The recovery of Jerusalem. A narrative of exploration and discovery in the city and the Holy Land.

Front matter

LIBRARY

MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE

The

Chap. I. Commencement of Operations . . . . .26

II. Method of Mining adopted ..... 12

III. West Wall of Noble Sanctuary .... ">8

Wilson’s Arch ...... 68

Robinson’s Arch . . . . . .72

Suburban Gates of Second Temple .... 86

IV. Southern Wall . . . . . . .91

V. Eastern Wall and Southeast Angle .... 105

Northeast Angle . . . . . .124

VI. North Side.147

Bethesda, according to Early Tradition . . . 152

Sou terrain No. 1. Convent of Sisters of Sion . . l'>4

Souterrain No. 2. Convent of Sisters of Sion . . . 157

VII. Tanks and Souterrains of the Sanctuary . . . 159

VIII. Important Discovery north of the Platform of the Dome of the

Important Discovery on the Sakhra . . . 172

Solomon’s Stables . . . . . .176

IX. The Waters of Jerusalem . . . . .182

Aqueducts from Solomon’s Pools . . . .182

Virgin's Fount and Pools of Siloam . . . 186

Rock-cut Aqueducts in Kedron Valley . . . 199

Chasm in Rock at Lifta ..... 206

X

TABLE OF CONTEXTS.

PAGE

Chap. X. The Holy City ....... 209

Gate Gennath ....... 213

Damascus Gate . . . . • .215

Excavation at British Cemetery .... 218

Shaft in Valley Street ..... 218

XI. Ophel.222

Ophel Wall.224

Extra Tower ....... 228

Cavern in Front of Triple Gate .... 230

Sculptured Slab ...... 235

Khalat al Jalitd.235

The Holy City.236

XII. The Temple of Herod.241

The Temple of Solomon ..... 243

Solomon’s Palace ...... 249

Appendices . . . . . .255

Part II

Sea op Galilee. By Captain Wilson, B. E. ... 263

The Architectural Bemains op Palestine. By B. Phene Spiers, Esq. 302 The Haoran. By toe Count de Vooijfc .... 319

The Survey op Palestine. By Lieutenant Anderson, E. E. . 341

On the Pottery and Glass pound in the Excavations. By the Eev.

Greville J. Chester ...... 368

Moabite Stone ........ 389

Sinal By the Bev. F. W. Holland ..... 403

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Robinson’s Anon ...... Frontispiece

Param Area, or Noble Sanctuary . . . . .7

Shaft at Southeast Angle ...... 26

Wilson’s Arch ........ 68

Do. do. ( from tracing ) . . . . . .62

Capital op Pilaster ....... 68

Eastern End op Vault . . . . . . .71.

Voussoir op Fallen Arch ...... 81

Base op Column ........ 82

South and East Wall . . . . . . .92

Incised Characters . . . . . . . .111

Stone C op Eastern Wall . . . . . .112

Gallery at Southeast Angle . . . . . .116

Ancient Marks on Handles op Vases . . . 118,869

Gallery at Golden Gate ....... 121

Nkwly-discoyered Passage in Old Wall .... 129

Section through Birket Israil ...... 147

Rock-cut Passage abote Virgin’s Fount . . . . .196

Doric Capital, Siloak ....... 207

Gennath Gate ........ 214

Rock in Mount Moriah ....... 232

Monumental Slab .'..... 236

Jerusalem at Time op King Herod ..... 236

Ford oyer the Jordan ....... 261

The Lake op Galilee 263

Xll

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Temple op Hibbariyeh Temple op Theltha Architecture of the Hauran Upper Valley of tiie Jordan .

Valley of the Jordan Valley of Shechem Four-lipped Lamp .

Ancient Dish .

Portion of Large Jar Portion of Large Jar .

Vase found at Birket Israil Potter’s Mark .

Potter’s Mark Lamps .

Inscribed Lamp

Lamp—Pool of Bethesda

Glass Vase from Sepulchral Cate

Glass Lamp

Stone Weight

Seal of Haggai

Copper Lamp-stand

Sinai ....

Map of Peninsula of Sinai

PAGE

387 . 403

Introduction

BY THE DEAN OF WESTMINSTER.

The Committee ot the Palestine Exploration Fund hav¬ ing done me the honor of asking me to write a Preface to the collected papers of the Society, I gladly comply, though not without a misgiving lest I should do injustice to a sub¬ ject on which, full of absorbing interest as it once was to me, and dear as it must now be for its own sake, as well as for the memories of past years, I have been prevented by the pressure of other occupations from bestowing the con¬ tinuous attention that it deserves.

It has seemed to me that the simplest and most useful mode of introducing this volume to the public would be, to point out in each essay what are the most important addi¬ tions to our knowledge—especially in the light of such hopes or anticipations as I, in common with others, some fourteen years ago ventured faintly to express.

I. The first and most important of all the sites of Pal¬ estine, and that which occupies the largest portion and fur¬ nishes the title of the following pages, is the ancient city of Jerusalem.

"When I first visited Palestine in 1852, I felt constrained

XIV

INTRODUCTION-.

to express what has doubtless occurred to many others, that, when we pass from the comparatively secure knowledge of what may be called the external situation * of the city to its internal relations, we exchange a sphere of perfect cer¬ tainty for a mass of topographical controversy, unequalled for its extent, for its confusion, and for it3 bitterness. If the materials, however slight, on which our judgment was to be formed were all before us, it might be worth while to attempt to unravel the entanglement. But the reverse is the case. The data exist, perhaps in abundance, but they are inaccessible. When Jerusalem can be excavated we shall be able to agree; till then the dispute is for the most part as hopeless as was that concerning the Boman Forum before the discovery of the pedestal of the column of Phocas.” f

This hope has been fulfilled. At last the excavations of Jerusalem have been begun, slowly and gradually indeed, but, when these pages are read, it will probably be thought, as rapidly as the circumstances would permit. In the plain and unadorned narrative of Captain Warren, the difficulties and dangers of the undertaking might almost escape notice. Yet the perils will appear sufficiently great to any one who draws out from the good-humored story the fact that these

* There is one point, in the external topography of Jerusalem, in which Cap¬ tain Warren has corrected an erroneous conclusion, which I shared in company with most others who have written on the subject. He has called attention to what I confess seems to me so incontrovertible, that I wonder how it should so long have escaped notice—that the valley or ravine of Hinnom, instead of being confined, as it has been usually in modern times confined, to the valley south of Jerusalem, includes, if it is not identical with, the glen of the Kedron east of the city. This appears to follow beyond question from Jer. xix. 11; and it agrees, not only with the Mussulman nomenclature, but with almost all the Bib¬ lical indications on the subject, and especially with the word Ga-hinnom. f “ Sinai and Palestine,” Chap. III.

INTRODUCTION.

xv excavations were carried on at the constant risk of life and limb to the bold explorers. The whole series of their prog¬ ress was a succession of “ lucky . escapes ” (p. 42). Huge stones were day after day ready to fall, and sometimes did fall, on their heads (p. 193). One of the explorers was “ in¬ jured so severely that he could barely crawl out into the open air ” (p. 66); another extricated himself with difficulty, torn and bleeding; while another was actually buried under the ruins (p. 217). Sometimes they were almost suffocated by the stifling heat; at other times they were plunged for hours up to their necks in the freezing waters of some sub¬ terranean torrent (p. 188); sometimes blocked up by a fall¬ ing mass, without light or escape (p. 102). And these la¬ bors had to be carried on not with the assistance of those on the Bpot, but in spite of the absurd obstacles thrown in the way of work by that singular union of craft, ignorance, and stupidity, which can only be found in Orientals—workmen who in “winter could never get the idea drummed into their heads that working would make them warm ” (p. 53). Turkish dignitaries believing that the sacred rock lies on the top leaves of a palm-tree, from the roots of which spring all the rivers of earth, and with a ready pretence for evad¬ ing every request * (pp. 28, 31).

The readers of these pages will be compensated by being thus enabled to form the acquaintance of such good and tried friends as Captain Warren and his faithful Achates, Sergeant Birtles. We trust that they are compensated by the results of their labors.

To these I briefly turn.

* It ia gratifying to find that the French archteologists seem generously to have given their aid to the work (pp. 62, 167).

xvi

INTRODUCTION.

1. The original stimulus to the whole undertaking was supplied by the benevolent wish of Miss Burdett Coutts to ascertain the best means of bringing water to the thirsty city. The answer to this is given in the excellent Ordnance Survey, accomplished under the auspices of Captain Wilson, and the elaborate description of the ancient water supplies given by Captain Warren (p. 182). It may be added that in this in¬ vestigation the interesting question of the supposed spring inside the walls of Jerusalem and under the Temple Courts has been for the first time followed to the bottom ; and the result appears to be that, while there is no actual spring within the walls, the whole mount is so honey-combed with cisterns (pp. 14, 17) as to give ample materials for the con¬ jecture of Tacitus, and for the imagery of Scripture, while at the same time it takes away from them the foundation of exact and literal truth.

2. The course of the ancient walls, on which hangs the much-disputed question of the possible authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre, still remains unsolved; or rather so much additional progress has been made toward its solution that, as far as the excavations have as yet gone, they disparage, rather than confirm, the alleged proof that the walls ex¬ cluded the site from their compass, and therefore admitted of its genuineness (p. 9).

3. The controversy respecting the Temple Area is still sub judice; but whatever materials can be furnished are set forth by Captain Warren in the most impartial and un¬ ostentatious form (pp. 84, 134, 170, 241).

4. The external aspect of the ancient Jerusalem is in two or three points brought out with new force.

There are some proofs discovered of the form of the an cient houses (p. 82).

INTRODUCTION.

xvn

There is also the astounding revelation of the immense height of the Temple wall above the Kedron Valley (p. 146).

5. Some approximation to the date of the walls of the Temple has been made by the discovery of the supposed Phoenician characters marked in red paint on their surface (p.l°T).

6. The interesting discovery by Dr. Robinson of what

he supposed to be the arch of the bridge, which later travellers much contested, has now been definitely con¬ firmed by the disclosure of its remaining fragments (pp. 73-78). .

7. The whole history of the cartography of Jerusalem is for the first time clearly set forth, while it has reached its best illustrations in the maps and contours now for the first time published (pp. 22, 25).

It is impossible to conclude this brief statement of the results of this part of the subject, without noting the kind¬ ly and just appreciation of the three chief explorers of the internal topography of Jerusalem, Mr. Williams, Dr. Rob¬ inson, and Mr. Fergusson (p. 223). There still remains much to be done; the Tombs of the Kings have yet to be found, as they must be found, somewhere within the walls; the area of the “ Noble Sanctuary ” has yet to be explored thoroughly; the exact course of the walls still to be traced. But this must form the next act of the Society’s opera¬ tions.

II. In turning from the Holy City to tlie Holy Land, the first region which attracts our attention is the Lake of Gennesareth. It might have seemed that nothing new re¬ mained' to be told as to the general aspect of the lake.

xviii

INTRODUCTION.

Yet it may, I think, be truly said, that there has been no account given at once so accurate and so vivid, as that with which Captain Wilson prefaces his narrative (p. 263). Nor, as far as I am aware, has there ever been published by an eye-witness a complete description of a storm on the lake in illustration of the Gospel narrative (p. 265).

In speaking of the localities on the lake, I was obliged, fourteen years ago, to say that “ There is nothing which enables us to fix with certainty the precise spots of the his¬ tory of our Saviour’s residence, Capernaum, Bethsaida, Chorazin.” *

It is too much perhaps to maintain that these- points have been fixed with certainty. Bat it may be affirmed now positively that a far nearer approach has been made than ever before:

1. As regards Capernaum, what may be called the in¬ trinsic arguments in favor of Tel Hum had been often urged ; and in recent years the recognition of the remains of a Jewish Synagogue in the great ruin on that spot gave much additional interest to the question. But what is new and, it seems to me, almost decisive is the identification of the fountain at Tabigah with the fountain of Capernaum, by the discovery that the track round the rock of Khan Minyeh is an aqueduct carrying the waters of the fountain into the plain of Gennesareth (p. 272). This at once elevates the claims of Tel Hum to be the ancient Capernaum to the very highest rank.

2. As regards Chorazin, the identification of it with the ruins of Kerazeh had been slightly indicated by others, but here again it is substantiated more firmly than hereto¬ fore.

* “ Sinai and Palestine,” Chap. X.

INTRODUCTION.

xix

3. The determination of these two sites naturally leaves Khan Minyeh for the Western Bethsaida. It may be doubted, as Captain "Wilson properly reminds us, whether the MSS. allow of two places of that name. But, if there be a Western, as well as an Eastern, Khan Minyeh offers a site.

4. There is another point on which it has been extreme¬ ly difficult to arrive at any fixed conclusion—the scene of the demoniacs and the swine.

The difficulty is to find any spot with “ a precipice ” and “ tombs ” near the lake on the eastern side. Mr. Elli¬ ott and Lord Lindsay differ in their printed accounts from each other. Two separate parties of British travellers, in 1861 and in 1863, in their private accounts communicated to me, also differ from each other, and from the two pub¬ lished accounts.* After this entanglement it would be rash to say that Captain Wilson’s identification of the site with the entrance of Wady Semakh (in which he agrees with Dr. Thomson and Mr. Macgregor) is likely to stand. But it must be taken as the most careful that has been made (pp. 286, 287).

III. The comparative absence of architectural remains in Palestine is doubtless one reason why it is difficult to re¬ gard the exploration of the Holy Land with the same archae¬ ological interest which is excited in respect to Greece, Borne, Asia Minor, and. the cities on the Tigris and Eu¬ phrates. Still there is enough in the temples of “ the holy mountain ” of Hermon, in the tombs of the valley of the Kedron, in the recently-discovered synagogues at Meiron and Tel Hum, and in the masonry of the walls of the sanc-

* “ Sinai and Palestine,” Chap. X.

INTRODUCTION.

XX

tuaries of Jerusalem and Hebron, to deserve a complete in¬ vestigation ; and toward this an excellent step is made in Hr. Spiers’s paper (p. 302).

IV. Count de Vogue’s essay on the Hauran is the most scientific account we possess in English of that mysterious district* Its unfinished state and abrupt conclusion give it a peculiar interest. There can have been few concerned in the exploration of Palestine who did not feel a thrill of sym¬ pathy, when, amid the horrors of the carnage after the battle of Worth, they came on the affecting narrative of the scene in which the chivalrous Prussian Prince tenderly an¬ nounced to the Count de Vogiid the sad tidings that, among the killed and wounded whom he came to tend, the first body that he would find would be that of his brother.

V. The Ordnance Survey of Palestine was so obvious a duty for the English nation to undertake, that it is needless to dwell on its importance. It is therefore only right that this volume should contain a narrative of the mode in which the work was conducted by Lieutenant Anderson, “and some geometricians who could not easily fail of knowing the truth when they were sent to measure the country ” (to use the happy quotation from Josephus prefixed to the chapter). Besides the interest of the general narrative (pp. 341-367), it may be worth while to call special attention to the re¬ marks on Dothan and Jacob’s Well (pp. 360-362).

VI. The objects of pottery—described by Mr. Chester— open a new sphere of sacred archaeology hitherto almost un¬ touched ; the peculiarity of those in the early Christian era seems well worth noticing.

INTRODUCTION.

xxi

VII. Of all the discoveries connected with the Palestine Exploration Fund, that of the Moabite Stone, if not the most important, is undoubtedly that which has excited the keenest and most general interest, and deservedly so.

1. It is the only inscription which has hitherto been found reaching back to the age of the Jewish monarchy.

2. It indicates the possibility—one might almost say the certainty—that more such inscriptions might be discovered, if only we had the means of searching for them. It removes the disagreeable impression that, as no written record on stone had ever been found, no such record had ever existed. Strange, almost incredible as this seemed, when compared with the acres of inscriptions (many of a much earlier date) in Egypt—yet it was a not unnatural conclusion, until this unexpected discovery broke the silence and dispelled the illusion.

3. "Whether or not the King of Moab who is mentioned is the same “ Mesha ” as the monarch of whom we read in 2 Kings iii., he evidently belongs to the same dynasty. The few indications that the inscription contains of the state of Moab agree with those contained in the Sacred Books.

4. "Whatever may be the variations of readings in other parts of the inscription, there is an entire agreement as to some of the most interesting parts. The name of Mesha, the names of Chemosh and Moloch, the name of Omri, the names of the various Moabite towns, above all, the name of Jahveh or Jehovah for the God of Israel—appear in both the versions here presented to us.*

• The essay on the Moabite Stone has the peculiar merit of giving not only the various versions of the inscription, but an exact account of the much dis¬ puted and much misunderstood details of the discovery.

INTRODUCTION.

xxii

VIII. Among the chapters in this volume, the one to which I feel individually called to bear the strongest testi¬ mony of interest and satisfaction is that on the explorations in the Peninsula of Sinai, by Mr. Holland. “ Is it pos¬ sible,” I ventured to ask in 1856, “ to ascertain the route by which the Israelites passed through the Desert ? . . . Can we be guided by tradition ? . . . Such a question can only be authoritatively answered by a traveller, who, with com¬ plete knowledge of Arabic, has sifted and compared the various legends and stories of the Peninsula.” * “ Hitherto no one traveller has traversed more than one or at most two roads of the' Desert; and thus the determination of the route of the Israelites has been obscured, first, by the ten¬ dency of every one to make the Israelites follow his own track, and secondly, by his inability to institute a just com¬ parison between the facilities or the difficulties which attend the routes that he has not seen. This obscurity will always exist till some competent traveller has explored the whole Peninsula of Sinai.” Such a traveller has happily been found—or rather two such travellers have been found—one, the Rev. F. W. Holland, writer of this essay, the other Mr. E. H. Palmer, to whose rare knowledge of Arabic Mr. Hol¬ land bears full witness; and the general results are con¬ tained in the closing pages of this volume.

It is with, I trust, the pardonable gratification of an old Sinaitic traveller, that I observe how this elaborate inves¬ tigation in almost every instance confirms the conclusions at which I had arrived after my hasty survey—always under the reserve suggested by the probability that they might be modified by a more complete research. The spot of the

* “ Sinai and Palestine,” Chap. I., pp. 27, 33.

INTRODUCTION.

xxiii

passage of the Red Sea (p. 413)—the course of the Israelites by the Wady Useit and the Wady Tayibeh (p. 416)—the identification of the Wilderness of Sin with the plain of El Murkhah (p. 418)—the identification of Rephidim with Feiran, and of the sacred hill of Aaron and Hur * with the emi¬ nence crowned by the ruins of Paran (pp. 420-422)—the identification of the Ras Sufs&feh and the plain of R&hah with the scene of the giving of the Law and the Israelite encampment (pp. 408-412)—the general failure of the an¬ cient names—the probable change in the resources of the wilderness (p. 424)—the comparatively modern date of the Sinaitic inscriptions—all these points, which I had laid down as the nearest approximations which I could make to the truth, have now all been established, as far as they are likely to be, by explorers who can speak with authority, as the first who have traversed not one route only, but every possible route in the Desert, and have seen not one or two only, but every possible scene of the great acts of the Exo¬ dus. Such a ratification of what could at the time have been treated only as conjecture, is the best reward that any traveller can have; and I beg to tender my sincere thanks to the adventurous investigators who, at so much risk to themselves, and with so much advantage to Biblical lore, have been the first to penetrate into every nook and corner of those secluded fastnesses; and, having qualified them¬ selves to say positively where the sacred events could not have taken place, have been the first to be able to say with authority where they probably did take place.

With these words of gratitude I commend this volume

* In this instance Mr. Holland rather inclines against the identification; but I am glad to find that my view—in the first instance suggested by the lamented Bitter—is adopted by Captain Wilson, Captain Palmer, and Mr. Palmer.

XXIV

INTRODUCTION.

to the serious attention of all who care for the additional light which sincere desire for truth and patient investiga¬ tion can throw on the most sacred of all books, on the most interesting of all geographies. Much has been done, but much remains to be done; and it is in order to stimulate and insure the completion that this instalment is given to the world. May that completion be worthy of the begin¬ ning, worthy of the indefatigable zeal and labor which first set on foot this new Crusade, worthy of the Holy Land and the Holy History which it is intended to illustrate and elucidate I

PART I.

JER TTSALEM.

THE ORDNANCE SURVEY OF JERUSALEM.

1864-65.

BY CAPTAIN WILSON, R.E.

Early in the year 1864 the sanitary state of Jerusalem attracted considerable attention; that city, which the Psalm¬ ist had described as “ beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth,” had become one of the most unhealthy places in the world, and the chief reasons assigned for this melan¬ choly change were, the inferior quality of the water and the presence of an enormous mass of rubbish which had been accumulating for centuries. With the rubbish it was hardly possible to deal, but the water-supply seemed an easier mat¬ ter, and several schemes were proposed for improving it, either by repairing the ancient system, or by making new pools, cisterns, and aqueducts. Before, however, any scheme could be carried out, it was necessary to obtain an accurate plan of the city, and with this view Miss Burdett Coutts, a lady ever ready to promote good works, placed a sum of £500 in the hands of a committee of gentlemen interested in Jerusalem.

The committee requested Lord de Grey, then Secretary of State for War, to allow a survey to be made by a party of Royal Engineers from the Ordnance Survey under the di¬ rection of Sir Henry James, and obtained a favorable answer. It was, however, stipulated that an officer should accompany the party, and that Government should be put to no ex¬ pense.

I had always had a strong wish to visit Jerusalem and Palestine, and when Sir Henry James was kind enough to offer me the command of the small party, I gladly availed myself of an opportunity which might never occur again, and accepted the conditions on which the appointment was made. These were, that I was not to receive any remunera¬ tion for my services, and was to bear the cost of my own travelling and personal expenses, which amounted eventually to between £300 and £400.

On our return to England, the cost of publication was defrayed by a grant of £500 from the Treasury, a sum which has since been more than repaid by the large sale of plans, photographs, etc.

On the 12th of September, 1864, we* left Southampton amid the cheers and good wishes of the numerous friends who had come to wish us “ good-by,” and after a pleasant voyage reached Jaffa on the 30th of September, and Jerusa¬ lem on the 3d of October.

On first catching sight of Jerusalem, I must confess to having experienced a keen feeling of disappointment, which did not pass away for some days. We had travelled up from Ramleh during the night, and on our way had been looking forward to the moment when we should see the gray walls, the mosques and minarets of the Holy City; but, instead of these, the first object that met our eyes was the unsightly pile of buildings which the Russians had recently erected outside the northwest angle of the walls.

Before leaving England many doubted the success of any attempt to make a close, contoured survey of a city in which there was such a large Moslem population. We found, how¬ ever, that the difficulties had been exaggerated, and though, at first, the inhabitants looked upon us with suspicion, think-

* The party consisted of myself, Sergeant (now Sergeant-Major) McDonald, and Corporals Ferris, McKeith, Davidson, and Wishart, of the Royal Engineers, from the Ordnance Survey.

DIFFICULTIES MET.

ing we had some ulterior design, they soon became accus¬ tomed to our presence, and we were able to say, on leaving Jerusalem after a residence of ten months, that we tad accomplished our object without having had a difficulty or dispute with any one. This happy result was due in great measure to our confining ourselves entirely to the work of the survey, to the prompt weekly payments made to those we employed, and to the active support received on all occa¬ sions from Mr. Moore, the British Consul, and from the Pacha of Jerusalem. I must not forget to mention also the assistance so kindly given by the learned Prussian Consul, Dr. Posen; by Dr. Chaplin, and Mr. Schick, who frequently accompanied me in my subterranean explorations; by Dr. Sandreczki, to whom I owe the nomenclature of the city; and lastly, by two kind friends in England, who supplied me with the funds necessary to make those tentative excava¬ tions which were attended with so much success.

Before entering into any details, it will be necessary to lay before those of our readers who are not familiar with the subject a slight sketch of the topography of the Holy City.

Jerusalem is emphatically a mountain city. The Bible teems with allusions to this peculiarity in its situation. Built on the very backbone of the country, the summit of that long ridge which traverses Palestine from north to south, and only approached by wild mountain-roads, the position of the city was one of great natural strength, and this gave the inhabitants that feeling of security from hos¬ tile attack which seems to be implied by the Psalmist in the well-known verse, “ As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so is the Lord round about his people.” The mod¬ ern city stands, as the ancient one did before it, on the southern extremity of a spur or plateau enclosed by two ravines, which bear the familiar names of Kedron and Hinnom. The ravines rise at the water-shed within a short dis¬ tance of each other, at an altitude of 2,650 feet above the Mediterranean; the easternmost, the valley of Kedron or Jehosliaphat, runs eastward for 1£ miles, and then makes a

JERUSALEM.

sharp bend to the south; the westernmost, the valley of Ilinnom, after following a direction nearly south for 1J mile 3 , turns to the east, and passing through a deep gorge joins the Kedron at Bir Eyub, a deep well south of the city. Both ravines are at first mere depressions of the ground, but after the change in their respective courses they fall more rapidly, and at Bir Eyub are 670 feet below the original starting-point. A third ravine, the Tyropoeon—valley of the Cheesemongers, or perhaps Tyrians—rises well up in the plateau, and after passing through the city and dividing it into two unequal halves, joins the Kedron at Siloam. On the eastern spur, Mount Moriah, once stood the temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod, and on the western, which is 120 feet higher than Moriah, were situated the palace of Herod, the three great towers Hippicus, Phasaelus, and Mariamne, and the Upper City of Josephus.