ORNI´THON POLIS
ORNI´THON POLIS (
Ὀρνίθων πόλις), a city of the Sidonians, according to Scylax (ap. Reland,
Palaest. p. 431).
It is placed more exactly by Strabo between Tyre and Sidon (p. 758). Pliny mentions together “Sarepta et Ornithon oppida et Sidon” (5.19.) Reland suggests that it may be “Tarnegola superior,” which the Talmud places above Caesarea; Tarnegola in Hebrew being equivalent to the Gallus of Latin =
ὄρνιθα in Greek. (
Palaest. p. 916.) Dr. Robinson, following Pococke, conjectures that it may be represented by an ancient site on the shore of the Phoenician plain, where he noticed “the traces of a former site called
‘Adlân, consisting of confused heaps of stones, with several old wells.” There. are also “many sepulchral grottoes, hewn out of the hard limestone rock,” in the precipitous base of the projecting mountain which here approaches the coast,--furnishing clear indications of an ancient city in the vicinity. (
Bib. Res. vol. iii. p. 411, and note 2; Pococke,
Observations, vol. ii. p. 84.)
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G.W]
