Читать книгу A Ride through Syria to Damascus and Baalbec, and ascent of Mount Hermon онлайн

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We start early next morning over the low Samarian hills of Manasseh, which fall into the sea at Carmel, take a hasty glance at El Mahrakah, or the Rock of Sacrifice, where Elijah slaughtered the Priests of Baal, and enter the vast plain of Esdraelon, between one of the feeders or lower sources of Kishon and Megiddo, at which latter place it will be remembered Barak and his men of Manasseh defeated the hosts of Jabin, King of Hazor, under Sisera, who fled on foot to the tents of Heber the Kenite and was treacherously murdered there by Jael. The Kenites’ home was at Kedes, three days’ journey off in the mountains. It is not probable that Sisera could have fled on foot so far; it is more probable that Heber was pasturing his flocks in the fertile plains of Esdraelon, and that Jabin’s captain took refuge in their tents, then not far off. At Megiddo also, Ahaziah died of the wounds he received from Jehu, and near this spot, in modern times, Napoleon inflicted on the Turkish levies a defeat somewhat similar to that which Barak inflicted on Sisera, but Sir Sydney Smith, holding Acre in his rear, rendered his victory of but little value except to secure a safe retreat to the sea.