menu_book Chapter 17

Section 17 of History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4, by Gaston Maspero, translated by M. L. McClure. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 2, Part 4. Beyond Ono, reddish-colored sandy clay took the place of the dark and compact loam. Oaks began to appear, sparsely at first, but afterwards, forming vast forests, which the peasants of our own days have thinned and reduced to a considerable extent.

The stunted trunks of these trees are knotted and twisted, and the tallest of them do not exceed some thirty feet in height, while many of them may be regarded as nothing more imposing than large bushes. Footnote. The forest was well known to the geographers of the Greco-Roman period

and was still in existence at the time of the Crusades. End footnote. Muddy rivers, infested with crocodiles, flowed slowly through the shady woods, spreading out their waters here and there in pestilential swamps. On reaching the seaboard, their exit was impeded by the sands which they brought down with them, and the banks which were thus formed caused

the waters to accumulate in lagoons extending behind the dunes. For miles, the road led through thickets, interrupted here and there by marshy places and clumps of thorny shrubs, bands of Shaosu were accustomed to make this route dangerous, and even the bravest heroes shrank from venturing alone along this route. Towards Aluna, the way began to ascend Mount Carmel by a narrow and giddy track cut in the rocky side of the precipice. Footnote. This defile is described

at length in the Anastasi Papyrus No. 1, and the terms used by the writer are in themselves sufficient evidence of the terror with which the place inspired the Egyptians. The annals of Thutmosis III are equally explicit as to the difficulties which an army had to encounter here. I have placed this defile near the point which is now called Umm el-Fam, and this site seems to me to agree better with the account of the expedition of Thutmosis III than that of Araneh proposed by

condor. End footnote. Beyond the mount, it led by a rapid descent into a plain covered with corn and verdure, and extending in a width of some thirty miles by a series of undulations to the foot of Tabor, where it came to an end. Two side ranges running almost parallel, Little Hermann and Gilboa, disposed in a line from east to west, and united by an almost imperceptibly rising ground, serve rather to connect the plain of Megiddo with the valley of the Jordan than to separate them.

A single river, the Kishon, cuts the route diagonally, or to speak more correctly, a single riverbed, which is almost waterless for nine months of the year, and becomes swollen only during the winter rains with the numerous torrents bursting from the hillsides. As the flood approaches the sea, it becomes of more manageable proportions and finally distributes its waters among the desolate lagoons formed behind the sandbanks

of the open and windswept bay, towered over by the sacred summit of Carmel. Footnote. In the lists of Thutmosis III, we find under number 48 the town of Rosh Kedoshu, the sacred cape, which was evidently situated at the end of the mountain range, or probably on the site of Haifa.

the name itself suggests the veneration with which Carmel was invested from the earliest times. End footnote. No corner of the world has been the scene of more sanguinary engagements or has witnessed century after century so many armies crossing its borders and coming into conflict with one another. Every military leader who, after leaving Africa, was able to seize Gaza and Ascalon, became at once master of southern Syria. He might, it is true, experience some local

resistance and come into conflict with bands or isolated outposts of the enemy, but as a rule he had no need to anticipate a battle before he reached the banks of the Qishon. Here, behind a screen of woods and mountain, the enemy would concentrate his forces and prepare resolutely to meet the attack. If the invader succeeded in overcoming resistance at this point, the country lay open to him as far as the Orontes, nay, often even to the Euphrates. The position was too

important for its defense to have been neglected. A range of forts, Ileam, Tanakh, Megiddo, footnote. Megiddo, the legio of the Roman period, has been identified since Robinson's time with Kerbert Lejeune, and more especially with the little mound known by the name of Tel el Mutasalem, Kondor proposed to place its site more to the east in the valley of the Jordan at Kerbet el Mujedah. End footnote. Drawn like a barrier across the line of advance, protected its southern face,

and beyond these a series of strongholds and villages followed one another at intervals in the bends of the valleys, or on the heights, such as Shunem, Kasuna, Anaharath, the two Afuls, Khanna, and other places which we find mentioned on the triumphal lists, but of which up to the present the sites have not been fixed. From this point, the conqueror had a choice of three routes. One ran in an oblique direction to the west and struck the Mediterranean near Acre,

leaving on the left the promontory of Carmel with the sacred town Rosh Kodoshu planted on its slope. Acre was the first point which a fleet could find safe anchorage after leaving the mouths of the Nile and whoever was able to make himself master of it had in his hands the key of Syria for it stood in the same commanding position with regard to the coast as that held by Megiddo in respect of the interior. Its houses were built closely together on a spit of rock which projected

boldly into the sea, while fringes of reefs formed for it a kind of natural breakwater, behind which ships could find a safe harborage from the attacks of pirates or the perils of bad weather. From this point, the hills come so near the shore that one is sometimes obliged to wade along the beach to avoid a projecting spur, and sometimes to climb a zigzag path in order to cross a headland. In more than one place, the rock has been hollowed into a series of rough steps,

giving it the appearance of a vast ladder. Footnote. Hence the name Tyrian Ladder, which is applied to one of these passes, either Ras-ed-Nakr or Ras-el-Abiad. End footnote. Below this precipitous path, the waves dash with fury, and when the wind sets towards the land, every thud causes the rocky wall to tremble and detaches fragments from its surface. The majority of the towns, such as Aksapu, Ekdipa, Mashal, Lubina, Ushu, Shakan, lay back from the sea on the mountain ridges,

out of the reach of pirates. Several, however, were built on the shore, under the shelter of some promontory, and the inhabitants of these derived a miserable subsistence from fishing and the chase. Beyond the Tyrian ladder, Phoenician territory began. The country was served throughout its entire length from town to town by the coast road, which, turning at length to the right and passing through the defile formed by the Nahar el-Kabir, entered the region of the middle

Orontes. The second of the roads leading from Megiddo described an almost symmetrical curve eastwards, crossing the Jordan at Bethshan, then the Jabbok, and finally reaching Damascus after having skirted at some distance the last of the basaltic ramparts of the Haruan. Here extended a vast but badly watered pasture land, which attracted the Bedouin from every side, and scattered over it were a number of walled towns, such as Hamath, Magato, Astaroth, and Onorepha.

Footnote. Proof that the Egyptians knew this route, followed even to this day in certain circumstances, is furnished by the lists of Thutmosis III, in which the principal stations which it comprises are enumerated among the towns given up after the victory of Megiddo. Damascus was identified with Damascus by E. DeRouge and Ashtarothu with Ashtaroth, Kanaim, Hamatu is probably Hamath of the Gadarines, Magato the Magad of the Maccabees,

is possibly the present Makata, and Onorifa, Rephon, Raphana, Arpha of Decapolis, is the modern Er-Rath. End footnote. Probably Damascus was already at this period the dominant authority over the region watered by these two rivers, as well as over the villages nestling in the gorges of Hermon, Abila, Helban of the Vineyards, and Tabrud, but it had not yet acquired its renown for riches and power. Protected by the anti-Lebanon range from its turbulent neighbors,

it led a sort of vegetative existence apart from invading hosts, forgotten and hushed to sleep as it were in the shade of its gardens. The third road from Megiddo took the shortest way possible. After crossing the Kishon almost at right angles to its course, it ascended by a series of steep inclines to arid plains, fringed or intersected by green and flourishing valleys, which afforded sites for numerous towns, Pahira, Merong near Lake Hula, Kart-Nizanu, Birotu, and Lawissa,

situated in the marshy district at the headwaters of the Jordan. Footnote. Pahira is probably Safed. Kart-Nizanu, the flowery city, the Kartha of Zabulon, and Bikarot, the Barotha of Josephus, near Merom.

Meroma and Loisa Laissa have been identified with Merom and Laish. End footnote. From this point forward the land begins to fall, and taking a hollow shape is known as Seeliseria, with its luxuriant vegetation spread between the two ranges of the Lebanon.

It was inhabited then, as at the time of the Babylonian conquest, by the Amorites, who probably included Damascus also in their domain. Footnote. The identification of the country of Amaru with that of the Amorites was admitted from the first. The only doubt was as to the locality occupied by these Amorites.

The mention of Kodshu on the Orontes and the country of the Amaru showed that Sili-Syria was the region in question. In the Tel-el-Amarna tablets, the name Amaru is applied also to the country east of the Phoenician coast, and we have seen that there is reason to believe that it was used by the Babylonians to denote all Syria. If the name given by the cuneiform inscriptions to Damascus and its neighborhood, Gar-Emerishu, Emerishu, Emerish,

really means the fortress of the Amorites, we should have in this fact a proof that this people were in actual possession of the Damascene Syria. This must have been taken from them by the Hittites towards the 20th century before our era, according to Hamel, about the end of the 18th dynasty, according to Lenormand. If, on the other hand, the Assyrians read the name Sha-Emeru-Shu with the signification, the town of its asses, it is simply a play upon words and has no bearing upon

the primitive meaning of the name. End footnote. Their capital, the sacred Kodshu, was situated on the left bank of the Orontes, about five miles from the lake which for a long time bore its name, Bahar el-Kaddes. Footnote. The name Kodshu Kadesh was for a long time read Uatesh, Badesh, Atesh, and, owing to a confusion with Kodi, Ati, or Atet, the town was identified by Shampolion with Bactria, then transferred to Mesopotamia by Bossalini in the land Vomira, which, according

to Pliny, was close to the Taurus, not far from the Kaber or from the province of Aleppo. Osborne tried to connect it with the Hadashah. Joshua, chapter 15, verse 21, an Amorite town in the southern part of the tribe of Judah, while Hinks placed it in Edessa. The reading Kadesh, Kadesh, Kodshu, the result of the observations of Lepsius, has finally prevailed. Brosks connected this name with that of Bahar el-Kades, a designation attached in the Middle Ages to the

lake through which the Orontes flows, and placed the town on its shores or on a small island on the lake. Thompson pointed out Tel Nebimenda, the ancient Laodicea of the Lebanon, as satisfying the requirements of the site. Condor developed this idea and showed that all the conditions prescribed by the Egyptian texts in regard to Kodshu find here, and here alone, their application. The description given in the text is based on Condor's observations. End footnote. It crowned

one of those barren oblong eminences which are so frequently met with in Syria. A muddy stream, the Tanr, flowed at some distance away around its base and, emptying itself into the Orontes at a point a little to the north, formed a natural defense for the town on the west. Its encompassing walls, slightly elliptic in form, were strengthened by towers and surrounded by two concentric ditches which kept the sapper at a distance. A dike running across the Orontes above the town caused

the waters to rise and to overflow in a northern direction, so as to form a shallow lake, which acted as an additional protection from the enemy. Ko Chu was thus a kind of artificial island, connected with the surrounding country by two flying bridges, which could be opened or shut at pleasure. Once the bridges were raised and the gates closed, the boldest enemy had no resource left but to arm himself with patience and settle down to a lengthened siege. The invader, fresh

from a victory at Megiddo and following up his good fortune in a forward movement, had to reckon upon further and serious resistance at this point and to prepare himself for a second conflict. The Amorite chiefs and their allies had the advantage of a level and firm ground for the evolutions of their chariots during the attack, while if they were beaten, the citadel afforded them a secure rallying place, whence, having gathered their shattered troops, they could

regain their respective countries, or enter, with the help of a few devoted men, upon a species of guerrilla warfare in which they excelled. The road from Damascus led to a point south of Kodshu, while that from Phoenicia came right up to the town itself, or to its immediate neighborhood. The dike of Bahar-el-Kades served to keep the plain in a dry condition, and thus secured for numerous towns, among which Hamath stood out preeminently, a prosperous existence.

Beyond Hamath and to the left, between the Orontes and the sea, lay the commercial kingdom of Alassia, protected from the invader by bleak mountains. Footnote. The site of Alassia, Alassia, was determined from the Tel el-Amana tablets by Maspero. Niebuhr had placed it to the west of Sicilia, opposite the island of Elousa, mentioned by Strabo. Condor connected it with the scriptural Elisha, and W. Max Muller confounds it with Asi or Cyprus. End footnote. On the right, between the

Orontes and the Balik, extended the lands of rivers Nahraim. Towns had grown up here thickly, on the sides of the torrents from the Amanos, along the banks of rivers, near springs or wells, wherever in fact the presence of water made culture possible. The fragments of the Egyptian chronicles which have come down to us number these towns by the hundred. Footnote. Two hundred and thirty names belonging to Nahraim are still legible on the lists of Thutmosis III, and a hundred

others have been effaced from the monument. End footnote. And yet of how many more must the records have perished with the crumbling Theban walls upon which the pharaohs had their names and sized. Kalabu was the Aleppo of our own day. Kalabu was identified by Chabas, with Kalabon, the modern Aleppo, in his opinion has been adopted by most Egyptologists, and grouped around it lay Turmanuna, Tunupa, Zarabu, Ni'i, Durbaniti, Nirabu, Sarmata.

Footnote. with Nineveh was identified by Lenormant with Ninus Vetus, Mimbij, and by Max Müller with Balis on the Euphrates. I am inclined to make it Kepher Naya between Aleppo and Termanin. End footnote. And a score of others which depended upon it or upon one of its rivals, the boundaries of this portion of the lower Lothanu have come down to us in a singularly

indefinite form, and they must also, moreover, have been subject to continual modifications from the results of tribal conflicts. We are at a loss to know whether the various principalities were accustomed to submit to the leadership of a single individual, or whether we are to relegate to the region of popular fancy that Lord Nahraim, of whom the Egyptian scribes, made such a hero in their fantastic narratives. Footnote. In the story of the predestined prince, the heroine is daughter

of the prince of Nahayim, who seems to exercise authority over all the chiefs of the country. As the manuscript does not date back further than the 20th dynasty, we are justified in supposing that the Egyptian writer had a knowledge of the Hittite domination, during which the king of the Kati was actually the ruler of all Nahayim. End footnote. Car-Chemish represented in this region the position occupied by Megiddo in relation to Karu and by Kodshu among the Amorites.

That is to say, it was the citadel and sanctuary of the surrounding country. Whoever could make himself master of it would have the whole country at his feet. It lay upon the Euphrates, the winding of the river protecting it on its southern and southeastern sides, while around its northern front ran a deep stream, its defense being further completed by a double ditch across the intervening region.

Like Koetshu, it was thus situated in the midst of an artificial island beyond the reach of the battering ram or the sapper. The encompassing wall, which tended to describe an ellipse, hardly measured two miles in circumference, but the suburbs extending in the midst of villas and gardens along the riverbanks furnished in time of peace an abode for the surplus population. The wall still rises some 5 and 20 to 30 feet above the plain. Two mounds divided by a ravine

command its northwestern side, their summits being occupied by the ruins of two fine buildings, a temple and a palace. Footnote, Carchemisha, Gargamesh, was from the beginning associated with the Carchemish of the Bible, but as the latter was wrongly identified with Kirkesium, it was naturally located at the confluence of the Cabr with the Euphrates. Hinks fixed the site at Runkale. G. Rawlinson referred it cursorily to Hieropolis, Mabog, which position Masbro endeavored

to confirm. Finzi, and after him G. Smith, thought to find the site at Jerobis, the ancient Europos, and excavations carried on there by the English have brought to light in this place Hittite monuments which go back in part to the Assyrian epoch. This identification is now generally accepted, although there is still no direct proof attainable, and competent judges continue to prefer the sight of Mebidj. I fall in with the current view, but with all reserve. End footnote.

Karchemish was the last stage in a conqueror's march coming from the south. For an invader approaching from the east or north, it formed his first station. He had before him, in fact, a choice of the three chief fords for crossing the Euphrates. That of Thapsakis, at the bend of the river where it turns eastward to the Arabian plain, lay too far to the south and it could be reached only after a march through a parched and desolate region where the army would run the risk of

perishing from thirst. For an invader proceeding from Asia Minor or intending to make his way through the defiles of the Taurus, Samosata offered a convenient fording place. But this route would compel the general, who had Nahraim or the kingdoms of Chaldea in view, to make a long detour, and although the Assyrians used it at a later period, at the time of their expeditions in the valleys of the Halais, the Egyptians do not seem ever to have traveled by this road.

Kharkhamesh, the place of the third ford, was about equally distant from Thapsakus and Samosata and lay in a rich and fertile province, which was so well watered that a drought or famine would not be likely to enter into the expectations of its inhabitants. Hither, pilgrims, merchants, soldiers, and all the wandering denizens of the world were accustomed to direct their steps, and the habit once established was perpetuated for centuries. On the left bank of the river, and almost opposite

Carchemish, lay the region of Mitanni. Footnote. Mitanni is mentioned on several Egyptian monuments, but its importance was not recognized until after the discovery of the Tel el-Amarna tablets and of its situation. The fact that a letter from the prince of Mitanni is stated in a hieratic docket to have come from Nahrayim has been used as a proof that the countries were identical. I have shown that the docket proves only that Mitanni formed a part of Nahrayim.

It extended over the province of Edessa and Haran, stretching out towards the sources of the Tigris. Niebuhr places it on the southern slope of the Masios in Maegdonia. Th. Reynach connects it with and Mationi, and asks whether this was not the region occupied by this people before their emigration towards the Caspian, which was already occupied by a people of a different race, who used a language cognate, it would seem, with the imperfectly classified dialect spoken by the

tribes of the Upper Tigris and Upper Euphrates. Several of the Tel El Amarna tablets are couched end footnote. Haran bordered on Mitanni, and beyond Haran one may recognize in the vaguely defined Syngar, Aser, Arapka, and Babel states that arose out of the dismemberment of the ancient Chaldean empire. Footnote. These names were recognized from the first in the inscriptions of Thutmose III and in those of other pharaohs of the 18th and 19th dynasties. End footnote.

The Carchemish route was, of course, well known to caravans, but armed bodies had rarely occasion to make use of it. It was a far cry from Memphis to Carchemish, and for the Egyptians this town continued to be a limit which they never passed, except incidentally, when they had to chastise some turbulent tribe, or to give some ill-guarded town to the flames. Footnote, a certain number of mentioned in the lists of Thutmose III were situated beyond the Euphrates, and they belonged

some to Mitanni and some to the regions further away. End footnote. End of section 17. Read by Elsie Selwyn.