PALERMO. 



iTINE. 



PAIJUUIU. TWeuM, on the aiU of the ancient Tlurmce, u a walled 

 town of 16,000 inhabiUnU, with a harbour, a castle, and an old 

 cathedral The inhabiUnU are employed in the tunny, anchovy, and 

 ardiae oakery, and in the coast trade. The ruins of the ancient 

 Hitnvrm are about 8 mile* distant, at the mouth of the Fiume Grande. 

 [HiuEHk ] The hot mineral water* of Termini are much frequented, 

 and supply the adjoining baths. C</W, a town of 8000 inhabitant*, 

 built oo the *ea-coat at the foot of a high cliff, with a handsome 

 collegiate church. C'orUmu, an inland town, with 13,000 inhabitanU, 

 chiefly employed in agriculture, ilimrtalt, 5 mile* west of Palermo, 

 with 13,000 inhabiUnU, and a splendid Benedictine abbey, founded in 

 1 174, the church of which has become the cathedral of the archiepis- 

 copal see of Palermo. It is rich in marble and paintings, and contains 

 the tomb* of the Norman king* William I. aud II. Omni, near the 

 ite of the ancient Hyccara, 9 miles west of Palermo, ha* 6000 inhabit- 

 anU. Piana dei Qreci, 15 miles south of Palermo, is an Epirote colony, 

 with about 6000 inhabiUnU and a Greek church. 



The small Uland of 1'itica, lituated about 40 miles from the coast 

 north by wet of Palermo, contains about 2000 inhabiUnU. It bus a 

 small port named SanU Maria, which U defended by batteries. The 

 island produce* good wine. 



PALERMO (the ancient Panormus), the capital of the island of 

 Sicily and the second city of the united kingdom of the Two Sicilies, 

 is situated on a deep bay on the northern coast of Sicily, in 38 8' 

 N. lat, 13 22' E. long., in a fine and fertile plain between two moun- 

 tain ridges aud the sea, and has about 180,000 inhabitants. The 

 town i* an oblong parallelogram, surrounded by walla furnished with 

 baetion* It i* rather more than four miles in circumference, the 

 suburbs not included. A fine street, called II Cassaro, a corruption 

 of the Arabic word Al-kasr, ' the palace,' run* through its length from 

 the sea to the royal palace, which is at the inland extremity of the 

 town, and is crossed at right angles towards iU middle by another 

 handsome street, called Strada Macqueda. The square before the 

 royal palace is adorned with a bronze statue of Philip IV. of Spain. 

 Another smaller square, in the centre of the town, between the palace 

 of the senate and the university, is decorated with a curious founUin 

 enriched with sUtues aud figures of various animals, which spout the 

 water into several basins. The houses of Palermo are built nearly in 

 the same style as those of Naples, with flat roof* and terraces, and 

 balconies with Venetian blinds. The royal palace is an old fortified 

 building, with a fine hall, a spacious court, and a splendid chapel, 

 built by King Roger in 1129, and enriched with mosaics. On the 

 summit of the palace is the observatory, from which Father Piazzi 

 discovered the planet Ceres in 1S01. The cathedral, a magnificent 

 gothic structure, built about the end of the 12th century, is adorned 

 with marble column* and statues ; it contain* the mausolea of Roger, 

 the Norman founder of the monarchy, and other exalted personages. 

 The church 'del Oesu' is remarkable for iU architecture and for the 

 richness of iU marble decorations, iU paintings, and sculptures. 

 Palermo has many other churches deserving of notice, all rich with 

 marble, paintings, and mosaics. The church of the Capuchins is remark- 

 able fur iU vaulu, in which the bodies of the deceased monks and other 

 person* are seen dried up standing in niches in various attitudes, and 

 with their garmenU on, some being two or three hundred years old. The 

 university, founded in 1447, has a library of 40,000 volumes, a museum 

 of antiquities, with some fine sUtues and a fine collection of Grtcco- 

 Sicilian medal*. Besides the great hospital, Palermo ha* several other 

 hospital*, a foundling hospital, a lunatic asylum, and other beneficent 

 institutions. Some of the palaces of the nobility are remarkable for 

 their architecture. The promenade along the sea-side, called . La 

 Marina, lead* to the fine public gardens called La Flora, with a 

 botanical garden. Palermo has two theatres, several barracks for 

 soldier*, and a castle (Costellamare), which commands the roods. The 

 harbour of Palermo is formed by a mole 1300 foot in length, termi- 

 nating in a lighthouse and battery. An interior port is reserved for 

 the marine. 



Palermo i* an archbishop's see, and the residence of the king's 

 lieutenant-general over all Sicily. It has a supreme court of justice 

 for the whole island, a court of appeal for the province, and a com- 

 mercial tribunal There are several monasteries and convents in the 

 city. For public instruction, betides the university, there are at 

 Palermo a college, a ladies college, and a nautical school. There is 

 also a veterinary college. 



The neighbourhood of Palermo contains many delightful villas and 

 mansion* of the nobility. To the west U the royal mansion and park 

 of Bocca di Falco, beyond which i* the handsome Benedictine convent 

 of San Martino, lituated on a hill The church is adorned with 

 paintings and marble, and the convent contain* a good library, a 

 museum of Sicilian antiquitie*, and a collection of medals. The 

 Monte Pellegrino, Mount ErcU of the ancients (a strong position of 

 the Carthaginian* during the first Punic war), is a broad rocky abrupt 

 mas* which rue* north-west of Palermo, and form* a striking feature of 

 the landscape. It i* now famed among the native* for a grotto or cave, 

 to which SanU Roealia, a princes* of the Norman blood royal, in the 

 bloom of youth retired, in order to lead a contemplative and ascetic 

 life. The cave is become a sanctuary, and every year on the 16th 

 July there i* a solemn procession to tbi* place from Palermo, and the 

 town i* illuminated for several days. This i* the most brilliant season 



for seeing Palermo to advantage, as people flock to it from every part 

 of the island. 



Panormus was originally a Phoenician and afterwards a Greek colony. 

 It became subject to the Carthngiuiaus, until the first I'imi.- war, 

 when the consuls Aulus Aquilius and C. Cornelius besieged aud took 

 the town. It afterwards became a Roman colony. 



The Arabian Emirs who ruled Sicily for several centuries made 

 Panormus the capiul of the island, and the Norman kings after th, m 

 fixed their residence there. The Aragonese kings of Sicily resided at 

 Palermo. When Sicily became united to the kingdom of Naples, 

 Palermo lost iU court, but retained the rank of capital of the kingdom 

 of Sicily. The court of Naples however resided here from 1806 to 

 1814. 



PALESTINE (PALESTI'NA) is the name commonly applied to 

 the whole land anciently inhabited by the Israelites, including the 

 country of the Philistines. It is derived from a Hebrew word signify- 

 ing ' the laud of the Philistines.' The country was originally called 

 the Land of Canaan (Kxodus, vl 4). The Romans generally called it 

 Judtoa, It was adjacent on the south-west to the desert which lies 

 east of the delta of Egypt, on the south and south-east to Arabia, on 

 the east and north to Syria. Its frontier towns were Dan on the north 

 and Beersheba on the south. On the west it is bounded by the Medi- 

 terranean Sea. IU southern boundary on the coast was a stream which 

 is called in Scripture the River of Egypt (probably the brook of El- 

 Arish), from the mouth of which the southern boundary extended 

 eastward through the Arabian Desert to a point about 25 geographical 

 miles south of the Dead Sea, The northern boundary was formed by 

 the mountains of Lebanon ; the eastern by the river Jordan and it.s 

 lakes. The country lay therefore between 80 40' and 33 36' N. lat., 

 33 45' and 35" 30' E. long. Its length from north to south is about 

 180 geographical miles ; iU breadth increases gradually from the 

 northern boundary, where it is not more than 20 mile-*, to the 

 southern, where it is not less than 90 miles : the average breadth 

 is about 50 miles. This description applies to the country originally 

 intended in Scripture by the term ' the Land of Promise,' &c. ; but 

 the name of Palestine is used in history in a wider sense, embracing 

 a considerable territory to the east of the Jordan, the addit 

 which increases its average breadth to about 65 miles. The southern 

 limit of this eastern territory was the river Araon, which falls into the 

 DEAD SEA. The whole country contained about 11,000 square miles. 



Mountain* Palestine is a very mountainous country. A mountain 

 range commences in Syria south of the Orontes, and stretches to the 

 aouth as far as the sources of the Jordan, where it divides into two 

 branches, which continue their course nearly parallel to each other, 

 and inclose between them the valley of the Jordan and its lakes. 

 These two ranges diverge from each other at the head of the Gulf of 

 Akaba; the one running along the eastern coast of that gulf and 

 terminating on the shore of the Red Sea ; the other along the western 

 coast of that gulf and terminating in the mountains of Sinai. 



The mountains of Lebanon, which are a part of this mountain 

 system, form the northern boundary of Palestine. They consist of 

 two parallel ranges, inclosing a fertile valley of the average width of 

 fifteen miles, which was the ancient Coele-Syrin (Hollow Syria), and is 

 now called ' El Bekka" (the valley). The western range incliii' s 

 towards the sea, and terminates at the mouth of the Leontes, near 

 Tyre ; the eastern extends southward into Palestine, aud divides into 

 two branches, as above described. The name of Lebanon is applied 

 in Scripture indifferently to either or both of these ranges : by tl; 

 Syrian-Greeks the western was called Libanus, and the eastern Anti- 

 Libanus. Lebanon is by far the highest part of the Syrian mountains. 

 The summit of the western range is quite barren ; but the IOW.T 

 slopes, especially on the western side, are inhabited and cultivated. 

 Among the trees which grow upon them ore the remains of the cele- 

 brated cedars of Lebanon. Anti-Libanus is in general not so high 

 as the western ridge ; but at the point where it divides into the two 

 branches which inclose the basin of the Jordan, it rises above all the 

 other summits of Lebanon, forming the Jebel-es-Sheikh, the Hermon 

 of Scripture, whose summit is covered with snow for the greater part 

 of the year. The eastern range is more barren, and has fewer inhabit- 

 ants than the western. As this range passes into Palestine it diminishes 

 in height, and becomes less rugged and more fit for tillage ; but at the 

 Dead Sea it consists of desolate rocks. 



Almost all the mountains of Palestine may be regarded as belonging 

 to the two principal ranges which include the basin of the Jordan. 

 The most remarkable are the following : Mount Tabor, the highest 

 mountain in Lower Galilee, stands on the north-east of the plain of 

 Esdraelon. It is entirely detached from the surrounding mountains, 

 and is nearly of a hemispherical figure. On its summit is a plain of 

 about half an hour in circuit, which is inclosed by an ancient wall. 

 This mountain is said by an old tradition to have been the scene of 

 our Saviour's Transfiguration. A range of fertile hills about five miles 

 south-south-west of Tabor is generally considered to be the Mount 

 Hermon mentioned in the Psalms (xlii. 6; Ixxxix. 12) : it is called the 

 Little Hermon, to distinguish it from the great peak of the same name 

 in Anti-Libanus. To the south aud south-east of Tabor are the moun- 

 tains of Qilboa of Scripture, a sterile range of hills about 1000 feet 

 above the level of the sea : they bound the valley of the Jordan on 

 the west for some miles. The range of Cartncl, the termination of 



