The Origin of Freemasonry and Knights Templar ... - Lodge Prudentia

SUPPLEMENTAL ENCYCLC HVKDIA1116 B. C, when it was taken by the Philistines under theadministration of the high priestEli.Sidon Xow called Saida. Tt was a celebrated cityof IMimiicia, on the Mediterranean Sea, twenty miles northof Tyre and as many south oi" I'.eyroot. It is one of themost ancient cities in the world, and is believed to havebeen founded by Zidon, the eldest son of Canaan. In thetime of Homer (850 B. C.) the Zidonians were eminentfor their trade and commerce, their wealth and prosperity,their skill in navigation, astronomy, architecture andfor their manufactures of glass, etc. They had then acommodious harbor, now choked with sand and inaccessibleto any but the smallest vessels. Upon the divisionof Canaan among the tribes of Joshua, Great Zidon fellto the lot of Asher; bu\ that tribe never succeeded inobtaining possession. The Zidonians continued longunder their own government and kings, though sometimestributary to the kings of Tyre. They were subduedsuccessively by the Babylonians, Egyptians and Romans,the latter of whom deprived them of their freedom. Itis at present,like most of the other Turkish towns inSyria, dirty and full of ruins, though it still retains alittle coasting trade, and has about five thousand inhabitants.Sinai A mountain, or mountain range, in ArabiaI'etnea in the peninsula formed by the two arms of theRed Sea. and rendered memorable as the spot where,, thelaw was given to Israel through Moses. The upper regionof Sinai forms an irregular circle of thirty or forty milesin diameter, possessing numerous sources of water, a temperateclimate and a soil capable of supporting animal andable life; for which reason it is the refuge of all theI'edaweens when the low countryisparched tip. This,therefore, was the part of the peninsula best adapted to theresidence of nearly a year, during which the Israeliteswere numbered, and received their laws from the Most[98