was beyond the power of individual travelers.
Hence in 1865 a number of men interested in Palestinian research met in
London {120} and organized a society known as the Palestine Exploration
Fund. Its object was the complete, systematic, and scientific
exploration of the Holy Land, especially for the purpose of elucidating
the Scriptures. The idea was taken up with great enthusiasm, and from
the beginning until now the society has been actively engaged in
illuminating Palestine past and present. During the early history of
the Fund few excavations were carried on, and these were confined to
the city of Jerusalem; but since 1890 several mounds in southern
Palestine have been excavated, the most important being Tel-el-Hesy,
the probable site of ancient Lachish, and the site of the important
city of Gezer. At present (1912) the site of ancient Beth-Shemesh is
being excavated.

The German Palestine Society was organized in 1877 for a similar
purpose. When the English surveyors were prevented by the Turkish
government from completing the survey of eastern Palestine the German
society took up the work, and its results are embodied in a map now in
process of publication. The principal excavations of the German
society were carried on between 1903 and 1907 at Tel-el Mutasellim, the
ancient Megiddo, under the direction of Dr. Benzinger and Dr.
Schumacher. Dr. Sellin carried on excavations at the neighboring
Taanach for the Austrian government between 1902 and 1904. {121} Two
other sites have been excavated--Jericho by the Germans and Samaria by
Harvard University, and though no epoch-making finds have come to light
in these two places, the results illuminate the early history of
Palestine.

Phoenicia has yielded some of its treasures. The first of importance,
found in 1855 in the Necropolis of Sidon, was the sarcophagus of
Eshmunazar, king of Sidon. Since then various other sites have been
examined, and much material has been unearthed, throwing light on the
history, religion, art, and civilization of these ancient neighbors of
Israel. In the year 1868 a German missionary, the Rev. F. Klein,
discovered at Diban, the site of an ancient royal city of Moab, a large
stone, with an inscription of Mesha, a king of Moab in the ninth
century B.C. Between 1888 and 1891 investigations were conducted, for
the Royal Museum in Berlin, at the mound of Zenjirli, once a city in
the land Shamal, near the northern limits of Syria, sou