60 MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 



Hermon and the snowy peaks of the Anti-Libanus. 

 Immediately around are the rich and spacious plains 

 of Esdraelon and Galilee, the most fertile part of the 

 Land of Canaan, the inheritance where the tribe of 

 Issachar " rejoiced to pitch their tents." 



In this region occurred some of the most memor- 

 able events of Scripture history. Here it was that 

 Barak, descending with his ten thousand men from 

 Tabor, discomfited Sisera with all his chariots. In 

 the same neighbourhood, Josiah, king of Judah, 

 fought in disguise against Necho, king of Egypt, 

 and fell by the arrows of his antagonist. Vespasian 

 reviewed his legions in the same great plain ; and 

 from the days of Nebuchadnezzar to the invasion of 

 Napoleon, it has been a chosen place for encamp- 

 ments in every contest carried on in Palestine. 

 When the French entered Syria in 1799, General 

 Kleber was here attacked by an army of 25,000 

 Turks. Here, too, is to be fought the great battle 

 of Armageddon, so well known to all interpreters of 

 prophecy, which is expected to change the aspect of 

 the Eastern world. 



On leaving Tabaria, Burckhardt proceeded to 

 Nazareth ; visiting in his route several spots re- 

 corded in the New Testament, among others the 

 village of Cana (Kefer Kenna), where the miracle 

 at the marriage-feast was performed ; and the Ke- 

 rom Haltun, a small oblong hill, which the Chris- 

 tians call the mount of Beatitude, where Christ 

 delivered his sermon, and where they allege the five 

 thousand were fed. Naszera, or Nazareth, is one 



