Chapter I: Front Matter

CARPENTER’S
WORLD TRAVELS

_Familiar Talks About Countries
and Peoples_

WITH THE AUTHOR ON THE SPOT AND
THE READER IN HIS HOME, BASED
ON THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND
MILES OF TRAVEL
OVER THE GLOBE

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

Seven hundred years of Moslem supremacy in the Holy Land ended with General Allenby’s modest entrance into Jerusalem. Then arose the cry. “The day of deliverance is come.”]

_CARPENTER’S WORLD TRAVELS_

THE HOLY LAND
AND SYRIA

BY
FRANK G. CARPENTER
LITT.D., F.R.G.S.

NINETY-SIX PAGES OF
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM
ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS
AND TWO MAPS IN COLOUR

GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1923

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
FRANK G. CARPENTER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
AT
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS. GARDEN CITY. N. Y.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In the publication of this volume on the Holy Land and Syria, I wish to thank the Secretary of State for letters which have given me the assistance of our official representatives in the countries visited. I also thank our Secretary of Agriculture and our Secretary of Labour for appointing me an Honorary Commissioner of their Departments in foreign lands. Their credentials have been of the greatest value, making accessible to me sources of information seldom opened to the ordinary traveller.

I wish to acknowledge also the valuable assistance and coöperation rendered by Mr. Dudley Harmon, my editor, and Miss Josephine Lehmann in the revision of the notes dictated or penned by me on the ground.

While most of the illustrations are from my own negatives, there are certain photographs which have been supplied by the Near East Relief, the Red Cross, the Publishers’ Photo Service, and the Zionist Organization of America, all of which are protected by copyright.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I JUST A WORD BEFORE WE START 1

II IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN 4

III THE CITY OF JONAH 14

IV BY RAILWAY TO THE LAND OF JUDEA 23

V FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA 30

VI JERUSALEM IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 36

VII AROUND THE WALLS OF THE HOLY CITY 43

VIII “THE TRIBES OF GOD GO THITHER” 48

IX ON THE SITE OF SOLOMON’S TEMPLE 57

X JEWS OF PALESTINE 68

XI THE EVIL EYE 78

XII EASTER IN JERUSALEM 84

XIII WASHING THE FEET OF THE APOSTLES 95

XIV A TALK WITH THE GREEK PATRIARCH 101

XV AMONG THE MONEY CHANGERS 111

XVI EXCAVATING OLD JERICHO 119

XVII THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN 129

XVIII BETHLEHEM 138

XIX AMONG THE SAMARITANS 149

XX FARMING IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY 159

XXI THE COLONIES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT 169

XXII WHERE OUR SAVIOUR SPENT HIS BOYHOOD 177

XXIII ON THE SEA OF GALILEE 187

XXIV THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT 196

XXV THE WORLD’S OLDEST CITY 204

XXVI SHOPPING IN THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT 214

XXVII THE VEILED WOMEN OF DAMASCUS 223

XXVIII BAALBEK THE WONDERFUL 232

XXIX ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS BY RAIL 242

XXX AMERICAN LEAVEN IN THE NEAR EAST 252

XXXI AT THE SHRINE OF DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS 262

XXXII ARMENIA, THE SUFFERING 271

XXXIII PALESTINE AND SYRIA UNDER NEW RULERS 280

SEEING THE WORLD 287

BIBLIOGRAPHY 289

INDEX 293

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Christians rule the Land of Christ _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

Primitive water wheel in the Land of Goshen 8

Through rocky wastes to the top of Mt. Sinai 9

Egyptians toiling where the Israelites made bricks 16

We go ashore in small boats at Jaffa 17

House of Simon the Tanner 17

The men of Palestine are very strong 20

Cactus hedges are used instead of fences 21

The crude plough of Palestine 28

The children of the Holy Land 28

A sheeted Balaam and his ass 29

Fuel is scarce in the land of no woods 32

The Pool of Hezekiah 33

Airplane view of Jerusalem 36

The Kaiser’s breach in the Wall of Jerusalem 37

The roofs of Jerusalem 44

View of the Mt. of Olives 44

Jerusalem seen from a bell tower 45

Sheep and goats outside the walls 48

Lepers beg at the Gates of Jerusalem 49

The roads to Jaffa and Bethlehem 49

Water carriers old and new 52

“Going up to Jerusalem” 53

A donkey ambulance for pilgrims on the march 53

Pilgrims bathing in the River Jordan 60

Russian women walk from shrine to shrine 61

The Mosque of Omar 64

The Jews’ wailing place 65

A maid of Jerusalem 68

Snow in the streets of Jerusalem 69

Three learned Jews of the Holy City 76

The Tower of David 77

Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 80

Keeping off the evil spirits 81

Grandfather and grandson—both beggars 84

Pilgrims praying in the Via Dolorosa 85

Waiting for the Holy Fire 92

Gathering the olive crop 93

The Church of the Lord’s Prayer 96

Washing the feet of the twelve bishops 97

A tailor shop in Jerusalem 100

The church of the best religious paintings 101

Commercializing the holiness of the Holy City 108

Moslem priest reading the Koran 108

The biblical good measure 109

Bethlehem maids 112

Bushels of rosaries 113

A Turkish restaurant in Jerusalem 116

In the shoemaker’s bazaar 116

View of Bethany from hillside 117

The Fountain of Elisha 124

At the Tomb of Lazarus 125

The Healing Stone on the way to Jordan 125

The source of the Jordan at Banias 128

Our escort to the River Jordan 129

On the shores of the Dead Sea 132

Fisherman and boat on the Jordan 132

A street in Bethlehem 133

Christmas Day services in Bethlehem 140

Young women and their dowries 141

At Jacob’s Well 144

The Sacred Scroll of the Samaritans 145

The Feast of the Passover on Mt. Gerizim 148

Pulling tares from the wheat 149

The camel blubbers as his hair is clipped 149

Why Palestinians use camels for ploughing 156

Modern farm machinery in the Jewish colony 156

The sheep that was lost is found 157

Colonists terrace the hillsides with stone walls 160

Picking almonds 161

An avenue of cypresses and palms 164

A carpenter shop in Nazareth 165

Nazareth lies in a little amphitheatre 172

The boys of Nazareth are friendly 172

Mr. Carpenter and the Water Pot of Cana 173

We cross the Sea of Galilee 176

The arched Gate of Tiberias 177

Fish from the Sea of Galilee 180

Capernaum—the city of prophecy fulfilled 180

The colonists do much of their own work 181

Making the bread of Bible times 188

A colonist’s home near Lake Merom 189

A prayer niche in the Grand Mosque 192

Where Fatima lies buried in Damascus 193

A place of trees with a river flowing between 196

The Wall of St. Paul in Damascus 196

Shopping in the Street called Straight 197

The men come together in the horse market 204

“O Allah, send customers,” cry the bread-sellers 204

Spinning wool into thread for a rug 205

The transportation monopoly of the Bedouin 208

At the end of the Bookseller’s Bazaar 209

The street dress of the women of Damascus 224

Mr. Carpenter and the Columns at Baalbek 225

The portal of the Temple of Bacchus 228

The mighty columns of the Temple of the Sun 229

The nomad Bedouins live in brown tents 236

A lonely grove of Lebanon cedars 237

Only a few of the great trees are left 240

Tree-lined avenues lead out of Beirut 241

The American University at Beirut 244

Stones carried up on the backs of camels 244

A view of Beirut 245

The ruins of the City of Diana 252

Storks build their nests in the palaces of Ephesus 252

Giving the silkworms their breakfast 253

Armenian children make themselves useful 256

Getting the Armenians back to the land 257

A cradle of Armenia 260

American flour sacks serve a double purpose 260

The water power of the Jordan will be developed 261

The first steel bridge across the Jordan 268

Jerusalem now has a speed law 269

MAPS

The Holy Land 24

The Holy Land and Syria 40

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA