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ℹ️ The Chinese and English alongside are this site's own translation, made directly from the original text on this page (not the CUV or the WEB, which follow the Masoretic Text and a different textual tradition).
There too a church has now been built. From that place to Bethlehem is three miles. Bethlehem is a most splendid place; many servants of God; the cave where the Lord was born, in which is the manger itself, adorned with gold and silver; day and night lamps within. But the mouth of the cave is altogether narrow for entering. Jerome the presbyter carved the rock at that very mouth of the cave and made a tomb for himself, where he was also laid. Immediately half a mile from Bethlehem, in the suburb of David, David himself lies there in the body, together with Solomon his son, two tombs. Which basilica is called after Saint David.
For the infants also whom Herod slew have their monument in that place, and all rest together, and it is opened and their bones are seen. Before Bethlehem is a monastery girt with a wall, in which a multitude of monks is gathered. From Bethlehem to the oak of Mamre are twenty-four miles, in which place lie Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Sarah, and also the bones of Joseph; a basilica built with a fourfold portico, uncovered in the middle of the atrium, through the middle of which a railing runs, and from one side the Christians enter and from the other side the Jews, making many offerings of incense.
For the deposition of Jacob and David is in that land most devoutly celebrated on the day after the Lord's Nativity, so that from all that land the Jews assemble, an innumerable multitude, and offering much incense and lights and giving gifts to those who serve there. Again, returning to Jerusalem, as we went down on the road which goes to Gaza and Ascalon, immediately twenty miles from Jerusalem we came to Mount Gilboa, where David slew Goliath. There too died Saul and Jonathan. For there lies Goliath in the middle of the road, with a heap of wood at his head.
A heap of stones, a lofty mountain, so that within twenty miles a loose stone is not found, because it is a consecration: as many as pass by, however often, carry three stones each and cast them upon that mound. For on those mountains it never rains, and at the hours of night the secret is thus: men see unclean spirits flying about, with the testimony of their own eyes, as it were the fleeces of wool, or certainly the waves of the sea. Then, turning aside to the flank, we came to the city which is called Eleutheropolis, in the place where Samson slew a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass, from which a spring came forth, which spring to this present day irrigates those places. For we were also at the place where it rises. Then we came to the place where Zechariah was killed and lies in the body;
a beautiful adorned basilica, and many servants of God. From there we came to the place where Isaiah was sawn asunder with a saw and where he lies, which saw is set up as a testimony beside Saint Zechariah. From there we came to the place where Habakkuk carried a meal to the reapers. And there rises a spring, where Philip baptized the eunuch. In which places are the wells which Abraham and Jacob dug, that is, the well of the oath and the well of calumny. We entered into Ascalon. There is the well of peace, greater in breadth, made in the manner of a theater, in which one descends to the water by steps. There rest three brother martyrs, Egyptians; they have indeed their own proper names, but are commonly called the Egyptians.
At one mile is the city of Saraphia, and nearby the city of Maiumas of Ascalon. From there we came into the city of Maiumas of Gaza, in which rests Saint Victor the martyr. From Maiumas to Gaza is one mile. Gaza is a splendid, delightful city, its men most honorable, adorned with every liberality, lovers of pilgrims. At the second milestone of Gaza rests the holy father Hilarion. And from there we came to the city of Elusa at the head of the desert, which goes toward Sinai, in which, according to the bishop's account, there was a certain noble girl named Maria. When she had been married, on the very night of her wedding her bridegroom died. She bore it patiently, and within a week of that event she set free her whole household ... and distributed her goods to the poor and to monasteries.
On the seventh day, having celebrated within, on that very night the bridegroom's garment was taken up, and she was not found. Of her it is said that she is in the desert beyond the Jordan, walking among the reeds or palms in the region of Zoar near the Salt Sea. In which places we found a monastery of girls, more than sixteen or seventeen, in a desert place, whom the Christians fed, who had one little donkey which ground grain for them, and they reared a lion, tame from a cub, huge, terrible to behold, who, when we drew near the cell, before his roar all the animals we had made water, of which some collapsed to the ground. And thus they said, that the lion himself guarded that very donkey in its pasture.
To these the most Christian man with whom I was offered, through me, one hundred solidi, but they would not accept. But sending to Jerusalem he brought them thirty tunics and, for the storeroom, vegetables and oil for the lamps; and they themselves told us of the powers of Mary, who walked in the desert. For two days the man with whom I was walked about searching, but whether he found her or did not find her, he would not tell us; nevertheless of the tunics and dates and roasted chickpeas in baskets which he had brought with him, or the lupines: of none of these did he carry any back with him. His affliction and weeping we could in no way console; he only kept saying: 'Woe to me, wretched man, for whose sake do I call myself a Christian?' Setting out from the city of Elusa, we entered the desert.
At twenty miles is a fort, in which is a hospice of Saint George, in which those passing through and the hermits have, as it were, a refuge and provisions. From there, entering the inner desert, we came to places of which it is said: A land turned to saltness through the malice of those who dwell in it. Where we saw rare men with camels, fleeing from us (for in Jerusalem also we saw them), men from the region of Ethiopia, with slit noses, slit ears, shod with little sandals, and with rings put through the toes on their feet. Being asked why thus, they said: 'Trajan the Roman emperor left us this mark.' As we walked through the desert for five or six days, camels carrying water for us, we received a sextarius in the morning and a sextarius in the evening per man.
When that water grew bitter in the skins, into the gall we would put sand, and it was made sweet. But the families of the Saracens and their wives, coming from the desert and sitting by the road in lamentation, with a cloth cast before them, would beg bread from those passing by; and their men would come, bringing skins with cold water from the inner part of the desert, and would give it, and take bread for themselves, and would bring little ropes with roots, whose fragrance of sweetness surpassed all spices, asking for nothing; because they were under a ban, and were celebrating their feast days. Now the number of people who entered through that greater desert was twelve thousand six hundred.
Journeying through the desert, on the eighteenth day we came to the place where Moses brought forth waters from the rock. From there, on another day, we came to the mountain of God, Horeb, and from there setting out to ascend Sinai, behold, an innumerable multitude of monks and hermits, chanting psalms with crosses, met us, who, prostrate on the ground, worshipped us, and we did likewise, weeping. And they led us into the valley between Horeb and Sinai, at the foot of which mountain is that spring where Moses saw the sign of the burning bush, in which also he watered his sheep.
This spring is enclosed within a monastery, which monastery is surrounded by fortified walls, and in it are three abbots who know languages, that is, Latin and Greek, Syriac and Egyptian and Bessan, as well as many interpreters of the individual languages. In it are the burial-places of monks. And we climbed up the mountain continuously for three miles, and came to a place, to the cave where Elijah hid when he fled from before Jezebel. Before this cave a spring rises which waters the mountain. From there we climbed continuously three miles to the very summit of the mountain, on which there is a small oratory, more or less six feet in breadth and in length. In it no one presumes to remain, but when day has already dawned the monks go up and perform the work of God.
In this place all out of devotion shave their beards and the hair of their heads and cast them away, where I too touched my beard. Mount Sinai is rocky and has little soil. Round about it are many cells of the servants of God, and likewise on Horeb; and they say that Horeb is clean ground. And on that very mountain, on one side of the mountain, the Saracens have set up their idol of marble, white as snow. There also their priest remains, clothed in a dalmatic and a linen mantle. And when the time of their festival comes round with the returning moon, before the moon rises, on their feast day that marble begins to change colour; as soon as the moon has entered, when they begin to worship, that marble becomes black like pitch.
When the time of the festival is completed, it returns to its former colour, at which we marvelled greatly. Between Sinai and Horeb is a valley, in which at certain times a dew descends from heaven, which they call manna; it congeals and becomes like a grain of mastic, and is gathered, and they have casks full of it in the monastery, and of it they give blessing in small flasks. For to us also they gave from it five sextarii. From it too they drink it as a spiced drink, and they gave it to us and we drank. For in those very mountains there are lions and leopards and wild asses and durgones, which are wild goats, and mules, which graze on the mountains, and they all feed together, and none of them is harmed by the lion, because of the vastness of the desert.
And because the feast days of the Saracens were now being completed, a herald went out, announcing that, since it was not possible to return through the desert by which we had entered, some should return through Egypt and others through Arabia into the holy city. From Mount Sinai in Arabia to the city which is called Abila are eight stages. Now at Abila a ship comes down from India with various spices. But it seemed good to us to return through Egypt, and coming to the city of Fara, where Moses fought with Amalek, where there is an oratory whose altar is set upon those stones which they placed under Moses as he prayed. In that very place is a city fortified with walls of brick, a place exceedingly barren except for waters and palms; in which city there is a bishop.
And women met us with their infants, carrying palm-branches in their hands and flasks of radish-oil, and prostrating themselves at our feet they anointed the soles of our feet and our heads, chanting an antiphon in the Egyptian tongue: 'Blessed are you of the Lord, and blessed be your coming, hosanna in the highest.' This is the land of Midian, and those who dwell in that city are said to be descended from the family of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses.
Eight hundred households serve in the public service together with their wives, receiving rations and clothing from the public treasury from Egypt, having no labour, because they have nowhere to work, since the whole place is sand; and besides, each day they have individual Saracen mares, for which they receive chaff and barley for the heads from the public treasury, riding about with them through the desert for the guarding of the monasteries and hermits against the ambushes of the Saracens; for fear of these the Saracens are not roused up. For when they go out of that city, they bar it from outside and take the keys with them. And those who are inside do likewise, because of the ambushes of the Saracens, for they have nowhere to go outside except sky and sand.
From there we came to Succoth, and from there we went down to Magdalum, and also to the place at the seventy-two palms and twelve springs, where we tarried two days, refreshed after so great a labour and the desolation of the desert. In this place is a small fort, which is called Surandala; it has nothing inside except a church with its presbyter and two hospices for travellers. In that place I saw a pepper-tree and gathered from it. From there we came to the place where the children of Israel, crossing over, encamped. And there likewise is a small fort, with a hospice within it. And from there we came to the place at the bank, where the children of Israel crossed over.
Where they came out of the sea, there is an oratory of Elijah, and crossing over to the place where they entered into the sea, there is an oratory of Moses. There too is a small city called Clysma, where ships also come from India. At this place of the sea where they crossed over, a gulf goes out from the greater deep and extends inward for many miles, which has its ebb and flow. When the sea recedes, every prefiguration appears—the arms of Pharaoh and the tracks of the wheels of the chariots; and even all the arms turned to marble. There we received green coconuts full of liquid, which come from India, which men believe to be from paradise. Their grace is such that however many taste of them, they are satisfied.
Within the deep itself, eleven miles out, is a small island of living rock, on which hang soft, fleshy fingers in the manner of dates, which exude an ointment which they call rock-oil, which is taken as a great blessing. The vessel in which it is carried, if it has been filled and you wish to go back to take more, will no longer receive it nor hold it. In that place, however many sick, especially those possessed by demons, have been able to reach it, all are saved. Those who take it as a blessing do not allow it to leave whole through Clysma, but it is mixed with oil. For if it were not adulterated, I believe that it would always work that same power, for the liquid of this ointment lasts continuously for two miles. Its odour indeed is sulphurous.
For whatever storm of the sea there may be, beneath that liquid it stands as still as a pool. Below this same city of Clysma, inside a basilica, we saw more than eighteen wooden coffins of the holy hermit fathers. From there we came through the desert to the cave of Paul, that is, in Syriac 'cuba,' whose spring waters it even to this day. From there again through the desert we came to the cataracts of the Nile, where the water rises to a mark, a fortification made by the hand of man, that is, of twelve steps. Near the cataracts, on either side of the Nile, are two cities, which they say the daughters of Lot built, one of which is called Babylonia.
Coming through the fields of Tanis, we came to the city of Memphis and to Antinoë, in which Pharaoh resided, from which also the children of Israel went out. In those very places are the twelve granaries of Joseph, full. In Memphis there was a temple, which is now a church, one gate of which shut itself before our Lord, when he was there with the blessed Mary, and to this day it cannot be opened. For there we saw a linen cloth, on which is the likeness of the Saviour, which they say that at that time he wiped his face upon it and his image remained there, which at various times is venerated. We too venerated it, but because of its splendour we could not gaze upon it, for the more you gazed, the more it changed before your eyes.
Going down through Egypt, we came to the city of Athlefi and travelled all the way to Saint Menas, who works many miracles there. From there going up in a small boat across the lake, we came to Alexandria. In that very lake we saw a multitude of crocodiles. Alexandria is a splendid city, its people very fickle, but lovers of pilgrims; there are many heresies. For there rests Saint Athanasius, Saint Faustus, Saint Epimachius, Saint Antoninus, Saint Mark, and many other bodies of saints. Coming again to Jerusalem, where also I remained ill for a long time. Clearly, with the sight of my own eyes, I saw the blessed Euphemia in a vision and the blessed Antony; how they came and healed me.
Having gone out from Jerusalem, I went down to Joppa. There lies Saint Tabitha, who is also called Dorcas. Then I came to Caesarea Philippi, which is the Tower of Strato, which is also called Caesarea of Palestine. In it rests Saint Pamphilus, Saint Procopius, Saint Cornelius, from whose bed we took a blessing. From there we went up through Galilee and came to Damascus. There is a monastery at the second milestone, where Saint Paul was converted, the street which is called Straight, in which many miracles take place. Then we came to Heliopolis, and from there we came to Emesa, where is the head of Saint John the Baptist, which is placed in a glass cask, which also we saw with our own eyes within the cask and venerated.
From there, passing through cities, that is, Larissa Aristosa and Epiphania, we came to the most splendid city of Apamea, in which is all the nobility of the Syrians. Going out from Apamea, we came to Antioch the Great, in which rests Saint Babylas and three little children, Saint Justina and Saint Julian and the Maccabee brothers, that is, nine tombs, and over each tomb hang the instruments of their torture. From there we went down into Mesopotamia to the city of Chalcis. Then we came to Carrhae, where Abraham was born, and going down from there we came to the city of Barbarissus, where rests Saint Bacchus, the brother of Saint Sergius.
Then we came to the city of Sura, through the middle of which city the river Euphrates flows down, which in that place is crossed by a bridge. In it Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus suffered martyrdom, and twelve miles out in the desert among the Saracens, Saint Sergius rests in the city of Tetrapyrgium.