rather than to the former, that we shall direct our attention, referring those who wish to know the scientific details of the work of the explorers to the numerous books which have in the past few years been published on the subject.*

Let us make our way to the Bab-el-Mughâribeh, or Gate of the Western Africans— called in Scripture the Dung Gate (Neh. iii. 13, 14)-then, passing through a jungle of cactus, reach the south-west wall of the Harâm, where some enormous blocks of stone, used in the construction of the plateau, may be seen. One stone seventy-five feet above the foundation is thirty-eight feet four inches long, three and a half high, and seven feet wide. Close by is the celebrated spring of the arch known as Robinson's Arch, which connected the Temple with the city of Zion by spanning the Tyropcon valley. The fragment consists of immense stones projecting from the wall, measuring from twenty to twenty-four feet each in length. The distance from here to the hill-side of Zion is three hundred and fifty feet, and that must have been the length of the ancient bridge.

It is in the Tyropcon valley, which cleaves the heart of Jerusalem, and along the southern front of the hill Moriah, where the site of the Temple is now occupied by the Mosque of Omar, that important excavations have in recent years been carried on. Shafts and galleries have been driven through the mass of rubbish which covers the base of the Temple rock, and have revealed the enormous depth to which it has accumulated. Through the debris the cyclopean walls supporting the Temple have been traced to a depth varying from sixty to ninety feet, and the wall itself has been shown to have reached at this point to a height of from one hundred and seventy to one hundred and eighty feet-a curious justification of a passage of Josephus, in which he describes the dizziness with which the spectator looked down into the valley beneath. The whole rock must have been honeycombed with aqueducts, cisterns, channels, and passages; thirty feet beneath the vaults, which had been known to exist at its south-eastern corner, a passage has been found leading into the solid substance of the wall, and indicating probably large substructions, where it is not unreasonable to look for discoveries of no little interest. Of the two great viaducts, which moored, as it were, the sacred rock of Moriah to the western and eastern hills of Zion and Olivet, the one most interesting to us, as the road by which Christ entered the Temple, has indeed wholly disappeared; but a single colossal abutment of the bridge which spanned the Tyropoon-the road by which the kings passed from Zion to Moriah-remains, and the researches of Captain Warren have proved it to have been one hundred and fifty feet in height. If this be as Captain Warren supposes-the "ascent to the house of the Lord" which Solomon showed to the Queen of Sheba, we can hardly wonder that, on seeing it, "there was no spirit left in her."

The excavations disclosed, at a distance of sixty feet under the present surface of the soil, fragments of voussoirs, or bevelled stones, lying where they fell when, by some means or other unknown, the bridge was destroyed. The place in which they now lie scattered in confusion once formed the level of a street running under the arch, like the street in Edinburgh under the North Bridge, or that in London under the Holborn Viaduct. The excavations also laid open a vast conduit running under this ancient street, Especially to "The Recovery of Jerusalem," and "Underground Jerusalem." By Chas. Warren, Capt. R.E., F.G.S., &c.

at a fumber depth of twenty feet, and, what is very remarkable, brought to light an opening ** i through which, in all probability, water was once drawn from the conduit as fr a well. Through this opening water could be obtained when the bridge was perfect, from when people passed under it to and fro in the days of Herod; for it must have existed then, if not before. Antiquaries," says Dr. Stoughton, "are apt to give as ancient a date as possible to the remains they examine and describe; and one writer observes, 'Imagination has to stop at the date of Solomon as the time when the Temple, the Harâmwall, and the bridge were built; but this cistern may have existed before that time. Scandals whispered by the mouth of this well may have echoed round its rocky sides as far back as the time when the Jebusites and Canaanites ruled in the land.' For my part, I am quite satisfied to confine my imagination respecting such a well in one of the streets of Jerusalem to the era of the Herodian Temple; to the days when our blessed Lord and His apostles might have drunk of its waters; when their shadows might have fallen on the pavements, or their forms have been watched, passing under the great arch, by the people looking down from the parapet above."

Near to this spot is Wilson's Arch, below which Captain Warren found the wall of the Temple built into the rock, the oldest portions of the sanctuary now existing. Below a mass

of masonry they came to running water, and observations, extending over a long period, proved that a fountain of water exists in the city, and is running to this day, far below the surface. The Jews have a tradition that when running water has been found three times under the Temple walls the Messiah is at hand; and as, according to their account, it had been found twice before, there was great excitement among the Rabbis over this discovery, exhibited with cries of joy and thanksgiving.

In no city of antiquity was the water supply and drainage so systematically and extensively organised as in Jerusalem. Every step taken by recent explorers has thrown additional and wonder-working light upon this feature of the engineering of the Holy City, which was as studiously cared for as its military strength, and in which as consummate heed was taken of the natural advantages of the site. The details of the water supply form one of the most graphic and instructive portions of Captain Warren's "The Recovery of Jerusalem." The whole extent of the south and east walls of the North Sanctuary was surveyed and measured by Captain Warren and his faithful aide-de-camp, Sergeant Birtles. At the south-east angle the corner-stone, though by no means the largest, is estimated to weigh over 100 tons. The masonry both of the walls and arches is of solid and noble character, roughly faced in the main, and frequently bevelled; set, as a rule, with much skill and precision, though in some places disjointed and defective in level. Here and there the stones displayed the appearance of having been cracked by great heat, possibly a memento of the final siege.

That the date of this grand wall goes back in part to the time of Solomon is to be inferred from the masons' marks in red paint found upon the lowest tiers of stones near the south-east angle, and held, on the authority of scholars so well qualified as Dr. Petermann and Mr. Deutsch, who saw them on the spot, to be Phoenician letters. Even though the other portions of the wall, which here and elsewhere attains from the base (through the rubbish) the full height of one hundred and fifty feet assigned to it by Josephus, be

relerret i tu time if Bend here is convincing proof that the present Haram was, in time of our La nanded within the direnit of the city will.

In Spuel & lower moms below Moriah, Captain Warren reorgnises the site of Solomen's palace the pains vini Ling Manasseh "compassed about, and raised up to a very great begin," after Jutuan ind sies built much upon the wall." This wall, not many years since laid bare. it even zow seventy feet in height, having conjoined with it a great tower of drafted stones.

It is something to see at last the mighty front of the Temple rock, as the Twelve saw it when they marvelled at the great stones which were still fresh from the chisel of Herod.

Important as the discoveries have been under the auspices of the Palestine Exploration Committee, there are probably few who will entirely endorse the claims put forth by Captain Warren when he says, concerning the Temple: "We have been able to point out the work of King Herod and the work of Solomon, and if it were necessary we could identify the additions and alterations of the Roman Emperors. We can follow the description of Josephus and the Talmudic accounts, and find everything fall into its place with the ease and facility only to be obtained from correct identifications. We can stand on the spot where the sacrifices were made, where the high priest stood once a year before the ark of the mercy-seat, where St. Simeon received our Lord, where the Sanhedrim listened to His questions, where the money-changers' tables were overturned, where the lame man was made whole, where St. Paul was carried up the steps to the Antonia, where St. James the Just stood before he was cast down. All this information is the result of our explorations, and though all do not agree with me in my indications, yet I find more do so each year."

Before quitting the walls of the Temple we must refer to one spot familiar to every one, from the countless pictures and other illustrations of it to be met with everywhere. This spot is the Jews' Wailing-place, under the western wall of the Harâm, their only heritage in their own city. It is a little narrow court, close by the miserable hovels of the Moghrebins, or Moslems from the north-west of Africa. But in this court rises the celebrated wall, fifty-two yards long and fifty-six in height, of massive stones-one being sixteen feet and one thirteen in length-all that is left to the Jews of their marvellous Temple. It is one of the most affecting sights in that city of strange memories to see the "ancient people" standing there, psalter in hand, wailing out words which have a singular significance in that place. The place is sacred with the tears of many generations, for even so far back as the time of Jerome we find him making an affecting allusion to the mourners who, in his day, paid the Roman soldiers for allowing them to go and weep over the ruins of their Temple. And many a time since then have those old walls echoed back this passionate cry: "Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house where our fathers praised Thee is burned up with fire, and all our pleasant things are laid waste! O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance, Thy Holy Temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. How long, Lord? Wilt Thou be angry for ever?"

On Fridays, and on great Jewish festivals, it is a painful sight to see the groups of