PALACE that "it was covered with cedar above upon the beams that lay on the forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row." Fergusson thinks that the hall was closed (plan, fig. 2) by a wall at one end, which would give fifteen paces for the fifteen pillars, and so provide a central space in the longer dimensions of the hall in which the throne might have been placed. (2) "A porch of pillars," the dimensions of which were fifty by thirty cubits (v. 6), an indispensable adjunct to an Eastern palace. It was the ordinary place of business of the palace, the reception room -where the king received ordinary visitors, and sat, except on great state occasions, to transact Fig. 2. House of Forest of Lebanon (elevation). PALESTINE masonry. Four rows of pillars went around the hall, forming four aisles. Above was an upper story, consisting of side chambers or galleries. This would make of the structure a large hall, open to the sky, the floor of which was surrounded by four rows of pillars, affording a promenade, above which were three tiers of galleries open to the interior, dividing each into fifteen compartments like the boxes of a theater, but with doors communicating with each other. By consulting the plan below (Fig. 3) a good idea of Thenius's arrangement can be gained. (3) PAINE. Professor Paine (Solomon's Temple, Capitol, etc., p. 17, sq.) places the palace on the north side of the temple, immediately adjoining its area, where the Tower of Antonia afterward stood, adducing 2 Kings, ch. 11, in proof of his position. The entire structure he includes in one, "the house of the king" (1 Kings 7:1, sq.), and holds that the palace is the same as "the house of the forest of Lebanon." The pillars he distributes on the outside of the building in rows of different heights, supporting the stories in terrace style. Figurative. Palace is used illustrative of the Church (Cant. 8:9), of children of the righteous (Psa. 144:12). PA'LAL (Heb., paw-lawl', judge), the son of Uzai, and one of those who assisted in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem (Neh. 3:25), B. C. 445. PALESTI'NA (Exod. 15:14; Isa. 14:29, 31), elsewhere PALESTINE (q. v.). the business of the kingdom. (3) "The porch of judgment" (1 Kings 7:7), which Josephus says (Ant., viii, 5, 2) was "so ordered that its entire breadth was placed in the middle." It was fifty cubits (seventy-five feet) square. (4) The king's PAL'ESTINE. The term Palestine once (Joel "house where he dwelt" (1 Kings 7:8) and a (5) "house for Pharaoh's daughter" (v. 8), she 3:4), and Palestina three times (Exod. 15:14; being too proud and important a personage to be Isa. 14:29, 39) in A. V, is the translation of the grouped with the ladies of the harem. All these Heb., which is rendered in three other pasbuildings seem to have been different portions of sages (Psa. 60:8; 87:4; 108:9) Philistia, and in one the one palace; for when the buildings of Solo- (83:7) Philistines. In all of these the R. V. cormon are mentioned afterward (9:10) they are rectly renders Philistia, which was the land of spoken of as "the house of the Lord (i. e., the the Philistines, the Plain of Sharon. It will thus temple), and the king's house." The time occube seen that Palestine, in the ancient and modern pied in building this palace was thirteen years (7:1). A-Court. B-House of Forest of Lebanon. D-Portico of pillars. E-Judgment hall. F-King's house. G-Office of palace and prison (conjectural). (Handbook of Arch., p. 202). This is easily understood by the diagrams-Fig. 1 showing the ground plan of Solomon's palace, and Fig. 2 the elevation or section of the House of the Forest of Lebanon. (2) THENIUS. The House of the Forest of Leb. anon, according to Thenius, consisted of a hall one hundred cubits long, fifty in breadth, and thirty in height, surrounded by a solid wall of geographical sense, is not a scriptural expression. 1. Geography. Historical Palestine is the land of Israel, the land which was finally conquered by David and ruled by Solomon. It is divided by the depression of the Jordan valley, the Dead the broader portions, between the beach and the mountains, is a rolling champaign, from a few feet to four hundred in elevation, covered with a deep, fertile loam. East of the maritime plain, and parallel to it, is a series of mountain chains. Ascending from the plateau of the Tîh the rounded summits about Hebron attain a height of about thirty-two hun dred feet. The highest point in Jeru salem is about twenty-seven hundred feet above the Mediterranean; the Mount of Olives, twenty-seven hundred and twenty-four; Ebal and Gerizim, twenty-seven hundred to three thou sand; ed-Dûhi and Tabor, nineteen hundred; Safed, twenty-seven hundred and seventy-five; Jebel Jermûk, four thousand. It will be seen from this series that there is no continuous ridge. The watershed zigzags from east to west and from west to east again, and at the Plain of Esdraelon descends to within one hundred and ten feet of the sea level. Everywhere, however, it lies considerably to the east of the central line of the range. From this watershed the western face of the range slopes gradually toward the sea, while the eastern falls by escarpments and steep inclines to the chasm of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. Notwithstanding the gradual decline of the western slope, the ravines and ridges are so rugged that direct travel from north to south, across these gorges, is wellnigh impracticable, even for asses and mules. But on the shorter eastern slope, which at the latitude of the Dead Sea falls to a depth of thirteen hundred feet greater than that of the western, the water, falling at a rate of one hundred and ninety to two hundred and eighty feet to the mile, has worn out canons impassable by any creatures except birds. Hence all the north and south travel of the country has always passed, and must always pass, by one of three routes-along the coast plain, the central watershed, or the Dead Sea coast and the Jordan valley. From the northern hills of Samaria the chain of Carmel trends northwest, and dips into the Mediterranean at the latitude of Haifa. North of this range is the great Plain of Esdraelon. This plain slopes gently from its highest point near Jezreel, one hundred and ten feet above the Mediterranean, westward about twenty-three miles to the sea, and more steeply eastward about fifteen miles to the Jordan. From the center of the plain one branch goes northeastward between ed-Dûhi and Tabor, a centra! branch to Beisân, and a third branch southeastward between Jennin and Gilboa. Jebel ed-Dahi and Tabor are isolated peaks rising out of this beautiful green plain like islands from the sea. by the desert of et-Tih; and on the west by the Mediterranean. Along the Mediterranean coast is a plain, about fifteen to twenty miles wide at its southernmost end, and gradually narrowing to the northward, until it ends at the westernmost point of Carmel. North of Carmel the Plain of Esdraelon sweeps down to the sea, occupying the space between Acre and Haifa. From Acre the plain narrows again, until it ends at the Ladder of Tyre. North of this precipitous pass the Phoenician Plain, varying in width from a mile or two to a few rods, follows the coast as far as Sidon, the extreme limit of historical Palestine to the north. At its narrowest portions the maritime plain is a mere beach, or sand dunes, which in some places North of the Plain of Esdraelon rise the hills of attain a height of one hundred and fifty feet. In Galilee, the highest of Palestine. They end in the PALESTINE Plain of Merj 'Ayûn, which is the northern limit of western Palestine. The Jordan valley commences in that of the Hasbâni, on the western flank of Hermon. The fountain of 'Ain Furâr is seventeen hundred feet above the Mediterranean. At Tel Sheikh Yusuf this stream is joined by the Baniâs, which is composed of the streams draining the eastern spur of Hermon, the principal fountains being those of Tel el-Kâdi and Baniâs. Below Tel Sheikh Yusuf the valley is spread out into a morass, penetrable only by boats, and ending in the Hûleh, a lake seven feet above the Mediterranean. For the distance of nine miles between the Lake of el-Hûleh and that of Tiberias the valley descends six hundred and eighty-nine feet, the mean level of that lake being six hundred and eighty-two feet below the sea. Thence for sixty-six miles to the Dead Sea it descends nearly six hundred and ten feet more, to a total depth of twelve hundred and ninety-two feet below the ocean. The width of the Jordan is from fortyfive to one hundred and eighty feet, and its depth from three to twelve. It flows between two sets of banks-the lower, which marks the border of the stream at ordinary times, and the upper, sometimes twenty feet higher, which it attains during freshets. The valley, at its broadest part, at the parallel of Jericho, is about twelve miles wide. A series of terraces at various elevations from one hundred and thirty feet to six hundred, is found at various places along the Jordan valley and Dead Sea basin, indicating the ancient levels of the lake, which once extended from the northern 'Arabah to the Sea of Tiberias. Other raised beaches near Safed, and along the flanks of the 'Arabah, indicate that this lake once extended from the southern 'Arabah to the Hûleh. The Dead Sea is inclosed by mountains rising about four thousand feet from its surface, and in most places leaving not even a beach between their steep, often precipitous, sides and the sea. South of the Dead Sea the valley gradually rises into the 'Arabah, until at Ghurundul, about forty miles from 'Akabah, it attains an elevation of seven hundred feet. Beyond this point the drainage is into the Red Sea at Akabah. The length of the 'Arabah is about one hundred miles, and its breadth from two to sixteen. Its walls are grander, and far more desolate than those of the Ghôr (the Jordan valley). geber, Maon, and numerous other cities prove the capabilities of this now almost deserted land. A mountain range, culminating in the peak of Mount Hor (Nebi Harûn), midway between the Dead Sea and 'Akabah, forty-eight hundred feet above the Mediterranean and over six thousand above the Dead Sea, trends north and south through the length of Edom. Continuous with this range, but of less elevation, is the tableland of Moab and Gilead. Along I Judah. Location of the Tribes. II Simeon. (2) Eastern Palestine may be said to commence in the tableland of Edom, overlooking the Arabian Desert to the east and et-Tih to the west. Unlike the tableland of et-Tih, the land of Edom contains much fertile soil, and has been densely populated. It is still cultivated in places, and is capable of yielding abundance "of corn and wine" and "the fatness of the earth" (Gen. 27:39). The extensive ruins of Petra, Bosrah, Elath, Ezion XIII Reuben. VII Issachar. VIII Zebulon. IX Asher. X Naphtali. XI Manasseh (W). XII Gad. the western crest of this plateau rise numerous rounded summits, among which may be noted Jebel el-Maslûbîyeh, Neba, Husha', Jil'âd, and erRubud. This country has been one of the most densely populated of the land of Israel, and contains such ruins as Ma'in, Hesbân, Medeba, 'Ammân, and Jerash. With all the drawbacks of Turkish misrule it still supports a considerable population. PALESTINE In addition to these more considerable water courses there descend from the highlands of both eastern and western Palestine innumerable wadies, through which, during the storms, flow torrents of great magnitude and sublimity, but which in no sense realize our ideas of rivers. The tableland of Gilead descends at the latitude of the southern end of the Sea of Tiberias to the lower tableland of Haurân and the Leja (Bashan). This volcanic plain, about forty miles broad and sixty long, is bounded on the east by the Jebel ed-Durûz ("hill of Bashan "), the highest peak of which is not less than fifty-four hundred feet (4) Fountains. The stratified structure of most above the Mediterranean. This range slopes east of Palestine favors the formation of subterranean to the Arabian Desert. The tableland is con- streams, which often flow to great distances, and tinuons northward with that of Damascus. It break out at numerous points in copious fountains, was once the home of a teeming population, and a on which the habitability of the country for the civilization represented by the gigantic ruins of most part depends. Most of these are of cool, es-Suleim, Konawat, Dra'ah, Shulba, etc. The limpid, sweet water; some are of large size, and range of Gilead is continued northward over the give rise to considerable streams. Such are the tableland of Jaulah, which forms part of the fountains of Fiji, Zebedani, and others in Anti-LebHaurân plateau, in a series of detached extinct anon; 'Ain Furâr, Baniâs, and Leddân, at the volcanoes. North of this plain towers the snow-base of Hermon, Beisân and 'Ain es-Sultan in the clad peak of Hermon, continued by the Anti-Leb-Jordan valley, and the sources of the Leontes anon chain to the "entering in of Hamath,' and the Orontes in Colesyria. Others, as the inopposite Mount Hor, which is probably Rijâl el-numerable village and city fountains, are sufficient 'Asherah, the northernmost peak of the mass of for the supply of all the wants of the inhabitants, Jebel Makmel, at the northern end of Lebanon. and often furnish a large surplus, which is led (3) Rivers. Most of the so-called rivers of away in aqueducts, or stored in reservoirs, for Palestine are mere winter torrents, or flow only irrigation. Others are saline, and these are for during the winter and early spring. Only the the most part warm or hot, as the fountains of Leontes and the Jordan carry large volumes of M'kès (Gadara) 80 to 119 degrees Fahrenheit; water during the summer. Some of the rivers of Tiberias, 143 degrees Fahrenheit; Hamamîm Suleiwestern Palestine, as the 'Aujeh, the Zerka, the mân (Callirrhöe), 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and a Mukatta' (Kishon), and others in eastern Pales-considerable number of other thermal springs about tine, as the Jarmûk (Hieromax), the Zerkâ (Jabbok), the Dead Sea. the Zerka-Ma'in (Callirrhöe), the Mu'jib (Arnon), carry a greatly diminished stream all the summer. Most of the rest are quite dry through the later spring months, the whole summer, and the early months of autumn, except when an occasional untimely rain fills their channels. The streams of the Tih and 'Arabah are usually dry in winter also, except during the heavy storms. Then their dry beds are suddenly filled with raging torrents, the transporting power of which is witnessed by the vast masses of bowlders, gravel, and driftwood which incumber their beds. The principal watercourses of western Palestine are: (5) Wells, cisterns, reservoirs. No inconsiderable part of the water used for household purposes and irrigation is obtained from wells, which are not infrequently one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet deep. The water is usually raised by a simple machinery, worked by mules, asses, horses, or horned cattle. Large quantities of rain water are stored in cisterns hewn in the rock, or built, usually underground. In ancient times, when the population was more dense, much more use was made of water so collected, and the allusions to cisterns in Scripture are numerous and forcible. Reservoirs of the largest size are found in some parts of Palestine as the Birak Suleimân (Solomon's Pools), the reservoirs about Ai, those in the ruins of Medeba, and the enormous excavations under Jerusalem and the Naumachia at Bosrah, etc. The 'Arish ("the River of Egypt "), which drains the Tih, and is the boundary between Egypt and Palestine. It is only a winter torrent. The Sheri', which debouches south of Gaza; Wady el-Hesi, between Gaza and Ashkelon; Nahr Hubin, south 2. Geology. The oldest rocks are those of of Jaffa, and el-'Aujà north of it; Nahr Iskander- Arabia Petræa, which are spread out in all their Anah and Nahr Mefjir, south of Cæsarea, and ez- vivid coloring, as on a geological map, in the SinaZerka north of it; the Kishon (Mukatta'), a con-itic peninsula. They are composed of granite, siderable river in winter and spring, and the Kasimiyeh, the name for the Leontes near its mouth. Finally the Auwwaly, which flows into the sea a little north of Sidon. There are no perennial streams on the eastern slope of western Palestine. syenite, porphyry, felstone, diorite, basalt, tuff, and conglomerate. They extend northward in the mountains of Edom to Jebel esh-Shumrah, east of the Dead Sea, and crop out in two isolated masses in the Tih. They are rocks of vast antiquity, referred by Fraas, Dawson, and Hull to the Archæan or Laurentian formation. The masses of these various rocks are rent and penetrated by dykes of other sorts, as granite by diorite and porphyry, and gneiss by granite, porphyry, and diorite, and metamorphic schists by all of the above. All of these formations are capped in places by Nubian sandstones and cretaceous limestone. In the neighborhood of Jebel Harûn are large masses composed of ashes and tuff, forming a cement for boulders and pebbles of more ancient The Jordan, the origin and course of which has been before described, is far the most considerable river of the land. It receives from eastern Palestine Wady Saffan, the Jarmuk (Hieromax), which drains Bashan, Wady el-'Arab, Wady 'Ajlûn ez Zerkâ (Jabbok), Wady Nimrin, and Wady erRameh. Into the eastern border of the Dead Sea flow the Zerka-Ma'in (Callirrhöe), the Mu'jib (Arnon), Wady Kerak (the brook Zered), and Wady el-Hesi. PALESTINE set of the current under the influence of the prevailing southwest winds, the same winds propelling it after being cast up on the shore. The trend of the sand hills is always from southwest to northeast. Since the digging of the Suez Canal, and the constant dredging at its outlet, the drift of sand has notably diminished. Tertiary volcanic rocks are met with about the Lake of Tiberias and in Haurân, and the table land of Moab. Hull refers the outbreaks which resulted in their formation to the Pliocene period. rocks, imbedded in their layers. These again are kilometers from Beirût, on the Damascus road. rent and injected with igneous matters, due to An extensive raised beach, containing a large later eruptions of lava. Hull believes that the number of shells of species still found in the aderuptive rocks may be of the lower Paleozoic age, jacent sea, was visited by the writer in 1884, and possibly corresponding to the Huronian. Above described in Nature, August 21, of that year. these ancient rocks is the desert sandstone of the The Pliocene is also represented by lacustrine Carboniferous era. It is usually colored purple, beds in the Jordan-'Arabah valley. One of the red, brown, and variegated. Its thickness varies most remarkable of these is Jebel Usdum, a terfrom one hundred and fifty to two hundred and race seven by one and one half miles in extent, fifty feet. It extends northward in the mountains and one hundred and fifty feet high. Another is of Edom as far as the latitude of Kerak. It is in that of the Lisân. Others are seen on both sides many places capped by limestone strata of the of the Jordan as far north as the Hûleh. Similar carboniferous age. Above the desert sandstone beds are found in Sinai. Finally Hull refers to is the Nubian sandstone, which also sometimes the sand dunes of the coast and the 'Arabah as overlies directly the crystalline and metamorphic the disintegration of the Cretaceous sandstone. rocks. It is referable to the Cretaceous era. Its The writer believes that they are due to the driftcoloration is more vivid than that of the deserting of sand from the African coast, owing to the sandstone, yellow, white, brown, orange, black, purple. It extends from Sinai northward along the mountains of Edom to the Dead Sea, and thence along the western crest of the plateau of Moab, thence with a slight interruption to Gilead | as far as the latitude of Nablûs. It is due, according to Hull, to the submergence of extensive areas under the waters of estuaries and restricted basins. Overlying the Nubian sandstone are the Cenomanien Cretaceous beds, formed under a broad sea area, including the northern part of the Sahara to the Atlas, the land between the Nile and the Red Sea, Arabia Petræa, Palestine, and During the Cretaceous and Eocene ages most or Syria, and the Euphrates plateau. They are closely all of Palestine lay under the sea, and limestone associated with the Nummulite Cretaceous beds strata several thousand feet in thickness were dewhich flank the Tîh and the plateau of western posited. At the dawn of the Miocene these strata Palestine toward the west. These beds form the were uplifted, and the contour of the land was overlying mass of the plateau of et-Tîh and west-marked out, and has remained substantially the ern Palestine, as well as the two chains of Leba- same to the present day. non and Colesyria. The lowest strata of these are Eocene, but it is often difficult to mark the transition from the Cretaceous, and equally so from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary. The limestone is frequently traversed by bands of chert, or flint nodules of greater or less size are disseminated through its substance. The limestone is derived from the transformation of the calcareous matter of marine shells, and the chert and flints from the replacement of the carbonate of lime by silica in solution. The thickness of the Nummulite beds is estimated by Hull at one thousand feet, and that of the Cretaceous at two thousand to three thousand. In Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon the latter are in some places not less than ten thousand feet. Along the western border of the Cretaceous region of Judea and Samaria are extensive beds of calcareous sandstone, belonging to the upper Eocene period. There is also a limestone conglomerate belonging to this same period on some of the mountains overlooking the Dead Sea. The Miocene period is unrepresented in Palestine and its borders. The Pliocene is represented by raised beaches. The Miocene seas overflowed a large part of the coast plain, submerged the plain of Esdraelon, and made an island of Ras Beirut, at the same time that they washed the base of the hills at Luxor, and connected the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. Numerous raised beaches, with conglomerates of pebbles, represent this period. A striking section of one of them is to be seen at Lukandat el-Matran, about three and one half (58) The Jordan-'Arabah valley was formed by a great fault, a longitudinal fissure, over two hundred miles in length, by which the western portion has sunken far below the eastern. This fault is the center of very great seismic disturbances, extending for a considerable distance east and west, after which the strata are comparatively level or but slightly disturbed. The same is true of the Nile valley, which is along the line of a similar fault, and at a certain distance on either. side of which the strata are comparatively undisturbed. It was during the Miocene period that the river valleys were excavated, and the Dead Sea, formerly a lake about two hundred miles long, was contracted to its present dimensions. During the Pluvial period the great Jordan lake regained its ancient dimensions, two hundred miles long, and two thousand six hundred feet deep at its deepest part. Gradually, as the rainfall lessened, it shrank again into the present limits of the Dead Sea. During the period of expansion the lake was doubtless salt, but not so much so as to prevent the development of animal life in its waters. The shells in the marl of the 'Arabah valley proved that mollusks lived at that epoch. But, as the sea contracted, all its inhabitants, except those in the neighborhood of the mouths of the fresh-water streams flowing into it, died. While a portion of its salt may have been derived from the sea at a time when its waters were connected with the Mediterranean or Red Sea or both, the greater part is undoubtedly due to gradual 817 |