72. From Alexandria or Port Said to Beirut ( Smyrna , Constantinople ) viâ Jaffa

464 (or 261) M. Steamers (mostly small and old; agents at Alexandria, see p. ; at Port Said, p. ; at Jaffa, p. ; at Beirut, pp. , 482). 1. Messageries Maritimes, S. Mediterranean line (coming from Marseilles, and touching at Alexandria): from Port Said on Frid. (returning Mon. or Tues.) to Beirut, alternately direct in 1 day and viâ Jaffa in 2 days; fare from Port Said to Jaffa 35 or 25 fr., to Beirut 65 or 55 fr.—2. Austrian Lloyd (Trieste and Syria line; comp. R. 68; touching at Alexandria): from Port Said on Mon. aft. viâ Jaffa and Haifa to Beirut in ca. 2½ days (returning Thurs. night); fare from Port Said to Jaffa 33 or 22 K, to Beirut 75 or 52 K.—3. Khedivial Mail Co. (coming from Alexandria), from Port Said on Sun. aft. viâ Jaffa and Haifa in ca. 1½ days to Beirut (going on, every alternate week, to Alexandretta and Constantinople), returning from Beirut Sun. foren.; fare from Port Said to Jaffa £ 1 E 35 pias. or £ E 1, to Beirut £ 2 E 60 pias. or £ E 2.—4. Russian Steam Navigation & Trading Co. (Syria and Egypt circular line; coming from Alexandria), from Port Said on Mon. or Sat. nights viâ Jaffa and Haifa in ca. 2 days to Beirut (going on to Smyrna and Constantinople), returning from Beirut Tues. or Wed. aft.; fare 60 or 44 fr. (to Jaffa 36 or 26 fr.).—5. German Levant Line, cargo-steamers from Alexandria twice monthly viâ Jaffa and Haifa to Beirut (comp. R. 65).—6. Società Nazionale (Lines VII, VII bis; coming from Alexandria), from Port Said each monthly viâ Jaffa to Beirut in ca. 2 days.

As to passports, see p. ; Turkish money, p. .

Alexandria, see p. ; Port Said, see p. . The flat Egyptian coast disappears soon after we leave Port Said.

Nearing Jaffa we survey the hill-country of Judaea, with the heights around Jerusalem and (to the N.E.) the mountains of Samaria, The broad coast-plain, flanked with low dunes, is the ancient Peleshet, the ‘plain’, stretching from the Egyptian frontier to Mt. Carmel (p. ), once inhabited by the Philistines (Pelishtîm).

Jaffa.—Arrival. The steamers anchor in the open roads. In winter, when a westerly gale is blowing, it is often impossible to land. Passengers must then go on to Haifa (p. ) or to Beirut (p. ). The arrangements for landing are unsatisfactory; in rough weather as much as 20 fr. is demanded. It is best to land in one of the boats belonging to the hotels or tourist-agents (see below; 6–7 fr. to station or to hotel, incl. baggage, on which a watchful eye should be kept), and to decline the services of other boatmen or of porters and dragomans (Arabic terjumân). The passport office and custom-house are in the S. angle of the harbour. Customs examination, see p. .

Railway Station to the N.E. of the town, 1½ M. from the harbour.

Hotels (charges should be ascertained at once; advisable to order rooms beforehand in the height of the season). Jerusalem Hotel and Hôt. du Parc, both in the German colony, pens. 12½, in the quiet season 8 fr.; Hôt. Kaminitz, in Rue Boustrous, leading to the German colony; Frank, in the German colony, with restaurant.

Tourist Agents. Thos. Cook & Son, opposite the Jerusalem Hotel; Clark, in the Hôt. du Parc; Dr. Benzinger, at Frank’s Hotel; Hamburg-American Line, Agence Lubin, both at the harbour.—Steamboat Offices all on the quay, to the N.E. of the custom-house.

Post Offices. Turkish in Rue Boustrous (also International Telegraph); German and Austrian-Hungarian, at the N.E. end of the quay; French, farther to the N.E.; Russian, on the quay, opposite the Quarantine Station.

Consuls. British Vice-Consul, J. Falanga.—United States Consular Agent, J. Hardegg.

Physicians. Dr. J. M. Keith (medical superintendent of the English Hospital); Dr. Lin (French); Dr. Lorch, Dr. Saad (both German).

Banks. Anglo-Palestine Co., Banque Ottomane, both in the Gaza Road; German Palaestina-Bank, Crédit Lyonnais, both on the quay.

English Church Services, on Sun. at 9.30 a.m. and 3.30 p.m.

Carriages. Drive 1 beshlik (3½ pias.); ½ day 10, day 20 fr.; to Jerusalem (7–8 hrs.) in the season 50–60 fr. (single seat 10–15 fr.), to Haifa (1½–2 days), 100–140 fr., according to weather.

Jaffa, Arabic Yâfâ, Gr. Joppa (pop. 47,000, viz. about 30,000 Moslems, 10,000 Christians, and 7000 Jews), originally a Phœnician colony in the land of the Philistines, is mentioned as early as the reign of Solomon (p. ) as the seaport of Jerusalem. The Maccabees (p. ) brought it under Jewish domination. During the Crusades it was repeatedly wrested from the Christians, and in 1267 it was destroyed by the Mameluke sultan Beybars. In 1799 the town was stormed by the French under Kléber (p. ).

The old town rises on a rock 118 ft. high, behind the Quay, built towards the end of the 17th century. Its streets are very dusty and in wet weather muddy.

The quay and its prolongation, the main arteries of traffic, lead in a curve towards the E. to the Market (Sûk), where the Semitic type of the inhabitants is very noticeable.

Beyond this market is a public garden with a Clock Tower erected by the town of Jaffa to commemorate the 25th year of the reign of the now deposed Sultan Abdul Hamid (1876–1909), and several Arabian cafés. The Gaza road leads thence to the right through the S. suburb. The Jerusalem road leads straight on through the new town and a number of orange-groves; after 12 min. a road diverges to the left to the Russian settlement, where we are shown the site of the house of Tabitha and her rock-tomb (Acts ix. 35). The Rue Boustrous leads to the left to the railway-station and the pleasant houses of the German Colony, founded in 1868 (about 350 inhab., chiefly of the ‘Temple’ sect).

A second colony of these Templars is Sarona, 1 M. to the N.E., behind the dunes, in the coast-plain of Sharon between Jaffa and Cæsarea, famed ever since ancient times for its fertility. The vine in particular thrives here admirably.

Beyond Jaffa the Steamer soon passes the mouth of the Nahr el-Aujâ, the largest river in Palestine next to the Jordan, and then, near the N. boundary of Judæa, the site of Apollonia (now Arsûf). Farther on we sight the scanty ruins of Caesarea Palaestina (Arabic El-Kaisarîyeh), a seaport founded by Herod the Great, which in the Roman period surpassed Jerusalem.

Beyond the Nahr ez-Zerkâ (‘blue river’, p. xxxiii), the Crocodile River of Pliny, come the little town of Tantûra, the Dor of the Old Testament, which classical authors say was a Phœnician colony, and then Atlît, the Castellum Peregrinorum of the Crusaders, the seat of the Knights Templar in 1218–91, with its grand ruins.

The beautiful outlines of *Mt. Carmel (1811 ft.; Jebel Mâr Elyâs, ‘sacred mount of Elijah’) become more distinct. On the hill-side is the Carmelite Monastery (558 ft.), the original seat of the order, which extended its sphere to Europe in 1238. Below it, on the evergreen N. slope of the range, rises a Lighthouse.

Most of the steamers call at the open roads of Haifa or Khaifa (Hôt. Karmel or Krafft, pens. 8–10 fr.; carr. at the tourist-office of Unger & Hermann, at G. Sus’s, etc.; Brit. vice-cons., P. Abela; U. S. cons. agent, Th. Struve; pop. 16,000), a rapidly rising commercial town, beautifully situated at the N. base of Mt. Carmel and on the S. shore of the Bay of Acre, not far from the site of the Sycaminum of antiquity. The trade is chiefly in the hands of the German ‘Temple’ sect, whose settlement presents a striking contrast to the prevailing Oriental squalor.

A Road leads from Haifa viâ Atlît and Tantûra (see above), and then inland viâ the Jewish agricultural colony of Zammarín (Hôt. Graff) and Kakûn (410 ft.) to Nàbulus or Nâblus (1870 ft.; Hôt. Nablus, German,) once Sichem, the capital of Samaria. After the war of 67 A.D. (p. ) it was re-founded by Vespasian as Flavia Neapolis. It is now a town of 27,000 inhab. (incl. 700 Christians and 170 members of the Samaritan sect). Fine view from Mt. Gerizim (2848 ft.; Arab. Jebel et-Tôr), to the S. of the town. A new road leads from Nâbulus, past Jacob’s Well (St. John, iv. 5–30), viâ El-Lubban and El-Bireh, to Jerusalem (p. ).

From Haifa viâ Derât to Damascus, 177 M., Railway. One train daily in 10 hrs.; fares, 1st cl., 142½, 3rd cl. 65½ pias. (note exchange at rail. stat.: 1 mejidieh = 19 pias.; 20 fr. = 86½ pias.; £ 1 = 109¼ pias.; £ 1 Turkish = 96 pias.). Most travellers, however, prefer the following profoundly interesting route, joining the train at Samakh (p. ).

We drive from Haifa to (24 M.) Nazareth (1145 ft.; Hôt. Germania, pens. 8–12½ fr.), the home of Christ, whence the Christians in the Levant are still called Nazarenes (Nasâra). Then past Mt. Tabor (1844 ft.; Jebel et-Tor; fine view), the traditional scene of the Transfiguration, and Kafr Kennâ, the Cana of the Bible (St. John, ii), to (4½ hrs.) Tabarîya (82 ft. below sea-level; Hôt. Tiberias or Grossmann, pens. 10–12½ fr.; pop. 7500, incl. many Polish Jews), the ancient Tiberias, once the capital of Galilee, and, after the destruction of Jerusalem (p. ), the chief seat of the Jewish nation. It lies high up on the W. bank of the Lake of Gennesaret, or of Tiberias, or Sea of Galilee (682 ft. below sea-level; 13 M. long, 7½ M. broad), through which flows the Jordan. During half of the year the climate in this profound Syrian valley is extremely hot.

From Tiberias we row down the lake in 2 hrs. to the rail. station of Samakh (610 ft. below sea-level; 54½ M. from Haifa). The train ascends the *Yarmuk Valley to (100 M.) Derât (1735 ft. above sea-level; Buffet), where it joins the main Hejâz line to Damascus (p. ; Kadem station).—For details, see Baedeker’s Palestine and Syria.

Beyond Haifa all the steamers skirt the coast of ancient Phoenicia at some distance from land, as the cliffs here endanger navigation, but the numerous small headlands, bays, and islands adapt it admirably for settlement. It once extended, far beyond Beirut, to the river Eleutheros, now Nahr el-Kebîr.

From afar we sight the lighthouse and forts of Akka or Acre, the ancient Akko (later Ptolemais). In 1104 it became the naval station of the Crusaders. Taken by Saladin in 1187 it was recaptured by Richard Cœur-de-Lion in 1191 and for a century was a great bulwark of Christianity. Under the name of St. Jean d’Acre it was the seat of the knights of St. John (p. ) after their expulsion from Jerusalem. Far to the N.E. rises Mt. Hermon (p. ).

Beyond the white Râs el-Nâkûra, the ancient Scala Tyriorum, and Râs el-Abyad, the Promontorium Album of Pliny, we sight a low headland on which lies the poor little town of Sûr, with a ruined church of the Crusaders, ruins of their fortifications, and a lighthouse. This was the ancient seaport of Tyre, once situated on two islands, but connected with the mainland by an embankment built by Alexander during his famous siege (332 B.C.).

Farther on we pass the mouth of the Nahr el-Lîtânî (p. ), here called Nahr el-Kâsimîyeh, and obtain a fine view of the coast-region in front of Lebanon; to the E. rise Jebel er-Rihân and Tômât Nîhâ (6070 ft.; ‘twins of Nîhâ’), snow-capped in winter, and to the N.E. the distant Jebel Sannîn (p. ).

Beyond Sarafant (ancient Zarpath or Sarepta) opens the broad bay of Saida, formerly Sidon, the oldest and, next to Tyre, greatest port of the Phœnicians, now girdled by rich vegetation.

Passing the mouth of the Nahr el-Auwâlî (ancient Bostrenus) and the Râs er-Rumeileh, the N. limit of the bay of Saida, we come to the far-projecting Râs ed-Dâmûr and the Nahr ed-Dâmûr, the ancient Tamyras, which in winter is one of the most copious rivers in the Lebanon region. Near Beirut begin the mulberry and olive groves and the vineyards of the fertile coast-plain.

We round the reddish hills of Râs Beirût (p. ), with the pigeons’ grottoes and lighthouse, and enter Beirut harbour (p. ).