The Vale of Shechem is from a quarter to half a mile wide north and south, hemmed in between the twin mountains Ebal and Gerizim, the summits of which are two miles apart in a line. The valley is the most luxuriant in Palestine; long rivulets, fed by no less than eighty springs (according to the natives), run down the hill-slopes and murmur in the deep ravine; gardens surround the city walls; figs, walnuts, mulberries, oranges, lemons, olives, pomegranates, vines, plums, and every species of vegetable grow in abundance, and the green foliage and sparkling streams refresh the eye. But as at Damascus, the oasis is set in a desert, and the stony, barren mountains contrast strongly with the green orchards below.
The Crusaders have left their mark on the town: the ruined "Leper's Mosqueâ to the east seems to have been probably the Hospital: the Great Mosque is a Byzantine Basilica, with an outer court, having on the east a fine Gothic portal. The little chapel of the "Wailing of Jacobâ (over his lost son Joseph) was also once a Christian church. The names of the six quarters of the city appear to be ancient.
Just inside the town wall is a modern Moslem mosque, dedicated to the "Ten Sons of Jacob,â and the site is probably connected with an ancient tradition of the tombs of the sons of Israel mentioned by St. Jerome in his account of St. Paula's travels. Olive-groves extend eastwards for half a mile from the town, and on the west also there are groves where the lepers have taken up their abode. The ancient ruins extend some way beyond the walls on the east, and the foundations of a former monastery exist above the road on the south-west.
South of Nâblus rises the rocky and steep shoulder of Gerizim. The mountain is L-shaped; the highest ridge (2848·8 feet above the sea) runs north and south, and a lower ridge projects westwards from it. The top is about 1000 feet above the bottom of the valley east of Shechem. As compared with other Judean mountains, the outline of Gerizim is very fine; the lower part consists of white chalk, which has been quarried, leaving huge caverns visible above the groves which clothe the feet of the hill. Above this formation comes the dark blue Nummulitic limestone, barren and covered with shingle, rising in ledges and long slopes to the summit. The whole of the northern face of the mountain abounds with springs, the largest of which, with ruins of a little Roman shrine to its Genius, was close to our camp.