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[Page 17]
for the Father in the middle, one for the Son on the right and one for the Holy Ghost on the left. Underneath the church is the Crypt in which Mary and her child were supposed to have hidden in their flight from Egypt. There is also a stone basin near here in which babies were baptised. Just behind this church is the Jewish Church and here we saw a Jewish Bible on the skin of a (gagar)? and in the form of a role. We also saw one which our guide said was presented by Sir John Maxwell and which cost £200. All these bibles were encased in beautifully decorated and draped boxes cylinder shaped so that the two ends of the roll can fit in each half. One case was made of solid gold. From this spot we proceeded to the tombs of Sultan Abraham Pasha, his son and his mother. All of them were made of alabaster and beautifully carved with very intricate designs, especially the tomb of the Sultan, which had three proverbs written on the front and above them the ten commandments. The three proverbs were as follows: 1. Every man must die 2. All men are equal in the sight of God. 3. God helps those who call
From here the road wound up through the vast ruins of the old Roman fortress, and it was indeed curious to drive along a fine asphalt road the product of modern civilisation and to see on either side the desolate waste and heaps of stones and sand which was all that was left of the genius and toil of other ancient men, whilst traces of the old walls could still be seen, giving a faint idea to where they ran, and also giving a little base for the imagination to work on, each sigthtseer I suppose building up a different picture. High up on the ridge, standing against the sky can still be seen the stumps of great pillars, weather worn and scarred but seeming to still have some of the immense strength that they once possessed. To complete the scene just as we rounded a curve in the road, a train of those picturesque donkeys came labouring up the slope, each with his very heavy load of stone, whilst the native drivers trudged alongside as they have done for ages past. Unfortunately we did not have time to go to the Citadel so we visited the Sultan Hassan Mosque, which is a building of vast proportions, and said to