THE KUINED CITIES OF PALESTINE, EAST AND WEST 

 OF THE JOED AN 1 



By Abthur W. Sutton, Esq., J. P., F. L. S. 



[With 8 plates] 



The view of Beirut as we enter the harbor is most beautiful. 

 The foreshore, covered with red-tiled houses, is backed by groves of 

 mulberry and pomegranite trees; and behind these are the sloping 

 hillsides terraced with the cultivation of vines and olives, with the 

 mountains of Lebanon in the distance covered with snow. 



After crossing for some miles very soft plains, once vineyards 

 and olive yards, but now a sandy desert with a few pines, planted a 

 hundred years ago by the governor of Beirut to consolidate the soil, 

 we come to the River Damur and then to the orange groves round 

 Sidon, second only to those at Jaffa. Sidon is not only the most 

 ancient city of Phoenicia, but one of the oldest of the known cities 

 of the world, and is said by Josephus to have been built by Sidon, 

 the eldest son of Canaan, and is mentioned with high praise by 

 Homer in the Iliad, where he says that as early as the Trojan war 

 the Sidonian mariners, having provoked the enmity of the Trojans, 

 were by them despoiled of the gorgeous robes manufactured by 

 Sidon's daughters, these being considered so valuable and precious 

 as to propitiate the goddess of war in their favor. Sidon was re- 

 nowned for its skill in arts, science, and literature, maritime com- 

 merce and architecture ; and according to Strabo the Sidonians were 

 celebrated for astronomy, geometry, navigation, and philosophy. 



Sidon was captured by Shalmaneser in 720 B. C, and it was 

 again taken in 350 B. C. by Artaxerxes Ochus. It fell to Alexander 

 the Great without a struggle, and afterwards came into possession 

 successively of the Seleucidse and the Ptolemies. During the time 

 of the Crusaders Sidon was four times taken, plundered, and dis- 

 mantled. Excavations have revealed several rock-hewn tombs, with 

 elaborately carved sarcophagi. The most celebrated is the sar- 

 cophagus of Alexander, which before the war was in the mosque 

 at Constantinople. He was certainly never buried in it. A sar- 

 cophagus was opened the other day at Sidon, full of fluid and con- 

 taining a beautiful body in perfect preservation, but immediately it 

 was lifted from the fluid it lost all shape. 



1 Read before the Victoria Institute. Reprinted, by permission, from the Journal of the 

 Transactions of the Victoria Institute, Vol. LII. 



1454—25 34 509 



