MY HOME IX PALESTINE. Ill 



modern, but the promontory is one to which many 

 historical associations attach ; and the traces of the 

 ruins which exist upon it date from a remote an- 

 tiquity. Ancient Greek and Eoman authors men- 

 tion Sycaminum as a city occupying this position ; 

 the name evidently derived from the Hebrew word 

 Succa, signifying a " hut." The name " Sycaminum " 

 occurs in the Talmud, as well as " Haifa," as being a 

 town in the neighbourhood of Accho or Acre. It is 

 conjectured by some to be the Biblical Gibeah ; but 

 it does not appear in connection with any marked 

 event in history until the year 1100, when it was 

 besieged and taken by storm by Tancred ; but after 

 the battle of Hattin it fell into the hands of Saladin. 

 The existing ruins upon the site of the old town 

 consist of a massive piece of sea-wall ; of the foun- 

 dations of a construction of what was apparently a 

 circular fort ; of remains of tombs and wells, with 

 here and there mounds, out of which crop fragments 

 of rude masonry. A hundred and twenty years ago 

 the then existing town of Haifa was destroyed by a 

 certain Sheikh Omar el Zahir, who had made himself 

 master of central Palestine, and chosen Acre for his 

 place of residence. For some years the shores of this 

 part of the bay remained abandoned, and the present 

 town only sprang up in the early part of this century, 

 about two miles from the ancient Haifa, at the head 

 of the bay, under rather peculiar circumstances. At 

 this point the hills approach the sea, and here the 



