May 10, 1858.] 
ADDITIONAL NOTICES. 
225 
“ Scythopolis must have been a city of temples.” The traces of several, of 
an amphitheatre built of black stones, a fine Roman arch thrown over the chasm 
of the Jalud, and remains of thick walls here, are described by Professor Robin- 
son, who also gives a sketch of the history of the city from the period when 
the bodies of Saul and his three sons, slain on the adjacent mountains of 
Gilboa, were fastened by the Philistines on its wall (1 Samuel, xxxi. 10 ; 
2 Samuel, xxi. 12). From Beisanthe researches were continued northward 
through Galilee, and to Hasbeiya near the head-streams of the river Jordan. 
In the course of this journey Mount Tabor was passed on its eastern, and the 
Lakes of Tiberias and Huleh on their western sides. Irbid, the Arbela of 
Josephus, where are some remarkable caverns, Tell-Khuraibeh, which our 
author regards as the Hazor taken by Tiglath-Pileser, and Kedes ( Kedesh ), lay 
in this part of the route. But by far the most interesting portion of this section 
is the identification of the sites of Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin on the 
western shore of the Lake of Tiberias, which Professor Robinson, after a com- 
parison of the statements of authorities, from the seventh to the seventeenth 
centuries of our era, aided by his own inspection of the localities, considers that 
he has satisfactorily made out (pp. 347-361). 
The ninth of the sections, into which the volume is subdivided, embraces a 
circuitous tour from Hasbeiya to Banias ( Paneas ) and back again, partly on 
the eastern side of the head-streams of the Jordan, and extending southward 
nearly to Lake Huleh. In the course of this journey Khiyam, Tell-el-Kady, 
the ancient city of Dan, the lake Phiala, the sources of the Jordan, and Hib- 
bariyeh, where is a fine ruin of an ancient temple, were progressively visited. 
From this point (Hasbeiya) the researches extend into a region entirely un- 
trodden in the journeys to which the previous volumes before us have reference. 
The travellers went eastward, across Mount Hermon, to Damascus, “the oldest 
city in the world.” Throughout all this route the remains of antiquity are 
numerous : many of these are described, and to Damascus and its history 
twenty-five pages are allotted. After excursions in the neighbourhood of this 
city, we find Professor Robinson and his companions, having recrossed Anti- 
Libanus, proceeding northward to Ba’albek; in the course of which journey 
records are made of Roman inscriptions and sepulchres in the valley of the 
Barada, of the remains of Abila, Mejdel with an ancient temple, and ’Anjar 
(probably the Chalcis under Lebanon). To Ba’albek, which has been repeatedly 
described in the books of other travellers, considerable space is devoted, accom- 
panied by some plans of its vast and interesting temples, which have been so 
singularly passed over in the narrations of ancient writers. From Ba’albek the 
route of Dr. Robinson and his fellow-travellers extended through the Buka’a, 
or Coelo-Syria, as far as El Husn, passing in the way er Rds (probably the 
ancient Conna ), the head-streams of the Orontes, and Ribleh (the Biblah of 
Scripture). Incidentally to the details of this journey, geographical remarks 
on Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and notices of some places not visited, as Apa- 
mea, Larissa, Hamath (Hamah), Arethusa, Emesa (Hums), and Laodicea of 
Syria, are appended. Finally, in the circuitous route south-westward, taken 
again to Beirut, the great convent Mar Jirjis (St. George), el-Humeira, with 
its intermitting fountain, the subject of a curious legend (pp. 572-3) ; ’Arka, 
an ancient Phoenician city ; the remains of the temple of Afka ( Apheca ), with 
the sources of the river Adonis ; the large temple at Fukra ; the pass of Nahr- 
el-Kelb (ancient Lycus ), where is a curious collection of Egyptian and Assyrian 
antiquities, side by side ; and the cedars of Lebanon receive notice. We greatly 
regret that we cannot find space for the description of the last named, of which 
an account will be found at pp. 588-594. 
For some detached particulars scattered through the third volume, however, 
room must be spared. We learn, at p. 32, that “ the Turkish government has 
wisely continued and extended the system of posts introduced into Syria during 
