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Pilgrimage of Etheria

Egeria, tr. McClure and Feltoe, 1919

13. Mount Nebo

We arrived, then, at the summit of the mountain, where there is now a church of no great size, on the very top of mount Nebo. Inside the church, in the place where the pulpit is, I saw a place a little raised, containing about as much space as tombs usually contain. I asked the holy men what this was, and they answered: “Here was holy Moses laid by the angels, for, as it is written: No man knoweth of his burial,¹ since it is certain that he was buried by the angels. His tomb, indeed, where he was laid, is [not²] shown to this day; for as it was shown to us by our ancestors who dwelt here where [he was laid], so do we show it to you, and our ancestors said that this tradition was handed down to them by their own ancestors.” So prayer was made anon, and all things that we were accustomed to do in their order in every place were done here also, and we began to go out of the church. Then they who knew the place — the priests and holy monks — said to us: “If you wish to see the places that are mentioned in the books of Moses, come out of the door of the church, and from the very summit, from the side on which they are visible from here, look and see,³ and we will tell you each place that is visible from hence.” Then we rejoiced greatly and immediately came out. From the door of the church we saw the place where the Jordan runs into the Dead Sea, which place appeared below us as we stood. On the opposite side we saw not only Livias, which was on the near side of Jordan, but also Jericho, which was beyond Jordan; to so great a height rose the lofty place where we stood, before the door of the church. The greatest part of Palestine, the land of promise, was in sight, together with the whole land of Jordan, as far as it could be seen with our eyes. On the left side we saw all the lands of the Sodomites and Segor⁴ which is the only one of the five cities that exists to-day. There is a memorial of it, but nothing appears of those other cities but a heap of ruins, just as they were turned into ashes. The place where was the inscription concerning Lot’s wife was shown to us, which place is read of in the Scriptures.⁵ But believe me, reverend ladies, the pillar itself cannot be seen, only the place is shown, the pillar is said to have been covered by the Dead Sea. Certainly when we saw the place we saw no pillar, I cannot therefore deceive you in this. The bishop of the place, that is of Segor, told us that it is now some years since the pillar could be seen. The spot where the pillar stood is about six miles from Segor, and the water now covers the whole of this space. Then we went to the right side of the church, out of doors and opposite to us two cities were pointed out, the one Esebon,⁶ now called Exebon, which belonged to Seon, king of the Amorites, and the other, now called Sasdra,⁷ the city of Og the king of Basan. Fogor,⁸ which was a city of the kingdom of Edom, was also pointed out from thence, opposite to us. All these cities which we saw were situated on mountains, but a little below them the ground seemed to be flatter. Then we were told that in the days when holy Moses and the children of Israel bad fought against those cities, they had encamped there, and indeed the signs of a camp were visible there. [From] the side of the mountain which I have called the left, which was over the Dead Sea, a very sharp-cut mountain was shown to us, which was formerly called Agri specula.⁹ This is the mountain on which Balak the son of Beor placed Balaam the sooth-sayer to curse the children of Israel, and God refused to permit it, as it is written. Then, having seen everything that we desired, we returned in the Name of God through Jericho back to Jerusalem along the whole of the route by which we had come.

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