PALERMO STONE 



Tin- tMsal palac,-. Irt-u'iiii by the 

 Saracens, uiih ,i. I. hi i. .11, l.y tin' 

 N .in. ,:. ml. i- h.w been so altered 

 that there arc few trace* of 



Norm. tn work. ll contains t he 



Cuppclla I'alatma, liuilt by King 



I 1 in 1 I lit. ami reputed In 



!>< tin- in., i Leant iful palace 

 i -hapel in tin- world. Tin- churches 



SaUat.'ie. San (iiotaimi 

 ili rli Kieii.in. I .a Martotaiia, and 

 I '..nienico. i In- Itiid century 

 archLi-,hop - 1 1 'i lace, the miner 

 sity. tin- observatory, and the 

 iiatiiinal Min-eiim arc notable 

 Lmldiiu's. Fishing, boat-building, 

 ami i! MM working are among the 

 iiiilustri -. 



Tin- city, founded by the Phoe- 

 nicians, u.i- called by the Greeks 

 I' me,] in..-', and became an im- 

 pMitant Carthaginian stronghold. 

 which was sei/.cd by the Romans 

 in _.~>4 B.C. It remained Roman 

 until its capture by the Ostro- 

 goths, from whom it was taken 

 by Belisarius in A.D. 635. It 

 fell into Saracen hands in 830, 

 but in 1072 the city was taken by 

 the Normans. Two hundred years 

 later it was the scene of the 



503S 



Si. ili an Vespers (q.v.), 1282, which 

 ended the Norman ruin. A tXNMM- 

 MOM of Spuin and the allied Hour- 

 IMUI hniiw of \;i\. '. iiinly 



tried to cast oil ii . i |,I.,|.|.,MI, and 

 as late a IMS um! 

 l...inl,.n.|,'.| l.\ its own sovereign, 

 Kfidmaml II. i hereafter known a* 

 BomLa. It was finullv < apt me. I 



ll.aldi. .lill.c. ISfMl. 1'op. 



348,000. See IV/antme, Art. 



Palermo Stone. Inscribed 



black granite slali in tie I'.d'-im.. 

 museum. Sicily. Kre< ted in Lower 

 Ki/ypt duiinu the \'th or Vlth 

 dynasty, it is engraved with lim-ar 

 hieroglyphs, of which the tagin- 

 ning and end of each line have 

 di- appeared. A brief list of in- 

 dependent prcdynastic kings in 

 I.MU.T Egypt before Mena is 

 followed by a record of the main 

 event in every year during the 

 reigns of early kings of united 

 Egypt down to the Vth dynasty. 

 The annals mention the foundation 

 of towns, endowment of temples, 

 erection of statues, ware and 

 expeditions, biennial census re- 

 turns, religious festivals, and the 

 height of the Nile. 



PALESTINE: THE HOLY LAND 



Basil Mathews. H.A., Author ot The Riddle of Nearer Asia 



This article is followed by one on the conquest of Palestine. See also 



the articles on Bethlehem ; Jericho ; Jerusalem ; Jordan, and other 



places mentioned in the Bible story ; also Crusades ; Herod ; Hittites ; 



Jesus Christ ; Jews ; Zionism, etc. 



From the rim of the hills that 

 shelter Nazareth you can see 

 westward to the Mediterranean, 

 eastward across the profound 

 trough of the Jordan valley to the 

 mountains of Gilead and the desert, 

 and southward over the Plain of 

 Ksd melon the Field of Armaged- 

 don (where Thothmes of F.L'vi.t. 

 1500 B.C., Barak, Gideon, Kings 

 Saul and Josiah, the Maccabees, 

 the Crusaders, Napoleon, and 

 Allenby, with Indian lancers and 

 English yeomanry, A.D. 1918, have 

 fought) to the hills of Samaria 

 and the road to Jerusalem ; north- 

 ward, over the next ridge, lie 

 (ialilee and the mass of Hermon 

 overlooking Damascus. 



In that one view is a picture of 

 all the essential features of Pales- 

 tine geographical, racial, climatic, 

 historical, and industrial. 



Topographical Features 



On the west of Palestine the 

 boundary is the sharp, almost 

 harbourless straight line of the 

 Mediterranean coast ; on the east 

 the vague fringe of cultivation 

 across the Jordan on the edge of 

 the absolute desert ; on the south 

 the fringe of real life again is on the 

 desert, roughly from Gaza and 

 Beersheba to the Gulf of Akaba. 

 On the north the geograp!u'cal line 



has never been satisfactorily drawn 

 between Palestine (or Southern 

 Syria) and Syria proper. This 

 administrative line on the north is 

 (1924) from a line starting on the 

 coast near the Ladder of Tyre 

 running E., with an abrupt pocket 

 to the N. to include under British 

 administration the Jewish colony 

 of Metulla, and then S. (east of 

 Jordan) down the middle of the 

 Sea of Galilee, and S.E . and E. 

 across the Hejaz railway to Bosra 

 and beyond. 



Its area under British mandate 

 is about 9,000 sq. m. on the W. of 

 the Jordan ; the indefinable terri- 

 tory E. of the Jordan into the 

 desert is probably of equal extent, 

 making the total approximately 

 18,000 sq. m. The average width 

 from the sea to the desert across 

 all Palestine is 100 m. Up the 

 whole length of Palestine there 

 are five natural geographical strips, 

 running from S. to N. in roughly 

 parallel lines. Taking a transverse 

 section across them from W. to E. 

 they are: (1) The seashore; (2) 

 the plain by the sea, of greatly 

 varying width, and broken here 

 and there by the jutting mass of 

 l\\) the hills (S. to N.) of (a) Judaea ; 

 (b) Samaria (with Carmel) ; then the 

 break of the Plain of Esdraelon, or 



PALESTINE 



Megiddo, running by tin- valley of 

 Jezreel right mt the Jordan; 

 (r) Calilec; and <' 

 most of the la*t Ix-ing in Syria. 



The MlupCff of t Ill- 

 hill MVMteiii iiiM-tly di 

 to () the <;|,.,r. "the rift of the 

 D valley. I,:HH ft. In-low the 

 level of the Mediterranean at the 



point where the river runs into the 

 Dead Sea. This, the d,-. ; -t ii--.n.- 

 in the earth's surface, is _ 

 rally part of the name giganti" 

 cleft a* t)i 



Tanganyika in Central Africa; and 

 l.'t) the hills 1-ont of Jordan and the 

 arid plateau lieyond, running K. 

 into the Syro-Arabian dei- 



The climate is as varied OH the 

 build of the land. Roughly, it has 

 fnm divisions : the coast, the hills. 

 the Jordan valley, the desert on 

 the E. The W. wind from the sea 

 predominates ; its characteristic 

 is humidity. The E. wind from the 

 desert, dry and exhilar.it ing in tin- 

 winter, is, in the summer, extreme- 

 ly hot and loads the air with dust. 

 It is fortunately infrequent. There 

 are welcome daily sea breezes on 

 the coast almost throughout the 

 year. The climate is in general 

 terms sub-tropical, with two sea- 

 sons, a rainy winter, mid-October 

 to early May, and a dry, hot sum- 

 mer. Palestine is a half-way house 

 from the heavy Lebanon rainfall of 

 Northern Syria to the almost rain- 

 less Egypt. 



Divisions of Population 



The population (1922 census) 

 was 757,182, much less than that of 

 Galilee alone in the time of Christ. 

 Of these 250,000 live in the larger 

 towns, and 465,000 in small towns 

 and villages. Four-fifths of the 

 total are Moslems (see Islam ) ; 

 73,024 are Christians (mostly of 

 the Orthodox Church) : 83,749 are 

 Jews, almost all of whom have 

 entered the country since 1880. 



The people may be divided as to 

 their manner of life into (a) the 

 town-dwelling merchants, small 

 traders, and craftsmen ; (6) the 

 settled village peasants or fella hin 

 (agricultural, including fruit-grow- 

 ing) ; (c) the vagrant Beduin 

 tribes on the fringes who live in 

 scattered groups with from 20 

 tents and upward forming one camp 

 and an average of five persons 

 to each tent. The Bduin chief 

 (sheikh) determines migrations, 

 etc., aided by a council of elders. 

 Roughly, there is a fortnightly 

 change of camp ; with a great half- 

 yearly march of the tribes (<i) into 

 the desert edge, with thousands of 

 camels when the rainy season be- 

 gins, leaving the herds of goats and 

 sheep and cattle behind ; (6) back 

 again to less poor grazing grounds. 

 There are many inter-tribal raids , 



