Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-05-12
TIE CAVES OF PALESTINE.
Remarkable Explorations IN the Hills
Near Nazareth.

nAACu tuS hlbnOQ lOTce6 us way 70 Tue sea-
| 1t was during heavy rain storm week
ago that approached the ford of this river
| from Haifa. 1t was not without trepida-
| ton, for the stream had been SO swollen
| by recent rains that communication with
the interior had been interrupted. It was
doubtful whether the passage of this river,
which almost dries up in summer, would
not involve ducking. I therefore pru-
IDENTIFY requested my companion to precede
me into the yellow, swirling stream, and
although the water came up to our saddle
bags the horses managed tie get across with.
out losing their footing. Then we galloped
into the oak woods. The sun broke out
from behind the clouds, and we determined
to prosecute our search for certain caves
OF the existence of which we had heard,
and which, owing to the state of the
weather, we had almost decided to aban.
don.
Leaving the high road to Nazareth to the
right, we followed path for about half an
hour which took us to the village of Sheik
Abreik. 1t was miserable collection of
mud novels, in the muddiest of which dwelt
the saeik. After much palaver and prom
ises of abundant backshish, we got him to
admit the existence of the caverns of which
we were in search, and persuaded him to
be our guide to them. The first was called
by the Arabs "the Cave of He'll" Its en-
trance seemed to justify the ill omened APP
pellatlon. 1t was a steep, sloping tunnel
into the bowels of the earth, just large
enough to admit the passage OF mans
body. To slide into this after heavy rain
involved a coating of mud from top to toe.
After going down few yards we found
chamber in which we could stand erect.
Here we lighted our candle and looked
about Us. We found that it was the first
of series of similar chambers opening one
into another. Each contained stone collins
hewn out of the soldid rock. The en-
frances to these were arched. The pilas-
ters on each side of the entrances were in
some cases ornamented with rude sculptures
and decorated with designs in yellow
pigment These were in the form of curves,
scrolls and circles, and were carried over
the roof. Each chamber was about ten
feet long by six wide, and on an average
contained three tombs, one across the
chamber facing the entrance, and one on
each side. There do not seem ever to have
been lids to these stone receptacles for the
corpses.
The bodies were embalmed, wrapped in
cloths, as we read in spiritual accounts of
burials, notably in that of our Savior.
Each IN his narrow cell forever laid"
they remained undisturbed until rude
hands ages afterward "rolled away the
stone from the mouth of the cave" and
rified the contents.
Some of the entrances to the chambers
had been completely filled up. In such
cases the partition wall of rock had been
broken through. Some of the chambers
were larger than others, and there were
two tiers of collins. In order to get from
one chamber to another it was often nee
essary to drag yourself along at full length
upon the ground. In one case the roof
had been broken through into a chamber
above, and this probably led to more
l had not tiRe fully to explore this most
curious and interesting spot. Examina-
tions of this sort in the middle of one
days ride are very fatiguing. The effort
of scrambhng about on all tours, or after
the fashion of the serpent, is very great
and makes you very dirty. In the absence
of string you are haunted by the idea OF
not being able to find your way back, to
say nothing of the chance of sticking in one
of these narrow passages. Altogether /
entered about fifteen different chambers,
and doubtless the others did not differ in
any important particulars. l am afraid,
however, That was not the first to dis.
cover them, but that this honor rests with
Lieutenant Gender, Royal Engineers, of
the Palestine exploration fund. The sheik
| told us he had once before guided for.
eigner to this locality, and on the next cave
we visited we found the letters r. E."
scratched in red paint on the rock, which
under these circumstances can only mean
"Royal Engineers"
This cave was much more comfortable
one to examine. though not nearly SO inter.
esting. You could walk about it comfort
ably, but there was no enumeration. The
! chambers were larger, but there were only
five or six of them. The stone collins had
in many instances been completely de-
stroyed, but the massive stone columns, or
rather blocks of living rock, which sup
ported the roof were finer than those in the
"Cave OF He'll" Perhaps it owed it's more
dilapidated condition to the largeness of
the entry and its proximity to another
huge cave which had evidently in crusad-
ing times been converted into Christian
place of worship. According to a rough
measurement, obtained by pacing it, the
nave was 70x30 feet, the apse lSxll, and
two apse-shaped TRANSCRIPTS about 20xl6;
but these were very much filled with rub.
Dish. The hight of the cave was about 80
feet. The whole formed subterranean
church which in its perfect condition when
entered from the hillside must have pre-
sented a very imposing appearance. On
the slope of the hill, not far from this cave,
was the carved pedestals of granite col:
~ - knn1a1,,o
cophagus.
Instead of going back to the Nazareth
road after finishing our examination of this
interesting spot, we made for a hill on the
summit of which we saw some large blocks
of stone betokening ruins. Here we came
upon native excavation, evidently very
recent. Indeed we heard later that it had
only been abandoned the week before. The
natives occasionally find an unopened
tomb and dig into it for treasure. Indeed,
it was useless to attempt to disabuse their
minds of the idea that we were treasure
hunters. On asking them what they had
found, they said some red glass bottles,
which they had broken to discover what
they had contained. They had also found
three jars, one containing ashes, one earth,
and one was empty. These they had also
smashed. 1t was enough to make ones
mouth water to hear of the de-
struction of these curiosities so very
recently. l implored them if they found
any more not to break them, but to bring
them to me. They laughed and promised
to do SO, saying at the same time: They
are SO very old that they are not worth
anything" This cave was evidently an i'm
portant one, but the natives, finding moth
ing but the glass and the jars, had blocked
up the entrance again, and had to put off
the examination OF it to some fEt9re time.
On the top OF the hill there were several
sareophsgi, some coffins hewn cut of the
living rock on the surface, with the stone
lid at the side. At one place / saw huge
stone lid about eight feet long, two feet SIX
inches broad at It's base, and the same in