1. Mount Gerizim has been full}- described by sev- eral travellers who have ascended it. The latest and most complete account of the objects of interest extant upon it may be found in JM. Saulcy's Narndire, chap, viii, where also its history is given in detail. See also Robinson's Bibl. Researches, iii, 96 sq. ; Olin's Trat-els, ii, 340 sq. Dr. Robinson says : " Mounts Gerizim and Ebal rise in steep, rock}- precipices immediately from the valley on each side, apparently some 800 feet in height. The sides of both these mountains as here seen (i. e. from Nablus) were, to our eyes, equally naked and sterile. The side of the northern mountain, Ebal, along the foot, is full of ancient excavated sep- ulchres. The southern mountain is now called by the inhabitants Jebul et-Ttir, though the name Gerizim is known at least to the Samaritans. Tlie modern ap- pellation of Ebal we did not learn." Dr. Olin states that the summit of Gerizim is somewhat higher than that of Ebal. The top of Gerizim affords a command- ing view of a considerable region, chiefly occupied ■with mountains of inferior elevation, but also embrac- ing several fruitful valleys, especially those of Nab- lus and of wady Sahl, through which lies the road to Jerusalem. A great number of villages are seen all along its north-eastern side, upon high and apparently precipitous spurs of the mountain which push out into the valley from (wady Sahl) the main ridge. Culti- vation is carried quite to the top of the mountains, •which are adorned with plantations of fruit-trees, while every level spot and a vast number of small fields, supported by terraces, are sown in wheat. A considerable portion of the table-land on the summit of Gerizim itself exhibits marks of recent tillage. IMount Ebal, as viewed from Gerizim, spreads out, like the latter, into a table-land, but is apparently rocky and more broken, and less susceptible of cultivation. Mount Gerizim is ascended by two well-worn tracks, one leading from the town of NalAus at its western extremity, the other from tlie valley on its northern side, near one of the two spots pointed out as Joseph's tomb. It is on the eastern extremity of the ridge that the holy places of the Samaritans are collected. First, tliere occurs the small hole in the rocky ground ■where the lamb is roasted on the evening of the Pass- over; next, the large stone structure occupying the site of the ancient temple. In one of the towers of this edifice, on the north-east angle, is tlie tomb of a Mussulman saint. Sheik Gliranem. Under the south- ern wall of this castle or temple is a line of rocky slabs, called the "ten stones," in commemoration of the ten (or twelve) stones brought by Joshua, or of the ten tribes of the northern kingdom" ; thev have ev- ery appearance of a large rocky "platform, divided by twelve distinctly marked natural fissures. Beyond this platform, still further to the cast, is a smooth sur- face of rock, sloping down to a hole on its south side ; the scene, according to Samaritan tradition, which some recent travellers have endeavored to" vindicate, of Abraham's sacrifice (Moriah, Gen.-xxiv), of his meeting with Melchizedek (Gen. xiv ; so Theodotus in Eusebius, Prcsp. Ev. ix, 22), and several other sacred 1
events. (See Stanley's /S'ireaia7j(iPaZes<., p. 245.) Mr. Bartlett also ascended Mount Ebal, but he says he " could discover no trace of by-gone generations, though the view, like that from Gerizim, is splendid and ex- tensive" {Footsteps of our Lord, p. 18G). The remains of the temple on Mount Gerizim are fully described by Tliomson {Land and Book, ii, 213 sq.). — Kitto, s. v. See SiiECHEM.
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2. The leading historical incidents connected with Mount Gerizim are of a highly interesting character, and some of them (as above intimated) have been the subjects of controversy. I (1.) High places had a peculiar charm attached to ; them in those days of external observance. The law i was delivered from Sinai : the blessings and curses af- fixed to the performance or neglect of it were directed to be pronounced upon Gerizim and Ebal. (See Mi- chaelis, De montibus Ebal et Garizlm, Argent. 1773 ; Stiehritz, Viiidicire rCjv 5—"^" contra Kennicotlum, Hal. 17G7; Zeft'cl, id. ib. 1766 ; Yershuir, De lectione Samar. ad loc., France. 1767.) Six of the tribes — Simeon, Levi (but Joseph being represented bv two tribes, Levi's actual place probably was as assigned below), Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin, Avcre to take their stand upon the former to bless ; and six, name- ly, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali, upon the latter to curse (Dent, xxvii, 12-13). Ap- parently, the ark halted midway between the two mountains, encompassed by the priests and Levites, thus divided by it into two band.*, with Joshua for tlicir coryphaeus. He read the blessings and cursings successively (Josh, viii, 33, 34), to be re-echoed by the Levites on either side of him, and responded to by the tribes in their double array with a loud Amen (Dent. xxvii, 14). Curiously enough, only the fornuila for the curses is given (ibid, v, 14-26) ; and it was upon Elial, and not Gerizim, that the altar of the whole unwrouL;ht stone was to be built, and the huge plas- tared stones, with the words of the law (Josh, viii, 32; Josei)luis, Ant. iv, 8, 44, limits them to the blessings and curses just pronounced) written upon them, were to be set up (Deut. xxvii, 4-6) — a significant omen for a people entering joyously upon their new inheritance, and yet the song of ]\Ioses abounds with forebodings still more sinister and plain-spoken (Deut. xxxiii, 5, 6, and 15-2.^). See Joshua.