"We stopped at the village of Bethany, an hour out from Jerusalem. They showed us the tomb of Lazarus. I had rather live in it than in any house in the town. And they showed us also a large "Fountain of Lazarus," and in the centre of the village the ancient dwelling of Lazarus. Lazarus appears to have been a man of property. The legends of the Sunday Schools do him great injustice; they give one the impression that he was poor. It is because they get him confused with that Lazarus who had no merit but his virtue, and virtue never has been as respectable as money. The house of Lazarus is a three-story edifice, of stone masonry, but the accumulated rubbish of ages has buried all of it but the upper story. We took candles and descended to the dismal cell-like chambers where Jesus sat at meat with Martha and Mary, and conversed with them about their brother. We could not but look upon these old dingy apartments with a more than common interest." (Page 589)
Bethany: From Bædeker: (1898) Route 15 page 148
Bethany, now called el-’Aziriyeh ; from el-’Azir, the Arabic form of Lazarus, is a poor village of some 20 houses, situated in a shallow wady on the eastern slope of Olivet, and surrounded by broken rocky ground, once carefully terraced, and still containing some few orchards of fig-trees. Its distance from Jerusalem is about 14 m., corresponding pretty exactly to the 15 furlongs of the Evangelist John. (xi. 18.) The view from it is dreary and desolate, commanding the region through which the road to Jericho runs. The houses are of stone, massive and rude; evidently constructed of old materials, among which we see the Jewish bevel. Over them on the S., on the top of a scarped rock, rises a heavy fragment of ancient masonry, built of bevelled stones; but its original object cannot be determined—it looks more like a fort than a house.