Page:Buried cities and Bible countries (1891).djvu/187

 Seilun, and no site is more certain. Almost every important site retains its Biblical name. The pretentious titles, Eleutheropolis, Nicopolis, &c., have quite vanished, and the old native names of these cities, Beth Gubrin, Emmaus, &c., are those by which they are now again known. An important exception, however, is Nablous (corrupted from Neapolis) for the ancient Shechem—a change which may perhaps be traced to Jewish hatred of the name of Shechem.

Tradition also is valuable as confirming the identification of sites, although it might be insufficient if it stood alone. In the case of Jacob's Well, near Nablous (Shechem), the Hebrew and Samaritan traditions, the Mohammedan and Christian traditions, all agree. There is agreement also about the grotto at Bethlehem, under the Church of the Nativity, as the place of Christ's birth. There can be no question that the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought for a burial place, is that which is now covered by the great mosque at Hebron. And here again we have that valuable consent of traditions—Jewish, Christian, and Moslem—which seems to distinguish the true sites from those less genuine concerning which two or more discordant traditions have arisen. The Prince of Wales Dean Stanley, and a few other Europeans have been admitted into the mosque; but it seems very doubtful if any living being has ever descended into the mysterious cavern beneath the floor since the Moslem conquest of Palestine. The surrounding wall of the mosque is also one of the mysteries of Palestine, and a monument inferior only to the Temple Enclosure at Jerusalem, which it resembles in style.

The Temple Area at Jerusalem is still a sanctuary; and the Tower of Antonia maintains its military character in the present Turkish barracks. In Palestine we find a Mohammedan mosque where a Christian church used to