The situation of the town is one of surpassing beauty. "The land of Syria," said Mohammed, "is beloved by Allah beyond all lands, and the part of Syria which he loveth most is the district of .Jerusalem, and the place which he loveth most in the district of Jerusalem is the mountain of Nablus" {Fundgi: des Orients, ii, 139). Its a[ipearance has called forth the admiration of all trav- ellers who have any sensibility to the charms of nature. It lies in a sheltered valley, protected by Gerizim on the south and Ebal on the north. The feet of these
mountains, where they rise from the town, are not more than live hundred yards apart. The bottom of the val- ley is about 1800 feet aljove the level of the sea, and the top of Gerizim «00 feet higher still. Those who have been to Heidelberg will assent to Von Kichter's remark that the scenery, as viewed from the foot of the hills, is not unlike that of the beautiful German town. The site of the present city, which we believe to have been also that of the Hebrew city, occurs exactly on the water-summit; and streams issuing from the numerous springs there How down the opposite slopes of the val- ley, spreading verdure and fertility in everj* direction. Travellers vie with each other in the language which they employ to describe the scene that bursts here so suddenly upon them on arriving in spring or early sum- mer at this paradise of the Holy Land. The somewhat sterile aspect of the adjacent mountains becomes itself a foil, as it were, to set off the effect of the verdant fields and orchards which till up the valley. "There is noth- ing finer in all Palestine," says Dr. Clarke, " than a view of Nablus from the heights around it. As the traveller descends towards it from the hills, it appears luxuriant- ly embosomed in the most delightful and fragrant bow- ers, half concealed by rich gardens and by stately trees collected into groves, all around the bold and beautiful valley in which it stands." " The whole valley," says Dr. Robinson, " was filled with gardens of vegetables and orchards of all kinds of fruits, watered by fountains which burst forth in various parts and flow westward in refreshing streams. It came upon us suddenly, like a scene of fairy enchantment. We saw nothing to com- pare with it in all Palestine. Here, beneath the shadow of an immense mulberry-tree, by the side of a purling rill, we pitched our tent for the remainder of the day and the night. . . . W^e rose early, awakened by the songs of nightingales and other birds, of which the gar- dens around us were full." " There is no wilderness here," says Van de Velde (i, 380), "there are no wild thickets, yet there is always verdure, always shade, not of the oak, the terebinth, and the caroub-tree, but of the olive-grove, so soft in color, so picturesque in form, that, ft)r its sake, we can willingly dispense with all other wood. There is a singiflarity about the vale of Shechem, and that is the peculiar coloring which ob- jects assume in it. You know that wherever there is water the air becomes charged with watery particles,
The Valley and Town of Nabliis, the ancient Shechein, frmn tlic si.utli-wcsiern flank of Mount Ebal, looking west- ward. The mouutaiu on the left is Gerizim. The Mediiernuieau is discernible in the distance.
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and tViat distant objects beheld through that nicdhiin seem to be enveloped in a pale-blue or gray mist, such as contributes not a little to give a charm to the landscape. But it is pre- cisely tliose atmospheric tints that we miss so much in Palestine. Fiery tints are to be seen both in the morning and the evening, and glit- tering violet or purple-colored hues where the light falls next to the long. deep shadows; but there is an absence of coloring, and of that charming dusky hue in which objects assume such softly blended forms, and in which also the transition in color from the foreground to tiie farthest distance loses the hardness of out- line peculiar to the perfect tansparency of an Eastern sky. It is otherwise in the vale of Shechem, at least in the morning and the evening. Here the exhalations remain hover- ing among the branches and leaves of the olive-trees, and hence that lovely bluish haze. The valley is far from broad, not exceeding in some places a few hundred feet. This you find generally enclosed on all sides; here, likewise, the vapors are condensed. And so you advance under tlie shade of the foliage, along tlie living ■waters, and charmed by tlie melody of a host of singing birds — for they, too, know where to lind their best quarters — while the perspective fades away and is lost in the damp, vapory at- mosphere." A))art entirely from the historic interest of the [jlace, such are the natural at- tractions of this favorite resort of the patri- archs of old, such the beauty of the scenery, and the indescribable air of tranquillity and repose which hangs over the scene, that the travel- sc:
ler, anxious as he inay be to hasten forward in his journey, feels that he would gladly linger, and could pass here days and weeks without impatience. 2. The modern city, as already observed, is situated in the valley, about a mile and a half from its eastern opening. It stands at the foot of Gerizim, and stretches from east to west in an irregular form. Just where the city stands there is scarcely any flat ground, the grad- ual slopes of the two mountains dovetailing into each other. The roads leading to the town from all parts are in a most primitive and wretched condition, and the town itself is surrounded by all kinds of filth. The city is encompassed by a wall of very common structure, and in a most tlilapidated condition. The two ])rincipal gates — one in the eastern and the other in the western end of the town — are in keejiing with the walls, and would not give so much troidjle to a conqueror as in the time of Abimelech. Notwithstanding, they are of no small im]iortance in the economy of the town. Here we still find a faint emblem of what gates were in an- cient times — the great emporiums where all the public affairs of the city were transacted. The gates of Na- blus retain their importance in part. At the western gate the revenue department is still located, and all who pass through with any commodities to sell, and purchasers, are charged a certain toll according to the value of the articles. The main street, following the line of the valley fnmi east to west, runs almost in a straight line the whole length of the town, connecting the two gates. IMost of the other streets cross tliis quite irregularly, and are, almost without exception, nar- row and dirty. Nearly all of them have a channel along the centre, in which runs a stream of water. In the winter season these streams are full, but diminish dur- ing the summer mouths, and several are dried up. This arrangement of the water causes the town to be very dam)) during the winter: and, however pleasant it tnay be in summer, it certainly forms anything but a udod element in the sanitary condition of the place. This state of the streets, togetlier with the fact of some of them being arched, makes the town uncommonly som- bre and dull. But when we speak of streets, our read-