The daily Alaskan., 1922-10-07
STRONG CITY
Excavations Show That Jericho
 Was Well Defended.
Remarkable Resemblance Between Ito Fortlfieatons and Those Disoov.
 cred by sehlliemsnn at Troy.

Few excavations of recent times have had results of more interesting nature than those on the site of an- cient Jericho which lies to the east of Jerusalem and but few miles north of the Dead sea. They have revealed that the Jews had every right to be proud of their capture of the Canaan ltish fortress, which was most remark able in Its day for strength against an attacking army, says the Cunarder
 Ten years ago there stood at a dis tunCe of a mile and a half from the modern Jericho a huge oval mound, known as Tell es Sultan, about 400 yards long by lSO yards at It's greatest breadth, and rising from 40 to 50 feet above the level of the surrounding plain, with a few smaller mounds standing on the top.
 Professor Sellin began work on thls, aided by the AustrO-Hungarian gov enment. He unearthed a tremendous surrounding wall and part of the inte- rior of the town, including the citadel within the northern end of the oval. The outer wall proved to consist of three parts. The lowest section was a solid natural rock foundation, with Q few feet of lOam and gravel on It. On this was built a stone wall about 16 feet high, the two lower courses being of enormous blocks, In some cases as large as 6 feet by 8, while in the subsequent ones the stones grow gradually less in size. The stone wall Itself also dlmlnishes In thickness as it ascends being 8 feet at It's base. The top section Is of mud brick which reaches now to height of about 8 feet, but may originally have been considerably higher. Towers of mud brick project at intervals around the whole inclOsure.
 Such a forrifCatlOn must indeed have been difficult to capture, especial ly as In the central tier of the wall the spaces between the blocks were filled with smaller stones as a protec- ton against the besiegers' tools. The builders were very sklllful craftsmen.
 Those who have examined both the remains of Jericho and Troy find strong resemhlances between the walls inst described and those of the "sec- ond city" discovered by Professor SchiIiemann at Troy, and 1t is sug- grsted that the architects had some thing In common or learned from the same masters.
 The citadel at Jericho Is hardly less interesting than the outer fortihca- tIons. Its walls are built in much the same way, but they are double, with a space of Il to 12 feet behind them. Two towers rise at the two northern angles. Within Is "a perfect warren of small houses" with only single thoroughfnre among them, as Is the case with many eastern bazaars Of to- day. These houses, Of which one Is in a very fair state of preservation, seem to be later In date than the city walls and to belong to the period after the Jewish capture of the place.
 The Canaanites. between the Sev- enth and Fourteenth centuries B. C., erected the walls and probably the greater part if not all, Of the citadel; but the Jews, while utilizing the shell, remodeled the interior.
 A thorough examination of the finds, however. deduced but little as to the history of Jericho after It's fall before the army of Joshua. Two interesting points came out-One, that much Egyptian pottery was in use; the oth' CT that under the floors of some Of thp houses were earthenware jars, con- tainlng the bodies of Infants.
 The sand which composed the mound of Tel es Sultan has had an excellent preservatIve effect, and now that much of 1t has been cleared away if Is possible to realize vlvldly how imposing a place Jericho must have once looked from the plain for miles o~,vn1