CEDRUS LIBANI 
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the oldest and best-looking trees I counted eleven or twelve ; twenty-five very large ones, about fifty of 
middling size, and more than three hundred smaller and younger ones.’ ” * 
The Rev. John Wilson, F.R.S., visited the Holy Land in 1853, and has given an excellent account 
of his observations in his “ Lands of the Bible.” His line of travel brought him to the Cedars by the 
return route from Baalbec. The following is his account of his visit to them: “ After drinking a cup of 
warm milk, which a goatherd kindly offered to us, we commenced our descent to the ‘ Cedars.’ As first 
seen by us from Jebel Makmel, they appeared merely as a speck of green beyond the snowy wreaths which 
intervened between us and them. The perpendicular fall of the mountain to them is 2400 feet, for they 
are 6000 feet above the level of the sea; but the road winds so cautiously down the side of the mountain, 
that loaded horses and mules can get to them without much difficulty. We made all possible haste to 
them, and we remained a couple of hours beneath their hallowed shelter. They stand on what may be 
called the shoulder of Lebanon, on ground of a varying level. They cover about three acres. The 
venerable patriarch trees, which have stood the blasts of thousands of winters, amount only to twelve, and 
these not standing close together in the same clump ; while those of a secondary and still younger growth, as 
nearly as can be reckoned, number 325. A person can walk easily round the whole Grove in twenty minutes. 
The most curious instance of vegetable growth which we noticed in it was that of two trees near its western 
side, stretching out their horizontal branches, and, after embracing, actually uniting and sending up a 
common stem. We measured all the larger trees, one of which at least we found to be forty feet in 
circumference. We were sorry to observe the names of many travellers, including that of Lamartine, the 
poet of France, most savagely cut on their trunks. A monk came to us to beg some aid for the erection 
of an oratory under their shade, but we told him that God had already made a temple there, and that no 
other was required. In order to gain our favour, he proceeded, with the help of an assistant whom he had, 
to strike down some of their boughs to present them to us. Whilst we protested against his injury of the 
old trees, we carried off the pieces which he had cut. An examination of the wood—which is remarkably 
compact and solid, and of a fine grain, and capable of being cut and carved into ornamental pieces of 
furniture, and highly and delightfully scented—has led several of the Edinburgh botanists and carpenters to 
dissent from the description of the tree given by Dr. Lindley, who, doubtless judging it from its degenerate 
specimens in England, calls it ‘ the worthless though magnificent Cedar of Mount Lebanon.’ t 
“On the precise age of the Cedars it is of no use to speculate. Both Mr. Graham and I thought that 
the patriarchs may be as old as even the Christian era; but this was forming an opinion from their general 
appearance, without any distinct data. Though they are grand and magnificent trees, they are by no means 
so symmetrical and beautiful as those of a younger growth which have grown up under their shelter. They 
may have escaped the destructive axe of the Turks just because of their irregular form, and the consequent 
difficulty of turning their timber to account. They may never have been put into the ground by the hand 
of man, but their seed may have been strewn there from their parents, under the providence of the great 
Creator.” t 
The following is the Rev. J. L. Porter’s account of the Cedars as he saw them in August 1853 : “ On 
first viewing the Cedars from the heights above Hazrun, I experienced feelings of disappointment. I had 
pictured in my mind far different scenery in the district around them. Imagination had painted rugged 
cliffs and wild ravines, and these remnants of antient noble forests clinging to the mountain-side like Pines 
on an Alpine peak. But here was a vast semicircular bosom in the bare white mountains, whose sides 
slope down from the rounded summits with uniform regularity, without a crag, or peak, or patch of verdure 
to relieve the monotony. The mountain-tops were now streaked with snow, but even this almost blended 
* Biblical Researches. By the Rev. Dr. Robinson. 2nd edit., 1856, iii. p. 588. 
t Gardener’s Chronicle, i. p. 699. See also Biblical Encyclopedia, under Erez. 
+ The Lands of the Bible Visited and Described. By John Wilson, D.D., F.R.S. Edin., 1857, p. 393. 
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