The Ancient ''Cedars of Lebanon'' 



By Guy E. Mitchell 



THE great Cedars of Lebanon are among the most 

 interesting living records of the past. The grove 

 which is standing to-day is the remnant of the same 

 forest from which the cedars were cut and hewn for the 

 building of the Temple at Jerusalem by Solomon. There 



BRANCH AND CONES OF ONE TREE 



Still hardy, vigorous and fruitful, these old cedars of Lebanon continue to thrive 

 although most of them are now. it is estimated, over 2000 years old. This branch 

 and cones were taken from one of the oldest. 



are many references to the Cedars of Lebanon in the Old 

 Testament, the most notable in First Kings, where it is 

 stated that through the cooperation of Hiram, the King 

 of Tyre, Solomon brought great rafts of cedar from 

 Lebanon to Joppa and carried them up the steep moun- 

 tain-sides to Jerusalem for the first temple. In the build- 

 ing of the second temple, under Ezra and Nehemiah, the 

 timbers were procured from the same cedar forest on the 

 slopes of Mount Lebanon. At an earlier period the 

 Psalmist refers to the Cedars as the ornament of Lebanon 

 and one of the great glories of God's creative power and 

 wisdom. Pliny, the Greek naturalist, named the species 

 Cedrus magna, meaning " great." 



The impressive thing about this ancient grove of 

 cedars is the knowledge that the oldest and largest of 

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them were undoubtedly living at the time when the tim- 

 bers of their immediate predecessors supported the Tem- 

 ple. They are upwards of 2000 years old, not so old as 

 the great Sequoias of our Pacific Coast, but still very 

 ancient. At present there are only about 400 trees left, 

 all very large and old. The best preserved are about 100 

 feet high and one has a circumference of 47 feet. The 

 grove is now protected by a well-built, high stone wall; 

 but all the balance of the great cedar forest of Lebanon 

 has succumbed to the greed of man, and the grove stands 

 like an oasis in the desert. 



GL\NT CEDAR OF LEBANON 



The largest cedar in the grove of the cedars which furnished timber for Solomon's 

 Temple at Jerusalem. There are now only about 400 trees left, all large and 

 old. The best preserved are about 100 feet high and have a circumference 

 of 47 feet. 



In considering the otherwise absolute destruction of 

 the forest over the entire mountain-side, one cannot help 

 but wonder why this group has been preserved. A prob- 

 able explanation is found in the name of the stream at the 

 foot of the mountain — the Kadisha — which rises in the 

 moraine left by the great glacier which swept down from 

 the summit of Lebanon and on which the Cedars of Leba- 

 non throve during earlv Biblical times. This word is the 



