To The S. Of The Plain Are The Mountains
Of Nablous, And To The N. Of It, Those Of Nazareth, Which Reach To The
Foot Of Mount Tabor, Terminating At The Village Of Daboury.
The plain of
Esdrelon is about eight hours in length and four in breadth, it is very
fertile, but at present almost entirely deserted.
The shape of Mount
Tabor is that of a truncated cone; its sides are covered to the top with
a forest of oak and wild pistachio trees; its top is about half an hour
in circuit. The mountain is entirely calcareous. We found on the top a
single family of Greek Christians, refugees from Ezra, a village in the
Haouran, where I had known them during my stay there in November, 1810.
They had retired to this remote spot, to avoid paying taxes to the
government, and expected to remain unnoticed; they rented the upper
plain at the rate of fifty piastres per annum from the Sheikh of
Daboury, to which village the mountain belongs; the harvest, which they
were now gathering in, was worth about twelve hundred piastres, and they
had had the good fortune not to be disturbed by any tax-gatherers, which
will certainly not be the case next year, should they remain here.
On the top of Mount Tabor are found the remains of a large fortress. A
thick wall, constructed with large stones, may be traced quite round the
summit, close to the edge of the precipice; on several parts of it are
the remains of bastions.
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