Richmond weekly palladium., 1875-12-09
THE HOLY LAND.
Programme of the American Pales.
tine Exploration S0cfeiy-Interest-
Ing Character 0f the Ruins to he
New York Tribune

New York Tribune.l
Late advices to the executive COM
mittee of the American Palestine Ex-
ploration Society announce that the
society's expedition left Abeih on Mt.
Lebanon for the field of their intended
labors in the region on the east of the
Jordan on Sept. 5, and after visiting
and taking numerous photographs of
interesting ruins on the southern slopes
of Lebanon and Mt. Hermon, arrived
at the sources of the Jordan at Cpsarea
Philippi. The expedition consists of
Col. James G. Lane, chief engineer;
Mr.. Rudolph Meyer, first assistant en-
gineer; Mr.. T, H. Treat, second assist
ant; the Rev. Selah Merrill archRolo-
gist; Prof. E. r. Louis, NJ D., of the
Beyrout college, geoiogist and bOtan-
ist, and M. Dumas, photographer.
The members of the expedition pro-
sance of the whole field, beginning
with the sources of the Jordan at the
foot of Mt. Hermon, including the sin
gular lake Phala, on the mountain east
of C9sarea, which, in the time of Jo-
SephuS, was believed to have a Subter-
ranean communication with the great
cave fountain at the site of the ruined
temple of Pan, at C@serea. Thence it
will follow the high table land of an
cient Gaulanitis to the south, supposed
by some to represent Jobs country of
Ur, and then strike eastward over the
plateau of ancient Bashan to its capi-
tai, Edrel, the city of Og, and which
still remains with the same name as a
famed stronghold of the wild Druze
and Arab tribes of the Hauran. After
traversing Bashan and ancient Gilead,
the expedition is to enter the districts
of Ammon and Moab, and then return
by the eastern route to Salehah and
Damascus. There is hardly region
of equal extent in the world which SO
abounds with interesting and import
ant remains of ancient civilization as
this district on the east OF the Jordan
The ruins there of cities, temples, cas-
ties and tombs are more numerous and
better preserved than in any part of
the east. This is due to the operation
of several causes, chief among them
the fact that the broken nature of the
country and the immemorial character
of its inhabitants have rendered it
profitless to use the ruins OF one place
as quarries for later rivals. At the
present time the stones of ancient in
sular Tyre are carried in boats to build
the now fiourishing seaport of Beyrout;
inSular Tyre in its turn was built out
of the remains of the older Tyre on the
mainland, which was destroyed by
Nebuchadnezzar. Similarly the trav-
eler can see in the massive Roman
walls of Herod's CRsarea Palestine the
beveled stones of more ancient Phpni-
clan cities along the Syrian coast. But
this old habit, which has done more
than war itself to cause the disappear
ance of some of the worlds most re-
nowned cities, has never operated in
the ease of the earliest sites of the in
terror east of the Jordan valley and
hence some of the most perfect Speci-
mems of primeval architecture from the
days of the patriarchs to that of Zeno-
bia, Queen of Palmyra, are to be found
there, still illustrating each in it's own
way, the long record of that country's
history. %
The Rev. w. M. Thomson, D. D., the
veteran missionary and explorer of
Syria, in a recent letter to the society,
says that he has just made a tour
through this region, and that nothing
ever impressed him SO much as the
richness of the field in its architectural
and archaeological remains which are
far more numerous and interesting in a
historical sense than any to be found
now in the mueh-traveled district of
Palestine proper, on the west of the
Jordan. It is this district which forms
the special field of the American Ex-
ploration society, while the English
Palestine Exploration society restricts
itself to the land on the west of the
Jordan. Beside the objects of interest
in the form of ruins and still imperfect
ly explored sites which are thus as
signed to the American society, there
are some elements of exceptional i'm
portance in their undertaking which
promise results of great value 1t is
not improbable that the earliest routes
of travel and of commerce between the
! valley Of the Euphrates and OF the