DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0218
NEBY SAMWIL.
189
differ. One thing, however, is certain : a peak so conspicuous, a post so admirably adapted
for defence, a knoll surrounded by a plain so exceptionally fertile, could not have been without
its city in this once densely peopled region. We have now almost unconsciously crossed the
watershed from El Jib, and are on the Mediterranean side of the great central ridge. It is
three thousand and six feet above the sea, the highest point of the whole region, rising
abruptly five or six hundred feet above the little plain of Gibeon ; and the hillsides, however
steep, are carefully cultivated, as shown in the illustration. The village of a dozen houses
partly cut out of the rock is built of the materials of far grander buildings, and the great
cisterns and a never-failing well plainly prove its antiquity. From the top of the minaret,
which is a Saracenic addition to a Crusading cruciform church, now turned into a mosque, and
covering the supposed tomb of Samuel, is the most extensive view in Western Palestine. At
THE VILLAGE OF EL JIB, THE ANCIENT GIBEON OF BENJAMIN.
our feet are deep rugged valleys, partially covered with scrub, and olive-groves contrasting
with the white limestone ridges. Beyond are Beeroth and Ophrah, the rock Rimmon, and
Ramah of Benjamin. Over the nearer ridges we look far away beyond the Jordan Valley,
which lies far too deep to be seen, on to the dark outlines of the ranges of Gilead and Moab.
With the glass we can detect the fortress of Kerak, Jebel Shihan (Sihon), the highest point in
Moab, and the distant mountains of Jebal. Turning to the south, over the bare foreground
of grey hills we see the mosques and domes of Jerusalem apparently sunk in a valley.
Northwards we detect Mount Gerizim and the shoulder of Carmel ; then westward push forth
from beneath us the wide plains of Sharon and Philistia, sometimes green with corn, sometimes
bare and red fallow, and dark patches which tell of olive-groves, while white spots gleam in
the sunshine—the roofs of Lydda, of Ramleh, or some other olive and orange girt village.
189
differ. One thing, however, is certain : a peak so conspicuous, a post so admirably adapted
for defence, a knoll surrounded by a plain so exceptionally fertile, could not have been without
its city in this once densely peopled region. We have now almost unconsciously crossed the
watershed from El Jib, and are on the Mediterranean side of the great central ridge. It is
three thousand and six feet above the sea, the highest point of the whole region, rising
abruptly five or six hundred feet above the little plain of Gibeon ; and the hillsides, however
steep, are carefully cultivated, as shown in the illustration. The village of a dozen houses
partly cut out of the rock is built of the materials of far grander buildings, and the great
cisterns and a never-failing well plainly prove its antiquity. From the top of the minaret,
which is a Saracenic addition to a Crusading cruciform church, now turned into a mosque, and
covering the supposed tomb of Samuel, is the most extensive view in Western Palestine. At
THE VILLAGE OF EL JIB, THE ANCIENT GIBEON OF BENJAMIN.
our feet are deep rugged valleys, partially covered with scrub, and olive-groves contrasting
with the white limestone ridges. Beyond are Beeroth and Ophrah, the rock Rimmon, and
Ramah of Benjamin. Over the nearer ridges we look far away beyond the Jordan Valley,
which lies far too deep to be seen, on to the dark outlines of the ranges of Gilead and Moab.
With the glass we can detect the fortress of Kerak, Jebel Shihan (Sihon), the highest point in
Moab, and the distant mountains of Jebal. Turning to the south, over the bare foreground
of grey hills we see the mosques and domes of Jerusalem apparently sunk in a valley.
Northwards we detect Mount Gerizim and the shoulder of Carmel ; then westward push forth
from beneath us the wide plains of Sharon and Philistia, sometimes green with corn, sometimes
bare and red fallow, and dark patches which tell of olive-groves, while white spots gleam in
the sunshine—the roofs of Lydda, of Ramleh, or some other olive and orange girt village.