INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN EGYPT, ARABIA PETRÆA, AND THE HOLY LAND. BY GEORGE STEPHENS. NEW EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, PREFACE. IN the first edition of his work the author omitted part of his tour in the Holy Land, in which he passed through Samaria and Galilee; visited Naplous, the ancient Shechem, the burialplace of Joseph; and the ruins of Sebaste, the fallen capital of Herod, where the columns of his palace are still standing; crossed the great plain of Jezreel," the battle-ground of nations;" ascended Mount Tabor, supposed to be the place of the transfiguration; visited Nazareth, the Lake of Genesareth, or Sea of Galilee; Tiberias and Saphet, the last supposed to be the ancient Bethulia, referred to in the expression," the city that is set upon a hill and cannot be hid," both of which have since been destroyed by an earthquake, and more than half of their inhabitants buried under the ruins; from thence he crossed to the Mediterranean at Acre, the St. Jean d'Acre of the Crusaders; visited Caipha and Mount Carmel; and, returning through Acre, passed on to Sour, the fallen Tyre. He has added that part of his tour in the present edition; and, in reference to the whole, he can only say, as before, that in the present state of the world it is almost presump |