Jericho; and it is so represented by most authorities. This opinion, however, is evidently erroneous. The true site of ancient Jericho may be proved to be about four miles higher up the valley, on the west of Rihhah, and nearer to Jerusalem. Here Mr. Buckingham found a large square area, enclosed by long and regular mounds, uniform in their height, breadth, and angle of slope, which seemed to mark the course of enclosing walls, now worn into mounds. Besides which, there were the foundations of other walls in detached pieces, portions of ruined buildings of an indefinable nature, several large tumuli; shafts of columns, and a capital of the Corinthian order, &c., lying promiscuously about. These remains, together with the absence of anything of the kind at Rihhah, furnish strong presumptive proof that this is the true site of ancient Jericho.

But, to remove all doubt, the relative position of this spot exactly agrees with that assigned by Josephus to the "city of palms;" while that of Rihhah differs from it widely. He places Jericho at 150 furlongs from Jerusalem, and sixty from the Jordan. Now Rihhah is not more than three miles from the Jordan; whereas the ruins dis. covered by Mr. Buckingham are at least seven, which comes as nearly as possible to the sixty furlongs of Josephus. The same accurate historian has given another mark by which to determine the position of this city. "It is situated," says he, "in a plain; but a naked and barren mountain of a very great length hangs over it, which extends itself to about Scythopolis northward, but as far as the country of Sodom and the utmost limit of the Lake Asphaltites southward. This mountain is all of it very uneven and uninhabited, by reason of its barren"Nothing," says Mr. Buckingham, "can more

* Wars, book 4.

accurately apply, in all its particulars, than this description does, to the site of the present ruins, assumed here as the site of ancient Jericho; whether it be in its local position, its boundaries, or its distance from Jerusalem on the one hand, and from the Jordan on the other. The spot lies at the very foot of the barren hills of Judæa, which may be said literally to overhang it on the west; and these mountains are still as barren, as rugged, and as destitute of inhabitants, as formerly, throughout their whole range, from the Lake of Tiberias to the Dead Sea." According to Eusebius, the city built by Hiel, and which is mentioned in the Gospel history in connexion with the ministry of our Lord, was destroyed by the Romans, during the siege of Jerusalem; and the city standing in his time was a third city, erected subsequent to the Jewish war, and occupying a position different from either of the others; for he states, that the ruins of the two former were still shown. It is, in all probability, on the site of this latter city that the village of Rihhah now stands; its name may have been derived from the balsamum and other odoriferous shrubs that formerly grew in its vicinity. For a description of the surrounding scenery, see Valley of Jericho.

JERUSALEM.

This celebrated city, around which cluster so many sublime and affecting reminiscences, is supposed to have been founded by Melchisedek, about the year of the world 2023, who gave it the name of Salem, that is, Peace. The first erection only occupied the two hills of Acra and Moriah. It was afterwards taken by the Jebusites, the descendants of Jebus, a son of Canaan; who erected a fortress on Mount Zion, which they called

Jebus the whole city bearing, at the same time, the common appellation of Jerusalem, which signifies the vision or inheritance of peace. Adoni-zedec, king of the Jebusites, and many of his people were slain by Joshua; (Josh. x ;) but it does not appear that he took their city. Shortly after his death, however, it was taken and burnt by the men of Judah. (Judg. i. 8.) By this must be understood the lower city; for it is immediately added, that the Benjamites, to whom it was allotted, "did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem." They retained possession of the upper town, or citadel of Jebus, till the time of David, 400 years after. By that monarch the remnant of the Canaanites were driven out; he also repaired and beautified the old city, and built a new one on Mount Zion, on the site of the fort of Jebus; whence Jerusalem is sometimes styled the "City of David." (2 Sam. v. 7, 9. 1 Chron. xi. 5, 7.)

During the reigns of David and Solomon, Jerusalem attained the zenith of its glory. It was the metropolis of the whole Jewish nation, the centre of civil and ecclesiastical power, and was resorted to at the festivals by the entire population of the country. The political influence acquired by David, together with the liberal policy and enterprising spirit of Solomon, had centred in it most of the Eastern trade, both by sea, through the ports of Elath and Ezion-geber, and overland, by way of Tadmor or Palmyra. Some idea may be formed of the enormous wealth of Jerusalem at this period, when it is stated, that the quantity of gold left by David for the use of the Temple amounted to £21,600,000 sterling; besides £3,150,000 in silver; and Solomon obtained £3,240,000 in gold by one voyage to Ophir, while silver was so abundant, that "it was not anything accounted of."

Solomon surrounded the city with a wall, and added to its splendour by several magnificent and costly erections.

The most celebrated of these, and one which requires particular notice, was

:

THE TEMPLE.

The design of building a house for the Lord God was conceived by David, who made extensive preparations for the work; but, "The word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars thou shalt not build a house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about; for his name shall be Solomon, (that is, peaceable,) and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name." (1 Chron. xxii. 8-10; xvii. 1.)

Accordingly, the royal architect, having sufficiently added to the materials provided by his father, commenced the work.

"The eminence of Moriah, the Mount of Vision, i. e., the height seen afar from the adjacent country, which tradition pointed out as the spot where Abraham had offered his son, (where recently the plague had been stayed by the altar built in the threshing-floor of Ornan, or Araunah, the Jebusite,) rose on the east side of the city. Its rugged top was levelled with immense labour; its sides, which to the east and south were precipitous, were faced with a wall of stone, built up perpendicularly from the bottom of the valley, so as to appear to those who looked down of most terrific height; a work of prodigious skill and labour, as the immense stones were strongly mortised together and wedged into the rock. Around the whole area, or esplanade, an irregular quadrangle, was a solid wall of considerable height and strength. Within this, was