DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0227
i98
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
Of these occasions the most noteworthy was the visit of the Prince of Wales. His Royal
Highness was accompanied by the late Dean Stanley, who thus describes the event:—" Before
our arrival at Hebron, the Governor of Jerusalem, Suraya Pasha, had made every preparation
to ensure the safety of the experiment. Accordingly, as the protracted file wound through the
narrow valley by which the town of Hebron is approached (see page 192), the whole road on
either side, for more than a mile, was lined with soldiers. The native population, which usually
on the Prince's approach to a town streamed out to meet him, was invisible, it may be from
compulsion, it may be from silent indignation. We at length reached the green sward in front
of the town, crowned by the Quarantine (see page 196). There Suraya Pasha received us. It
had been arranged that His Royal Highness should be accompanied by the two members of
the party who had given most attention to Biblical pursuits, so as to make it evident that
the visit was not one of mere curiosity, but had also a distinct scientific purpose. It was, how-
ever, finally conceded by the Governor that the whole of the suite should be included, amount-
ing to seven persons besides the Prince. The servants remained behind. We started on foot,
two and two, between two files of soldiers, by the ancient pool of Hebron (see page 196), up
the narrow streets of the modern town, still lined with soldiers. Hardly a face was visible as
we passed through ; only here and there a solitary guard, stationed at a vacant window, or on
the flat roof of a projecting house, evidently to guarantee the safety of the party from any chance
missile. It was, in fact, a complete military occupation of the town. At length we reached the
south-eastern corner of the massive wall of enclosure, the point at which enquiring travellers,
from generation to generation, have been checked in their approach to this, the most ancient
and the most authentic of all the Holy Places in the Holy Land.
" Up the steep flight of the exterior staircase—gazing close at hand on the polished surface
of the wall, amply justifying Josephus's account of the marble-like appearance of the huge
stones which compose it— we rapidly mounted. At the head of the staircase, which, by its long
ascent, showed that the platform of the Mosque was on the uppermost slope of the hill, and
therefore above the level where, if anywhere, the sacred cave would be found, a short turn at
once brought us within the precincts, and revealed to us for the first time the wall from the
inside. A later wall of Mohammedan times has been built on the top of the Jewish enclosure.
The enclosure itself, as seen from the inside, rises but a few feet above the platform,
" Here we were received writh much ceremony by five or six persons, corresponding to the
Dean and Canons of a Christian cathedral. They were the representatives of the forty here-
ditary guardians of the mosque.
" We passed at once through an open court into the mosque.
" ' The whole building occupies about one-third of the platform.
" I now proceed to describe the Tombs of the Patriarchs, premising always that these
tombs, like all those in Mohammedan mosques, and indeed like most tombs in Christian
churches, do not profess to be the actual places of sepulture, but are merely monuments or
cenotaphs in honour of the dead who lie beneath. Each is enclosed within a separate chapel
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
Of these occasions the most noteworthy was the visit of the Prince of Wales. His Royal
Highness was accompanied by the late Dean Stanley, who thus describes the event:—" Before
our arrival at Hebron, the Governor of Jerusalem, Suraya Pasha, had made every preparation
to ensure the safety of the experiment. Accordingly, as the protracted file wound through the
narrow valley by which the town of Hebron is approached (see page 192), the whole road on
either side, for more than a mile, was lined with soldiers. The native population, which usually
on the Prince's approach to a town streamed out to meet him, was invisible, it may be from
compulsion, it may be from silent indignation. We at length reached the green sward in front
of the town, crowned by the Quarantine (see page 196). There Suraya Pasha received us. It
had been arranged that His Royal Highness should be accompanied by the two members of
the party who had given most attention to Biblical pursuits, so as to make it evident that
the visit was not one of mere curiosity, but had also a distinct scientific purpose. It was, how-
ever, finally conceded by the Governor that the whole of the suite should be included, amount-
ing to seven persons besides the Prince. The servants remained behind. We started on foot,
two and two, between two files of soldiers, by the ancient pool of Hebron (see page 196), up
the narrow streets of the modern town, still lined with soldiers. Hardly a face was visible as
we passed through ; only here and there a solitary guard, stationed at a vacant window, or on
the flat roof of a projecting house, evidently to guarantee the safety of the party from any chance
missile. It was, in fact, a complete military occupation of the town. At length we reached the
south-eastern corner of the massive wall of enclosure, the point at which enquiring travellers,
from generation to generation, have been checked in their approach to this, the most ancient
and the most authentic of all the Holy Places in the Holy Land.
" Up the steep flight of the exterior staircase—gazing close at hand on the polished surface
of the wall, amply justifying Josephus's account of the marble-like appearance of the huge
stones which compose it— we rapidly mounted. At the head of the staircase, which, by its long
ascent, showed that the platform of the Mosque was on the uppermost slope of the hill, and
therefore above the level where, if anywhere, the sacred cave would be found, a short turn at
once brought us within the precincts, and revealed to us for the first time the wall from the
inside. A later wall of Mohammedan times has been built on the top of the Jewish enclosure.
The enclosure itself, as seen from the inside, rises but a few feet above the platform,
" Here we were received writh much ceremony by five or six persons, corresponding to the
Dean and Canons of a Christian cathedral. They were the representatives of the forty here-
ditary guardians of the mosque.
" We passed at once through an open court into the mosque.
" ' The whole building occupies about one-third of the platform.
" I now proceed to describe the Tombs of the Patriarchs, premising always that these
tombs, like all those in Mohammedan mosques, and indeed like most tombs in Christian
churches, do not profess to be the actual places of sepulture, but are merely monuments or
cenotaphs in honour of the dead who lie beneath. Each is enclosed within a separate chapel