* In the lists of Thutmosis III. we find under No. 48 the town of Rosh-Qodshu, the “Sacred Cape,” which was evidently situated at the end of the mountain range, or probably on the site of Haifah; the name itself suggests the veneration with which Carmel was invested from the earliest times.

No corner of the world has been the scene of more sanguinary engagements, or has witnessed century after century so many armies crossing its borders and coming into conflict with one another.  Every military leader who, after leaving Africa, was able to seize Gaza and Ascalon, became at once master of Southern Syria.  He might, it is true, experience some local resistance, and come into conflict with bands or isolated outposts of the enemy, but as a rule he had no need to anticipate a battle before he reached the banks of the Kishon.

[Illustration:  196.jpg THE EVERGREEN OAKS BETWEEN JOPPA AND CARMEL]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a pencil sketch by Lortet.

Here, behind a screen of woods and mountain, the enemy would concentrate his forces and prepare resolutely to meet the attack.  If the invader succeeded in overcoming resistance at this point, the country lay open to him as far as the Orontes; nay, often even to the Euphrates.  The position was too important for its defence to have been neglected.  A range of forts, Ibleam, Taanach, and Megiddo,* drawn like a barrier across the line of advance, protected its southern face, and beyond these a series of strongholds and villages followed one another at intervals in the bends of the valleys or on the heights, such as Shunem, Kasuna, Anaharath, the two Aphuls, Cana, and other places which we find mentioned on the triumphal lists, but of which, up to the present, the sites have not been fixed.

* Megiddo, the “Legio” of the Roman period, has been identified since Robinson’s time with Khurbet-Lejun, and more especially with the little mound known by the name of Tell-el-Mutesallim.  Conder proposed to place its site more to the east, in the valley of the Jordan, at Khurbet-el- Mujeddah.

[Illustration:  197.jpg ACRE AND THE FRINGE OF REEFS SHELTERING THE ANCIENT PORT]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Lortet.

From this point the conqueror had a choice of three routes.  One ran in an oblique direction to the west, and struck the Mediterranean near Acre, leaving on the left the promontory of Carmel, with the sacred town, Rosh-Qodshu, planted on its slope.

[Illustration:  198.jpg Map]

Acre was the first port where a fleet could find safe anchorage after leaving the mouths of the Nile, and whoever was able to make himself master of it had in his hands the key of Syria, for it stood in the same commanding position with regard to the coast as that held by Megiddo in respect of the interior.  Its houses were built closely together on a spit of rock which projected boldly into the sea, while fringes