journey, they also visited the village of Eden, the cedars of Lebanon, and the splendid ruins of Baalbec.
The third letter transports us from Aleppo to Hamah (the Epiphania of the Greeks and Romans), situated near the west bank of the Orontes; Palmyra, the ancient Tadmor, founded by Solomon; and the delightful city of Damascus, where the writer and his friend remained from the 10th till the 23d of February, 1818. Previous to their arrival there, they had been thirty-eight days and nights without pulling their clothes off, or ever sleeping on a bed.
The fourth and fifth letters are occupied with various travels throughout the Holy Land, of extraordinary interest. Among other places visited by the writers were Panias, near to which is the source of the Jordan; Tiberias, situated close to the Lake of Gennesaret; Om Keis, the ancient Gadara, in the country of the Gadarenes; Bysan, supposed to be the Bethshan of scripture; Djerash, formerly a splendid city, the ruins of which are still more interesting than those of the celebrated Palmyra; Szalt, which they believe to be the ancient Machaerus, where John the Baptist was beheaded; Gilhad Gilhood, said by the natives to have been the birthplace of the prophet Elijah; Nablous, the ancient Sychem; Mount Gerizim; Bethlehem; Solomon’s Pools; Tekoa, built by King Rehoboam; Hebron, which, according to Moses, vied with the best cities of Egypt In antiquity; the vast Necrpolis of Petra, distant, according to Pliny, 600 miles from Gaza, and 122 from the Persian Gulf; the Tomb of Aaron, a little edifice upon the very highest and most rugged pinnacle of the Mount Hor of scripture; Rabba, formerly Rabbath-Moab; Diban, in the territory of the ancient Amorites; Mount Tabor; Nazareth; and St. Jean d’Acre.
After quitting Jerusalem, in May, 1818, Captains Irby and Mangles likewise travelled round the Dead Sea, which only two Europeans (the late Messrs Burckhardt and Seetzen,) had ever visited before them and their companions, Messrs. Bankes and Legh.
The fifth letter concludes with an account of the captains’
