File:The Jordan Valley and Petra (1905) (14782908335).jpg

Identifier: jordanvalleypet01libb (find matches)
Title: The Jordan Valley and Petra
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Libbey, William
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Putnam
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
ters seems to be, thatthey ought to have a larger outfit, capable of bor-ing two thousand feet, and then they might hopefor flowing wells. Such a demonstration would bean inestimable blessing to all Syria, and so theyare waiting for some good Samaritan to come alongand provide a more powerful boring appliance. Our next point of interest was the old Necropolisof Sidon, which extended for miles around the citynorth, east, and south. Many of the tombs wererifled centuries ago, others were opened by quarry-men, but thousands were washed full of soft earth,then covered over and completely forgotten. Thegreatest discoveries have been made in the widewheat fields and even in the orange gardens. Irriga-tion has for centuries been carrying soft loam overthe plain, filling in tombs and quarries, and then cov-ering the original rock with soil from five to fifteenfeet deep. Renans researches were made, and allthe tombs he opened were found below the openfields. The Alexander sarcophagi were found
Text Appearing After Image:
CO Sidon 6i amoncr some olive trees, which are two or threehundred years old. People in digging for any oneof a dozen purposes strike the native rock. Grop-ing along its face they come to a stairway or a box-like opening. Such a discovery always exciteseverybody, because such a stairway or openingmeans a tomb or series of such tombs beneath it,and if they have not been rifled centuries ago, theyare sure to yield treasures and antiques of value. Not a month passes in any year without theopening of a tomb. There are men who ostensiblyare quarrymen, but whose nerves and muscles areinspired by the certainty of breaking through, fromtime to time, into tombs and tomb chambers.There are others who have a kind of semi-officialpermit to carry on the business systematically. Wewere privileged to visit an excavation and saw thework actually in progress. Riding over the plainand amonor the wheat fields we were led toward asmall building where there was only a single personvisible, who was watchin

Note About Images