'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎357] (466/496)

we stood on a table land sweeping with a gentle slope from the hills of
Gibeah on the left, to the edge of the declivities which skirt the valley of
the Jordan on the right. In front, a little on our right, rose the round-
topped hill of Ras-el-Hai, which we reached in twenty-nine minutes
from the bottom of Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Zerreih ; from Hizmeh fifty minutes, or about
three miles by the road ; and from Anathoth one hour and forty minutes.
Bas-el-Hai bears from Hizmeh E. 18° N., and from Tel-el-Ful E. 17°
N. The ruins lie exactly in the line of the most direct route between
Jericho and Bethel, nearly S. E. from the latter. The direct distance
to Jericho from Hai is about 9^- miles, and to Bethel about 4f miles.
On the summit of Ras-el-Hai are foundations of a strong wall of cut
stone, not rustic, but with as grey and weathered an aspect as that of the
surrounding limestone rocks. The hewn stones do not run above three
feet by two feet or one and a half feet thick. One side of the wall is four
feet four inches thick, and rises from two to three feet above the surface
of the ruins. It is faced with cut stones fitted and laid without cement,
the interior being composed of smaller rough stones carefully put toge
ther as in certain structures of cyclopean architecture. The founda
tions of one of the buildings, which is enclosed by this Peribolus, mea
sured twenty-five paces by fifteen paces. A mass of rubbish of hewn and
rough stone and earth covers the top of the hill, among which we found
a very carefully cut stone, like the keystone of an arch ; and also the
remains of a column with filleted base, like that on Mount Olivet, alrea
dy described. Amid the rubbish are bits of marble and fragments of
black and red pottery. Similar fragments are also turned up by the
plough in the adjacent fields.
From the hill of Ras-el-Hai, on which probably stood the Acropolis
of this once fortified place, run the foundations of a structure in a N.
westerly direction across the valley and up the opposite heights ; but
whether this was originally the wall of the old town prolonged to de
fend the pass through the valley, or the remains of an aqueduct, I did
not determine. The foundation of this wnll-built structure may be
traced on the sides and round the base of the Ras, and the remains of
a paved road, or street, leading up to the citadel on the western side
within the peribolus. The defiles in the heights on the west of the place
would form convenient places for Joshua s ambush.
The valley separating them from the town is not above a quarter of a
mile broad, Immediately on the N, is the deep and precipitous sice