On the Topography of the Holy Land 1

The city of Jerusalem has six major gates besides the postern, that is, the Gate of Benjamin, going out toward the Jordan, being eighteen miles from Jericho; thence to the Jordan, seven miles. From Jericho to Gilgal, one mile. There is the field of the Lord, where the Lord Jesus Christ plowed one furrow with his own hand; there are the twelve stones which the children of Israel lifted up from the Jordan. From Jericho to the spring of Elisha, two miles; there was the house of Rahab the harlot, who received the spies. Likewise from Jerusalem to Bethsaida, twelve miles, in which Bethsaida Jacob saw in dreams the angels ascending and descending from heaven. From Bethsaida to Samaria, which is now called Neapolis, eighteen miles.

There is the well which Jacob built; there are the bones of holy Joseph. From Samaria to Sebaste, six miles, where the Lord John was beheaded. From Sebaste to Scythopolis, thirty miles; there the Lord Basil was martyred. From Scythopolis to the Sea of Tiberias, twenty-four miles, where the Lord Jesus Christ walked on his feet. From Tiberias to Magdala, where the Lady Mary was born, two miles. From Magdala to the Seven Springs, where the Lord Christ baptized the apostles, two miles, where also he satisfied the people with five loaves and two fishes. From the Seven Springs to Capernaum, two miles. From Capernaum to Bethsaida, six miles, where were born the apostles Peter, Andrew, Philip, and the sons of Zebedee.

From Bethsaida to Paneas, fifty miles; thence the Jordan goes out from two places, Jor and Dan. Paneas itself, in the midst, sends them out and below the city they join into a pair, and from there the Jordan takes its name; from there was the woman whom the Lord Christ delivered from an issue of blood, the name of that woman being Mariosa; there is the bronze statue of the Lord which that same Mariosa made. There the mountain of Lebanon has its head. From the Gate of Purgus to where David fought with Goliath on Mount Buzana, which is interpreted 'lamp,' fifteen miles. From Buzana to Eleutheropolis, fifteen miles. From Eleutheropolis to the place where holy Zacharias rests, six miles, and from that place to Ascalon, twenty miles. From Ascalon to Gaza, twelve miles.

Between Ascalon and Gaza are two cities, that is, Anthedon and Maiuma. From Gaza to Raphia, twenty-four miles. From Raphia to Bethulia, where Holofernes died, twelve miles. From Jerusalem to Shiloh, where was the Ark of the Testament of the Lord, nine miles. From Shiloh to Emmaus, which is now called Nicopolis, nine miles, in which Emmaus holy Cleopas recognized the Lord in the breaking of bread; there also he suffered martyrdom. From Emmaus to Diospolis, twelve miles, where holy George was martyred; there also is his body, and many wonders are wrought. From Diospolis to Joppa, twelve miles, where holy Peter raised up holy Tabitha; there also the whale cast itself up, having been vanquished by Jonah. From Joppa to Caesarea of Palestine, thirty miles;

there the Lord Cornelius was baptized by the Lord Peter and was martyred. From Caesarea to Diocaesarea, thirty miles; thence was Simon Magus. From Diocaesarea to Cana of Galilee, five miles. From Diocaesarea to Nazareth, five miles. From Nazareth to the sycamore of Tabor, seven miles; there the Lord appeared to the apostles after the resurrection. From Jerusalem to where the Lord Philip baptized the eunuch, sixteen miles. Thence to the Terebinth, which is called the oak of Mamre, two miles. From the Terebinth to the double cave, where the patriarchs rest, four miles. From the double cave to Hebron, two miles, where holy David dwelt for seven years, when he was fleeing before Saul.

From Jerusalem to Ramathaim, where Samuel rests, five miles. From Jerusalem to where dwelt holy Elizabeth, mother of the Lord John the Baptist, five miles. From Jerusalem to Anata, where the Lord Jeremiah the prophet was born, where also he rests, six miles. From Jerusalem to Bethany, two miles, where the Lord Christ raised up Lazarus. From Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives, which is reckoned seven stadia, one mile; thence the Lord ascended into the heavens; there have been built twenty-four churches. From the Mount of Olives to the village of Hermippus, where Abimelech slept under a fig tree for forty-six years, one mile—this Abimelech was a disciple of holy Jeremiah; there was Baruch the prophet.

In the city of Jerusalem, at the Sepulchre of the Lord, there is the place of Calvary; there Abraham offered his son as a holocaust, and because it is a rocky mountain, on that very mountain—that is, at the foot of that mountain—Abraham made an altar; above the altar the mountain rises, to which mountain one ascends by steps; there the Lord was crucified. From the Sepulchre of the Lord to the place of Calvary are fifteen paces in number; it is under one roof. From the place of Calvary to Golgotha are fifteen paces in number, where the Cross of the Lord was found. From Golgotha to holy Sion are two hundred paces in number, which is the mother of all churches; which Sion our Lord Christ founded with the apostles. It was itself the house of holy Mark the Evangelist.

From holy Sion to the house of Caiaphas, which is now the church of holy Peter, are more or less fifty paces in number. From the house of Caiaphas to the praetorium of Pilate are more or less a hundred paces in number; there is the church of holy Sophia; near it holy Jeremiah was let down into the pit. The column which was in the house of Caiaphas, to which the Lord Christ was scourged, has now, by the Lord's command, followed of itself into holy Sion; and as he embraced it while he was being scourged, so, as if in wax, his arms, hands, and fingers clung to it, and it is visible to this day; and likewise his whole face, chin, nose, and eyes, as he traced them as if in wax. Holy Stephen was stoned outside the Gate of Galilee;

there also is his church, which the Lady Eudocia, wife of the emperor Theodosius, built. The Pool of Siloam, from the pit into which the prophet Jeremiah was let down, is a hundred paces in number; which pool is within the wall. From the house of Pilate to the Sheep Pool are more or less a hundred paces in number. There the Lord Christ healed the paralytic, whose bed is still there. Next to the Sheep Pool is the church of the Lady Mary. Holy James, whom the Lord ordained bishop with his own hand, after the Lord's ascension was cast down from the pinnacle of the temple and it did him no harm, but a fuller killed him with the bar with which he was accustomed to carry his goods, and he was laid on the Mount of Olives.

This same holy James and holy Zacharias and holy Symeon were laid in one memorial, which memorial holy James himself built; he himself there laid away their bodies and gave orders that he should be placed there together with them. There is the Valley of Jehoshaphat; there Judas betrayed the Lord. There is the church of the Lady Mary, mother of the Lord; there also the Lord washed the feet of the disciples, there also he supped; there are four couches, where the Lord reclined in the midst with the apostles, which couches each hold three men.

Now several persons, when they come there out of devotion, delight to eat their own provisions there, except for flesh, and they light lamps where the Lord himself washed the apostles' feet, because that place is in a cave, and there now two hundred monks descend. From the pinnacle of the temple, below, there is a monastery of cells, and when any of them passes from this world, she is deposited there within the monastery itself; and from the time they have entered there, as long as they live, they do not go out from it. When any of the nuns wishes to be converted there, or any penitent woman, for her alone are those gates opened, for they are always closed, and victuals are let down to them over the walls, for they have water there in cisterns. The city of Cherson, which is by the Pontic Sea;

there the Lord Clement was martyred. In the sea his body was cast away as his memorial. To this Lord Clement an anchor was bound at his neck, and now on his feast day all the people and priests embark in boats, and when they have come there, the sea dries up for six miles, and where that ark is, awnings are stretched over it and an altar is set, and for eight days masses are celebrated there, and the Lord works many wonders there. There demons are cast out. If anyone of those afflicted can reach to that anchor and touch it, he is at once set free. From Cherson to Sinope, where the Lord Andrew freed the Lord Matthew the Evangelist from prison...

This Sinope was at that time called Myrmidona, and all the people who dwelt there ate their own fellows; but now there is such great mercy there that they sit by the highways to receive pilgrims. From there onward is Armenia. In Egypt is the city of Memphis, where Pharaoh dwelt, where also Joseph had been cast into prison; there are two monasteries: one is of the religious order of the Vandals, and the other of the Romans, that is, of the Vandals that of holy Jeremiah, of the Romans that of holy Apollonius the hermit. Caesarea of Cappadocia—there is holy Mammes the hermit and martyr, who milked wild beasts and made cheese, and holy Mercurius the martyr. In that same province is the city of Sebaste, where there are forty martyrs in number, which is in the province of Cappadocia.

The city of Gangra—there is the holy martyr Callinicus, which is in the province of Galatia. The city of Euchaita, where there is the holy martyr Theodore, which is in the province of Galatia. The city of Ancyra, which is in the province of Galatia, where there is the holy martyr Plato. From the mountains of Armenia issue two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, and the Tigris waters the lands of the Assyrians, and the Euphrates waters the lands of Mesopotamia; the Pishon, moreover, waters all the land of Ethiopia and went forth to Egypt; the Gihon waters the land of Havilah and passes beside Jerusalem. From the Mount of Olives the Lord ascended into the heavens, and there nearby is a cave, which is called Matzi, which is interpreted 'of the disciples,' where the Lord, when he was preaching in Jerusalem, used to rest.

[There the holy John the Evangelist reclined upon the breast of the Lord.] The field of the Lord, which is at Gilgal, is watered from the spring of Elisha; it yields more or less six bushels. One half of this field is plowed in the month of August and comes due at Passover, and it is shared at the Lord's supper and at Passover; the other half, once that first portion has been cut, is plowed and comes due with the second harvest. There too is the vine which the Lord planted, which vine bears fruit at Pentecost, and from it the sacrament is shared at Constantinople, and thence both from the field and from the vine it is sent on, each in its own season. The city of Livias lies across the Jordan, twelve miles from Jericho; in that same Livias Moses struck a rock with his rod, and waters flowed forth;

thence a greater stream issued, which waters all that Livias; there grows the larger Nicolaus date-palm, there too Moses passed from this world, and there are hot springs where Moses bathed, and in those same hot springs lepers are cured. In the place where the Lord was baptized there stands one marble column, and upon that column an iron cross has been set; there too is the church of Saint John the Baptist, which the emperor Anastasius built, which church is built high upon great vaulted arches because of the Jordan, when it floods; in which church monks dwell, monks who receive six solidi a year from the treasury for the sustaining of their life. Where the Lord was baptized, across the Jordan, there is a small mountain which is called Armona;

[Mount Tabor is in Galilee] there the holy Elijah was caught up. There is the memorial of the holy Elisha, where he blessed that spring, and over that memorial a church has been built. From the place where the Lord was baptized, all the way to where the Jordan flows into the Dead Sea, it is five miles; and this is the Dead Sea, where Sodom and Gomorrah were submerged together with three others — five cities in all which lay beside the Dead Sea. There is the wife of Lot, who was turned into a pillar of salt, and just as the moon waxes, so she too waxes, and just as the moon wanes, so she too diminishes.

On the Mount of Olives the Lord laid His shoulders upon a stone, and into that rock both His shoulders sank as though into soft wax; this place is called Ancona, and there too a church has been built. Nearby is the church where Saint Thecla lies, and that place is called Bethphage. From there the foal of the ass, on which the Lord sat, was brought, with which He entered Jerusalem through the gate of Benjamin. There it is read: 'Sea, why wast thou troubled? And thou, Jordan, why didst thou turn back? And ye mountains, why did ye leap like rams, and ye hills, like the lambs of the flock?'

What lies about the Jordan is this: there are many little hills, and when the Lord went down to His baptism, those hills walked before Him, leaping for joy, and to this day they seem, as it were, to be dancing. Sarepta of Sidon, of which it is written, lies in that very Phoenicia, in second Syria, near Mount Carmel. From Sarepta to Sidon is twelve miles, and for this reason it was called Sarepta of Sidon, because at that time Sidon was the metropolis over Sarepta — though now Sarepta is the metropolis. There the holy Elijah was sent to that widow who fed him, and he raised her son to life; there is the church of Saint Elijah, for the woman's name is given only as 'the widow.'

As for Lazarus whom the Lord raised, it is known that he was raised, but no one learned of his second death. This happened at Bethany, at the second milestone from Jerusalem, and at the place of the raising of Saint Lazarus all the people gather there on the Lord's Day before Passover, and Masses are celebrated. In Arabia are the cities which Joshua son of Nun destroyed, where the Amorites, Girgashites, and Perizzites once dwelt — thirteen of them, namely: Juncta, Volumta, Medeba, Musica, Philadelphia, Gerasa, Genara, Bostra, Damascus, Gadara, Abila, Capitolias, Astra. Where Jerusalem is, the province is called Palestine, the land of Canaan; beyond it is Galilee, then Syria, then Mesopotamia.

On the left lie First Armenia and Second Armenia and Persarmenia, which are the Armenias under the emperor. In the province of Asia is the city of Ephesus, where there are the seven sleeping brothers, and the dog Viricanus at their feet; their names are these: Achillides, Diomedes, Eugenius, Stephanus, Probatus, Sabbatius, and Quiriacus, whose mother is called Caritina in Greek, Felicitas in Latin. There is Saint Timothy, disciple of the lord Paul. Near Mount Sinai, in the city of Pharan, there the holy Moses fought with Amalek. From Jerusalem to Elusa is three stations; from Elusa to Aila is seven stations — the city which Alexander the Great of Macedon built.

From Aila to Mount Sinai is eight stations, if you wish to travel by the shorter route through the desert; but if through Egypt, it is twenty-five stations. Urbicius was called the provost of the empire, who served as provost under seven emperors, and he set the crowns upon the heads of these emperors and he took them off their heads, and he corrected them. There is a place at the third milestone from the city of Jerusalem. When the lady Mary, mother of the Lord, was going to Bethlehem, she got down from the ass and sat upon a rock and blessed it. But that provost Urbicius cut into the stone and made it square in the manner of an altar, wishing to send it to Constantinople, and when he came to the gate of Saint Stephen he could move it no further;

this stone a single good yoke of oxen was hauling, and when they saw that they could in no way move it forward, it was brought back to the Sepulchre of the Lord, and there an altar was made from that very rock, and from that altar the sacrament is shared. Yet it lies behind the Sepulchre of the Lord. But that provost Urbicius died at Constantinople under the emperor Anastasius and was buried. The earth would not receive this Urbicius, and three times it cast his grave out. Anastasius built in the province of Mesopotamia a city which is called Dara, holding three miles in length, against the Persians, for when they came into the emperor's province to plunder, they would pitch camp by a trench there, because waters are nowhere to be found except in that place;

in which city a river flows out and at the head of the city plunges beneath the earth, because that whole river is encircled by a wall. The city of Melitene is in Persarmenia; it is the metropolis. Another city is Arabissus, another Cocussus, another Germanicia. In Persia, where lies the body of Saint Daniel, the city is called Susa, thirty miles from Babylon; there too are the three young men; in which city there is no human habitation because of serpents and hippocentaurs. This the deacon Eudoxius related, who is from that province. The finding of the Holy Cross, when it was found by Helena, mother of Constantine, on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of October; and for seven days in Jerusalem, there at the Sepulchre of the Lord, Masses are celebrated, and that Cross is displayed.

In the province of Cilicia there is a city called Aegeae, where for forty days commerce is carried on and no one demands anything of those engaged in it; but if after the forty days a man is found doing business, he pays the tax. In the province of Cilicia is the city of Tarsus, from which Apollonius came. From Tarsus to the city of Adana is thirty miles. From Adana to Mopsuestia, thirty miles. From Mopsuestia to Anasta ... up to Aegeae, sixty miles. From Aegeae to Alexandria Scabiosa, sixty miles. From Alexandria Scabiosa to Antioch, sixty miles. From Antioch to Cyrrhus, where Saints Cosmas and Damian are, who were also slain there, sixty miles. From Cyrrhus to Barbarissus, where Saints Sergius and Bacchus were slain, sixty miles. From Barbarissus to Eneapolis ...

to Callinicum, eighty miles. From Callinicum to Constantina, sixty miles. From Constantina to Edessa, eighty miles, where king Abgar, who wrote to the Lord Christ, used to dwell. From Edessa to Dara, one hundred and twenty miles. From Dara to Amida, eighty miles, which lies at the borders of the Persians. From Amida to Ramusa, eighteen miles.