PALESTINE EXPLORATION

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1587, 29 April 1887, Page 4

PALESTINE EXPLORATION

The Pveetir.e Exploration Society nave received two packets from Ilerr Schumacher, the first of which, on various discoveries abut Acre, is published in the Quarterly Statement for January. In reading it it will be remarked how extraordinarily full of antiquities must be this country when at every turn of tbe spade something is laid bare, either a tomb, or a mosaic pavement, or an aqueduct. The other packet received frcm Herr Schumacher eues an account of a recent visit to the Plain of Eadraelon and tbe shores of tbe Sea of Tiberias. He confirms tbe discovery made eighteen years ago by Mr John Macgregor of the existence of crocodiles in Palestine, having actually seen one. He thinks, however, that there are very few left. He gives a new instance of the daily destruction of the old monuments; very soon nothing will be left of all the old ruins. He has found the Jewish cemetery of Tiberias and has surveyed theexte naive ruins of Kuar Bint el Melek, most of which were hidden when Colonel Kitchener visited the place in 1877. Another and totally unexpected example of wanton destruction is reported to the Society by Mr Greville John Chester. Ladikiyeh (November 26, 1885).—'* The walla of Antioch were regarded as perhaps the very finest specimen extant of ancient erurading fortification. Ascending from the Orontea nearly perpendicularly

to the summit of the beetling heights of Mount Silpius, leaping from crag to crag, joining deep ravines, and enclosing a space of some seven miles, they might be deemed an eighth wonder of the world. Now all this is a thing of the past. Within the past few years the hand of the spoiler has been at work, and the whole of the walls and towers'are in a process of destruction. Everyone who wants a hewn stone goes to the ancient walls for it as the Turkish authorities make no sign of prohibiting the spoliation. Lord Stratford d« Redcliffe saved the Byzantine walls of Constantinople, which a late Sultan had given to his mother to sell as building materials. Cannot Sir E White be instructed to save what remains of the grander walls of Antioch, which are still more magnificent, and which have a more than artistic and antiquarian interest as relics of the city wh»re' the disciples were first called Christians t"