The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 22, 1865.

Palestine Exploration Fund

The following paper, says the Times, explanatory
of a proposed Society for Exploring the Holy Land
for Biblical Illustration, has been handed to us for
publication :

" No country should be of so much interest to us
as that in which the documents of our faith were
written, and the momentous events they describe
enacted. At the same time, no country more
urgently requires illustration. The face of the land-
scape, the climate, the productions, the manners,
dress, and modes of life of its inhabitants differ in
so many material respects from those of the western
world that without an accurate knowledge of them
it is not too much to say the outward form and
complexion of the events, and much of the significance
of the records, must remain more or less obscure.
Even to a casual traveller in the Holy Land the Bible
becomes, in its form and therefore to some extent in
its substance, a new book. Many an allusion which
hitherto had no meaning or had lain unnoticed
starts into prominence and throws a light over
a whole passage. How much more would this be
the case if by careful, systematic investigation the
modes of life and manners of the ancient Israelites
were to be revealed at all in the same fulness that
those of the Egyptians and Assyrians have been !
Even supposing so complete a result unattainable,
information of the highest value could not fail to
be obtained in the process. Much would be gained
by obtaining an accurate map of the country, by
settling disputed points of topography, by identi-
fying the ancient towns of Holy Writ with the
modern villages which are their successors, by
bringing to light the remains of so many races and
generations which must lie concealed under the
accumulation of rubbish and ruins on which those
villages stand, by ascertaining the course of the
ancient roads, by the discovery of coins, inscriptions,
and other relics—in short, by doing at leisure and
systematically that which has hitherto been entirely
neglected, or done only in a fragmentary manner
by the occasional unassisted efforts of hurried and
inexperienced travellers. Who can doubt that if
the same intelligence, zeal, knowledge, and outlay
were applied to the exploration of Palestine that
have recently been-brought to bear on Halicarnas-
sus, Carthage, Cyrene—places without a single
sacred association, and with little bearing on the

Bible—the result would be an enormous accession
to our knowledge of the successive inhabitants of
Syria—Canaanite, Israelite, Roman—and, in con-
sequence, a flood of light over both Old and New
Testaments ?

" Hitherto the opportunity for such research has
been wanting. It appears now to have arrived.
The visit of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
to the Mosque at Hebron has broken down the bar
which for centuries obstructed the entrance of Chris-
tians to that most venerable of the sanctuaries of
Palestine, and may be said to have thrown open the
whole of Syria to Christian research.

" The survey of Jerusalem at present in progress
under the direction of Capt. Wilson, R.E.—a survey
supported by the private liberality of a single person
—has shown how much may be done with tact,
temper, and opportunity, without arousing the
opposition of the authorities or inhabitants. Recent
letters of Sir H. James and others in the Times have
borne testimony to the remarkable fitness of Capt.
Wilson for such undertakings, and have pointed
out other places where explorations might be advan-
tageously carried on.
" It is therefore proposed to raise a fund, to be
applied to the purposes of investigating the Holy
Land, by employing competent persons to examine
the following points :
" 1. The Archaeology. —Jerusalem alone would
furnish an ample field in this department. What is
above ground will be accurately known when the
present survey is completed ; but below the surface
hardly anything has yet been discovered. The tombs
of the Kings on Mount Zion, -the course of the
Tyropceon Valley, the real extent of the Temple
enclosure, the site of the Tower of Antonia, of the
Palace of Herod, of Ophel, of the Pool of Bethesda,
the position of the towers of Hippicus and Psephi-
nus, the spring and conduit of Hezekiah are all
awaiting excavation ; and it is not too much to an-
ticipate that every foot in depth of the ' 60 feet of
rubbish' on which the city stands will yield most
interesting and important matter for the archa3o-
logist and the numismatist.
" Beyond the Holy City the country is full of
sites which cannot fail amply to repay examination.
Of these a few only may be enumerated :—Mount
Gerizim, possibly the Moriah of Abraham's sacrifice,
certainly the Holy Place of the Samaritans, con-
taining the stones which they allege to have been
brought up by Israel from the bed of the Jordan ;
the Valley of the Shechem, the earliest settlement
of Jacob in the Holy Land, with his Well, and the
tomb of Joseph ; Samaria, with the traditional
tombs of John the Baptist, and others ; and with
the extensive remains of Herod's edifices ; the
splendid Roman cities along the coast, Caesarea of
Herod and St. Paul • Antipatris ; the once renowned
harbours of Jamnia and Gaza ; the mounds and
other remains of Jiljilieh, probably the Gilgal which
contained the Great College of Prophets in the days
of Elijah and Elisha ; the Fortress and Palace of
Herod at Jabel Fureidis ; the Tombs (probably those
of Joshua) at Tibneh , the mounds at Jericho ; the
numerous remains in the Valley of the Jordan ;
Bethsheau, one of the most ancient cities of Pales-
tine, with remarkable remains of Roman, and pro-
bably still earlier, date ; Jezreel, with the Palace of
Ahab and Jezebel ; the Assyrian mound, called
Tell-es-Salhiyeh, near Damascus, Bce.

"2. Manners and Customs.—A work is urgently required
which shall do for the Holy Land what Mr. Lane's Modern
Egyptians has done for Egypt—describe in a systematic and
exhaustive order, with clear and exact minuteness, the
manners, habits, rites, and language of the people, with
engravings, intended like his, not to embellish the pages,
but to explain the text.' Many of the ancient and peculiar
customs of the East are fast vanishing before the increas-
ing tide of Western manners, and in a short time the exact
meaning of many things which find their correspondences
in the Bible will have perished. There are frequent refe-
rences to these things in the books of travellers, and they
have recently formed the subject of more than one entire
oPhY—Of the coast-line of Palestine we now
work ; but nothing sufficiently accurate or systematic has
been done. can only be accomplished by the lengthened
residence of a thoroughly competent person.
4,3, TopgTa
possess an accurate map in the recent Admiralty charts ;
but advance a few miles inland and all is uncertain. What
is wanted is a survey which should give the position of the
principal points throughout the country with absolute
accuracy. If these were fixed, the intermediate spots and
the smaller places could be filled with comparative ease
and certainty. In connection with the topography is the
accurate ascertainment of the levels of the various points.
The elevation of Jerusalem and the depression of the Dead
Sea are already provided for by the liberality of the Royal
Society and the Royal Geographical Society; but the level
of the Sea of Galilee (on which depends our knowledge of
the true fall of the Jordan) is still uncertain within no less
than 300 ft., as are other spots of almost equal moment.
" The course of the ancient roads and their coincidence
with the modern tracks has never been examined with the
attention it deserves, considering its importance in the in-
vestigation of the history.

"Ile principle on which the modern territorial bounda-
ries are drawn, and the towns and villages allotted between
one district and another, would probably throw light on
the course of tho boundaries between tho tribes and the
distribution of the villages, which form the most puzzling
point in the otherwise clear specifications of the Book of
Joshua.

"4. Geology.—Of this we are in ignorance of almost
every detail. The valley of the Jordan and basin of the
Dead Sea is geologically one of the most remarkable spots
on the earth's surface. To use the words of Sir Roderick
Murchison, it is the key to the whole of the geology of the
district.' Its Bibilical interest is equally great. To name
but one point. The decision of the question whether any
volcanic changes have occurred round the margin of the
lake within the historical period may throw a new aspect
over the whole narrative of the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah, which has hitherto been interpreted almost
wholly without reference to the geological evidence of the
ground. . _

"5. Natural Sciences—Botany, Zoology, Meteorology.—
These are at present but very imperfectly known, while the
recent investigations of Mr. Tristram, limited as they neces-
sarily were, show that researches are likely to furnish re-
sults of no common scientific interest. Naturalist after
naturalist will devote himself for years to the forests of
South America or the rivers of Africa. Why should we not
have some of the same energy and ability applied to the
correct description of the lilies and cedars, the lions, eagles,
foxes, and ravens of the Holy Land ?
" It will perhaps be said that many of the points above
enumerated have been already examined—that Robinson,
Stanley, Rosen, and others have done much in the depart-
ment o topography that Hooker, and more rcently Tris-