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the two capital cities of this holy portion of the globe. In this province alone, they say that there were a thousand towns, each of which was furnished with beautiful gardens. These gardens produced such extraordinary fruits, that it is said five men were scarcely able to bear the weight of one of their grapes; and it is insisted on, that the same number of persons might conveniently dwell within the rind of one of their pomegranates. The giants, which were of the race of the Amalekites, occupied this happy land, and the smallest of these, according to the opinion of the divines, were of the height of nine cubits. Oy, the son of Anak, was esteemed to surpass them all in stature, and he is said to have prolonged his life to a period of three thousand years."

*

In about two hours from the time of our quitting Rihhah, and after passing the foot of the mountain of the Temptation, keeping nearly a northerly course all the way, we saw on our left, at the distance of a mile from us, the ruins of a fine Roman aqueduct. This presented a range of at least twenty arches, still perfect; and as its direction was from west to east, or leading from the feet of the mountains of Judea out into the valley of Jordan, its purpose

* Bibliothèque Orientale, tom. ii. p. 15.

seemed to be to conduct the water from a fixed point, on the side of the hills, to another fixed point in the plain, so as to prevent its dispersion over the surface of the ground. We were sufficiently near it to observe that the architecture was Roman, and the masonry massive.

From the distance we had gone, and the line of direction in which we had travelled from Rihhah, this spot seemed likely to mark the site of Cypros, one of the cities built by Herod in this plain. The historian of this king, after describing his magnificent monuments at Cæsarea and Antipatris, the first of which he named in honour of his emperor, the last in honour of his father, says, "He also built upon another spot of ground, above Jericho, of the same name with his mother, a place of great security, and very pleasant for habitation, and called it Cypros." This same place was afterwards embellished by Archelaus, of whom the historian says, "He also magnificently rebuilt the royal palace that had been at Jericho, and he diverted half the water with which the village of Neara used to be watered, into the plain, to water those palmtrees which he had there planted. He also built a village, and called it Archelais." +

*Josephus, Ant. Jud. 1. xvi. c. 5. s. 2. Jewish War, 1. i.

c. 21. s. 4.

† Josephus, Ant. Jud. 1. xvii. c. 13. s. 1.

The palace may have been that of Cypros, or a royal palace at Jericho, as it is expressed, though the name here might be used for that of the territory, as no royal palace is spoken of at that city. The construction of the aqueduct for carrying the waters from the hill into the plain, can refer, however, only to this situation at the foot of the mountains, and probably to this identical work now seen here in ruins. The village of Archelais is made a large town in D'Anville's map, and placed farther to the northward; but as no particular position is assigned to it by the historian, beyond its being near to the other works described, it may occupy its proper place.

This spot is near to that, too, in which the old city of Ai must have stood, a city which commanded a district or small province of land, and was itself governed by a king. Its position is given as east of Bethel, which was in the mountains here on our left, where Abram had an interview with God, and where he erected an altar to him. "And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east." *

Genesis, xii. 8. and xiii. 3.

These places of Bethel and Ai are constantly spoken of together in the Scriptures. See Ezra, xi. 28. and Nehemiah, vii. 32

The details of the war against it, and the stratagem of Joshua to take it, are such as could be applied with strict local accuracy to a city seated on ground like this. The ambush, it appears, was placed among the hills on the west, or in the words of the Scriptures, "behind the city, between Bethel and Ai." The portion of the troops which was to decoy the men of Ai from their city, was pitched on the north side of it, and then there was a valley between it and Ai. The ambush was composed of five thousand men, and the rest of the host, or thirty-five thousand men, were to make the false attack, for they had only lost thirty-six men out of the three thousand sent up first against this city, and the whole number that crossed Jordan, was forty thousand men prepared for war. This succeeded so well, that both Bethel and Ai were emptied of their inhabitants in the pursuit of their besiegers, when the ambush rose and entered into the city, and gained an easy victory. *

* Not an individual was spared amid the general slaughter, and even when all were fallen, both men and women, to the number of twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai, they returned to the city and smote it with the edge of the sword. "And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a desolation unto this day. And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide. And as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto this day." See Joshua, c. viii. throughout.

On going about half an hour farther to the north, over the same kind of plain, we opened on our left a beautiful valley, now highly cultivated, and spread over with a carpet of the freshest verdure, seemingly, from its colour, of young corn. This place, we were told was called Waad-el-Farah, or the Valley of Farah, and a town was spoken of near it, in the side of the hills, bearing the same name, and being larger and more populous than Rihhah.

The situation of this place corresponds very accurately with that assigned to Phasaelus, as well as the aspect of the country near it, and even the present name may be conceived to be but a corruption of the original one. It was the same Herod who had built the magnificent city of Cæsarea in honour of his emperor, Antipatris in honour of his father, and Cypros in honour of his mother, that built here also Phasaelus in honour of his brother, The first monument which he erected to him was the celebrated tower of this name in Jerusalem, which was compared to the Pharos of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the world, and said to have been at once a part of the strong defences of the city, and a memorial for him that was deceased, because it bare his name. The historian adds, "He built also a city of the same name in the Valley of Jericho, as you go from it northward, whereby he rendered the neighbouring country

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