The house of Rahab, which they also found, seems to have been nearer the fountain; and has since disappeared; unless indeed it be the foundations and broken arches which are still seen in that vicinity.'

Having now nothing further to detain us at the castle and village, and not having yet satisfied ourselves as to the site of ancient Jericho, we determined to make a further search along the base of the mountains near the opening of Wady Kelt. Leaving therefore the castle at 5h 50' we proceeded along the Wady, and passed the cemetery of the village on the north bank. The graves are built over in the Muhammedan fashion with hewn stones taken from former structures. Crossing the Wady and still following it up, we came in fifteen minutes from the castle to the first aqueduct, carrying a fine full stream of water from 'Ain es-Sultân across to the southern plain. Ten minutes more brought us to the second aqueduct, now in ruins; but which once conveyed in like manner a stream, apparently from the fountain of Dûk, to a higher portion of the plain. Both these aqueducts are well and solidly built of hewn stones with pointed arches. The Wady itself, both here and below, was full of the Nŭbk or Dôm.

We now turned somewhat more to the left, and crossing the Jerusalem track, came at 6h 25′ to an immense open shallow reservoir, situated near the base of the western mountain, thirty-five minutes from the castle. It measured 657 feet from E. to W. by 490 feet from N. to S. The direction of the eastern or lower wall is S. 10° W. about six feet high and nine feet thick; all the walls being built of small stones cemented. This reservoir was probably intended to

Fabri 1483, Reissb. pp. 670, 268. Quaresm. II. p. 752.-R. de Suchem, W. de Baldensel, and Sir J.

Maundeville, in the 14th century,
make no allusion to Zaccheus.
1) See above p. 284.

be filled from the waters of Wady Kelt, in order to irrigate this part of the plain in summer; and it may perhaps have been connected with the aqueduct mentioned by travellers, half an hour up that valley on the Jerusalem road.' On the East at a short distance are foundations, apparently of a large square building or block of buildings; and on the West also are scattered substructions, extending for ten minutes up the gentle slope. At this point are the remains of several buildings apparently not very ancient; there is among them no trace of columns, nor hardly of hewn stones. Indeed, in all the foundations in this vicinity, the stones are unhewn and mostly small.

All these remains lie at the foot of the mountain, just south of the Jerusalem road; and I do not find that the reservoir has ever been noticed by former travellers. We now proceeded northwards, and found similar substructions extending all the way to Wady Kelt (about ten minutes), and also for some distance on its northern side. Near the southern bank of this Wady is a hill or mound, like a sepulchral tumulus, which one might suppose to be artificial, were there not so many similar ones scattered over the plain below. On its top are traces of former walls; and a wall seems to have run from it to the Wady. Directly on the bank of the latter are a few remains of some ancient building, faced over with small stones about four inches square, cemented together diagonally, forming a sort of Mosaic. Among the scattered foundations north of the Wady, we noticed the fragment of a column; the only trace of an architectural ornament we anywhere saw.-This site is not quite five hours from Jerusalem.2

1) Monro I. p. 134. Buckingham p. 293.-From the reservoir the castle at Riha bore N. 73° E.

VOL. II.

38

'Ain es-Sultân N. 15° E. Kakon N. 75° W.

2) Comp. Maundrell, March 29.

About fifteen minutes from Wady Kelt, or halfway towards 'Ain es-Sultân, is another larger tumulus-like hill; the southern side of which at the top is excavated, either artificially or from natural causes, somewhat in the form of an amphitheatre. If artificial, one might be disposed to regard it as a theatre of Herod; but as there are others like it in the vicinity, the appearance is more probably natural. Here begin again the traces of similar foundations, apparently connected with those mentioned yesterday around 'Ain es-Sultân. We came to the fountain in half an hour from Wady Kelt, or in about forty minutes from the reservoir further South. All the foundations here described are of unhewn stones, often small and straggling.'

After all our search, we were disappointed in finding so few traces of work in hewn stones; nothing indeed, which of itself could at once be referred to any large or important building; in short, nothing which looks like the ruins of a city of twenty stadia in circumference, with a large hippodrome and palaces. It is true, that the greater part of the materials of these structures may have been swallowed up in the later convents, the many aqueducts, and the renovations of the modern village; yet nevertheless, one would naturally expect to find some traces of the solidity and splendour of the ancient city. It seems not improbable, that with the exception of the royal edifices, the houses of ancient Jericho were small, and built of loose unhewn stones or other perishable materials.

According to the Bourdeaux pilgrim, A. D. 333, the Jericho of that day was at the descent of the moun

1) These remains and hillocks are mentioned by Buckingham, but greatly exaggerated; p. 295.

2) Epiphanius adv. Haer. lib. II. p. 702.

tains, one and a half Roman miles distant from the fountain; while he places the more ancient city at the fountain itself. I am inclined to adopt this suggestion; and to regard the remains around the opening of the Wady Kelt, half an hour S. of 'Ain es-Sultân, as marking the site of the Jericho of Herod and the New Testament; while those around the fountain may have belonged to single edifices scattered among the gardens, and to the walls by which the latter were enclosed. The earliest city of all would naturally have been adjacent to the fountain; and the site of the later Jericho may have been changed in order to evade the curse. But any distinct traces of the former city are now hardly to be looked for.-The site, both at the fountain and at the opening of Wady Kelt, accords entirely with the account of Josephus, that Jericho was sixty stadia distant from the Jordan.3

2

Jericho is often mentioned; but its varying fortunes are not very definitely described. It was early rebuilt, notwithstanding the curse; and became a school of the prophets. After the exile its inhabitants returned; and it was later fortified by the Syrian Bacchides.5 Pompey marched from Scythopolis along the Ghôr to Jericho, and thence to Jerusalem; and Strabo speaks of the castles Thrax and Taurus, in or near Jericho, as having been destroyed by him. Herod the Great in the beginning of his career captured and sacked Jericho; but afterwards adorned and strengthened it, after he had redeemed its revenues from Cleopatra.?

1) Itin. Hieros. ed. Wesseling pp. 596, 597, "A civitate passus mille quingentos est fons Helisei prophetae.-Hbi fuit civitas Hiericho cujus muros gyraverunt filii Israel", etc.

2) Josh. vi. 26.

3) Joseph. Ant. V. 1. 4. See above, pp. 287, 289.

4) Judg. iii. 13. 1 Kings xvi. 34. 2 K. ii. 4, 5.

5) Ezra ii. 34. Neh. iii. 2. 1 Macc. ix. 50.

6) Joseph. Ant. XIV. 4. 1. Strabo XVI. 2. 40.

7) Jos. Ant. XV. 4. 1, 2. See above, p. 291, Note 1.

He appears to have not unfrequently resided here. He built over the city the fortress Cypros; and between the castle and the former palace, erected other palaces and called them by the name of his friends.1 There was also here a hippodrome or circus.2 The cruel tyrant at length closed his career and life at Jericho. It was here, that, the 'ruling passion being still strong in death,' he summoned around him the nobles of the land in great numbers, and having shut them up within the hippodrome, gave a strict charge to his sister Salome to cause them to be put to death the moment he expired; in order, as he said, that his own decease might be commemorated throughout the land by an appropriate mourning. A worthy consummation of an atrocious life! This charge, however, his sister was wise enough to leave unfulfilled. The palace at Jericho was afterwards rebuilt with greater splendour by Archelaus.1

No

It was this Jericho which our Lord visited, lodging with Zaccheus and healing the blind man. The city became the head of one of the toparchies; and was visited by Vespasian just before he left the country, who stationed here the tenth legion in garrison. further mention of Jericho occurs until the time of Eusebius and Jerome in the fourth century; who relate, that it was destroyed during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, on account of the perfidy of the inhabitants, and had been again rebuilt. From A. D. 325 onwards

1) Joseph. Ant. XVI. 5. 2. B. J. I. 21. 4, 9.

2) Jos. Ant. XVII. 6. 5. B. J. I. 33. 6.

3) Jos. Ant. XVII. 6. 5. ib. 7. 1, 2. B. J. I. 33. 6-8.

4) Jos. Ant. XVII. 13. 1.

5) Luke xviii. 35, seq. xix. 1–7. Matt. xx. 29, seq. Mark x. 46, seq. 6) Joseph. B. J. III. 3. 5. IV. 8. 1. V. 2. 3.

7) Onomast. art. Jericho. As however Josephus, the cotemporary, is entirely silent as to any such destruction, the fact must be regarded as doubtful. Still more so the modern assertion, that it was rebuilt by Adrian; of which there seems to be no trace in history. Quaresmius II. p. 755. Raumer's Pal. p. 205.