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[Illustration: TABOR.]




                        TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.

                 A Record of Discovery and Adventure.

                                  BY
                     CLAUDE REIGNIER CONDER, R.E.,
             OFFICER IN COMMAND OF THE SURVEY EXPEDITION.

    Published for the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

                 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. W. WHYMPER.

                             New Edition.

                            [Illustration]

                                LONDON:
             RICHARD BENTLEY & SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
           Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen.

                                 1887.

                       [_All Rights Reserved._]




                         TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

                          THE PRINCE OF WALES

                        This Work is Dedicated,

             WITH HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS' GRACIOUS PERMISSION,

                            BY THE AUTHOR.




PREFACE.


The Survey of Western Palestine was commenced under Captain Stewart,
R.E., in January, 1872. Ill-health obliged that officer to return almost
immediately. Lieutenant Conder, R.E., was appointed to the command, and
arrived in Palestine in the summer of the same year. The work meantime
had been conducted under the charge of the late Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt
Drake.

Lieutenant Conder returned to England in October, 1875, having surveyed
4700 square miles.

The remaining 1300 square miles of the Survey were finished by
Lieutenant Kitchener in 1877.

The present volume contains Lieutenant Conder's personal history of his
work, without specially entering on the scientific results. These will
be published with the great map in the form of memoirs, twenty-six in
number, one to every sheet.

Lieutenant Conder's conclusions and proposed identifications are, it
will be understood, his own. The Committee do not, collectively, adopt
the conclusions of any of their officers.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER                                                             PAGE

PREFACE                                                                v

INTRODUCTION                                                          xi

I. THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM                                               1

II. SHECHEM AND THE SAMARITANS                                        15

III. THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA                                            41

IV. THE GREAT PLAIN OF ESDRAELON                                      58

V. THE NAZARETH HILLS                                                 71

VI. CARMEL AND ACRE                                                   88

VII. SHARON                                                          103

VIII. DAMASCUS, BAALBEK AND HERMON                                   121

IX. SAMSON'S COUNTRY                                                 139

X. BETHLEHEM AND MAR SABA                                            145

XI. JERUSALEM                                                        160

XII. THE TEMPLE AND CALVARY                                          182

XIII. JERICHO                                                        199

XIV. THE JORDAN VALLEY                                               214

XV. HEBRON AND BEERSHEBA                                             236

XVI. THE LAND OF BENJAMIN                                            251

XVII. THE DESERT OF JUDAH                                            260

XVIII. THE SHEPHELAH AND PHILISTIA                                   273

XIX. GALILEE                                                         289

XX. THE ORIGIN OF THE FELLAHAZN                                       298

XXI. LIFE AND HABITS OF THE FELLAHAZN                                 315

XXII. THE BEDAWAZN                                                    336

XXIII. JEWS, RUSSIANS, AND GERMANS                                   350

XXIV. THE FERTILITY OF PALESTINE                                     364

XXV. THE FUTURE OF PALESTINE                                         375




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


                                                                    PAGE

TABOR--_Frontispiece_.

From the summit of Jebel D[)u]hy. From a water-colour sketch by the
Author.

TITLE-PAGE.

From a sketch by the Author. A theodolite-party at work.

JACOB'S WELL                                                          15

From a sketch made by the Author in the vault over the well; looking
south.

TOMB OF PHINEHAS                                                      41

From a sketch by the Author; looking south-west.

HEROD'S COLONNADE AT SAMARIA                                          43

From a photograph; looking east.

GUEST HOUSE                                                           52

From a sketch by the Author made in the village of Kuriet-Jit.

VIEW FROM JENIN                                                       58

From a water-colour sketch by the Author; looking north.

CHURCH OF ST. ANNE, AT SEFFURIEH                                      71

From a photograph by Lieut. Kitchener, R.E.; looking east.

CARMEL                                                                88

From a water-colour sketch by the Author; looking west from near the
village of Mujeidil.

CONSTANTINE'S BASILICA AT BETHLEHEM                                  145

From a photograph by Lieut. Kitchener, R.E.; looking east.

MAR SABA                                                             157

From a photograph; looking north-east.

THE DOME OF THE ROCK                                                 160

From a photograph; looking north.

THE TEMPLE WALL                                                      182

From a sketch made by the Author in a chamber outside the west wall,
near the north corner.

GILGAL                                                               199

From a sketch made by the Author on the spot; the view is north-west,
over the Plain of Jericho.

DEBIR                                                                236

From a sketch by the Author; looking south-west.

THE VALLEY OF MICHMASH                                     _to face_ 256

From a photograph by Lieut. Kitchener, R.E.; looking east.

ENGEDI                                                               260

From a sketch by the Author; looking south.

GATH                                                                 273

From a sketch by the Author; looking south-east.

COLUMBARIA, NEAR BEIT JIBRAZN                                         275

From a photograph by Lieut. Kitchener, R.E.

THE SEA OF GALILEE                                                   289

From a water-colour sketch by the Author; looking north from Kaukab el
Hawa.

A DERWAZSH                                                            298

From a sketch by the Author.

COSTUMES OF MOSLEM PEASANTRY NEAR SHECHEM                            315

From a sketch by the Author.

MALE DANCERS                                                         325

From a sketch by the Author.

A BEDAWI WOMAN                                                       336

From a  sketch by the Author.

HAIFA                                                                364

From a water-colour drawing by the Author. View from the shore west of
the German Colony; looking east.




INTRODUCTION.


The Survey of Palestine was actually commenced at the end of the year
1871. Preliminary _reconnaissances_ of parts of Palestine had been
previously made by Captain Anderson, R.E., and Captain Warren, R.E., and
the Ordnance Survey of the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, with the line of
levels from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, and from Jerusalem to
Solomon's Pools, had been executed by Major Wilson, R.E.

It was by the advice of these experienced explorers that the Committee
of the Palestine Exploration Fund undertook the Survey of Western
Palestine, to the scale of one inch to the mile, the object being the
complete examination of the whole country, with an amount of accuracy
approaching that of Ordnance work.

The officer to whom this great work was entrusted was Captain Stewart,
R.E., and his staff consisted of Sergeant Black and Corporal Armstrong,
R.E.; Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake was also appointed as linguist and
archA|ologist to the expedition.

The work met with a most serious check at its commencement. Captain
Stewart, arriving in the most unhealthy time of the year, and engaged in
a most unhealthy part of the country, while measuring the base line, was
struck down with fever and invalided home. The Committee then honoured
me with the offer of the command, as his successor, and I was instructed
to proceed as soon as possible to Palestine.

In the meantime the little party, under the care of Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake,
pursued its labours, and carried the Survey up the country to Jerusalem,
and thence to NAcblus, accomplishing in the first half of 1872 about 500
square miles. This work has since, under my direction, been re-examined,
and the excellent character of this part of the map reflects the highest
credit on the zeal and care of the two surveyors, who, though ignorant
of the language and unaccustomed to the style of work required, yet
succeeded in recovering everything of value in the district; nor does it
less reflect credit on the tact and judgment of my lamented friend Mr.
Tyrwhitt Drake, on whom devolved the arduous task of organising and
managing the infant expedition.

I reached Palestine on the 8th of July, 1872, and from that date, until
the 1st October, 1875, the work was pushed on with scarcely any
interruption, except during my absence for four months in 1874, when I
returned to England to recruit my health, which was seriously impaired
by the hardships encountered in the Jordan Valley.

After the attack on the party at Safed in 1875, the work was suspended
for a year. When I left Palestine four-fifths of the Survey was
completed, and the remaining fifth was happily carried out during the
year 1877 under the command of Lieutenant Kitchener, and the great map
now extends over 6000 square miles, from Dan to Beersheba, and from
Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea.

Palestine is thus brought home to England, and the student may travel,
in his study, over its weary roads and rugged hills without an ache, and
may ford its dangerous streams, and pass through its malarious plains
without discomfort.

This work was thus carried out by a party never stronger than five in
number as regards Europeans, and was completed in little over five years
in the field. The account given of the country will, I hope, be more
complete than anything of the kind yet attempted for any Eastern land.

The results of the Survey are published as follows: First, a map in
twenty-six sheets to the scale of one inch to the statute mile.
Secondly, a reduced map engraved on copper to the scale of 660 yards to
the inch.

The one-inch sheets are each accompanied by a memoir containing all the
information collected by the Survey Party. Section A gives a
geographical and topographical account of the country included in the
sheet. Section B is an archA|ological description of the ruined sites.
Section C includes the ethnographical notes and the local traditions of
the district. The text of this memoir, with exception of Sections A and
B, for sheets 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, has been my work, under the editorship
of Mr. G. Grove and Colonel C. W. Wilson, R.E. The nomenclature of the
Survey, including about 9000 Arabic names, has been arranged in indexes
for each sheet, and edited by Professor E. H. Palmer. The memoir will
contain information