12 George Dahl, 



stood. The work seems to be Roman*. The walls are built of 

 perfectly-shaped blocks of coarse limestone, the stones measuring 

 five feet six inches in length, two feet six inches in breadth, and 

 two feet two inches in height. The total height of the walls is 

 about fifteen feet, the thickness six feet. The masonry is laid, like 

 brickwork, in alternate courses of headers and stretchers; an excel- 

 lent cement is used. North and south the original building 

 measured thirty paces; the side-walls are about eleven paces in 

 length, the northern projecting nearly to the water. In front of 

 this building there are a number of large flat slabs of the same size 

 as the stones in the walls. These formed the pavement of what 

 was apparently a wharP. In the water a small jetty is visible. 

 This large building was probably for the accommodation of sailors 

 and traders, used doubtless as a storehouse and a market^ 



Continuing north from this building one finds on the shore the 

 debris of several buildings. There are also a couple of small bays 

 protected from the west winds by small islands. In one of these 

 bays a long wall juts out into the water, evidently a pier of some 

 sort; on the shore is a wharf paved with large stones. These ruins 

 extend beyond the limits of the mound itself, making a total shore 

 line of some 1200 meters in length*. 



The ruins of El-Hannaneh% an ancient cistern just east of the 

 causeway, are connected with the town by the remains of a road. 

 The cistern is built of stones measuring from two feet to three feet 

 six inches in length, and is about ten paces square. The interior 

 is lined with rubble coated with a hard white cement. The mortar 

 behind this cement is thickly bedded and contains large pieces of 

 pottery. There is a shallow round well of ashlar close to the north 

 wall of the cistern. The work, resembling as it does that of the 



' P.E.F.Q., 1873, pp. 99f. 



' At the present time, however, the level of the water is by no means 

 high enough to reach this wharf. (Ritter, Die Erdkunde, XVI, West. 

 Asien, p. 608). Guthe [Paldstina, p. 27) shows that even within historical 

 times a change in the relative level of the Palestinian coast and the Mediter- 

 ranean has taken place. He maintains that the land has gradually risen, 

 while the level of the water has at the same time been sinking. 



3 Guer., Sam. 2:307; P.E.F.Q., 1874, p. 12. 



* Guer., Sam. 2:307 f.; Murray {Handbook, 1875, p. 358) says one-half mile. 



^Baed. (4), pp. 231 fif.; S.W.P. Mem. II, p. 9; P.E.F.Q., 1873, pp. 99f.; 



written ioLli! "hydraulic machine," or "waterwheel." 



