NEBI SAMWIL (SAMUEL"S TOMB) - Israel
As dawn broke on June 7, 1099, 40,000 weary men climbed a mountain and gazed wearily towards the southeast. What they saw in the distance brought them rapidly to their knees. Tears streaming down their faces, they thanked God for listening to their prayers and allowing them to feast their eyes upon their hearts' desire: Jerusalem. Six weeks later the Holy City would fall into their hands. And a new era in Israel's history would commence.
Local Arabs had a name for these knights, farmers and peasants who had crossed Europe and Asia to liberate the Holy Land and left havoc in their wake. They were called franji, Arabic for "Christians from the West." Six hundred years later, someone would dub them "Crusaders."
Off and on for the next 250 years the Crusaders ruled the Land of Israel. It was an era of blood and gore along with vast prosperity and extraordinary grandeur. Fortunately for history buffs, when the Crusaders were trounced for the last time in 1291 and departed this land never to return, they left behind magnificent structures and a treasure-trove of antiquities.
The Bible tells us that the prophet Samuel was buried in Ramah, probably an Arab village 5 kilometers north of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, a stubborn tradition dating back to the Byzantine era places his burial site at Nebi Samwil, the mountain from whose crest the Crusaders got their virgin glimpse of Jerusalem.
So uplifted were the Crusaders on that occasion that they renamed the hill Montjoie (mount of joy) and members of the newly founded monastic Premonstratensian Order built a monastery on its peak. Central to the monastery was a church, built in 1157 and called St. Samuel. Although Moslem conquerors eventually leveled the monastery, they turned the church into a mosque.
Massive excavations at Nebi Samwil have exposed remains from First and Second Temple period settlement, as well as parts of a large building dating back to Hasmonean rule. But most of the ruins are from the Crusader era, and belonged to structures used by the monks and neighboring farmers.
Among the excavations is an enormous stable complete with troughs, feed bins, and three square-topped stones from which riders mounted their horses. Numerous pilgrims stopped at the monastery on a route that led from Jaffa to Emmaus, Samuel's Tomb and the Holy City. The unfinished moat probably means that the monks were preparing for invasion when Moslem ruler Saladin was on the warpath in 1187. Obviously, his troops captured the monastery before the moat was completed.
Inside the building are a mosque and a staircase down to Samuel's tomb. There is also a rooftop, with a view. And although the view of the Old City that so stirred the Crusaders is now hidden behind thousands of new houses, you can make out at least one tower standing inside the walls. Below you, in all their glory, are the lands that Joshua apportioned to the tribe of Benjamin long, long ago.
Local Arabs had a name for these knights, farmers and peasants who had crossed Europe and Asia to liberate the Holy Land and left havoc in their wake. They were called franji, Arabic for "Christians from the West." Six hundred years later, someone would dub them "Crusaders."
Off and on for the next 250 years the Crusaders ruled the Land of Israel. It was an era of blood and gore along with vast prosperity and extraordinary grandeur. Fortunately for history buffs, when the Crusaders were trounced for the last time in 1291 and departed this land never to return, they left behind magnificent structures and a treasure-trove of antiquities.
The Bible tells us that the prophet Samuel was buried in Ramah, probably an Arab village 5 kilometers north of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, a stubborn tradition dating back to the Byzantine era places his burial site at Nebi Samwil, the mountain from whose crest the Crusaders got their virgin glimpse of Jerusalem.
So uplifted were the Crusaders on that occasion that they renamed the hill Montjoie (mount of joy) and members of the newly founded monastic Premonstratensian Order built a monastery on its peak. Central to the monastery was a church, built in 1157 and called St. Samuel. Although Moslem conquerors eventually leveled the monastery, they turned the church into a mosque.
Massive excavations at Nebi Samwil have exposed remains from First and Second Temple period settlement, as well as parts of a large building dating back to Hasmonean rule. But most of the ruins are from the Crusader era, and belonged to structures used by the monks and neighboring farmers.
Among the excavations is an enormous stable complete with troughs, feed bins, and three square-topped stones from which riders mounted their horses. Numerous pilgrims stopped at the monastery on a route that led from Jaffa to Emmaus, Samuel's Tomb and the Holy City. The unfinished moat probably means that the monks were preparing for invasion when Moslem ruler Saladin was on the warpath in 1187. Obviously, his troops captured the monastery before the moat was completed.
Inside the building are a mosque and a staircase down to Samuel's tomb. There is also a rooftop, with a view. And although the view of the Old City that so stirred the Crusaders is now hidden behind thousands of new houses, you can make out at least one tower standing inside the walls. Below you, in all their glory, are the lands that Joshua apportioned to the tribe of Benjamin long, long ago.
