Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and across the desert into Egypt ...

SYRIA, EGYPT, GERMANY, &C» 137
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Not far from Jerusalem is a place called the grotto of Jere-
miah, where that prophet wrote the Lamentations of the Holy
week; and, a little farther, the tombs of the kings, twenty-two
in number.
BETHLEHEM.
Here are seen the following places, viz. where Christ was born »
the manger in which he was laid, and the place where he was
adored by the Magi. The grotto of St. Joseph, where he remain-
ed when the Virgin was delivered; the place where the Innocents
were slain by order of Herod; the sepulchre of St. Gerolamo, St.
Paula, and St. Eustochia her daughter; the birth-place of our Sa-
viour, which has been forty or fifty years in the power of the
Greeks, who took it away from us by means of a firman of the
Grand Seignor, procured by money; and the church of St. Catha-
rine, built by St. Helen. Without Bethlehem, at a little distance,
is the grotto of the milk of the Virgin Mary, and a few steps far-
ther, the house of St. Joseph. About two miles farther is the church
of the angels; in which place the birth of our Saviour was announ-
ced to the shepherds by the angels, singing " Glory to God in the
highest." About six miles from Bethlehem, is the place where
was situated the city of Tecua, built by Rehoboam, son of Solomon
; in this city lived the holy prophet Amos. Towards the
Dead Sea, six miles from Bethlehem, is the place where were the
vines of Engaddi, so much praised in the psalms; and a few step-;
from thence, is the place where David hid himself from the persecution
of Saul. Four miles distant is the monastery of St. Sabba,
in possession of the Greeks. This was built by the Emperor Jus-
tinian, and in it died St. Sabba, whose body was conveyed to
Venice. In this convent are the several rooms of St. John of Da-
mascus, of St. Eutimius, and St. Civillus. Returning from the
convent of St. Sabba, you go to the hortus conclusus, to the three
pools of Solomon, See.
ST. JOHN IN THE MOUNTAIN.
The place where John the Baptist was born, and the house of
St. Elizabeth, where the Virgin Mary went to visit her, and com-
posed the psalm " Magnificat," (my soul doth magnify the Lord,
£cc.) are here to be seen. In the way you
meet with a convent belonging
to the Greeks, called the Holy Cross, built by St. Helen,
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