PART III.
PLACES OF INTEREST.
§ 1. Archaeology and Art in Palestine.
Introductory.—The records of the great Egyptian conqueror Thothmes III. (c. 1479 B.C.) and the famous Tel al-Amarna letters addressed to the heretic king Amenhotep IV. (c. 1375 B.C.) give us some idea of Canaanite civilization in Palestine. Unfortunately its treasures, if they exist unspoiled, lie for the most part under the tels (artificial hills), which mark the sites of the ancient cities of this period.
Thus, as he passes northwards along the Philistine plain, the traveller will notice the lofty mound on which the present town of Gaza is built, and the similar but sand-covered mass of ancient Ashdod, which hes to the west of the present village of Esdud and ¼ mile south of the railway station.
In the plain of Acre (north of the railway) can be seen a number of such unidentified sites; and in the adjoining plain of Esdraelon a series of them, including the famous cities of Megiddo, Taʾanach and Bethshan, guard the passes southwards over the foothills of Carmel and the steep descent into the Jordan valley.
Thus, while the Israelite towns, with one or two exceptions, have left little or no trace of their existence on the bare rocks of the mountains, the earlier sites in the lowlands
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