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Show The Holy Land 227 Silvers' next drive would be to the northern Jordan area, but for the present they were just north of the Dead Sea, where they vis ited Gilgal, Jericho, and Bethany. The area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean is the traditional Canaan of the Bible. In an area about the size of Vermont, were settlements dating to about 3,000 B.C. in the Early Bronze Age, probably by Amorites and Hittites. Canaanite, in fact, usually refers to all pre-Israelite, Semitic cul tures. Living in scattered city principalities, the Canaanites were farmers, merchants, and seafarers. They were overcome by Hebrews returning from Egypt to their "Promised Land" about 1,200 B.C. Gilgal, between Jericho and the Jordan, was the first encamp crossing the Jordan. It was the base of the operations of Joshua. It was an occasional residence of the Prophet Samuel, and was the place where Saul was crowned King of Judah. They saw a Jordan Valley refugee camp. Then, like the trav eler that was helped by the Good Samaritan, the Silvers took the road down to Jericho with its striking Neolithic (8,000) B.C. defenses, but apparently not a walled city in the time of Joshua as many had supposed. Madelyn was impressed with both ancient Jericho and mod ern Jericho. She visited Elijah's Fountain, went to the Winter Palace and loved the garden, and witnessed swimmers in the Dead Sea. She thought of Utah's dead sea, the Great Salt Lake, and recalled the many times, as a high school and college girl, she had gone to swim at the resort center, Saltair. She thought of the Good Samaritan, of the rugged upland country beyond Jericho that pointed to Jerusalem. The Dead Sea into which the Jordan River flows is fifty miles long and ten miles wide, and is 1,294 feet below sea level. The ment of the Israelites after mineral content is 25 percent. The whereabouts of the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah is uncertain, although it is sup posed they were ancient settlements just below or west of the Dead Sea. While they were at Jericho, Madelyn and Harold decided to drive south to Beersheba, in a sub-district of the Gaza district |
