DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0072
SITE OF SAREPTA.
As early as the thirteenth century this city was in rains, and now only fragments of its foundations exist, chiefly on a headland called 'Ain el
Kantarah and also along the shore south of it, extending for a mile or more. Early Greek and Roman writers speak highly in praise of the
wines of Sarepta.
THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN,
r I 'HE route from Sidon to Tyre is by the seashore, generally pastureless and uninteresting,
yet, in its ease and the absence of rugged stone-heaps and slippery rocks, a great contrast
to the ordinary road of Palestine. Though the sea is tideless there is generally a broad belt
of sand, not too soft or heavy. Behind this runs the narrow Phoenician plain, rich and well
watered. Wells and springs are frequent throughout, often affording pure and sweet water
within a few feet of the sea itself. Beyond the plain the bare but terraced hills rise abruptly,
steep and rocky. Several streams intersect the path, across which have been bridges in
Roman and perhaps in later days, but floods and neglect have left only traces of what once was,
in a few buttresses and here and there the spring of an arch. In winter it is often difficult to
ford or swim the swollen rivers, especially the Nahr ez Zaherany, or " Flowery River " (so
named from the mass of oleanders which fringe it), shortly before reaching the village of
Surafend, which represents the Zarephath of the Old Testament, the Sarepta of the New (see
above). There is little to mark the spot where Elijah sojourned so long with the hospitable
widow and blessed her exhaustless cruse, for the ancient site, open and unprotected, close to
the shore, has long been deserted, and its inhabitants have made a new settlement more than
two miles inland, under the shelter of the hills, to which they have transferred the ancient name,
and where they are safe from the raids of Bedawin horsemen. All that is left of old Zarephath
are a few heaps of stones, the greater part of the materials having been carried off for modern
As early as the thirteenth century this city was in rains, and now only fragments of its foundations exist, chiefly on a headland called 'Ain el
Kantarah and also along the shore south of it, extending for a mile or more. Early Greek and Roman writers speak highly in praise of the
wines of Sarepta.
THE PHCENICIAN PLAIN,
r I 'HE route from Sidon to Tyre is by the seashore, generally pastureless and uninteresting,
yet, in its ease and the absence of rugged stone-heaps and slippery rocks, a great contrast
to the ordinary road of Palestine. Though the sea is tideless there is generally a broad belt
of sand, not too soft or heavy. Behind this runs the narrow Phoenician plain, rich and well
watered. Wells and springs are frequent throughout, often affording pure and sweet water
within a few feet of the sea itself. Beyond the plain the bare but terraced hills rise abruptly,
steep and rocky. Several streams intersect the path, across which have been bridges in
Roman and perhaps in later days, but floods and neglect have left only traces of what once was,
in a few buttresses and here and there the spring of an arch. In winter it is often difficult to
ford or swim the swollen rivers, especially the Nahr ez Zaherany, or " Flowery River " (so
named from the mass of oleanders which fringe it), shortly before reaching the village of
Surafend, which represents the Zarephath of the Old Testament, the Sarepta of the New (see
above). There is little to mark the spot where Elijah sojourned so long with the hospitable
widow and blessed her exhaustless cruse, for the ancient site, open and unprotected, close to
the shore, has long been deserted, and its inhabitants have made a new settlement more than
two miles inland, under the shelter of the hills, to which they have transferred the ancient name,
and where they are safe from the raids of Bedawin horsemen. All that is left of old Zarephath
are a few heaps of stones, the greater part of the materials having been carried off for modern