Historical Bible Accuracy

Historical Bible Accuracy: The Giant Cities of Bashan

Deuteronomy 3:11
“For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubi
t.

Numbers 13:33
We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed likegrasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Historical archaelogical testimony on the accuracy of the Bible Prophesies against the land of the giants... 

"Prof. J. L. Porter, M. A.—On one of the southern peaks of the mountain range stands the town of Hebran. Here are many objects of interest. The ruins of a beautiful temple, built in A.,d. 155, and of several other public edifices, are strewn over the summit and rugged sides of the hill.

But the simple, massive, primeval houses were to us objects of greater attraction. Many of them are perfect, and in them the modern inhabitants find ample and comfortable accommodation. The stone doors appeared even more massive than those of Kerioth; and we found the walls of the houses in some instances more than seven feet thick. Hebran must have been one of the most ancient cities of Bashan.—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 88.
Idem.—The monuments designed by the genius and reared by the wealth of Imperial Rome are fast mouldering to ruin in this land; temples, palaces, tombs, fortresses, are all shattered, or prostrate in the dust; but the simple, massive houses of the Rephaim are in many cases perfect as if only completed yesterday.

Stone doors of Bashan

It is worthy of note here, as tending to prove the truth of my statements, and to illustrate the words of the sacred writers, that the towns of Bashan were considered ancient even in the days of the Roman historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, who says regarding this country:
"Fortresses and strong castles have been erected by the ancient inhabitants among the retired mountains and forests. Here in the midst of numerous towns are some great cities, such as Bostra and Gerasa, encompassed by massive walls."—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 85.
Deul. iii: 13.—And the rest of Gilead, and all of Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.

Prof. J. L. Porter, M. A.—Now the houses of Kerioth and other towns in Bashan appear to be just such dwellings as a race of giants would build. The walls, the roofs, but especially the ponderous gates, doors and bars, are in every way characteristic of a period when architecture was in its infancy, when giants were masons, and when strength and security were the grand requisites.
I measured a door in Kerioth: it was nine feet high, and four and a half feet wide, and ten inches thick—one solid slab of stone. I saw the folding gates of another town in the mountains still larger and heavier. Time produces little effect on such buildings as these. The heavy stone slabs of the roofs resting on the massive walls make the structure as firm as if built of solid masonry; and the black basalt used is almost hard as iron. There can scarcely be a doubt, therefore, that these are the very cities erected and inhabited by the Rephaim, the aboriginal occupants of Bashan; and the language of Ritter appears to be true:
"These buildings remain as eternal witnesses of the conquest of Bashan by Jehovah."—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 84.

The Giant Cities of Bashan and Syria’s Holy Places
JL Porter, 1877
Judgment is come upon all the cities of the land of a far and near.

House of Bashan

Salcah is situated on the south-eastern corner of Bashan. Standing on the lofty battlements of its castle, Moab and Arabia lay before me - the former on the right, the latter on the left, each a boundless plain reaching from the city walls to the horizon. Behind me rose in terraced slopes the mountains of Bashan and over their southern declivities the eye took in a wide expanse ofit’s plain. Everywhere on that vast panorama, - on plain and mountainside, in Bashan, Moab and
Arabia, far as the eye could see and the telescope command, - were towns and villages thickly scattered; and all deserted, though not ruined.
 Many people might have thought, and a few still believe, that there was a large amount of Eastern exaggeration in the language of Moses when describing the conquest of this country three thousand years ago:
 "We took all his cities at that time, threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of  Og in Bashan. All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars; beside unwalled towns a great many  (Deut. 3:4, 5).
 No man who has traversed Bashan, or who has climbed the hill of Salcah, will ever again venture to bring such a charge against the sacred historian. The walled cities, with their ponderous gates of stone, are there now as they were when the Israelites invaded the land. The great numbers of unwalled towns are there too, standing testimonies to, the truth and accuracy of Moses, and monumental protests against the poetical interpretations of modern rationalists.
There are the roads once thronged by the teeming population; there are the fields they enclosed and cultivated; there are the terraces they built up; there are the vineyards and orchards they planted; all alike desolate, not poetically or ideally, but literally "without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast."
 My friend Mr. Cyril Graham, who followed so far in my track and who was the first of European travelers to penetrate those plains beyond, which I have been trying to describe, bears his testimony to the literal fulfilment of prophecy. Some of his descriptions of what he saw are exceedingly interesting and graphic; and one is only sorry they are so very brief. Of Beth-gamul he says:

"On reaching this city, I left my Arabs at one particular spot, and wandered about quite alone in the old streets of the town, entered one by one the old houses, went upstairs, visited the rooms, and, in short, made a careful examination of the whole place; but so perfect was every street, every house, every room, that I almost fancied I was in a dream, wandering alone in this city of the dead, seeing all perfect, yet not hearing a sound. I don't wish to moralize too much, but one cannot help reflecting on a people once so great and so powerful, who, living in these houses of stone within their walled cities, must have thought themselves invincible; who had their palaces and their sculptures, and who, no doubt, claimed to be a great nation, as all Eastern nations have done; and that this people should have so passed away, that for so many centuries the country they inhabited has been reckoned as a desert, until some traveler from a distant land, curious to explore these regions, finds these old towns standing alone, and telling of a race long gone by, whose history is unknown, and whose very name is matter of dispute.
Yet this very state of things is predicted by Jeremiah. Concerning this very country he says these very words,
 “For the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein” (Jer. 48:9); “and the people (Moab) shall be destroyed from being a people.” (ver. 42).