Page:Buried cities and Bible countries (1891).djvu/213

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
PALESTINE.
201

is gigantic in stature, measuring with its feathered crest 13 feet long. It is made of cloth-board and modelled into the shape of a statue, resembling, with arms crossed upon the chest, one of those architectural columns which are denominated Caryatides." Still more remarkable is the bedstead of the Babylonian god Bel, described by Mr George Smith in his account of the "Temple of Bel." After some description of the principal buildings, he says, "In these western chambers stood the couch of the god, and the throne of gold mentioned by Herodotus, besides other furniture of great value. The couch is stated to have been 9 cubits long and 4 cubits broad (15 feet by 6 feet 8 inches)." These are exactly the dimensions assigned to Og's bedstead.

Before leaving Moab it was Major Conder's privilege to stand where Moses stood, and view the landscape on all sides. There can be no doubt about the identification of Mount Nebo. It was ascertained by Canon Tristram; it has been confirmed by Conder, who finds the field of Zophim close by; and Sir Charles Warren discovered the ruins of the ancient city of Nebo at its foot. Moreover, it retains the name Neba, and from the summit you obtain the celebrated "Pisgah view" (Deut. xxxiv. 1-3). Naphtali, Gilead, Ephraim, and Manasseh, Judah, and the Negeb, or "dry land" south of Hebron, are all in sight, with the plains of Jericho "unto Zoar." But, according to Conder, the Mediterranean Sea is not visible from Nebo, being hidden throughout by the western watershed of Judea and Samaria. Dr Tristram says, in his "Land of Moab," "Carmel could be recognised, but we never were able to make out the sea to the north of it; and though it is certainly possible that it might be seen from this elevation, I could not satisfy myself that I saw more than the haze over the plain of Esdraelon." But even if the waters of the "great sea" in the Bay of Haifa could be seen dis-