The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-12-10
Holy Land, Canaan or Palestine
In 81 LETTERS. LETTER NO. 9.
Written for Brandon News, by Virgil
GAIA, SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST.

Gaza-means "strong" border
city OF the Philistines, and is still an i'm
portant city of Palestine. 1t has popula
ton OF 10000 to 10000, and is celebrated
for its fine gardens, olive groves and its
ruined walls, and has within it's enclosure
a twelve century Church of St. John. II
was here the Philistines shut up Samson
and thought to kill him, to find next morn.
ing that Samson had risen at midnight
and took away the great brass gate and
the gate post and carried them for miles
and put them down near Hebron. twenty
five miles away. GAIA passed through
many sore trials and sorrows. The
prophet foretold his distress and anguish.
Badness is come upon GAIA; Ashke-
Ion is cut off with the remnant of their
valley" Ger AZ
Again "For GAIA shall be forsaken
and Ashielon desolation; they shall
drive out Ashdod at the monday, and
Enron shall be rooted up"
GAIA was one of the five chief cities
of the PhilistineS; it is the last town in
the southwest of Palestine, on the frontier
toward Egypt This made GAIA impor-
tant as a military post. Its name means
"the strong" and this it proved itself by
withstanding the determined siege of Alex
ander the Great for five months. This
city was a strong position during the wars
of the Maccabees. Some of the most
important operations of the crusades
took place near it. The Bible history of
GAIA is as follows.
In Gen 1917 it appears, even before
the call of Abraham as a "border" city
of ha ( ND ho IF
the Canaantes was from Sidon, as thou
contest to Gerar unto GAIA; as thou
goest unto Sodom and Gomarrah and Ad-
nah, and Zeboam, even unto Lasha. F"
In the conquest of Canaan, Joshua
failed to subdue the territory of GAIA.
1t was finally assigned to the tribe of
Judah, which tribe did finally obtain
possession of it (Judg. 1879 "Also
Judah took GAIA with the court thereof y
But they did not hold it long; for soon
afterwards we find it in the hands of the
Philistines again, and it seemed to be their
capital; and apparently continued, through
the times of Samuel, Saul and David, to
be a PhiliStine city. Solomon at one
time became master of it. But in after
times the same trouble with the Phlis-
tines recurred. GAIA is mentioned in the
New Testament, (Act - and is full of
interest 1t is the account of the Baptism
of the Ethiopian Eunuch on his return
from Jerusalem to Egypt.
The words (which is desert" have Civ
en- rise to much discussion The nroba-
bility is they refer to the road, and are
used by the angel to inform Philip, who
was then in Samaria on which route he
would find the Eunuch. Besides the
ordinary road from Jerusalem by Ranch
to GAIA, there was another more favor
able for carriages further to the south
through Hebron and thence through
a district comparatively without towns,
and much exposed to incursions of people
from the desert The modern Ghuzzeh
is situated partly on the lower ground and
partly on an obIong hill of modern
height"
The climate of the place is almost
tropical and being on the seacoast has a
delightful scenery.
It has a deep we'll of good water. You
may see a few palm trees in town, and
fine fruit orchards abound in the neighbor'