REMAINS OF THE TEMPLE.

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graves and close to the wall quite to the southeast corner of the city. Pursuing this direction for two minutes, we had on our right the massive wall of the Haram, as the great area is called which now contains the Mosque of Omar, and which once contained the Temple of Solomon.

I was surprised, as I advanced along this towering bulwark, to observe the immense blocks of stone which compose its foundations and rise many yards above the surface of the earth. I measured some of them, which were nineteen feet long by three and a half in thickness. From the southeast angle of the city they extend northward continuously a distance of seventy paces, and are in one place sixteen courses, more than fifty feet, in height. I could not doubt for a moment that these were remains of the ancient Temple, and probably the work of Solomon. They are wholly unlike the walls of the city in other places, known to have been built by the Saracens and Turks. The higher portions of the wall have been rebuilt in their peculiar style, with stones only one or two feet square. Indeed, there is nothing in all that I have seen of their architecture in Egypt or elsewhere which has any resemblance to these massive remains of what, I doubt not, was the workmanship of the ancient Jews. I was no less surprised than delighted at the sight, as I had supposed, to that moment, that the destruction of the ancient walls, and especially that of the Temple, had been complete.

Beyond the narrow cemetery the descent is very rapid to the bottom of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which forms a great natural fosse in front of the eastern wall, that must have rendered this side of Jerusalem absolutely impregnable by all the modes of attack known to ancient warfare. The Mount of Olives, which rises very abruptly from the opposite side of the ravine, overVOL. II.-L

looks the city, which a battery of modern artillery planted upon its heights would command perfectly.

The southeast angle of the wall stands upon the brow of this valley, which here makes its nearest approach to the city. Upon passing around this angle I observed more remains of the ancient wall, similar to those already described, though less extensive. One of the stones is six feet wide by twenty-four in length and three in thickness. The ground here descends from the wall southward, and though encumbered with stones, it is ploughed and covered with wheat. Farther west it assumes the form of a narrow ridge, which widens nearer the wall, and is bounded on the west by a ravine that extends into the city on the right and on the left, descends with diminished width but increasing depth to join the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The hill is called Mount Ophel, and the valley Tyropæon, or the Valley of the Cheesemakers.

The wall of the city, coming down from the west across this valley in a line considerably south of that of the Haram, and ascending to the top of Ophel, turns north at right angles, and proceeds to join the wall of that ancient enclosure, the western half of which is thus included in the city. A few minutes north of this angle is a gate, now walled up, which tradition has fixed upon as the Dung Gate of the ancient city. Here the great aqueduct from Solomon's Pools, having compassed Mount Zion on the south, enters the city and passes on to its termination within the area of the ancient Temple.

West of the Tyropeon is Mount Zion, which rises into a high, spreading table-land, bounded on the south and west by the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and stretching far into the city on the north. That part of the summit next the wall is occupied by some edifices

SOUTH SIDE OF THE CITY.

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of much traditionary importance-the tomb of David and the house of Caiaphas. Several Christian cemeteries also cover the adjacent ground, while more remote from the city wall are some fields of wheat and a few olives. The Gate of Zion connects these frequented places with the interior of the city.

The Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which, opposite Zion's Gate, is perhaps a third of a mile south of the city, from which it is separated by the breadth of Mount Zion without the walls, approaches very near to the southwest corner of the city, between which and the Jaffa Gate, farther north, the ground slopes rapidly westward to the bottom of the ravine.

From the Bethlehem or Jaffa Gate to the northwest angle of the city the way is gently ascending, and the Valley of Hinnom, which bears more to the west, becomes shallow, and is finally lost in a broad plain, or, more properly, basin, that spreads north and northwest beyond the upper pool of Gihon. The road to Jaffa runs along under the wall, and passes off westward above the pool.

Turning the northwest angle of the city, I descended gradually along the northern wall towards the Damascus Gate, having on the left an extensive plain inclined towards the city, and covered near the Damascus road, which proceeds northward from the gate, with extensive olive plantations. East of the gate, and a little to the left of the path, is a small mount, terminating towards the city in a perpendicular cliff, under which is the Grotto of Jeremiah. The top of the mount is occupied by a Turkish cemetery. The city wall is built upon a parallel but lower cliff. Towards its eastern termination this wall is defended by a trench extending quite to the northeast angle. Turning southward at this point, we have the eastern wall of the city upon the right hand,

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WALLS AND GATES.

and the Valley of Jehoshaphat upon the left, towardwhich the slope is rapid, though not precipitous. An ancient reservoir stands near St. Stephen's Gate, by which I re-entered the city.

WALLS AND GATES OF JERUSALEM.

The walls of Jerusalem, of which I have thus made the circuit, are of modern construction, having been erected about three hundred years since. They are built of masses of limestone, not commonly more than a foot or eighteen inches square, and laid in a cement of lime. The height varies with the various elevation of the ground. The lower parts are probably about twenty-five feet high, while in more exposed localities, where the ravines contribute less to the security of the city, they have an elevation of sixty or seventy feet. I have already described the eastern and western walls of the Haram, or enclosure of the ancient Temple, as forming a part of the wall of the present city, as they no doubt did of the ancient.

There are only four gates now in use-one on each side of the town-all of which I have enumerated. St. Stephen's, on the east, leads to the Mount of Olives, Bethany, and Jericho. From the nature of the ground, taken in connexion with the situation of the Temple, a little south, here must always have been a great thoroughfare. Zion Gate, on the south side of the city, connects the populous quarter around the Armenian Convent with that part of Mount Zion which is outside of the walls, and which is much resorted to as being the great field of Christian burial, as well as for its traditionary sanctity as the site of David's tomb, the house of Caiaphas, house of Mary, &c. The Jaffa Gate, on the west, is the termination of the important routes coming in from Jaffa, Bethlehem, and Hebron. The

formation of the ground points to this as upon one of the thoroughfares of the ancient city, which could here be approached from the points just indicated much more conveniently than at any other point. The Damascus Gate, on the north, is also planted in a vale, which, in every age of Jerusalem, must have been a great public way, and the easiest approach from Samaria and Galilee.

The present wall is nearly two and a half miles in circuit. The greatest extent of the city is from east to west, in which directions it must always have had about the same limits as at present. The walls may have run lower down the slopes of the deep valleys of Jehoshaphat and Hinnom than they do at present, but could never have extended beyond them.

A large area was embraced in the ancient city, on the south, which is now without the walls, including the portions of Mount Zion and Ophel already described. On the north, too, there is an open region suitable for building, which was certainly covered by the edifices of the ancient city, as is evident from the fragments.of marble and pottery which are still found strewed over the plain. These two tracts, then, were included within the ancient city, which, according to Josephus, was thirty-three furlongs in circuit,* a circumference more than one mile and a half greater than that of the present town.

These walls have a solid and formidable appearance, especially when casually observed from without; and they are strengthened, or, rather, ornamented, with towers and battlements after the Saracen style. Still, they could make little resistance to heavy artillery, though sufficient to overawe the turbulent inhabitants of these mountains, and to withstand a sudden onset from more potent enemies. Flights of steps on the inside of the * Wars, chap. iv., book v.