es of Bashan by the 19th Century Explorer, Josiah Porter. The account is taken from his book ' The Giant Cities of Bashan' published in 1882.
Bashan, City of Giants
The ancient territory of Bashan now lies in southern Lebanon, western Syria, and part of the disputed Golan Heights. How could a province measuring not more than 30 by 20 miles (50 by 32 kilometers) support the reported number of fortified cities, especially when the greater part of it was a wilderness of rock? But, mysterious and incredible as this seems, the cities built and occupied 4,000 years ago by giants exist even yet.
Nineteenth century explorer, Josiah Porter, traversed their empty streets; he opened doors of their houses; he slept peacefully in their long-deserted halls. From a tower in one of them, Salcah, Porter counted some 30 towns and villages dotting the surface of the plain. He reports: "On the spot, with my own eyes, I have seen that it is literally true. The cities are there to this day. Some of them retain the ancient names recorded in the Bible.
These 'cities' are really walled towns normally only about a hectare (2½ acres) in area. They appear to be scattered around the ancient fortress just outside El Khodor, which is built on a high volcanic plug. This fortress has been built and rebuilt several times since, but there is plenty of evidence of really ancient foundations and structures dating well before the Roman ruins, which are very obvious. I imagine that King Og (referred to in Numbers 21) ruled from this fortress.
Worldwide, most ancient cities have vanished. Not so Bashan. It is literally crowded with towns and large villages - most of them, until recently, deserted. Yet they are not ruined! Many of the houses in these cities are perfect, as if only finished yesterday. The walls are sound, the roofs unbroken, the doors, and even the window-shutters in place. The walls of the cities are 15 feet thick and 30 feet high”. “ Porter found the huge gates still in place.
Rooms inside private houses measure up to 20 feet high. Here are huge rooms and apartments in perfect preservation. One by one, Porter entered some of these old houses, went up stairs and visited the rooms. Moss grows over the ruins. Groups of tapering columns spring up from the dense foliage of the oaks. Luxuriant creepers twist around the pillars. Brambles grow in festoons over the doorways. Branches of trees shoot through gaping cracks in some old walls. Owls flap their wings and foxes and jackals scamper along the streets.
The rocks are black, the soil is black, the buildings are all black - but not gloomy. The grass is green, the oak foliage, glittering in the sun, is brilliant. The private houses bear the marks of the most remote antiquity. They leave us to conclude that the cities were built by giants - a race of giants that has been extinct for more than 3,000 years. Porter noted that the highways of Bashan were still in place, completely covered here and there, with the branches of oak trees and straggling brambles.
"There is plenty of evidence of ancient black basalt 'cities', mostly within modern townships, which are integrated with the ruins. Some of the evidence is very good, including the high-arched doorway into a large house in Al Harisah, which has cleverly designed, high-arched stone ceilings. It supports a new house which has just been plonked on top, with livestock and accumulating debris occupying the rooms below.
* From (J. Porter, The Giant Cities of Bashan, T. Nelson and Son, London, 1882)
Other Giant Related Anomalies
Without making any unnecessary claims, the 20 or so references to several dozen different giants and remnants of giants, as well as clans and tribes, is historically accurate, because the city of Bashan with 10′ doorways and 12′ rooms is standing proof of that claim.
What you have is historical (Old Testament) records of Giants, (Og, King of Bashan, and Goliath and his 4 siblings 400 years later), and actual Archaeological remains of entire cities, from Bashan to the megalithic ruins of Baalbek, and Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem ind