We rode down the beautiful valley, taking the road to Sebaste (Samaria), while our luggage-mules kept directly over the mountains to Jenin.  Our path at first followed the course of the stream, between turfy banks and through luxuriant orchards.  The whole country we overlooked was planted with olive-trees, and, except the very summits of the mountains, covered with grain-fields.  For two hours our course was north-east, leading over the hills, and now and then dipping into beautiful dells.  In one of these a large stream gushes from the earth in a full fountain, at the foot of a great olive-tree.  The hill-side above it was a complete mass of foliage, crowned with the white walls of a Syrian village.  Descending the valley, which is very deep, we came in sight of Samaria, situated on the summit of an isolated hill.  The sanctuary of the ancient Christian church of St. John towers high above the mud walls of the modern village.  Riding between olive-orchards and wheat-fields of glorious richness and beauty, we passed the remains of an acqueduct, and ascended the hill The ruins of the church occupy the eastern summit.  Part of them have been converted into a mosque, which the Christian foot is not allowed to profane.  The church, which is in the Byzantine style, is apparently of the time of the Crusaders.  It had originally a central and two side-aisles, covered with groined Gothic vaults.  The sanctuary is semi-circular, with a row of small arches, supported by double pillars.  The church rests on the foundations of some much more ancient building—­probably a temple belonging to the Roman city.

Behind the modern village, the hill terminates in a long, elliptical mound, about one-third of a mile in length.  We made the tour of it, and were surprised at finding a large number of columns, each of a single piece of marble.  They had once formed a double colonnade, extending from the church to a gate on the western side of the summit.  Our native guide said they had been covered with an arch, and constituted a long market or bazaar—­a supposition in which he may be correct.  From the gate, which is still distinctly marked, we overlooked several deep valleys to the west, and over them all, the blue horizon of the Mediterranean, south of Caesarea.  On the northern side of the hill there are upwards of twenty more pillars standing, besides a number hurled down, and the remains of a quadrangular colonnade, on the side of the hill below.  The total number of pillars on the summit cannot be less than one hundred, from twelve to eighteen feet in height.  The hill is strewn, even to its base, with large hewn blocks and fragments of sculptured stone.  The present name of the city was given to it by Herod, and it must have been at that time a most stately and beautiful place.