DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0212
THE SOUTH COUNTRY OF JUDAEA.
the valley narrows to a watercourse a few feet wide, the hills are steeper and steeper, and the
path a goat-track occasionally varied by a flight of broken natural stairs. Several ancient wells,
shaded by a tree on the wayside, still supply the traveller with water ; and just above one of
these are the ruins of Keilah, still known by the same name, dreary and unattractive, and with
no decipherable remains, yet once the head-quarters of David, and then a fenced city. It is a
strong natural situation, and a few men might hold the pass.
There is little to detain us on the rest of the way to Hebron. Hharass is passed on the
right. The road still ascends till we reach an irregular mountain plateau, about six miles
north-west of Hebron, and after crossing it, descend no longer bare hills, with brushwood and
pasturage, but carefully enclosed and cultivated vineyards, with clumps of olive and fig yards.
We are now in what is popularly known as the Yale of Eschol (see page 192), though the true
Eschol must be placed many days' journey to the south, near Kadesh Barnea.
As we approach the environs of Hebron, on the left of the paved and walled road, a wide
gateway leads through some vineyards to a large building, the Russian hospice, erected just
behind a very fine old tree, the traditional oak of Mamre (see page 193). For at least three
hundred years this tree, which is not a terebinth (elah), but an ilex, or evergreen holm oak
{Quercus pseudo-coccifera), has been visited by pilgrims and known as Abraham's oak. That,
however, was in another place, Ramet or Mamre, and was a terebinth. It has long since gone,
and this noble tree will soon follow, for within the last twenty-five years it has lost more than
half its limbs, and is rapidly sinking into decrepitude (see pages 192 and 193). It used to
spread its shadow over a circumference of one hundred yards, and its trunk measures thirty-two
feet in circumference at a height of six feet from the ground.
One mile farther and we are at Hebron (see page 197), or rather in front of it, for the
road runs alongside the long straggling suburb of Esh Shekh, and then passing to the south
of the central quarter El Haram, we halt on the slope facing the city, by the Mohammedan
cemetery, with the pools of Hebron directly below us, and the famous mosque in front, behind
the buildings of the city. Hebron, though it stands higher above the sea than any other city
of Palestine, is yet one of the very few ancient sites which is not on, but under, a hill. The
ancient city may have been a little more to the north-west, but the pools (see page 196) as well
as the Haram fix the variations within narrow limits. A wide open grassy space extends
south and west, surrounded by olive-clad hills. The central and conspicuous feature of Hebron
is the great Haram wall (see steel plate). It is an oblong enclosure about two hundred feet
by one hundred and fifteen, and fifty-eight feet high, surrounding the cave of Machpelah, the
burial-place of Abraham and his family for three generations. The ground on which it stands
is very steep, and was possibly below or " before " the ancient city, which claims to be one of
the oldest in the world, built, as we are told, seven years before Zoan, the classical Tanis
(a date which has not yet been ascertained), and coeval with Shechem and Damascus. Besides
its own antiquity, it embraces here the most ancient and the most authentic of all the holy
places of the Holy Land. Much controversy has arisen as to the date of this wall. Beyond
the valley narrows to a watercourse a few feet wide, the hills are steeper and steeper, and the
path a goat-track occasionally varied by a flight of broken natural stairs. Several ancient wells,
shaded by a tree on the wayside, still supply the traveller with water ; and just above one of
these are the ruins of Keilah, still known by the same name, dreary and unattractive, and with
no decipherable remains, yet once the head-quarters of David, and then a fenced city. It is a
strong natural situation, and a few men might hold the pass.
There is little to detain us on the rest of the way to Hebron. Hharass is passed on the
right. The road still ascends till we reach an irregular mountain plateau, about six miles
north-west of Hebron, and after crossing it, descend no longer bare hills, with brushwood and
pasturage, but carefully enclosed and cultivated vineyards, with clumps of olive and fig yards.
We are now in what is popularly known as the Yale of Eschol (see page 192), though the true
Eschol must be placed many days' journey to the south, near Kadesh Barnea.
As we approach the environs of Hebron, on the left of the paved and walled road, a wide
gateway leads through some vineyards to a large building, the Russian hospice, erected just
behind a very fine old tree, the traditional oak of Mamre (see page 193). For at least three
hundred years this tree, which is not a terebinth (elah), but an ilex, or evergreen holm oak
{Quercus pseudo-coccifera), has been visited by pilgrims and known as Abraham's oak. That,
however, was in another place, Ramet or Mamre, and was a terebinth. It has long since gone,
and this noble tree will soon follow, for within the last twenty-five years it has lost more than
half its limbs, and is rapidly sinking into decrepitude (see pages 192 and 193). It used to
spread its shadow over a circumference of one hundred yards, and its trunk measures thirty-two
feet in circumference at a height of six feet from the ground.
One mile farther and we are at Hebron (see page 197), or rather in front of it, for the
road runs alongside the long straggling suburb of Esh Shekh, and then passing to the south
of the central quarter El Haram, we halt on the slope facing the city, by the Mohammedan
cemetery, with the pools of Hebron directly below us, and the famous mosque in front, behind
the buildings of the city. Hebron, though it stands higher above the sea than any other city
of Palestine, is yet one of the very few ancient sites which is not on, but under, a hill. The
ancient city may have been a little more to the north-west, but the pools (see page 196) as well
as the Haram fix the variations within narrow limits. A wide open grassy space extends
south and west, surrounded by olive-clad hills. The central and conspicuous feature of Hebron
is the great Haram wall (see steel plate). It is an oblong enclosure about two hundred feet
by one hundred and fifteen, and fifty-eight feet high, surrounding the cave of Machpelah, the
burial-place of Abraham and his family for three generations. The ground on which it stands
is very steep, and was possibly below or " before " the ancient city, which claims to be one of
the oldest in the world, built, as we are told, seven years before Zoan, the classical Tanis
(a date which has not yet been ascertained), and coeval with Shechem and Damascus. Besides
its own antiquity, it embraces here the most ancient and the most authentic of all the holy
places of the Holy Land. Much controversy has arisen as to the date of this wall. Beyond