate. On this eastern face
there are about forty habitable caves and chapels, and a very much larger number on the south
side. Many of them communicate internally with each other. They have been approached
by staircases and paths hewn out of the face of the rock, but time and water have worn many
of them away, and left the upper caverns in some cases wholly inaccessible. The lowest tier is
just above the top of the sloping debris, and the chambers are still tenanted by the Arabs for
sheepfolds and stables, sometimes as granaries. The next tier, whither still a few Copts and
Abyssinian pilgrims come every Lent and keep their forty-days' fast, on the spot where
they believe our Lord to have fasted, is easily accessible by the sloping niche in the cliff-side.
The cells are a series of chambers, each having recesses hollowed out for sleeping-places,
altar, and cupboard. Many of them communicate with a series of chambers above by a
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
Leaving the sites of the deserted Cities of the Plain, we ascend from the Prophet's
Fountain to Ouarantania, following the course of an aqueduct still full of water, brought down
from Ain Duk, and passing the ruins of extensive mills. Besides the road to Jerusalem on the
south bank of the Wady Kelt, no less than three mountain tracks leading into the hills of
Benjamin all start from this point: one, the southernmost, along the edge of the crags between
the Ouarantania and Wady Kelt to Deir Diwan and Ai ; a second turns north and, passing
Ain Duk, ascends to Taiyibeh, with a branch to Rummon, the ancient Rimmon ; the third runs
straight up from Ain Duk to Deir Diwan, and thus joins the first. We can hardly doubt
which of these was the route taken by Joshua and the army of Israel, when after the fall of
Jericho they advanced into the interior highlands. It must have been by the first path, since they
came to Ai before Bethel. By this track passed Samuel on his way to Gibeah of Benjamin ;
and down this mountain path Elijah and Elisha descended together for the last time. But
Mount Ouarantania derives its fame from later events, and from the not unnatural tradition
that here was the wilderness, the scene of our Lord's temptation after His baptism. Certainly
a spot more apparently remote from the haunts of men it would be difficult to find in any
populous neighbourhood. Though by no means the highest point of the range, no other has
so abrupt a face, nor one so admirably adapted for the construction of the hermits' dwellings
which stud its front towards the Jordan, and also towards the Kelt. There are few more
impressive views in Palestine than may be obtained in the clear bright atmosphere when
pausing in the ascent of Ouarantania. The debris, which rises some two hundred feet above
Ain-es-Sultan, slopes from our feet to the oasis. Beyond it is the desert plain, then the Jordan
belt, the plains of Shittim, and the bold headlands of Ajalon and of the Moabite range, Hesbon
and Nebo rising straight from the north end of the sea. At our back rises the yellow cliff,
the bluff of Ouarantania, perhaps nine hundred or one thousand feet sheer. The great griffon
vultures, singly or in parties, sail majestically past us backwards and forwards, spreading their
wings ten feet across ; the cliff swallows and swifts dash with their sharp scream within a few
inches of our faces ; and the clear ringing note of the orange-winged grakle from time to time
seems to startle the caverns with its echo. In front of many of the cells seats have been
scooped out of the rock, where the anchorites might sit and meditate. On this eastern face
there are about forty habitable caves and chapels, and a very much larger number on the south
side. Many of them communicate internally with each other. They have been approached
by staircases and paths hewn out of the face of the rock, but time and water have worn many
of them away, and left the upper caverns in some cases wholly inaccessible. The lowest tier is
just above the top of the sloping debris, and the chambers are still tenanted by the Arabs for
sheepfolds and stables, sometimes as granaries. The next tier, whither still a few Copts and
Abyssinian pilgrims come every Lent and keep their forty-days' fast, on the spot where
they believe our Lord to have fasted, is easily accessible by the sloping niche in the cliff-side.
The cells are a series of chambers, each having recesses hollowed out for sleeping-places,
altar, and cupboard. Many of them communicate with a series of chambers above by a