Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/350

 320 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud.f.a. to keep the enemy at a distance, with a flight of steps leading to a small postern, whilst in the vicinity of the royal caverns and of Damascus Gate, the wall which dates from the Crusaders crowns a perpendicular mound or cliff artificially made, below which is a rock-cut tank. 1 Important works of a similar nature were executed in many parts of the country : be it to carry water from great dis- tances, excavate cisterns, or dig wells. Many of these serve the traveller as landmarks in Palestine, and had been of long standing before the patri- archs watered their flocks at Beersheba,or at the so- called Well of Jacob, 2 near Shechem, where Jesus sat on the ledge of the rock on His way to Samaria, and conversed with the woman, where Hebrew maidens, like Rachel, have come to draw water with their pitchers for thousands of years, the ropes with which they were let down having indented the stone. The well is 23 m. deep, and would probably reach 30 m., were the rubbish collected at the bottom cleared away. 3 It represents considerable expenditure of labour, if not money, for those early days — perhaps 1000 years before the Israelites took possession of it. Its importance can only be fully appreciated in Palestine, where the supply of water is almost wholly dependent on rain and draw- wells 4 (Fig. 215). Hence he who digs a new one is regarded as a 1 Recovery, pp. 395-397. Consult also Samaria, Judcea, Galilee (Kitchener and Conder, etc.). 2 Gen. xxi. 8-21, 24-30; xxii. 19; xxvi. 23-27, etc. 3 Length of opening or mouth, 3 feet 9 inches ; breadth, 2 feet 7 inches ; thickness of stone, 1 foot 6 inches ; height above ground, 1 foot 1 inch ; depth of the well, 67 feet; width of the well, 7 feet 6 inches (Quarterly Staietnents, p. 213). — Editor. 1 We are mainly indebted for this part of our work to the authors of the Survey, etc., reference to whose volumes has constantly appeared in our foot-notes. Fig. 214. — Wall of Enclosure. 10 M Hebron.