DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0237
PHILIFS FOUNTAIN.
207
As we approach the capital the number of traditional sites increases, and the scenes
of many scriptural
events are grouped at
convenient distances
round the Holy
City. The traveller
who crosses the bare
ridee behind 'Ain
Karim by the curious
cairns which form
such conspicuous fea-
tures on the sky-line
from the neighbour-
hood of Jerusalem,
finds his way down to
the flat stony valley
called Wady-el-Werd,
the " Vale of Roses,"
and here on the south side of the valley
we find a fifteenth-century traditional site
in the fountain called by the natives 'Ain
Haniyeh, but by the Christians Philip's
Fountain (see page 210). The spring
breaks out from beneath a kind of
masonry apse flanked by Corinthian
pilasters, and probably marking the site
of an early chapel. A small niche exists
in the apse, and remains of masonry are
scattered round in the valley bed.
It is difficult to understand how the
tradition became attached to this site, or
how the chariot of the Ethiopian servant
of Queen Candace can have been sup-
posed to have escaped entire destruction
in the rugged and pathless ravine where
the spring breaks out. It is, however,
certain that the tradition was transferred
at a late period from another site. In
the fifteenth century it is first mentioned,
WELL OF ZACHARIAS AND ELISABETH, 'AIN KARIM.
Near the supposed site of their summer dwelling, where the Virgin is said tc
have visited them.
207
As we approach the capital the number of traditional sites increases, and the scenes
of many scriptural
events are grouped at
convenient distances
round the Holy
City. The traveller
who crosses the bare
ridee behind 'Ain
Karim by the curious
cairns which form
such conspicuous fea-
tures on the sky-line
from the neighbour-
hood of Jerusalem,
finds his way down to
the flat stony valley
called Wady-el-Werd,
the " Vale of Roses,"
and here on the south side of the valley
we find a fifteenth-century traditional site
in the fountain called by the natives 'Ain
Haniyeh, but by the Christians Philip's
Fountain (see page 210). The spring
breaks out from beneath a kind of
masonry apse flanked by Corinthian
pilasters, and probably marking the site
of an early chapel. A small niche exists
in the apse, and remains of masonry are
scattered round in the valley bed.
It is difficult to understand how the
tradition became attached to this site, or
how the chariot of the Ethiopian servant
of Queen Candace can have been sup-
posed to have escaped entire destruction
in the rugged and pathless ravine where
the spring breaks out. It is, however,
certain that the tradition was transferred
at a late period from another site. In
the fifteenth century it is first mentioned,
WELL OF ZACHARIAS AND ELISABETH, 'AIN KARIM.
Near the supposed site of their summer dwelling, where the Virgin is said tc
have visited them.