Jerusalem The Holy Land by Loti

Author:Loti [Loti]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781136190759
Google: cZ9FAAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-08-06T04:48:18+00:00

CHAPTER XIV

Saturday, 7th April.

A SOUND of church bells follows us for a long time into the solitary campaign, as we make our way on horseback in the early morning towards Jericho, towards the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. Very quickly the Holy City disappears from sight, hidden behind the Mount of Olives. Here and there are fields of green barley, but regions of stones and asphodels predominate. There are no trees anywhere. Red anemones and violet irises enamel the greyness of a broken country of stones and desert. Through a succession of gorges, valleys and precipices we follow a slowly descending slope. For Jerusalem, it must be remembered, stands at an altitude of some two thousand five hundred feet, and this Dead Sea for which we are bound is twelve hundred feet below the ordinary sea-level.

If it were not for this carriage road over which our horses pass so comfortably we might, at times, be in Idumea or Arabia.

This road to Jericho, however, is crowded with people to-day : Bedouins on camels, Arab shepherds leading hundreds of black goats, groups of Cook’s tourists, on horseback and in mule carts ; Russian pilgrims returning on foot from the Jordan and carrying piously back in bottle-gourds the water of the sacred river; Greek pilgrims from the Isle of Cyprus, in numerous batches on donkeys ; caravans of all kinds, quaint and incongruous groupings, which overtake us or meet us.

It is now noon. The high mountains of the land of Moab which lie beyond the Dead Sea, and have been in sight ever since we reached Hebron, like a diaphanous wall, seem to be no nearer, although for some three hours now we have been riding towards them-seem to recede before us indeed like the visions of mirage. But they are misty and obscure; all the light vapours which this morning filled the sky have congregated and condensed about their summits, while above our heads the outspread blue has become purer and more magnificent.

At the half-way to Jericho, we make our midday halt at a caravanserai occupied already by Bedouins, Syrians and Greeks ; then we mount our horses again under a burning sun.

From time to time, in gulfs opening to a great depth below us, the torrent of the Kidron appears in the form of a silvery thread of foam ; its course here has not been disturbed as it has under the walls of Jerusalem, and it flows rapidly towards the Dead Sea, half-hidden at the deep bottom of the abysses.

The mountain planes continue to descend as we approach that strange and unique region, situated below the level of the sea, where the waters of death slumber. The abnormality of this subversion of natural phenomena seems to be impressed upon us by the indescribable strangeness, producing almost a sensation of giddiness, of these descending perspectives.

Becoming ever more broken and grand the country now presents aspects almost of the real desert. All that is wanting is the impression of immeasurable solitude, which here is not.

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