DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0196
THE SOUTH COUNTRY OF JUD&A.
169
been an admirable look-out station whence Isaac could watch his flocks and servants. There
are traces of the foundations of a keep, but this is evidently later work.
The ride across the downs from Jerar to Gaza (see page 175), though without grand
scenery, is full of interest. The district abounds in wild animals. The gazelles may be
seen bounding on every hill. The fox and the jackal start up at every turn, and one long
ridge is a favourite resort of the great grey crane, which returns year by year in hundreds to
its quarters, like rooks to their trees.
Gaza, or rather the olive-groves which gird it, bursts suddenly upon us (see page 175). It
RUINS OF ASCALON, FROM THF NORTH-EAST.
Here there are fine orchards and olive-trees, cultivated by the Egyptian peasants of the neighbouring village of El Jurah. The wild onions of
'Askulan are celebrated for their delicate flavour. The Romans gave them the name of Ascalonia, hence scalogna (Ital.) and shallot {Allium
Ascalonicum).
has no natural advantages of situation, and there is no reason apparent why it should have
been a city from the earliest times. It is now entirely denuded of fortifications or walls, and
many of its streets straggle out into the open country. A broad sand road opens among
the olive-trees, the highway of Egypt and Syria, trodden by Midianites and camels long
before Abraham, by Egyptian and Assyrian kings, by Greek and Roman conquerors, by Saracens
and Crusaders, and lastly by Napoleon from Egypt and back again. Gaza has over twenty
thousand inhabitants. The central town, stone-built, is girt by wide suburbs of mud-built
turf-covered houses, over which rise in numbers the minarets, shining white above the grass-
169
been an admirable look-out station whence Isaac could watch his flocks and servants. There
are traces of the foundations of a keep, but this is evidently later work.
The ride across the downs from Jerar to Gaza (see page 175), though without grand
scenery, is full of interest. The district abounds in wild animals. The gazelles may be
seen bounding on every hill. The fox and the jackal start up at every turn, and one long
ridge is a favourite resort of the great grey crane, which returns year by year in hundreds to
its quarters, like rooks to their trees.
Gaza, or rather the olive-groves which gird it, bursts suddenly upon us (see page 175). It
RUINS OF ASCALON, FROM THF NORTH-EAST.
Here there are fine orchards and olive-trees, cultivated by the Egyptian peasants of the neighbouring village of El Jurah. The wild onions of
'Askulan are celebrated for their delicate flavour. The Romans gave them the name of Ascalonia, hence scalogna (Ital.) and shallot {Allium
Ascalonicum).
has no natural advantages of situation, and there is no reason apparent why it should have
been a city from the earliest times. It is now entirely denuded of fortifications or walls, and
many of its streets straggle out into the open country. A broad sand road opens among
the olive-trees, the highway of Egypt and Syria, trodden by Midianites and camels long
before Abraham, by Egyptian and Assyrian kings, by Greek and Roman conquerors, by Saracens
and Crusaders, and lastly by Napoleon from Egypt and back again. Gaza has over twenty
thousand inhabitants. The central town, stone-built, is girt by wide suburbs of mud-built
turf-covered houses, over which rise in numbers the minarets, shining white above the grass-