THE RUINED CITIES OF PALESTINE, ETC. 



21 



" Sacred Sites " of Palestine, about the genuineness of which 

 there can be little or no doubt. It is almost certain that the 

 mosque stands over the original Cave of Machpelah, which 

 was the burial-place of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, 

 Jacob and Leah. The mosque itself was originally a Christian 

 church founded by Justinian in the sixth century, and completed 

 by the Crusaders. It has, however, been considerably altered 

 by the Moslems. There are six monuments, said to stand over 

 the spots where the tombs of the six male and female patriarchs 

 are located in the cave below. The Crusaders, impressed by the 

 veneration accorded to the Cave of Machpelah by the Arabs, 

 who claim to be the sons of Ishmael, the son of Abraham by 

 Hagar, called the place the Castle of St. Abraham. 



Hebron was at one time the capital of King David. He made 

 it the base of his operations against Jerusalem, which in turn 

 became his royal city. Absalom made it the headquarters of 

 the unsuccessful rebellion against his father. Hebron lost 

 importance after the Captivity, and in the time of the Romans 

 it was hardly reckoned as being a Jewish town. The large square 

 stone reservoir, now called the " Sultan's Reservoir," is the 

 Pool of Hebron, where Rechab and Baanah, the murderers of 

 Ishbosheth, were hanged by David (2 Sam. iv, 12). There is little 

 else to see in Hebron, with the exception of the glass-works. 



Beit-Jibrin (House of Gabriel) was in the much contested 

 borderland between the Hebrews and the Philistines. It was 

 known to the Israelites as Mareshah, and was fortified by 

 Rehoboam, who " built cities for defence, Gath and Mareshah " 

 (2 Chron. xi, 8). 



This district was at some time inhabited by people who 

 devoted an almost incalculable amount of time and trouble 

 to the formation of great artificial caves. The result of this 

 energy is concentrated as in a nucleus in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of Beit-Jibrin. It is difificult to give an account of 

 the principal excavations of this type without appearing to 

 use the language of exaggeration. Except for their immense 

 size, the Beit-Jibrin caves are of comparatively small interest. 

 Prof. G. A. Smith (see his entrancing volume on the 

 Historical Geography of the Holy Land) and others adopted the 

 view that the caves as we see them are the work of the Early 

 Christian inhabitants of Palestine, because of the destruction 

 of Jewish tombs in the course of cutting out the caves, the 

 various Kufic and Christian inscriptions on the walls, etc. It 



