SIDDIM, Vale of. See p. 48. supra. SIDON, or Zidon, a very antient and celebrated city, founded by Sidon the eldest son of Canaan. The name Sidon is commonly derived from the Hebrew or Tyrian words (TSαDeн) which signifies to fish. Joshua (xi. 8.) calls it Sidon the Great, by way of eminence; whence some have taken occasion to say, that in his time there were two Sidons, a greater and a lesser : but no geographer has mentioned any other Sidon than Sidon the Great. Joshua assigned Sidon to the tribe of Asher (Josh. xix. 28.), but this tribe could never get possession of it. (Judg. i. 31.) It is situated on the Mediterranean, in | a fine country, one day's journey from Paneas, or from the fountains of Jordan, and has a fine harbour. Abulfeda places it sixty-six miles from Damascus. This city has been always famous for its great trade and navigation. Its inhabitants were the first remarkable merchants in the world, and were very early celebrated on account of their luxury; for, in the days of the judges of Israel, the inhabitants of Laish are said to have dwelt careless and secure after the manner of the Zidonians. (Judg. xviii. 7.) The men of Sidon being great shipwrights, were particularly eminent, above all other nations, for hewing and polishing timber, there being none who were skilled how to hew timber like the Sidonians. (1 Kings v. 6.) This place is now called Seide or Saide. The city, as it exists at present, rises immediately from the strand; and, when seen from a slight distance, presents a rather imposing appearance. The interior, however, is most wretched and gloomy. Some faint traces are still discoverable of the antient lustre of Sidon, in the broken columns and architectural ornaments, which lie neglected at a little distance from the modern walls.1 SIHOR, River. See p. 36. supra. SILOAM, Fountain or Pool of. See p. 40. supra. SIMEON, Canton of the tribe of. p. 12. supra. See fire in a bush; this Horeb is therefore called Sinai by Saint Stephen. (Acts vii. 30.) See HOREB, p. 532. supra. SMYRNA, a city of Asia Minor, was situated between forty and forty-five miles to the north of Ephesus, of which city it was originally a colony. It is now celebrated chiefly for the number, wealth, and commerce of the inhabitants. Of its population, which is estimated at one hundred and forty thousand persons, about twenty-six thousand are Christians in communion with the Greek church; five thousand are Roman Catholics, and one hundred and forty are Protestants. The Christians here are in better condition than in any other of the seven churches. The angel of the church of Smyrna, addressed in the second apocalyptic epistle, is supposed to have been Polycarp, the disciple of Saint John, by whom he was appointed bishop of Smyrna. As he afterwards suffered much, being burnt alive at Smyrna, A. D. 166, the exhortation in Rev. ii. 10. would be peculiarly calculated to support and encourage him. SODOM, the chief of the Pentapolitan cities, or five cities of the plain, gave the name to the whole land. It was burnt with three other cities, by fire from heaven, for the unnatural lusts of their inhabitants, the truth of which is attested by numerous heathen writers. See pp. 69-72. supra. SYRIA, properly so called, was a country of Asia, comprehended between the Euphrates on the east, the Mediterranean on the west, Cilicia on the north, Phoenicia, Judæa, and Arabia Deserta, on the south. It was divided into various provinces or cantons, which derived their names from their situation with respect to particular rivers or cities. Thus, 1. Syria of the two rivers, or Mesopotamia of Syria, or Aram Naharaim (Hebrew), was comprehended between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates. 2. Syria of Damascus, that of which Damascus was the capital, extended eastward along Mount Libanus. Its limits varied according as the princes that reigned at Damascus were more or less powerful. SINAI, Desert of. See p. 53. supra. SINAI, a mountain in Arabia Petræa, where the law was given. It had two tops; the one lower, called Horeb, or the Mount of God (Exod. iii. 1.), when he appeared to Moses in a flame of teresting account of the antiquities of Shechem. See also Mr. Jolliffe's Letters from Palestine, pp. 44-48. 3. Syria of Zobah, or Soba, or Sobal, as it is called by the Septuagint, was probably Cole-Syria, or Syria the 1 Jolliffe's Letters from Palestine, pp. 7-9. hollow. Its capital was Zobah, a city unknown, unless it be Hoba or Hobal, north of Damascus. (Gen. xiv. 15.) 4. Syria of Maachah, or of Bethmaaeah, was also towards Libanus. (2 Sam. x. 6.8. 1 Kings xiii. 20. 2 Kings xv. 29.) It extended beyond Jordan, and was given to Manasseh. (Deut. iii. 14. Josh. xiii. 4.) 5. Syria of Rohob or Rehob, was that part of Syria of which Rehob was the capital. But Rohob was near the northern frontier of the land of promise (Numb. xiii. 21.), on the way or pass that leads to Emath or Hamath. It was given to the tribe of Asher, and is contiguous to Aphek, which was in Libanus. (Josh. xix. 28. 30. and xxi. 31.) Laish, otherwise called Dan, situate at the fountains of Jordan, was in the country of Rohob. (Judg. i. 31.) Hadadezer, king of Syria of Zobah, | was son of Rehob or Rohob, or perhaps a native of the city of this name. (2 Sam. viii. 3. 12.) The Ammonites called to their assistance against David, the Syrians of Rehob, of Zoba, of Maachah, and of Ish-tob. (2 Sam. x. 6. 8.) 6. Syria of Tob, or of Ishtob, or of the land of Tob, or of the Tubieni, as they are called in the Maccabees, was in the neighbourhood of Libanus, the northern extremity of Palestine. (Judg. xi. 3. 5. 1 Mac. 5. 13. 2 Mac. xii. 17.) When Jephthah was banished by his brethren from Gilead, he withdrew into the land of Tob. 7. Syria of Emath, or Hamath, that of which the city Hamath, on the Orontes, was the capital. 8. Syria without any other appellation, stands for the Kingdom of Syria, of which Antioch became the capital after the reign of the Seleucidæ. 9. CŒLO-SYRIA, or Cale-Syria, or the Lower Syria, oceurs in several places of the Maccabees. (1 Macc. x. 69. 2 Macc. iii. 5. 8. iv. 4. viii. 8.) The word Cole-Syria, in the Greek, signifies Syria-cava, or Syria the hollow, or deep. It may be considered, says Strabo, either in a proper and restrained sense, as comprehending only the tract of land between Libanus and Antilibanus: or in a larger signification, and then it will comprehend all the country in obedience to the kings of Syria, from Seleucia or Arabia and Egypt. Syria at first was governed by its own kings, each of whom reigned in | his own city, and territories. David SYRO-PHŒNICIA, is Phoenicia properly so called, of which Sidon, or Zidon was the capital; which having by right of conquest been united to the kingdom of Syria, added its old name Phoenicia to that of Syria. The Canaanitish woman is called a Syrophonician (Mark vii. 26.), because she was of Phoenicia, which was then considered as making part of Syria. St. Matthew calls her a Canaanitish woman (Matt. xv. 22. 24.), because this country was really peopled by the Canaanites, Sidon being the eldest son of Canaan. (Gen. x. 15.) TABOR, or Thabor, Mount. See p. 46. supra. TARSUS, the metropolis of Cilicia (Acts xxi. 39.), was celebrated for being the place whither Jonah designed to fly, and where St. Paul was born. It was a very rich and populous city, and had an academy, furnished with men so eminent, that they are said to have excelled in all arts of polite learning and philosophy; even those of Alexandria, and Athens, and Rome itself, were indebted to it for their best professors. TEKOAH, Wilderness of. See p. 53. supra. THESSALONICA, a large and populous city and sea-port of Macedonia, the capital of one of the four districts At the time of writing the Epistle THYATIRA, a city of Asia Minor, was TIBERIAS (John vi. 1-23. xxi. 1.), a salem, this city became eminent for its TRACHONITIS. See p. 16. supra. TYRE, a celebrated city and sea-port 1 Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. pp. 219-233. 8vo. Capt. Light's Travels in Egypt, 66 of these waters," says he, after the description, are as unknown as the contriver of them. According to common tradition, they are filled from a subterraneous river which king Solomon discovered by his great sagacity; and he caused these cisterns to be made as part of his recompense to king Hiram, for the materials furnished by that prince towards building the temple at Jerusalem. It is certain, however, from their rising so high above the level of the ground, that they must be brought from some part of the mountains, which are about a league distant; and it is as certain that the work was well done at first; seeing it performs its office so well, at so great a distance of time; the Turks having broken an outlet on the west side of the cistern, through which there issues a stream like a brook, driving four corn mills between it and the sea." From these cisterns there was an aqueduct which led to the city, supported by arches, about six yards from the ground, running in a northerly direction, about an hour, when it turns to the west, at a small mount, where antiently stood a fort, but now a mosque, which seems to ascertain the site of the old city; and thence proceeds over the isthmus that connects insular Tyre with the main, built by Alexander, when he besieged and took it. of five months. Pococke observes, that "there are no signs of the antient city; and as it is a sandy shore, the face of every thing is altered, and the great aqueduct is in many parts almost buried in the sand." (Vol. ii. p. 81.) Thus has been fulfilled the prophecy of Ezekiel: Thou shalt be built no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again! (xxvi. 21.) The fate of Insular Tyre has been no less remarkable: when Alexander stormed the city, he set fire to it. This circumstance was foretold: "Tyre did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets. Behold the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire." (Zech. ix. 3, 4.) After this terrible calamity, Tyre again retrieved her losses. Only eighteen years after, she had recovered such a share of her antient commerce and opulence, as enabled her to stand a siege of fourteen months against Antigonus, before he could reduce the city. After this, Tyre fell alternately under the dominion of the kings of Syria and Egypt, and then of the Romans, until it was taken by the Saracens, about a. D. 639, retaken by the Crusaders, A. D. 1124; and at length sacked and rased by the Mamelukes of Egypt, with Sidon, and other strong towns, that they might no longer harbour the Christians, A. D. 1289.1 The following description of the modern town of Surat, by a recent intelligent traveller, will give the read Old Tyre withstood the mighty Assyrian power, having been besieged, in vain, by Shalmaneser, for five years, although he cut off their supplies of water from the cisterns, which they remedied, by digging wells, within the city. It afterwards held out for thir-er a lively idea of the splendour of teen years against Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and was at length taken: but not until the Tyrians had removed their effects to the insular town, and left nothing but the bare walls to the victor, which he demolished. What completed the destruction of the city was, that Alexander afterwards made use of these materials to build a prodigious causeway, or isthmus, above half a mile long, to the insular city, which revived as the phoenix, from the ashes of the old, and grew to great power and opulence, as a maritime state; and which he stormed after a most obstinate siege antient Tyre in the days of her commercial prosperity, as delineated by the prophet Ezekiel (xxvii. 3.): "The bazaars, filled with costly merchandise, picturesque and interesting groups of natives on elephants, camels, horses, and mules: strangers from all parts of the globe, in their respective costume; vessels building on the stocks, others navigating the river; together with Turks, Persians, and Armenians, on Arabian chargers; European ladies in splendid carriages, the Asiatic females in hackeries drawn by oxen; and the motley appearance of the English and nabob's troops on the fortifications, remind us |