. "From Dan to Beersheba"; or, The Land of promise as it now appears : including a description of the boundaries, topography, agriculture, antiquities, cities, and present inhabitants of that wonderful land .... endwise, there is one nobler than the rest and twice aslarge. Here, no doubt, the lifeless form of some distinguishedperson lay in state, under the light of the window, till his suc-cessor in ofiice became his successor to the tomb. Haifa mile to the north from the Damascus Gate, and sixtyyards to the right of the Nablous road, are the Tombs of theKings. In the western side of a sunken
. "From Dan to Beersheba"; or, The Land of promise as it now appears : including a description of the boundaries, topography, agriculture, antiquities, cities, and present inhabitants of that wonderful land .... endwise, there is one nobler than the rest and twice aslarge. Here, no doubt, the lifeless form of some distinguishedperson lay in state, under the light of the window, till his suc-cessor in ofiice became his successor to the tomb. Haifa mile to the north from the Damascus Gate, and sixtyyards to the right of the Nablous road, are the Tombs of theKings. In the western side of a sunken court hewn in therock, twenty feet deep and ninety square, is a grand porticofifteen feet high, thirty-nine wide, and seventeen deep. For-merly this portal was decorated with tAvo columns and as manypilasters, which, however, are now gone, except a fragment ofone of the capitals depending from the architrave. Over theentrance was a heavy cornice and frieze, adorned with clusters Dr. Barclay. r>2 82 FROM DAN TO BEEKSHEBA. of grapes and wreaths of flowers, alternating over a continuousgarland of fruit and foliage, extending down the sides to theground. But time and plunderers have defaced this elegant. TOMUS Oi TUE KLSGS. fa9ade, leaving it a wreck of former grandeur. A solitarypalm now rears its graceful form near the spot, and ferns growout of the cracked face and sides of the portal, covering thebroken entablature. Entering the portico and turning to the right, we found theentrance to the sepulchre to be at once peculiar and complica-ted. Judging from what remains, the doorway was excavatedbelow the floor of the vestibule, and was approached by a cov-ered passage-way tunneled through the solid rock. At thecommencement of this subterranean way there was a trap-doorwhich was secretly covered with a slab. To secure greatersafety against those Avho would sacrilegiously disturb the re-pose of the dead, there was beneath this trap-door a deep pit FEOM DAN TO BEEESHEBA. 83 SO loc
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Keywords: ., bookauthornewmanjo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookyear1864
