To Mr

Skene, for many years the English consul at Aleppo, is due the credit of first discovering the true site of the old Hittite capital [Carchemish). On the western bank of the Euphrates, midway between Birejik and the mouth of the Sajur, rises an artificial mound of earth, under which ruins and sculptured blocks of stone had been found from time to time. It was known as Jerablús, or Kalaat Jerablus, "the fortre of Jerablûs," sometimes wrongly written Jerabis; and in the name of Jerablus Mr. Skene had no difficulty in recognising an Arab corruption of Hierapolis. In the Roman age the name of Hierapolis or "Holy City" had been transferred to its neighbour Membij, which inherited the traditions and religious fame of the older Carchemish; but when the triumph of Christianity in Syria brought with it the fall of the great temple of Membij, the name disappeared from the later city, and was remembered only in connection with the ruins of the ancient Carchemish.