These descriptions of caves in the Near East are referred to by Beldam in his account of the Royston Cave. They are from the 1841 edition, vol. ii, pp. 352–354 and 395–397.
[Caves near Deir Dubbâ’n: visited 18 May 1838]
{352}
After a stop of twenty minutes at the well, we now at
9h 05′ turned to the left almost at a right angle, and
proceeded on a course about S. by W. We had heard all along,
and especially from the Sheikh of Beit Nettîf, of a great cavern in
this quarter, large enough (it was said) to hold all the Pasha’s
troops. We had hoped it might turn out to be the cave of Makkedah, which
Eusebius and Jerome place eight miles east of
Eleutheropolis.2 According to our reckoning, however, we had
already travelled too far for this. At 9h 40′, a few
steps beyond
{353}
a village named Deir Dubbâ’n, we came to the cavern (so
called) of which we were in search, just by our road on the left.
Although not Makkedah, yet the place is certainly a great curiosity.
2 Josh. x. 10. 26 seq. xv. 41. Onomast. art. Maceda.
In the soft limestone or chalky rock, which the soil here scarcely covers, are several irregular pits, some nearly square, and all about fifteen to twenty feet deep, with perpendicular sides. Whether these pits are natural or artificial, it might at first be difficult to say. In the sides are irregular doors or low arched passages, much obstructed by rubbish, leading into large excavations in the adjacent rock in the form of tall domes or bell-shaped apartments, varying in height from twenty to thirty feet, and in diameter from ten or twelve to twenty feet or more. The top of the dome usually terminates in a small circular opening at the surface of the ground above, admitting light into the cavern. These apartments are mostly in clusters, three or four together, communicating with each other. Around one pit towards the S. W. we found sixteen such apartments thus connected, forming a sort of labyrinth. They are all hewn very regularly; but many are partly broken down; and it is not impossible that the pits themselves may have been caused by the falling in of similar domes. Some of the apartments are ornamented, either near the bottom or high up, or both, with rows of small holes or niches, like pigeon-holes, extending quite around the wall. In the largest cluster, in the innermost dome, a rough block of the limestone has been left standing on one side, ten or twelve feet high, as if a rude pulpit or a pedestal for a statue. In the same apartment are several crosses cut in the wall; and in another of the same suite, are several very old Cufic inscriptions, one of which is quite long. These we neglected to copy, much to our subsequent regret, although from what {354} we elsewhere saw, they probably would throw no light upon the age and character of these singular excavations.
What then could have been the object of these caverns? Cisterns they were not; and quarries they could hardly have been; as the stone is not hard enough for building, and there is no place in the vicinity erected with such stone. Or, if quarries, why then excavate in this peculiar and difficult form, when all is so near the surface? The form in itself resembles that of the subterranean magazines around many of the villages at the present day; and naturally suggests the idea, that these caverns too may have been intended for magazines of grain. But their great number, and especially the fact of their communicating with each other, is inconsistent with such an hypothesis. I am unable to solve the mystery; and the similar excavations which we afterwards saw on our second visit to Beit Jibrîn, serve only to render the whole matter still more inexplicable.
[Caves near Beit Jibrîn: visited 22 May 1838]
{395}
We went first to some caverns on the S.W. side of the Wady leasing up to
Santa Hanneh, near the path by which we had approached from Kubeibeh.
These are artificial excavations, having partly the character of those
we had seen near Deir Dubbân, but of much more careful workmanship.
Besides domes, there are here also long ached rooms, with the walls in
general cut quite smooth. One of these was nearly a hundred feet in
length; having along its
{396}
sides, about ten feet above the level of the floor, a line of ornamental
work like a sort of cornice. On one side, lower down, were two niches at
some distance apart, which seemed once to have had images standing in
them; but the stone was too much decayed to determine with certainty.
These apartments are all lighted by openings from above. In one smaller
room, not lighted, there was at one corner what looked like a
sarcophagus hollowed out of the same rock; but it was too much broken
away to enable us to speak positively. The entrance to the whole range
of caverns is by a broad, arched passage of some elevation; and we were
surprised at the taste and skill displayed in the workmanship.
The Sheikh now took us across the same valley to other clusters of caverns in the northern hill; more extensive indeed than the former, occupying in part the bowels of the whole hill; but less important and far less carefully wrought. These consist chiefly of bell-shaped domes lighted from above, like those at Deir Dubbân; though some are merely high arched chambers excavated in the face of the rock, and open to the day. The rock here is softer, and very many of the domes are broken down. The Sheikh related, that one chamber before unknown having recently fallen in, he thinking there might be treasure in it, sent down a man to explore it; but he found only a human skeleton. In one of the caverns was a small fountain; and near by were two short inscriptions in very old Cufic, which my companion copied. They seem however to have been the work of casual visitors; and afford no explanation of the age or object of the excavations. …
{397}
We next bent our steps towards the Tell on the south of the valley, ... The
Tell itself, consisting of chalky limestone, is rather a striking object
in the part of the country,—a truncated cone with a flat circular
plateau on the top, some six hundred feet in diameter.
…
But the most remarkable spot of all remained yet to be visited. This was another series of immense excavations on the southern end of the same hill; below the traces of foundations just described. Lighting {398} several candles, we entered by a narrow and difficult passage from a pit overgrown with briers, and found ourselves in a dark labyrinth of galleries and apartments, all cut from the solid rock, and occupying the bowels of the hill. Here were some dome-shaped chambers as before; others were extensive rooms, with roofs supported by columns of the same rock left in excavating; and all were connected with each other by passages, apparently without order or plan. Several other apartments were still more singular. These were also in the form of tall domes, twenty feet or more in diameter, and from twenty to thirty feet high; they were entered by a door near the top, from which a staircase cut in the same rock wound down around the wall to the bottom. We descended into several of these rooms; but found nothing at the bottom, and no appearance of any other door or passage. We could discover no trace of inscriptions; nor any thing, indeed, which might afford the slightest clue for unravelling the mystery, in which the history and object of these remarkable excavations are enveloped.—Near by were said to be other similar clusters, which our time did not permit us further to explore.