It is a town of some 7,000 inhabitants, of whom about 5,000 are Moslems and the remainder Orthodox Christians. Its chief interest lies in its connexion with S. George of England, generally identified by Moslems with Sheikh Khidr (Elijah). We hear in the sixth century of a church built over his tomb. The Crusaders erected a cathedral over the shrine, and portions of this mediaeval building are still discernible, embodied in the present church restored in the nineteenth century. It is not improbable that the legend of S. George and the dragon and its connexion with Lydda are due to the conveyance to the Saint of the legend of Perseus and Andromeda.
Ramleh means "the sandy," and was founded in the eighth century A.D. by the Omayyads. Its celebrated Tower (the "Tower of the 40 Martyrs") is of Moslem origin and dates from the fourteenth century (see § 1 above). The Tower was the minaret of a large mosque originally built by Khalif Suleyman, the founder of the town.
Gezer, whose ruins lie near the village of Abu Shusheh, figures in the Tel al-ʾAmarna letters, and was excavated by Professor Macalister, who traced there the remains of Arab, Christian, Roman, Maccabean, Jewish, Israelite and Canaanite civilizations.[1]
Latrun marks, for travellers by road, the end of the plain and the beginning of the Judaean hills. The name, which was originally Natrun, was confused in the Middle Ages with the Latin latro, a robber, and from this association there arose the mediaeval legend that this was the birthplace of the Penitent Thief.
Amwas, which lies close to Latrun, disputes with the not far distant Qubeibeh the claim to be the Emmaus of the New Testament.
Enab, also known as Abu Ghosh or, in full, as Qariet al-Enab ("the village of grapes"), contains a mediaeval church recently restored by the Benedictines.
The last big village before Jerusalem is reached is Ain Karem, probably the Karem of the Septuagint and the
- ↑ See R. A. S. Macalister, Bible Sidelights from the Mound of Gezer, London, 1906.
