C. ia very conspicuous from most parts of central Pal. ; its high sky-line, with the line of Bashan and the great mass of Hermon, form the three grandest features of all views from Esdraelon, Galilee, and the mountains of Ephraim. Accord- ingly C., Gilead or IJashan, and Lebanon are frequently named together in OT (Is 33" 35', Mic 7" etc.). Unce C. is coupled with Tabor: ' " Pharaoh is but a rumour ? ' As I live, saith J", surely like Tabor among mountains, and like C. by the sea, shall he tome ! (Jer 46"). At opposite ends of Esdraelon (the v«ry scene of Pharaoh's eoming) the two hills stand out, symbols of that which sliall certainly be established as fact, and make its presence felt. Sweeping seaward, in the face of the rains, C, as its name declares, is richly clothed with verdure. At present this is mostly wild — a thick growth of underwood, grass and flowers, coppices of oak, carob, and many evergreens, with here and there a grove of great trees. Van de Velde asserts that there was not a flower found by hira in Galilee or in the mari- tiue plain which he did not als» meet on C, 'still the fnigraiit lovely mountain that it was of old ' (i. 317, 318). Hut there are, too, frequent olive-groves, and other gardens, with prosperous villages ; while the more numerous grooved lloors and troughs that have been traced in the rock below the brushwood, prove that, in ancient times, there was an even greater cultivation, and chiefly of olive and vine. Accordingly, in OT Carmel is the very type of a luxuriant fertility (Is 35' etc.) ; her decay the prophets' most desperate figure of desolation (Am 1», Is S.S' etc-.). The German colonists at Haifa have resumed the culture of the vine on the N. slopes of tlie promontory.
C. plays no part in the political or military history of Palestine. The great campaigns swept past her on either side : in military tactics the lull was only an obstacle to be avoi<led. By far the most armies, whether going north or soutn, crossed between Esdraelon and Sliaron by the passes to the east of C. Some of the Syrian advances south, Kom. legions when i>as!<iMg from I'tolemaia to CiEsarea, Kichard Lionlieartand the Third Crusade, Napoleon on liis retreat from .Vcre, — these followed the sea road under the promontory. May not this quality of Iwing neither a goal in itself, nor on the road anywhere, bo the origin of the curious Tal- mudic word c'Vo"):?
The alfMifness of C. from the central range mode its ridge but an uncertain Bpi)euilage to the terri-
tory of Israel. According to Jos 19" it was assigned to the tribe of Asher ; but their tenure must nave been intermittent. The kings of N. Israel seem to have held it as they held Gilead ; but even in the time of Amos (9*) ' the top of C.' is regarded as a hiding-place of fugitives from J" ; and in later history it lay outside Samaria, and was sometimes allotted to GalUee, but frequently subject to Tyre (Jos. BJm. iii. 1).
The causes, however, which disabled C. from political rank, contributed to enhance its fame as a sanctuary. • In its separation from other hills, its position on the sea, its visibleness from all quarters of the country, its uselessness for war and traffic, in its profusion of (lowers, its high platforms and groves, with their glorious prosjjects of laud and sea, C. must have been a place of retreat and of worship from the earliest times.' Maspero thinks to identify it in the lists of Tahut- mes III. under the name of ' headland of holiness ' (see al)ove) ; and even before Elijah's day there seem to have been upon it altars both to Baal and J". Kor here, as on ground which both of them held to be sacred, the representatives of the two religions met to appeal to their respective deities, and decided the argument between them (1 K IS""-). Tradition and the agreement of many modern explorers (see esp. Stanley, Sin. and I'al. 353 f . ) place the scene at the E. end of the ridge, at a place called El-Mahraka, or 'the burning,' where Druses have a sanctuary and are said still to perform a yearly sacrifice ; there is a good sjiring just below (cf. Jos. Ant. VIII. xiii. 5). It is interest- ing that immediately below, on the l)anksof Kishon, a great mound is known as the Tell el-lj^asis or Mound of tlie Priests. But the derivation of the modern name of Kishon, the Nahr el-Mukatta, as if it meant river of slaughter, is both Improbable in itself and impossible to connect with the slaughter of the priests. When it is said that Elijah afterwards went up to the 'head of C it is jio.ssible that ' headland is meant, in which case the tradition is correct that places the site of his waiting for rain near the monastery ; but the word may also mean ' top,' any spot on the long summit of the ridge, which almost everywhere is in sight of the sea. A point near the E. end and the altar of J" would better suit the context, and esp. the story of Elijah's subsequent race to Jezreel in front of Ahab's chariot. It is possible that the great projihet from Gilead chose as his subsequent residence the scene of the triumph of J", and eWdently C. is meant by ' the mountain ' on which, according to the extraordinary story (2 K 1"""), he called down fire on the king of Israel's soldiers sent to arrest him for his interference with the ambass.'idors to Ekron. Elisha visited C. after the departure of Elijah (ib. 2^) ; and when the Shunanimite was in need of him, she went to seek and found him there (4").