Palestine Exploration Quarterly

ISSN: 0031-0328 (Print) 1743-1301 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ypeq20

The “Via Maris”

G. Schumacher

To cite this article: G. Schumacher (1889) The “Via Maris”, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 21:2, 78-79, DOI: 10.1179/peq.1889.21.2.78

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/peq.1889.21.2.78

Published online: 20 Nov 2013.

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Download by: [Universite Laval] Date: 12 June 2016, At: 22:28 7-8 THE ", VIA MARIS."

Modern Esl~-SheJara is only about fifty years old, but it is built 011 a ruined site with the name--according to information collect~d on the spot - of Deir Hanin ~"=- ..F. iJ to which also the ruined mosque and church near the spring and village (see" MeulOirs of the Fund," vol. I) belonged. According to tradition, Dei". Hdn'Zn was a very important market place, it being situate on the crossing of the two high roaus- to Jerusalem, and 'Acca to Hauran~ Both roads are still frequented, but the markpt was transferred to S71k el 1{J~an,a Karavan- serai of old style near the foot of ; even that market was done away with some years since, the people becoming more settled; their wants are supplied from the cities of Nazareth and . G. SCHUMACHER. , December, 1888.

THE "VIA MARIS"

A REPLY.

IN the July nuulber· (1888) of the Quarterly Statement, the Rev. Oh. Druitt wishes to have explained "the ground for IllY identificatioll of the Via Maris of antiquity with the caravan road which bisects Upper Jaulan in the direction of 'Acca arid Haifa." I have to state that I followed the opinion of Ritter, who, in his descrip- tion of the upper and central Jordan di:-.;tricts("Erdkunde," xv, a, "Palas- tina und Syrien" II, a,pp. 269-272) st3,tes that the central of the three large (northetn, central, and southern) caravan roads which connecte'd Damascus with the lands of the ICanaanites, passed by the fortified Jisr and IChan l?enatY'akftb, and, coming from Darnascus or the Valley, and crossing the Jordan at thi:::;bridge, took a southern course to the Sea vf Galilee, to the important custom house' , and from here to the Mediterranean Sea. Its name, Via Maris or "Road to the Sea," " Sea-Road," may ha.vetherefore been derived either from the , or the Mediterranean; see also Gesensius (" Comment. zu J esaias," Th. I,

Downloaded by [Universite Laval] at 22:28 12 June 2016 pp. 350-354) for further proofs. That this very important sea road, which during the middle ages was used by caravans from Damascus to Phmnicia, was meant by Quaresmius.("Eleucid. Terr. Setae," T. I, Lib. I, c. 8, fo1.19) when he said" via nlaris publica quedam via est, qua venitur ex Assyria ad mare mediterraneum," can be proved by a look on the map: the high road. I marked as Via Maris on the J aulan map, leaves Damascus, and follows the level Hauran plateau' (or rather J eidftr) to S'asa and continues in a straight line to el Knneitra, and from here as· direct as possible through the J aulan to the Jisr Benat Y'akftb, from here it follows the J ordan cou~se along-the slopes forming the western banks of the river until it arrives at the ruined Khan Minyeh (by some supposed to be Capernaum) which lie::;very near the Sea of Galilee. Here, or at Khan Jubb ,Yftsef, a rr..in a little north of Khan 1Ylinyeh,the high road must ,METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 79

have bifurcated, taking in one sense a souther~ direction to the city of Tiberias, to Beisan (Beth Shean, Scythopolis), &c., and in the other sense a western course to the ports of the Mediterranean, to' 'Accaof the Phrenicians, by the way of the plain and the Wady 'Abellin, or if bi- furcating at the Khan J ubb, Y fisef by the way of Rameh and Mejd el ICertlm (to 'Acca). At all of these places mentioned, as well as along the course of the road through J aulan, the different Khans orOaravanserais, through the Buttauf and W. 'Abellin, at Rauleh and other sites, we find· distinct remains of paved ; the direction of the road from Damascus to 'Acca is straight, and the nearest route possible; the regions it crosses are plateaus, plains and level countries, in fact a country which, although now desolated and covered with ruins, is and was designated by nature to be a great commercial ,highway. Oonsidering all these facts in favour of the opinions given with regard to the Via Maris, and considering that all other roads from Damascus to the Sea, to Tyre and Sidon, &c., have to pass mountainous regions and winding passages, I find no objection of identify-: ing the" Via Maris" in its general features, and in the sense named during the uliddle ages with the present commercial and caravan road from Damascus to the Jisr Benat Y'aktlb or by Khan Miniyeh to 'Acca and Haifa, all the more as we can see from the commerce' of thel1th,12th, and 13th centuries, as given in the excellent work of Heyd, "Die italienischen Handelsclonieen in Palaestina'= (I, p. 16, 17 if.), that the city of 'Acca had a great interest in the Indian commerce, that products of India found their way through the Euphrates Valley to the great' Emporium of Damascus, and continuing by the shortest way to Beirut and 'Acca, and that the weapons and arms of Damascus manufacturers were exported to by the port of 'Acca; OIl the other side Haifa formp.Q the natural harbour for Tiberias ("Heyd," I, p. 17) which city (Tiberias) "was industrious and had a lively by caravans." G. SCIlUMACHER.

Downloaded by [Universite Laval] at 22:28 12 June 2016 METEOROLOGICAL, OBSERV..A.TIONS.

SARONA, 1883.

TIlE numbers in column 1 of this table show the highest reading of the barometer in each month; the maximum for the year was 30·106 ins., in December. In the years 1880 and 1881 the maximum was in January, in 1882 it was in February; the mean of the three preceding highest pressures was 30'251 ins. In column 2, the lowest reading in each month is shown; the minimum for the year was 29·527 ins., in January. In the year 1880 the minimum was in April, in 1881 in February, and in 1$82 in July; the mean for the three preceding years was 29·519 ins. The range' of barometric, readings in the year was small, being