Art. II.—On the Lake Phiala—the Jordan and its Sources

Extract

In Josephus we find the following account of the sources of the Jordan, and the Phiala lake: “The head of this celebrated river [the Jordan] has been thought to bo Panion; but in truth it passes hither underground; and the source of it is Phiala, an hundred and twenty furlongs [stadia] from Cæsarea [Philippi], a little on the right hand, and not much out of the way to Trachonitis. It is called Phiala (that is, the Vial) from the round figure of it; and its water stands always at a stay, the basin being brimful, without either shrinking or overflowing. The first discovery of this secret was from Philip, the Tetrarch of Trachonitis, by casting straws into Phiala, that came out again at Panion, which, till that time, was taken for the head of the Jordan. This river, thus, as to appearance, taking its origin from the Cave of Panion, afterwards crosses the bogs and fens of the lake Semechonitis; and after a course of an hundred and twenty furlongs farther, passes under the city of Julias [or Bethsaida], and so over the lake Genezareth; and then running a long way through a wilderness or desert, it empties itself at last into the lake Asphaltitis, or the Dead Sea.”