The Holy Places of Jerusalem ... With illustrations, etc

Preface

. I BEGAN the study of this subject many years since, and having prepared careful notes of the points in dispute respecting it, went to the Holy Land with the intention of working out the problems on the spot. But they presented much greater difficulties than I had expected, and on my return home I again went through the details of the controversies by the aid of the researches made by the Palestine Exploration Fund ; and then revisited the Holy City, and also Egypt, Constantinople, Rome, and Spalato, to enable me to compare the ancient remains in those cities (all of which have been referred to by writers on the subject) with the sacred and other buildings at Jerusalem. I have, I trust, in this slight contribution to the History of the Holy Places given my authority for each statement so clearly that it might be followed out by any reader who cared to enter into the subject in greater detail ; and I have added at the end some memoranda as to the dates, authorship, &c, of the buildings treated on, the chief authorities being also given in chronological order.

I have not in this present little treatise investigated the questions as to the plans and general designs of the Temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod. These are subjects of distinct and special study and do not involve. in a direct way, the history of the present buildings of the

PREFACE.

. VI Holy Places ; nor do I propose to inquire very closely into the traditions respecting them ; and for my present purpose I may adopt the words of Professor Willis (" Church of the Holy Sepulchre," p. 2) : " This is not essential to the ques tion. Those who erected the buildings were convinced ofthe genuineness of the traditions, and therefore the influence of these buildings upon Ecclesiastical Architecture is wholly irrespective of the inquiry into the true localities. And it is as a branch of the history of Ecclesiastical Architecture alone that I purpose to treat the subject at present." It is, then, as a mere architectural study that I propose to investigate the history of these buildings by a careful collation of the authors who have written upon them ; by a detailed examination of the remains on the spot and by a personal study of the contemporaneous buildings of Constantine, Justinian, and the Arabs, &c, in other countries.

The general history of the Holy City from the time of its siege by Titus to the present date is clearly and concisely given by Messrs. Walter Besant and the late Professor E. H. Palmer, in their "History of Jerusalem," and a detailed Ordnance Survey of the city and its environs was made in 1864-6, chiefly at the cost of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, by Captain (now Colonel Sir Charles) Wil son, who also published, to a large scale, the map of the city, and to a still larger size, the plans of the Holy Places and the principal churches, &c, the above being accompanied by careful descriptions of the several places of interest, and by accurate levels taken across from the Mediterranean. The results of the interesting researches made by Captain (now Colonel Sir Charles) Warren and others for the Palestine Exploration Fund are carefully described and illustrated in the Jerusalem Volume of the " Memoirs " by him and Captain Conder, who give copious extracts from

PREFACE.

. VII the descriptions by mediæval and other writers, accompanied by sixty sheets of carefully prepared drawings, which have been made with great accuracy, the height and size of each stone in the main walls being figured, and any peculiarity in the dressing, &c, being noted. I am indebted to the Committee of the Fund for the loan of the greater part of the woodcuts which illustrate this work, and also for many of the photographs from which other illustrations are copied. They were taken for the Fund chiefly by Lieutenant (now Colonel) Kitchener. A few copies of my sketches of details I have had reproduced from the originals in outline only, exactly as they were made on the spot. The following are the works chiefly referred to by me, with the short headings by which I have quoted them in the text : — Besant and Palmer "Jerusalem: the City of Herod and Saladin," by Walter Besant, M.A., and E. H. Palmer, M.A. London, 1871.

Eutychius Eutychii (Saidi Ebn Batrik) patriarchæ Alexandrini. Annales. Oxon, 1658-9. H. Sp., Fergusson " The Holy Sepulchre and the Temple at Jerusalem," by J. Fergusson, F.R.S. London, 1865. H. Sp. , Willis " The Architectural History of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem," by the Rev. Robert Willis, M.A., F.R.S. London, 1849. Memoirs Memoirs of the Palestine Exploration Fund, "Jerusalem " Volume, with 60 sheets of plans and drawings, by Colonel Sir Charles Warren and Captain Conder. London, 1884. Mukaddasi " Description of Syria, " by Mukaddasi. Translated and annotated by Guy le Strange, for the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society. London, 1886. Procopius The buildings of Justinian, described by Procopius. Translated by Aubrey Stewart, M.A., for the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, and annotated by Colonel Sir C. W. Wilson and T. Hayter Lewis. London, 1886.

PREFACE.

. VIII Quart. St Quarterly Statements of the Palestine Exploration Fund. London, 1865-88. Sepp " Die Felsenkuppell eine Justinianische Sophien Kirche. " Miinchen, 1882. Temples " The Temples of the Jews and other Buildings in the Haram Area at Jerusalem," by J. Fergusson, D.C.L. London, 1878. Temple or Tomb " The Temple or the Tomb," by Captain (now Colonel Sir Charles) Warren, K.C.B., R.E. London, 18S0. Topography " An Essay on the Ancient Topography of Jerusalem," by James Fergusson, F.R.A.S. London, 1847. Vogue "Le Temple de Jerusalem," par le Comte Melchior de Vogue. 1864. Wilson "The Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem, with detailed drawings and notes," by Captain (now Sir Charles W.) Wilson, K.C.B., R.E. 1866. I have to return my thanks to Mr. Walter Besant and to Sir Charles Warren for their kindness in looking through the proofs of this slight sketch, and to Dr. Chaplain, Captain Conder, and Sir Charles W. Wilson for many valuable notes and memoranda which I have inserted in various parts of the text.

In reading the accounts left by mediæval travellers referred to in the following pages, it may seem strange that so little notice is taken by them of the buildings of Jerusalem. But we must remember that the aims of those travellers were quite different from the modern. The mediæval pilgrims undertook their long, and often dangerous, journeys for the express object of visiting the places where Our Lord lived and suffered — His birthplace and His Tomb — they saw and worshipped in simple belief, and the form or size of the buildings which enshrined those places mattered but little to the traveller. The grandest of the buildings also — Constantine's Basilica, and Justinian's Church — were utterly destroyed

PREFACE.

. IX before Arculf, Willibaldus, Bernard, and Sæwulf made their pilgrimages. In the spelling of the Arabic words I have followed that of Professor Palmer in "The History of Jerusalem" above quoted. CONTENTS. CHAPTER TAGF. I. — Introduction ... .. ... ... ... ... ... I II. — The Sakhra and Dome of the Rock ... ... ... ... 18 III. — Works of Constantine, &c. ... 48 IV. — Works of Justinian ... .. .. ... 56 V. — Works of the Arabs 61 VI. — The Mosque Aksa 74 VII.— The Golden Gate 89 VIII.— The Holy Sepulchre 97 IX. — Jeremiah's Grotto ... ... ... ... ... ... 108 X.— Siloam 118 Chronological List of Authors ... ... ... 1 LIST OF PRINCIPAL ILLUSTRATIONS. --_r._ai .^ w. PAGE Jerusalem — Church of the Holy Sepulchre Frontispiece. Plan in 1 187 A.D 4 Jerusalem, showing the various theories as to the walls ... .. ... 5 Plan of the Noble Sanctuary (Haram Area) ... ... ... 6 Elevation of Robinson's Arch ... ... ... ... ... ... 6 Elevation of Wilson's Arch .. ... ... ... ... ... 11 Plan of the Sakhra ... .. ... ... ... ... 19 View of the Haram Aram ... ... ... .. ... ... ... 25 Interior of the Dome of the Rock, showing part of the Sakhra ... ... 27 Exterior of the Dome of the Rock (Breydenbach) ... ... ... 32 Plan of the Dome of the Rock with and without Enclosing Wall ... 34 External Arcade to the Dome of the Rock 36 Capitals of the Columns in the Muristan ... . . 38 Capitals ofthe Column in the Dome ofthe Rock 42 Capitals of the Columns and Bases ... ... ... ... 44 Capitals of the Columns (T. H. L.'s sketches) ... 45 Bethlehem Basilica Interior and Plan ... ... ... ... ... 49 Damascus Doorway ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 5° Spalato Doorway ... ... ... ... 52 Jerusalem.

Dome of the Rock (Dosseret) 53 Constantinople. Plan of St. Sophia ... 56 Constantinople. Details of St. Sophia .. 59 Mount Sinai. Capitals of Columns 60 Jerusalem. Dome of Rock, External View 61 Terusalem. Dome of Rock, Section 65 Jerusalem. Dome of Rock, Interior showing Entrance to Cave ... 66 Jerusalem. Mason's Marks 72 The Aksa and Dome of the Rock 74 The Aksa. Plan as at present .. 76 The Aksa. Interior 77 The Aksa. Capitals of Columns LIST OF PRINCIPAL ILLUSTRATIONS. XIV PAGE The Aksa. Plan as described by Mukaddasi ... ... ... ... 83 Damascus. Plan of Great Mosque .. . ... ... ... ... ... 85 Jerusalem. Elevation of Golden Gate ... ... ... ... ... 92 Spalato. Elevation of Gateway ... ... ... ... ... ... 94 Damascus. Elevation of Gateway ... ... ... ... 95 Jerusalem. Exterior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ... .. 97 Jerusalem.

Entrance to Holy Sepulchre ... ... ... ... ... 98 Jesusalem. Plan of the Church ... ... ... ... ... ... 102 Jerusulem. Tomb West of Jeremiah's Grotto ... ... ... ... 109 Jerusalem. Hill of Stoning ... ... ... it2 Jerusalem. Tunnel to the Pool of Siloam 119 Jerusalem. Tunnel to the Pool of Siloam ... ... ... ... ... *

Chapter I

There are two cities in Palestine, Hebron and Jerusalem, which, beyond all others on the face of the earth, have been for thousands of years objects of veneration. It is true that for some twelve hundred years Mecca has been to every Mohammedan the Holy of Holies ; but though its capture by the unbeliever would arouse the fiercest passions in every follower of Mohammed, it would excite only a feeling of curiosity or a cynical smile in the Christian or the Jew. But in Hebron and Jerusalem alike there have been, and still are, places sacred indeed to the Mohammedan, but sacred also beyond all others to the Christian and the Jew. A contest for the right to some small space near the Sepulchre of our Lord, or the unauthorised entry of a Christian or Jew into the Mosque of Hebron or Dome of the Rock, or even within their precincts, would provoke a burst of fury scarcely known to the less impressionable people of the West.

At Hebron the cave tomb has remained inviolate until now, venerated and defended by B Jew, Christian, and Mohammedan, from the time when Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite the Cave of Machpelah, and where he and Sarah his wife were buried, and Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and Leah and Jacob. Fenced in by the Hebrews with massive walls as old as those of Jerusalem, surmounted by a chapel built by the Christians, and adorned and now guarded by the fol lowers of Mohammed, the sepulchre remains unrifled and unharmed to this day — well-nigh the only famous sepulchre of old known to have escaped the curiosity or greed of succeeding times, which have too often found, for the remains of the dead, far other resting-places than the tomb. But Jerusalem has been despoiled, burnt, its inhabitants torn away by thousands to people some desert place in the East — repeopled again, stormed and pillaged by the Egyptian and the Syrian, the Roman and the Parthian, but ever reviving to take part in some civil war or against some new enemy until the dread time arrived when Titus became its master, and 16,000 of its inhabitants died in the Temple and its precincts alone in one fatal day.

Then, for a time, some fifty years, ''order reigned in Jerusalem," for it was left desolate, unbuilt upon, unpeopled, save by its Roman garrison. Gradually the Jews repeopled it, and thereafter came further insurrection and massacres, and another fearful siege by Hadrian, who built a Temple to Jupiter on the site of the Temple of Jehovah. Then Constantine arrived, and the Invention of the Cross, and Jerusalem became as venerated by the Christians as it had been by the Jews.1 1 The following will give a short abstract of some of the principal of these events, with their approximate dates : — 11. c. B.C. 970. Taken by Shishak the Egyp- S90. Pillaged by Philistines and Arabs. tian, and its Temple pillaged.

Introduction

. 3 The Emperors of the East and West, Justinian and Charlemagne, followed his example in adorning the city with splendid buildings for monastery, church, or hospital, and then came Chosroes the Persian, hating the Christians with a hatred excelled only by that of his allies the Jews, and destroying all that was grand and venerated and hallowed by the name of Christ. The horrors of that time can scarcely be realised now. Then came a new conqueror, the Mohammedan ; and he added new objects of veneration to those of the Christian and Jew in the rock which he fondly believes to bear the footmark of his Prophet, and in the mosque in which the name of that Prophet is invoked. Crusade after crusade has spent its force upon the city, and many a story of rapine and slaughter has been enacted in its streets ; but ever recovering itself, acquiring new claims to the devotion of the pilgrim, and shut out by the danger of its port of B.C. B.C. 597 and 588.

Pillaged by Nebuchadnezzar, and a large number of its inhabitants transported to Babylonia. tured it, and destroyed much of the walls, which were afterwards restored by Anti pater. 536. Jews returned to the number of 42,360 by Cyrus's decree. 54. Plundered by Crassus. 40. Captured by the Parthians. 320. Captured by Ptolemy Soter of Egypt, and its walls razed. 2,7. Captured by Herod and the Romans. Captured by Antiochus the Great. Retaken by Scopas the Egyptian, and again recaptured by Antiochus. a.d. 70. Captured by Titus, with immense slaughter and destruction, as recorded by Josephus, &c. 168-172. Captured by Antiochus Epiphanes, who sacked it and pillaged the Temple (Josephus, "Ant., "XV, xi, 5), the great Veil of which he is supposed to have carried away and presented to the Temple of Jupiter at Olympia. 135.

Captured, partly destroyed, and rebuilt by Hadrian, "who founded, under the name of Ælia Capitolina, a new city on Mount Sion,'' and denounced the severest penalties against any of the Jewish nation who should dare to approach its precincts. 63-65. Pompey besieged and cap- B Jaffa from the busy world to which it lies so near, it holds fast to its former greatness as the chief place of sanctity in the eyes of the East and West alike. Age by age its walls were extended until they enclosed the wide area shown by the wall known as the Third or Agrippa's Wall. Then the city gradually shrank again, and its enclosing walls, to the north and west, built by the Sultan Solyman in the sixteenth century, bounded the smaller area which the Roman Emperor Hadrian no doubt ■

INTRODUCTION.

. 5 enclosed — which is shown on the plan of the twelfth cen tury, and which the walls enclose now, viz., 1,000 yards or so from east to west and from north to south, including the Haram Area. But eastward and southward the massive blocks of which the walls are there built tell of an older date than that of the Sultan. It is no mere guess which assigns their foundation courses, at the least, to the age of Solomon, and the parts above, if not his work, are not unworthy ofthe latest builder ofthe Temple, Herod. From the south-east angle, for two-thirds of the length of the wall, westward, a massive course of masonry runs to the Double Gate, and is perhaps (so thinks Colonel Warren) the oldest part of the wall. That the work beyond it, to the westward, is Herod's there can be little doubt. Even now the wall stands, at the south-eastern angle of the Temple Area, some Jj feet above the present level of the outside ground ; but Colonel Warren had to sink 79 feet further down until he reached the grand foundations, with their Phœnician-like marks, on the rock.

We must try to imagine a massive wall of stone some 30 feet higher than our Duke of York's column before we can realise the effect of this ; and even then we have to add the depth of the great Valley of the Kedron which it overlooked. This massive wall gave support, on the south, east, and west, to an elevated plateau — the present Haram Area, or Noble Sanctuary — to the west of which was a valley, the Tyropœon, which fell southward towards the Pool of Siloam. and stretched northward towards the Damascus Gate, throwing out a branch westward toward the Jaffa one. Near its southern end the valley was connected with the Haram Area by two great bridges, the more southerly of which was noted first by Dr. Robinson, whose name it bears, and of which there remain only the springing stones. THE HOLY PLACES OF JERUSALEM. 6 The northerly bridge was discovered by Colonel Wilson, and is known by his name, as " Wilson's Arch."

The annexed sketch, showing a portion of the wall near the north-west end, will give a good idea of the kind of masonry which is called bevilled, or, properly, " drafted." Shut in on the east and south sides by the great height of its walls above the rock and valleys, but now entered at the north and north-western parts at the levels of the present streets, is the Haram Area, the Noble Sanctuary, the sacred place of the Mohammedans, and at its southern end is their great mosque, the Aksa. Directly north of this, on a level platform high above the general level, and reached up from it by grand flights of steps, is the great rock, the Sakhra, long regarded with reverence as the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, by whose side the avenging angel stayed the plague, and which the Mohammedans believe to be the stepping-stone is To face page 6.

This engraving is lindly lent by the Palestine Exploration Fund. This engraving is kindly lent by the Palestine Exploraiioii Fund. rohinson's arch This engraving is kindly lent by the Palestine Exploration Fund. WILSON'S ARCH

INTRODUCTION.

. 11 whence their great Prophet started on his night ascent to converse with the Deity. It is a huge piece of rock, of irregular shape, having a cavern beneath it, and until recently was believed, almost universally, to have formed the base of the Great Altar of the Jews, or to have been enshrined within the cell of the Temple itself. But, some forty years ago, Mr. Fergusson, the well-known writer on architecture, in studying the characteristic features of the Saracenic style as developed in Egypt and Palestine, was struck with the singular outline of the Dome of the Rock, which enshrines the Sakhra, and was then known as the Mosque of Omar. It was different from that of any mosque which he knew in India or elsewhere, and particularly as wanting the niche, or mihrab, which is the leading feature in every Mohammedan place of worship for pointing to the direction of Mecca.

On his return to England he consulted the " Travels of Ali Bey," and " the moment he saw the plan of the Haram he jumped to the conclusion that the Mosque of Omar and the Aksa were Christian edifices ; but he laid the subject aside as one of the unsolved problems in the history of art"1 ("Topography," p. xi). When, how ever, he began his work on the Byzantine style he again turned to the mosques of Jerusalem, and having been able to study the careful drawings made by Messrs. Arundale, Bonomi, and Catherwood (who had surveyed the Haram Area in 1833), he felt no doubt in his own mind that his views were correct. And he finally laid down this pro position (p. 76), viz., "that the building so well known among Christians as the Mosque of Omar is the identical Church ofthe Holy Sepulchre erected by Constantine.

It is 1 Ali Bey (" Travels in 1803 and 1807," vol. ii, p. 222) does not, however, describe the Dome of the Rock as a mosque, but as a place of prayer for the individuals of the Hanafite rite which is followed by the Turks. a theory," he adds, " that has never, that I am aware of, been broached by any traveller or speculator up to this day." This led naturally to a question as to the site of the Crucifixion, and he states : " I have marked on the map, with three crosses, the spot where I believe the Crucifixion took place, about 150 yards from the north-east angle of the Temple." " I think that Constantine might easily have obtained the knowledge he sought, and known where about the Sepulchre stood. My own belief is that he had the means of ascertaining both, but most certainly that of Golgotha" (p. 86).

I have given the above description in Mr. Fergusson's own words (which he somewhat modified in later times, in INTRODUCTLON. 13 respect of the site of the Crucifixion), because they show exactly the causes leading to the theory which has occa sioned such great controversy ; and it is clear that, in this early stage, he was guided first by his knowledge that the form of the Dome of the Rock showed almost to a certainty that it was not a mosque, and then by the like ness shown by Ali Bey's description and Catherwood and Arundale's drawings to certain well-known buildings of the age of Constantine. It was, in fact, chiefly an architectural problem in whose solution no one could have given a more decisive opinion had the drawings been sufficiently in detail. But although they seem, so far as I can judge of the copies from them, to have been admirably made, they failed to show two most essential points, viz., that the Dome of the Rock was constructed of materials of other pre-existing buildings, and that it contained, prominently shown in a very conspicuous place, the famous Cufic in scription stating that it had been erected by Abd-el-Melik in A.D. 691.

I gather this from the statement ("Topography," p. 143), that " the Mohammedans not only did not build the Dome of the Rock, but do not even lay claim to doing so." Having then this belief that the building really covered the Holy Sepulchre, it became evident that another posi tion, other than that usually assigned to it, viz., over and close to the Sakhra, must have been that of the Jewish Temple, and having entered into this part of the subject chiefly by the aid of Josephus, he became firmly convinced that the true position was at the south-west part of the Haram Area. His chief arguments, which I give here briefly, in favour of this position are that " Josephus, the Talmud, and (?) all ancient authors are agreed that the Temple was a perfect square, and, consequently, rectangular. Ofthe Haram, only one angle is a right angle, that on the south-west, and in all the temples of Palmyra, Baalbec, Athens, &c, of about this age, the enclosures are, without an exception, exactly rectangular" ("Topography," p. 6).

Furtherjosephus states that the Temple enclosure was 4 stadia in circumference, each stadium being, roughly, 600 feet, and that his descrip tion of "from valley to valley" does not mean from the Tyropœon to the Kedron, " but to that depression now covered by the three western ranges of vaults, but which was then a valley (these vaults not having been built until Justinian's) time, on the brink of which the Temple stood as high above the ground as the eastern wall of the Haram now does " (p. 8). The length of wall thus left {i.e., from south-west angle to wall of Triple Gateway) would be just the distance, viz., 600 feet, required by Josephus's account for the south front, whilst Robinson's Arch to the south and Wilson's to the north, by the Gate of the Chain, mark the north and south entrances to the Temple Court — suggesting also about a similar length as Josephus describes.

This theory was a startling novelty when first put for ward, and embraces two statements as to each of which different opinions are held, viz., the real site of the Holy Sepulchre and the position of the Temple of the Jews. Mr. Fergusson's opinion as to the first was never, I think, much acquiesced in by students either of history or archi tecture ; but that of the site of the Temple, suggested in 1847, has been ably supported by such well-known writers as Thrupp (1855) and Lewin (1863) whilst on the other side are Williams (1845), Willis, and Finlay, together with Warren and Conder, whose intimate knowledge of the buildings in the Haram Area, obtained in the surveys and excavations conducted at various times from 1867 to 1875, is equalled only by that of Sir Charles Wilson, by whom

INTRODUCTION.

. 15 the ordnance survey in 1864-6 was conducted. Recently, however, Mr. Fergusson's theory as to the site of the Temple has received a powerful supporter in Professor Robertson Smith, whose plan and description are given in the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, under the head of " Temple." The subject, it will be seen, is one of great difficulty, and that part of it relating to the site of the Temple is not to be lightly entered upon by any one until he has made a special study of the descriptions and references scat tered through the various books ofthe Bible, the Talmud, Josephus, and other writers, and made himself acquainted with the elaborate drawings to which I have referred. The architectural part I have, hereinafter, treated at length, and as to the Temple site I will only venture to point out a few particulars of importance, in which the arguments for the south-western position appears to me to fail.

We may admit, without hesita tion, that Josephus's description of the great height of the walls above the valleys1 would well apply to the west wall at its southern end, the height of which, from its rock base to the level of the Haram Area, is 95 feet. But thence the rock rises so rapidly along the line of the south wall that, at the Triple Gate,which is 600 feet from the south-west angle, the height of the rock is less by 40 feet (2379 — 2339), and, although this would leave a valley 55 feet deep, it would scarcely fulfil the stupendous 1 Josephus, "Ant.," XV, xi, 5. "This valley was very deep, and its bottom could not be seen if you looked from above into the depth." height described by Josephus. But this would be fulfilled at the south-east angle, which is 156 feet down from the Haram Area to the level of the rock (" Memoirs," p. 146).

Another difficulty as to the south-west position is that it requires the wall to have been of continuous structure from the south-west angle to the Triple Gate, and there to have a marked change or break indicating that the part eastward was less ancient. But the facts are directly the reverse of this, the wall being continuous for about 330 feet only from the south west angle, viz., at about the centre of the 600 feet assumed A. Present level of ground. B. Rock level. D. Present building. E. Double gate. C. Robinson's Arch. K Triple gate. for the south front of the Temple had this been built at the south-west part ofthe Area ("Memoirs," 158-160). Further, there is no such continuation of the great wall, northward, at the Triple Gate as would be required if that had formerly been the eastern wall of the platform.

From all these facts Colonel Warren argues, very forcibly, that the 600 feet of the wall in its eastern part containing the 6 feet course of masonry represent the 600 feet as described by Josephus, whose description applied to the Temple as built by Solomon, and that the prolongation westward ofthe wall, which is unanimously agreed to have been built or rebuilt by Herod, was caused by an enlarge-

INTRODUCTION.

. 17 ment by him of the Temple Area which Josephus describes ("Bel.," I, xxi, 1) as "twice as large as that before enclosed." The probability that this was so is very much strength ened by the fact which is clearly shown on my sketch of the south wall, that the present west wall near Robinson's Arch does not stand on the Haram cliff so as to obtain the advantages of the commanding position which it would then have had over the Tyropœon Valley, but is built right across it. Not only so, but it ascends the opposite side of the valley some 30 feet, as shown on the above section ; whereas, if it had been at the end of the 600 feet wall (starting from the south-east angle), at the Double Gate, it would have been nearly on the brow of the hill, and commanded the valley.1 1 Sir Charles Wilson has favoured me with a note from which I may quote the following lines, showing how very difficult a subject this is : — "Josephus distinctly states on three separate occasions that the sides ofthe Temple enclosure measured a stadium each (' Ant.,' XV, xi, 3 and 5 ; XX, ix, 7).