Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/27

Rh had been formerly within the city of Jaffa, but the high ground on which it once stood is now outside the town, a quarter of a league from the then present city, near the road to Ramleh." This remark proves that it was believed that in the time of the Apostles Joppa was much more extended than in 1620 A.D., either embraced by a wall or consisting of the real city and extensive suburbs. Rauwolf found the city entirely destroyed, and only near the sea extensive ruins, and on the top of the hill some towers, with a small garrison to protect the harbour.

1738 A.D. Pococke speaks also of Tabitha's place, and understands by this, apparently, the ground where her tomb is shown, one mile distant from the then existing town. By the Greeks it was customary once in a year to go to Tabitha's tomb and worship there, so that the place was a kind of sanctuary. As in almost every place where Christians had churches, the Moslems either took away the churches and converted them into mosques, or sometimes destroyed them, or created in the vicinity a Mohammedan site, so here they established the Makam "Sheikh-Kebir," to which the ground round about now belongs. Even a village arose here, the stones for the houses being quarried on the spot, and thus many of the old rock-cut tombs being destroyed. This village is growing every year.

The Russians succeeded in buying a piece of this ground, and made there at first a garden or bayárah, and more recently built a nice church, which forms a landmark for the neighbourhood, as it stands on high ground, and can be seen from a great distance. The rock-cut tomb, which is now considered to have been Tabitha's tomb, is like the others, and, if not the real one, this must have been very near, and so the ground there is, with good reason, called Tabitha. But the exact sites of the larger St. Peter's Church and Tabitha's house seem to be now lost. The tanner's house is still shown in the town. Certainly it is not the ancient one, as the building is comparatively modern, but it may be not far from its real site. In the Crusading time there was near it a hospice, which now perhaps is the Hospice of the Franciscan Brethren, where many a pilgrim has found lodging and food.

By these remarks it is not meant to say that traditions are always correct, but to show that tradition is sometimes opposed on feeble grounds, and apparently from an inclination to deny all such, without looking properly into customs, legends, and history.



Herewith I send you a plan of the whole ground where the various excavations on Mount Zion have been made during the last four years, also detailed plans and sections of the excavations, which I have numbered from 1 to 8. 