The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-12-10
hood, and to the north and northeast
are extensive olive nrnAac

hood, and to the north and northeast
are extensive olive groves.
GAIA was at one time the stronghold
of the "Anankin"-a race of powerful
men who dWelt there before the conquest
under joshua
The modern city is built on the accum-
ulaled rubbish of successive cities on the
same spot, literally mountain of rubbish,
broken pillars and walls of massive
masonary, Cropping out of the sand
every where. The great mosque
that covers the hill is the most interesting
building in the place. Once pageant
temple, afterwards a Jewish Synagogue,
then Christian church and later dedicat-
ed to lSlamsh, cut in bas-relief on one
of the ancient marble columns. In this
mosque is a beautiful representation of
the seven branched golden candlesticks
with the sacrificial knife hanging from
one of the branches. The houses here,
and in the east generally. are built of
stone, with flat roofs, called terraces, on
which the people sleep, eat and promen-
ade during the summer, and where all
Entertainments are given. The house-top
of an ordinary building, it is said, will
hold conveniently five thousand persons,
and there are churches and mosques in Pal
istine on the roofs of which you can stand
from two to five thousand people. These
terraces are supported by arches, or pillars.
and often SO constructed that the removal
of single column would cause the whole
house to topple over, there being nothing
% bind the building together after the
supports are removed. $50 you can
understand how Samson pulled down the
tempel of Dagon, and killed SO many
Philistines. Askelon, ten miles north
of GAIA, was the seaport of Phlistia.
Nothing, however, remains of the royal
city but portions of the massive walls
and ruins vast heaps of ruins greater
than Baalbec, or any ether ruins in SYRIA
not house, palace, or building of any
kind Istanding-all desolation, and quiet
as the grave, the sands of desert rapidly
entombing the famous city of the Syrean
Venus. Dekrom, celebrated for the wor-
ship of Beelzebub, stood in the center of
the plain north of the beautiful valley of
"Surar" the ancient "Sorek," where Sam
son was betrayed by the infamous Delilah
The place atspresent consists of few mud
huts filthy, poor, Wretched, not vestage of
royalty left. A large deep we'll and some
fragments of broken columns are about
all that IS left of this once royal city.
Midway between here and Askelon. on
low rounded hill overlooking the sea. is
the site of ancient Ashdod, another of
the royal cities, and where Dagon fell
down before the Ark of the Lord. A few
sculptured stones and mud novels, sur
rounded by the richest farming lands and
in the midst of beautiful groves of olives,
figs, and pomegranates. mark the site of
the removed city that Withstood for twenty
nine years the whole power of Egypt the
longest siege on record. On a conical
hill overlooking the whole plains of
Philista and about three miles north of
Bethshemish, is the Azab village of SUI
rah the Zorah of Bible, where Samson,
the son of Manoah, was born.
A tomb Of some unknown person, en-
closing beautiful palm tree, crowns the
hilltop, and a very ancient square we'll
in the valley little north of the village,
round which some ruins may still be seen,
marks the early home of lsrael's famous
judge, and without doubt, on some one
of the many rocks that here crop out of
the hillside, Manoah, the DANTE was
offering his sacrifice when ''the angel of
the Lord assembled in the flame of the
alter toward heaven"
Sin stature Samson probably was no
,arger than other men of his tribe. but
,-eng raised up for the deliverance of his