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             The World's Great Explorers and Explorations.

     Edited by J. SCOTT KELTIE, Librarian, Royal Geographical Society;
     H. J. MACKINDER, M.A., Reader in Geography at the University of
     Oxford; and E. G. RAVENSTEIN, F.R.G.S.




                               PALESTINE.

[Illustration: A PICTORIAL MAP OF JERUSALEM AND THE HOLY LAND, FOR THE
USE OF PILGRIMS.

(_From a MS. of the 13th Century in the Burgundian Library at
Brussels._)

_Frontispiece._]




                               PALESTINE.

                                   BY

                    MAJOR C. R. CONDER, D.C.L., R.E.

                   LEADER OF THE PALESTINE EXPLORING
                              EXPEDITION.

                                NEW YORK

                          DODD, MEAD & COMPANY

                               PUBLISHERS




PREFACE.


The Editors of the present series having done me the honour to ask me
briefly to relate the story of Palestine Exploration, and especially of
the expeditions which I commanded; and having stipulated that the book
should contain not only an account of the more interesting results of
that work, but also something of the personal adventures of those
employed, I have endeavoured to record what seems of most interest in
both respects.

Many things here said will be found at greater length in previous works
which I have written, scattered through several volumes amid more
special subjects. I hope, however, that the reader will discover also a
good deal that is not noticed in those volumes; for the sources of
information concerning ancient Palestine are constantly increasing; and,
among others, I may mention, that the series of Palestine Pilgrim Texts,
edited by Sir Charles Wilson, has added greatly to our knowledge, and
has enabled me to understand many things which were previously doubtful.

The full story of the dangers and difficulties through which the work
was brought to a successful conclusion cannot be given in these pages,
and no one recognises more than I do the imperfections which--as in all
human work--have caused it here and there to fall short of the ideal
which we set before us. What can, however, be claimed for Palestine
exploration is, that the ideal was always as high as modern scientific
demands require. The explorations were conducted without reference to
preconceived theory, or to any consideration other than the discovery of
facts. The conclusions which different minds may draw from the facts
must inevitably differ, but the facts will always remain as a scientific
basis on which the study of Palestine in all ages must be henceforth
founded.

I fear that even now, after so much has been written, the facts are not
always well known--certainly they have often been misrepresented. It is
my desire, as far as possible, in these pages to summarise those facts
which seem most important, while giving a sketch of the mode of research
whereby they were brought to light.

                                                                C. R. C.

     _Note._--The maps illustrating this volume have been revised by
     Major Conder, who is more especially responsible for those of the
     Kingdom of Jerusalem and of Modern Palestine. The geological
     sketch-map embodies Major Conder's researches, as also the
     important explorations of Dr. K. Diener in the Lebanon.--ED.




CONTENTS.


CHAP.                                                               PAGE

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER                                                   1

I. EXPLORATIONS IN JUDEA                                              22

II. THE SURVEY OF SAMARIA                                             59

III. RESEARCHES IN GALILEE                                            83

IV. THE SURVEY OF MOAB                                               134

V. EXPLORATIONS IN GILEAD                                            171

VI. NORTHERN SYRIA                                                   190

VII. THE RESULTS OF EXPLORATION                                      214


APPENDICES:--

NOTE ON JERUSALEM EXCAVATION                                         247

INDEX OF OLD TESTAMENT SITES IDENTIFIED IN
PALESTINE                                                            252

INDEX OF NEW TESTAMENT SITES IDENTIFIED IN
PALESTINE                                                            262


INDEX                                                                267




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS.


_FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS._

1. A Pictorial Map of Jerusalem and the Holy Land
for the use of Pilgrims (_from a MS. of the 13th
Century in the Burgundian Library at Brussels_)            _Frontispiece_

2. The Plain of Jericho, as seen from Ai             _to face page_   35

3. The Dead Sea (view S.E. of Taiyibeh)                     "         43

4. Alphabets of Western Asia                                "        173

5. Jebel Sannin (Lebanon)                                   "        192


_ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT._

Portrait of Dr. Robinson (_from a photograph_)                 _page_ 16

Portrait of Sir C. Wilson (_from a photograph by Maull & Fox_)    "   17

Portrait of Sir C. Warren (_from a photograph_)                   "   18

Desert of Beersheba                                               "   53

Kurn Sartaba                                                      "   68

The Jordan Valley ('Esh el Ghurab)                                "   73

A Camp in the Jordan Valley                                       "   80

Mount Tabor                                                       "   86

Carmel                                                            "   88

Nain                                                              "   93

The Sea of Galilee                                                "   99

Krak des Chevaliers (Kala't el Hosn)                              "  108

Moab Mountains from the Plain of Shittim                          "  142

A Dolmen west of Heshbon                                          "  144

View of Dead Sea from Mount Nebo                                  "  158

Hittites from Abu Simbel                                          "  198

Hamath Stone, No. 1                                               "  200


_MAPS (Printed in Colours)._

I. General Map of Palestine                              _facing page_ 1

II. Physical Map of Palestine                                 _at end_

III. Geological Map of Palestine                                  "

IV. Palestine as divided among the Twelve Tribes                  "

V. Palestine                                                      "

VI. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, showing the Fiefs, about 1187 A.D.  "

VII. Modern Palestine, showing the Turkish Provinces              "


_MAPS IN TEXT._

Palestine and Syria according to Ptolemy, _c._ 100 A.D.         _page_ 2

A Section of Peutinger's Table                                    "    4

Marin Sanuto's Map of the Holy Land, 1321                         "   12

The Holy Land, from the Atlas of Ortelius, _c._ 1591              "   14

[Illustration: PALESTINE]




PALESTINE.




_INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER._


The long narrow strip of country on the east shore of the Mediterranean,
which in a manner was the centre of the ancient world, has in all ages
been a land of pilgrimage. For five hundred miles it stretches from the
deserts of Sinai to the rugged Taurus, and its width, shut in between
the Syrian deserts and the sea, is rarely more than fifty miles. It can
never be quite the same to us as other lands, bound up as it is with our
earliest memories, with the Bible and the story of the faith; and it is
to the credit of our native land that we have been the first to gather
that complete account of the country, of its ancient remains, and of its
present inhabitants, which (if we except India) does not exist in equal
exactness for any other Eastern land.

The oldest explorer of Palestine--if we do not reckon Abraham--was the
brave King Thothmes III., who marched his armies throughout its whole
length on his way towards Euphrates. Many are the pilgrims and
conquerors who have followed the same great highways along which he
went. When, in the early Christian ages, the land became sacred to
Europe, the patient pilgrims of Italy, and even of Gaul, journeyed along
the shores of Asia Minor, and sometimes were able to reach the Holy
City, and to bring back to their homes some account of the country;
while in later ages the pilgrims came not singly, but in hosts
continually increasing, and finally as crusaders, colonists, and
traders.

[Illustration: PALESTINE AND PART OF SYRIA ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY, _c._
100 A.D.]

The literature of Palestine exploration begins, therefore, with the
establishment of Christianity. Before that date we have very little
outside the Bible except in the works of Josephus, whose descriptions,
though at times unreliable as regards measurement, are invaluable as the
accounts of an eye-witness of the state of the country before the
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. We have scattered notes in the
Talmud, in Pliny, in Ptolemy,[1] in Strabo, and in other classic works,
which have been collected by the care of Reland and of later writers;
but it was only when the Holy Land became a land of pilgrimage for
Christians that itineraries and detailed accounts of its towns and holy
places began to be penned.

The Bordeaux pilgrim[2] actually visited Jerusalem while Constantine's
basilica was being built over the supposed site of the Holy Sepulchre,
and in Palestine his brief record of stations and distances is expanded
into notes on the places which he found most revered by Syrian
Christians. In the same reign, Eusebius, the historian of the Church,
constructed an Onomasticon, which answered roughly to the modern
geographical gazetteer. His aim--and that of Jerome, who rather later
rendered this work from Greek into Latin, adding notes of his own--was
to identify as far as possible the places mentioned in the Old and New
Testaments with places existing in the country as known to themselves.
This work is both scholarly and honest in intention, but the traditions
on which Eusebius and Jerome relied have not in all cases proved to be
reconcilable with the Biblical requirements as studied by modern
science. The Onomasticon is, however, of great importance as regards the
topography of Palestine in the fourth century, and has often led to the
recovery of yet more ancient sites, which might otherwise have been
lost. Jerome had an intimate personal knowledge, not only of the country
round Jerusalem and Bethlehem, where he lived so long, but also of the
whole of Western Palestine. Places east of Jordan are noticed in the
Onomasticon, but that region was less perfectly known to the Christian
co-authors of this work. In the fourth century the Roman roads were
marked by milestones, and thus the distances given by Eusebius and
Jerome are actual, and not computed distances. Measurement on the Survey
map, which shows these milestones whereever they remain by the roadside,
proves that for the most part the Onomasticon distances are very
correct, and the sites of places so described can, as a rule, be
recovered with little difficulty.

[Illustration: A SECTION OF PEUTINGER'S TABLE.]

The Peutinger Tables, representing the Roman map of Palestine about 393
A.D., give us also the distances along these roads; but the knowledge of
the map-maker as to the region east of Jordan was most imperfect, and
the map, which presents no latitudes or longitudes, is much distorted.
To the same century belongs Jerome's elegant letter on the travels of
his pious friend Paula, which is, however, but a slight sketch, more
remarkable for its eloquence and fanciful illustration of Scripture
than for topographical description.[3]

A short tract--very valuable, however, to the student of Jerusalem
topography--was penned by Eucherius in the fifth century; and in the
sixth we have the account by Theodorus (or Theodosius) of the Holy Land
in the days of Justinian.[4] The eulogistic record by Procopius of the
buildings of Justinian also gives accounts and references to the names
of his monasteries and churches in Palestine, which are of considerable
use.[5] In the same reign also (about 530 A.D.) Antoninus Martyr[6] set
forth from Piacenza, and journeyed to Constantinople, Cyprus, Syria, and
Palestine. He even crossed the Jordan and went through the Sinaitic
desert to Egypt. Like the Bordeaux pilgrim, Antoninus was a firm
believer in the apocryphal Gospels, which already began to be held in
high estimation. The former pilgrim repeats stories from the Gospel of
the Hebrews; the latter, in addition, refers to the Gospel of the
Infancy; but, in spite of the superstitious tone of the narrative of
Antoninus, his itinerary is valuable, because it covers the whole region
west of Jordan, and contains notes of contemporary custom and belief
which are of great antiquarian interest.

The conquest of Palestine by Omar did not by any means lead to the
closing of the country to Christians. One of the best known and most
detailed accounts of the Holy Land written up to that time was taken
down from the lips of the French Bishop Arculphus[7] by Adamnan, Bishop
of Iona, about 680 A.D., in the monastery of Hy. It appears that Arculph
was in Palestine during the reign of Mu'awiyeh, the first independent
Khalif of Syria ruling in Damascus, and the same policy of toleration
and peace which was inaugurated by this ruler enabled St. Willibald in
722 A.D.[8] to journey through the whole length of the land. These
writers are concerned chiefly in description of the holy places, which
increased in number and in celebrity from century to century. Arculphus
constantly interrupts his narrative with pious legends, much resembling
those of the modern Roman Catholic guide-books to Palestine, though some
of the sites which were correctly identified by these early Christian
pilgrims were transferred by the Latin priests of the twelfth century to
impossible localities, where they are still in some cases shown to
Latins, while the older tradition survives among the Greek Christians.
We often encounter an interesting note in these pilgrim diaries, such as
Arculphus' description of the pine-wood north of Hebron, now represented
by but a few scattered trees. St. Willibald seems to have been regarded
as a harmless hermit, who, when once the object of his journey was
understood, was allowed by the "Commander of the Faithful" to travel in
peace throughout the land.

In the reign of Charlemagne good political relations existed between
that monarch and the Khalif of Baghdad, Harun er Rashid. The keys of
Jerusalem were presented to the Western monarch, who founded a hospice
for the Latins in that city. About half a century later, at the time
when Baghdad was at the height of its glory as a centre of literature
and civilisation, Bernard, called the Wise,[9] with two other monks, one
Italian, the other Spanish, visited the Holy Land from Egypt, and they
were able to obtain permits which were respected by the local governors.

The rise of the Fatemites in Egypt altered materially the status of the
Christians in Syria. We have no known Christian account of Palestine
between the ninth and twelfth centuries. Hakem, the mad Khalif of Egypt,
destroyed the Christian churches in Jerusalem in 1010 A.D., and the
country seems to have been then closed to pilgrims.

During this period, however, we have at least two important works,
namely, that of El Mukaddasi (about 985 A.D.), and the journey of Nasir
i Khusrau in 1047 A.D.[10] El Mukaddasi ("the man of Jerusalem") was so
named from his native town, his real name being Shems ed Din. He
describes the whole of Syria, its towns and holy places (or Moslem
sanctuaries), its climate, religion, commerce, manners and customs, and
local marvellous sights. The legends are no less wonderful than those of
his monkish predecessors, but his notes are often of great historical
interest, and he is the earliest writer as yet known who plainly
ascribes the building of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem to its real
author, the Khalif 'Abd el Melek. It is remarkable that he speaks of
the Syrian Moslems as living in constant terror of the Greek pirates,
who descended on the coasts and made slaves of the inhabitants, whom
they carried off to Constantinople. The Christians were still, he says,
numerous in Jerusalem, and "unmannerly in public places." The power of
the Khalifs was indeed at this time greatly shaken by the schisms of
Islam, and the Greek galleys invaded the ports, which had to be closed
by iron chains. The Samaritans appear to have flourished at this time as
well as the Jews, and the Samaritan Chronicle, which commences in the
twelfth century, speaks of this sect as very widely spread even earlier,
in the sixth and seventh centuries A.D.

Abu Muin Nasir, son of Khusrau, was born near Balkh, and journeyed
through Media and Armenia by Palestine to Cairo, thence to Mecca and
Basrah, and back through Persia to Merv and Balkh, the whole time spent
being seven years. He gives good general accounts of Jerusalem, Hebron,
and other places, though his description does not materially add to our
information.

The rise of the Seljuks boded little good to Syria. Melek Shah in 1073
A.D. conquered Damascus, and by the end of the century Jerusalem groaned
under the Turkish tyranny. It was at this time--just before the conquest
of the Holy City, which had been wrested from the Turks by the
Egyptians--that Foucher of Chartres began his chronicle of the first
Crusade, which contains useful topographical notes. The great history of
the Latin Kingdom by William of Tyre is full of interesting information
as to the condition of the country under its Norman rulers (1182-85
A.D.), and to this we must add the Chronicles of Raymond d'Agiles and
Albert of Aix, which belong to the time of the first Crusade.[11]

Two other early works of the Crusading period are of special value.
Saewulf[12] visited the Holy Land in 1102 A.D., before the building of
most of the Norman castles and cathedrals; and the Russian Abbot Daniel,
whose account has only recently been translated into English,[13] is
believed to have arrived as early as 1106 A.D. From Ephesus he went to
Patmos and Cyprus, and thence to Jerusalem and all over Western
Palestine. His account is one of the fullest that we possess for the
earliest Crusading period. In the middle of the twelfth century we have
the topographical account by Fetellus,[14] which refers to places not
generally described; and rather later we have the valuable descriptions
by Theodoricus and John of Wirzburg,[15] while only two years before
Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem, John Phocas[16] wrote a shorter account
in Greek upon silk, which is interesting as the work of a Greek
ecclesiastic at a time when the Latins were the dominant sect. The names
of monasteries in the Jordan Valley, otherwise unnoticed, are
recoverable in his account.

Much interesting topographical information of this period is to be found
in the Cartulary of the Holy Sepulchre,[17] which gives striking
evidence of the rapidly increasing possessions of the Latin Church, due
to the gifts and legacies of kings and barons. The cartularies of the
great orders and the laws contained in the Assizes of Jerusalem are
equally important to an understanding of Palestine under the rule of its
feudal monarchs. It is possible to reconstruct the map of the country at
this period in a very complete manner from such material.[18]

The Jews were not encouraged in Syria by the Normans. Benjamin of
Tudela, however, made his famous journey from Saragossa in 1160, and
returned in 1173 after visiting Palestine, Persia, Sinai, and Egypt; he
was interested in the "lost tribes," whom the mediaeval Jews recognised
in the Jewish kingdom of the Khozars in the Caucasus, and his account of
Palestine is a valuable set-off to those of the Christian visitors.[19]
We have pilgrimages by Rabbis in later centuries, viz., Rabbi Bar Simson
in 1210 A.D., Rabbi Isaac Chelo of Aragon in 1334, and others of the
fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries.[20] These refer chiefly
to the holy cities of the Jews, especially to Tiberias and Safed in
Galilee, and record visits to the tombs of celebrated Rabbis, many of
which are still preserved, and some yet visited by the Jews of
Palestine. Several important points regarding early Christian and
Talmudic topography are cleared up by these works.

One of the favourite accounts of the Holy City and of Palestine at the
time of its conquest by Saladin was written by an unknown author, and
was reproduced in the thirteenth century in the Chronicle of Ernoul.[21]
There are many manuscripts of this, as of earlier works, which were
preserved in the monasteries of Europe, and recopied by students who
seem to have had little idea of the importance of preserving the
original purity of their text. Some of the versions are mere abstracts,
some are supplemented by paraphrases from Scripture. The original work
known as the _Citez de Jherusalem_ was evidently penned by one who had
long lived in the Holy City, and knew every street, church, and
monastery. He gives us the Frankish names for the streets, and the
topography is easily traced in the modern city. There are perhaps few
towns which are better known than Jerusalem in the latter part of the
twelfth century A.D., and the varying manuscripts throw an interesting
light on the way in which errors and variations crept into a popular
work before the invention of printing.

The vivid and spirited chronicle of the campaigns of Richard Lion-Heart
by Geoffrey de Vinsauf (1189-1192 A.D.) informs us of the condition of
the maritime region, and describes a part of Palestine which few have
visited, between Haifa and Jaffa, as well as the region east of Ascalon
and as far south as the border of Egypt. The topography of this
chronicle I studied on the ground with great care in 1873-75. The
charming pages of Joinville, though of great interest as describing the
unfortunate Crusade of St. Louis in 1256 A.D., contain much less of
geographical value than the preceding.[22]

[Illustration: MAP OF MARIN SANUTO.]

In the fourteenth century men's minds were often occupied with schemes
for the recovery of the Holy Places. Marino Sanuto, a Venetian noble,
who is said to have travelled in the East, wrote an elaborate work on
the subject, which he presented to Pope John in 1321. The greater part
is taken up with his views as to the military steps necessary for an
expedition against the Saracens, but a very full gazetteer of Palestine,
with a map, is also introduced into the work. Some have doubted whether
Marino Sanuto ever visited Palestine. His information is, however, very
correct on the whole, and his account of roads, springs, and other
features appears to be founded on reliable observation.

During the transition period of the struggle between Christendom and
Islam, Palestine had narrowly escaped the horrors of a Mongol invasion.
Mangu Khan, to whom St. Louis had sent the mild and pious William de
Rubruquis at his distant capital of Karakorum (in Mongolia) in 1253, was
defeated by the Egyptian Sultan Kelaun, successor of the terrible
Bibars, in 1280, and had already been defeated in 1276 by Bibars himself
near La Chamelle (now Homs) in Northern Syria. A very interesting letter
has lately been published by Mr. Basevi Sanders from Sir Joseph de Cancy
in Palestine to Edward the First in England,[23] written in 1281, and
describing the later defeat near Le Lagon (the Lake of Homs), which
saved the country from the cruelty from which other lands were then
suffering. The Mameluk Sultans ruled in Palestine down to 1516 A.D.,
when the Turkish Selim overthrew their power at Aleppo, since which time
Palestine has been a Turkish province. During the three centuries of
Mameluk rule there are many descriptions, Christian and Moslem, of the
country, and the well-known Travels of Sir John Mandeville are among the
earliest. He was a contemporary of Marino Sanuto, and although those
portions of the work (with which he consoled his rheumatic old age) that
refer to more distant lands are made up from various sources, going back
to the fables of Pliny and Solinus, still the account of Palestine
itself appears to be original, and contains passages (such as that which
relates to the fair held near Banias) which show special knowledge of
the country. In 1432 Sir Bertrandon de la Brocquiere, with other
knights, made an adventurous journey through the whole length of the
country, and through Northern Syria and Asia Minor to
Constantinople.[24] To the same period belongs John Poloner's
description, which shows us how tenaciously the Latin monks held to
their possessions in the Holy Land.[25]

[Illustration: THE HOLY LAND, FROM THE ATLAS OF ORTELIUS, _c._ 1591.]

In the fifteenth century we have Moslem accounts by Kemal ed Din and
Mejr ed Din, which are of value in tracing the architectural history of
Jerusalem. Mejr ed Din was Kady of the city, and his topographical
account, though brief, is minutely detailed.[26] Among other Christian
travellers of this century, Felix Fabri (1483-84), a Dominican monk, has
left one of the best accounts. But how little these later Christian
pilgrims contributed to enlarging our exact knowledge of Palestine may
be judged of from such a map as that contributed by Christian Schrot to
the Atlas of Ortelius, a map very decidedly inferior to that supplied
more than two centuries earlier by Marino Sanuto.

Of travellers who visited Palestine during the early Turkish period, the
first in importance is the shrewd and moderate Maundrell (1697
A.D.).[27] He was chaplain of the English factory at Aleppo, which dated
back to the time of Elizabeth, and the account of his travels shows that
it was more difficult to traverse Palestine in his days than to
penetrate into Eastern Mongolia in the days of Rubruquis and Marco Polo.
Among the tyrannical chiefs of various small districts who robbed and
annoyed him was Sheikh Shibleh near Jenin, whose tomb is now a sacred
shrine on the hill above Kefr Kud. Of this holy man he records that "he
eased us in a very courteous manner of some of our coats, which now (the
heat both of the climate and season increasing upon us) began to grow
not only superfluous but burdensome."

In these early days travelling was perilous, and, as a rule, only
possible in disguise. In 1803 the journey of Seetzen was specially
valuable, and the travels of the celebrated Burckhardt followed soon
after in 1809-16. Both these explorers died in the East before their
self-allotted tasks were complete. In 1816 Buckingham (still remembered
by the elder generation as a gallant explorer) visited Palestine, and in
1817 Irby and Mangles made an adventurous journey in the country east
of the Jordan. Their account is still valuable for this region. From
that time forward the accounts of personal visits to the country become
too numerous to be here recorded. The names of Bartlett, Wilson, Tobler,
Thomson, Lynch, De Saulcy, Van de Velde, Williams, and Porter are among
the better known of those who preceded or were contemporary with the
celebrated Robinson.

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF DR. EDWARD ROBINSON (_Born 1794, Died
1863_).]

But it was only in 1838 that really scientific exploration of Palestine
began with the journey of the famous American (Dr. Robinson), whose
works long continued to be the standard authority on Palestine
geography, and whose bold and original researches have been so fully
confirmed by the excavations and explorations of the last twenty years.

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF SIR CHARLES WILSON. _From a Photograph by
Maull & Fox, Piccadilly._]

To this same period, preceding actual surveys, belongs the work of De
Vogue, whose monographs on the Temple, the Dome of the Rock, the
churches of Palestine, and his splendid volume of plates for Northern
Syrian architecture, together with his collection and decipherment of
various early inscriptions in the country, give him the highest rank as
an Orientalist. With his name must be coupled that of Waddington, who
first attempted to form a corpus of Greek texts from inscriptions found
in Palestine, while the standard authority on Phoenician and Hebrew
texts is the recently published corpus of Semitic inscriptions by Renan.

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF SIR C. WARREN.]

Sir C. W. Wilson's survey of Jerusalem and travels in Palestine in
1864-66, and his subsequent exploration of the Sinaitic desert in 1867,
roused public attention to the neglected state of Palestine geography,
leading to the execution for the Palestine Exploration Fund of the
wonderful excavations by Sir C. Warren at Jerusalem. These excavations
round the walls of the old Temple area, carried out in the teeth of
fanatic and political obstruction, have enabled us to replace the weary
controversies of half a century ago by the actual results of measurement
and scientific exploration. Sir Charles Wilson's already published
survey of the Holy City, his reconnaissances throughout the length of
the Palestine watershed, preceding his Sinai Expedition, his survey of
the Sea of Galilee, and his exact determination of the level of the Dead
Sea, 1292 feet below the Mediterranean, were the first efforts of modern
science to supply really valuable statistics concerning Palestine
itself. The shafts and tunnels of Sir Charles Warren were the first
serious attempts of the engineer to place our knowledge of Jerusalem on
an equal footing with that which had been in like manner attained at
Nineveh and Babylon some twenty years before.

It was by the advice of these experienced explorers that the survey of
Palestine from Dan to Beersheba, and from the Jordan to the Great Sea,
was undertaken, a work which commenced in 1872, was completed in the
field in 1877, but not fully published till 1882. It is with this work
that the present volume is chiefly concerned, since it was my good
fortune to conduct the parties almost from the first, and to carry out
the publication of the maps and memoirs. It had first been intended that
Captain Stewart, R.E., should have commanded the party, but that officer
was unfortunate in falling ill almost at once on reaching the field of
work; and it was through the kindness of the late Major Anderson, R.E.,
the comrade of Sir Charles Wilson in Palestine, that my name was brought
forward as one who had been deeply interested in the work of previous
explorers, and who desired to act as Captain Stewart's assistant. By the
sudden illness of that officer, the non-commissioned officers were left
in Palestine without a military superior; and as my military education
at Chatham had just been completed, I was fortunate in being selected,
at the age of not quite twenty-four years, to the command of the Survey
Expedition.

Since the completion of the survey of Western Palestine, the survey of
Moab, Gilead, and Bashan has been commenced. In 1881 I set out in charge
of a small party, hoping to finish this new enterprise in about three
years' time. But alas! I found much change in Syria during the interval
of my absence. The suspicions of the Sultan were aroused; the Turkish
Government refused to believe in the genuineness of our desire to obtain
antiquarian knowledge. Political intrigues were rife, and after
struggling against these difficulties for fifteen months, after
surveying secretly about five hundred square miles of the most
interesting country east of the Dead Sea, and after vainly attempting to
obtain the consent of the Sultan to further work, it became necessary to
recall the party in the same year in which the researches of Mr. Rassam
in Chaldea were suspended and a general veto placed on all systematic
exploration.

Since that year, however, a little work has been done from time to time
by residents in communication with the Home Society. Herr Schumacher, a
young German colonist, has made some excellent maps of parts of Bashan,
and Dr. Hull has explored the geology of the district south of the Dead
Sea, while further discoveries