LADDER OF TYRE. Josephus, in describ ing the plain of Ptolemais, states that it is encom passed by mountains—Carmel on the south, Galilee on the east, and that on the north, the highest of them all, is called by the people of the country The Ladder of the Tyrians (KVivaL, Tupfwv, Bell.
2), and is too stadia from the city. In Maccab, xi. 59, we also read that Simon was made governor of the country front the Ladder of 7yre (aird tilduatros Topou) to the borders of Egypt,' The rendering of the Vulgate is here manifestly erroneous (a termini: Tyri, from the borders of Tyre'). Such as have visited the plain of Ptolemais can have no difficulty in identifying the Ladder of Tyre.' The rich plain is bounded on the north by a rugged mouutain-ridge which shoots out from Lebanon and dips perpendicularly into the sea, forming a bold promontory about 300 feet in height (Russegger, 3, /43, 262 ; Ritter, Pal. und Syr., iii. 727, 814, seq.) The waves beat against the base of the cliff, leaving no passage be low. In ancient times a road was carried, by a series of zigzags and staircases, over the summit, to connect the plain of Ptolemais with Tyre,—hence the origin of the name Scala Tyriorum, Ladder of Tyre.' It was the southern pass into Phcenicia.
proper, and formed the boundary between that country and Palestine (Kenrick, Phoenicia, p. 20 ; Reland, p. 544). The road still remains, and is the only one along the coast, A short distance from it is a little village called Nahfirah, and the pass is now called Rtisen-Nakfirah, 'the excavated ---- promontory' (from `excavavitsaxzem), doubt less from the road which has been liewn in the rock' (Handbook, p. 389 ; see also Pococke, 79 ; Robinson, B. R , 89 ; Stanley , 260, 262). Some writers suppose that the promontory called Ras el Abiad (the Promontorium Album of Pliny, v. 17), \Vhite Cape,' is the true Ladder of Tyre (Van de Velde, Memoir, 346 ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. 230; but this is at variance with the statement of Josephus, that the Ladder of Tyre is the north ern boundary of the plain of Ptolemais. Ras el Abiad is eight miles north of the plain, and is not visible from any part of it ; and besides Ras en Naktirah is just about too stadia from Ptolemais, as stated by Josephus. The writer, on visiting the spot, and clambering over the difficult pass, was particularly stnick with the appropriateness of the name Ladder.':—J. L. P.