The Crusaders established a Latin bishopric at Sebaste ; and the title was continued in the Rom ish Church till the r4th century (Le Quien, Oriens Christ. iii. 129o). Saladin marched through it in A.D. 1184, after his repulse from Kerak (Abulfed. Anna/. A.H. 580). Benjamin of Tudela describes it as having been formerly a very strong city, and situated on the mount, in a fine country, richly watered, and surrounded by gardens, vineyards, orchards, and olive-groves. He adds that no Jews were living there (Biner. ed. Asher, p. 66). Phocas and lirocardus speak only of the church and tomb of John the Baptist, and of the Greek church and monastery on the summit of the hill. Notices of the place occur in the travellers of the r4th, r6th, and 17th centuries ; nor are they all so meagre as Dr. Robinson conceives. That of Morison, for instance, is full and exact (Voyage du Mont Sinai, pp. 23o-233). Scarcely any traces of the earlier or later Samaria could then be per ceived, the materials having been used by the in habitants for the construction of their own mean dwellings. The then residents were an extremely poor and miserable set of people. In the ISth century the place appears to have been left unex plored ; but in the present century it has often been visited and described.
The Hill of Samaria is an oblong mountain of considerable elevation, and very regular in form, situated in the midst of a broad deep valley, the continuation of that of Nabulus (Shechem), which here expands into a breadth of five or six miles. Beyond this valley, which completely isolates the hill, the mountains rise again on every side, forming a complete wall around the city. 'They are ter raced to the tops, sown in grain, and planted with olives and figs, in the midst of which a number of handsome villages appear to great advantage, their white stone cottages contrasting strikingly with the verdure of the trees. The Hill of Samaria ' itself is cultivated from its base, the terraced sides and summits being covered with corn and with olive trees. About midway up the ascent the hill is surrounded by a narrow terrace of level land, like a belt ; below which the roots of the hill spread off more gradually into the valleys. Higher up, too, are the marks of slight terraces, once occupied, perhaps, by the streets of the ancient city. The ascent of the hill is very steep, and the narrow foot path winds among the mountains through substan tial cottages of the modern Sebustieh (the Arabic form of Sebaste), which appear to have been con structed to a great extent of ancient materials, very superior in size and quality to anything which could at this day be wrought into an Arab habitation. The first object which attracts the notice of the traveller, and at the same time the most conspicu ous ruin of the place, is the church dedicated to John the Baptist, erected on the spot which an old tradition fixed as the place of his burial, if not of his martyrdom. It is said to have been built by the Empress Helena ; but the architecture limits its antiquity to the period of the Crusades, although a portion of the eastern end seems to have been of earlier date. There is a blending of Greek and Saracenic styles, which is particularly observable in the interior, where there are several pointed arches. Others are round. The columns follow no regular order, while the capitals and ornaments present a motley combination, not to be found in any church erected in or near the age of Constan tine. The length of the edifice is 153 feet long inside, besides a porch of to feet, and the breadth is 75 feet. The eastern end is rounded in the com mon Greek style ; and resting, as it does, upon a precipitous elevation of nearly too feet immediately above the valley, it is a noble and striking monu ment. "Within the enclosure is a common Turkish tomb ; and beneath it, at a depth reached by 21 stone steps, is a sepulchre, three or four paces square, where, according to the tradition, John the Baptist was interred after he had been slain by Herod.
This tradition existed in the days of Jerome ; but there is no earlier trace of it : and if Josephus is correct in stating that John was beheaded in the castle of Machxrus, on the east of the Dead Sea (Antiq. xviii. 5. 2), his burial in Samaria is very improbable.
On approaching the summit of the hill, the traveller comes suddenly upon an area, once sur rounded by limestone columns, of which fifteen are still standing and two prostrate. These columns form two rows, thirty-two paces apart, while less than two paces intervene between the columns. They measure seven feet nine inches in circum ference ; but there is no trace of the order of their architecture, nor are there any foundations to indicate the nature of the edifice to which they belonged. Some refer them to Herod's temple to Augustus, others to a Greek church which seems to have once occupied the summit of the hill. The descent of the hill on the W.S.W. side brings the traveller to a very remarkable colonnade, which is easily traceable by a great number of columns, erect or prostrate, along the side of the hill for at least one-third of a mile, where it terminates at a heap of ruins, near the eastern extremity of the ancient site. The columns are sixteen feet high, two feet in diameter at the base, and one foot eight inches at the top. The capitals have disappeared ; but the shafts retain their polish, and, when not broken, are in good preservation. Eighty-two of these columns are still erect, and the number of those fallen and broken must be much greater. Most of them are of the limestone common to the region ; but some are of white marble, and some of granite. The mass of ruins in which this colonnade termi nates toward the west is composed of blocks of hewn stone, covering no great area on the slope of the hill, many feet lower than the summit. Neither the situation nor extent of this pile favours the notion of its having been a palace ; nor is it easy to conjecture the design of the edifice. The colon nade, the remains of which now stand solitary and mournful in the midst of ploughed fields, may, how ever, with little hesitation, be referred to the time of Herod the Great, and must be regarded as be longing to some one of the splendid structures with which he adorned the city. In the deep ravine which bounds the city on the north there fs another colonnade, not visited by Dr. Robinson, but fully described by Dr. Olin (Travels, ii. 371 373). The area in which these columns stand is. completely shut in by hills, with the exception of an opening on the north-east ; and so peculiarly sequestered is the situation; that it is only visible from a few points of the heights of the ancient site, by which it is overshadowed. The columns, of which a large number are entire and several in fragments, are erect, and arranged in a quadrangle, 196 paces in length, and 64 in breadth. They are three paces asunder, which would give 7o columns as the whole number when the colonnade was complete. The columns resemble in size and material those of the colormade last noticed, and appear to belong to the same age. These also probably formed part of Herod's city, though it is difficult to determine the use to which the colonnade was appropriated. Dr. Olin is possibly right in his conjecture, that this was one of the places of public assembly and amusement which Herod in troduced into his dominions (Robinson, Researches, iii. 136-49 ; Olin, Travels, ii. 366-374; Buck ingham, Travels in Palestine, pp. 512-517 ; Richard son, Travels, ii. 409-413; Schubert, Norge,:land, i56-162; Raumer, Paliistina, p. 158 ; Mann drell, yourney, pp. 78, 79).—J. K.