BEZETHA, MORIAH, ZION, AND AKRA.

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of Bezetha looked like a labyrinth of sunken arches and broken walls.

Moriah, the southeastern quarter, is occupied principally by the great Mosque of Omar and its dependencies. Its shining walls, towering dome and minaret, are distinctly in sight, and form by far the most striking feature of our view. East of the quadrangle of the Haram the hill sinks suddenly to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

Zion, separated from Moriah by the Valley of the Tyropoon, is the highest of the four hills. It was formerly the most splendid portion of the city, containing the palace of its greatest monarch; but its area is now limited by the walls, within which the Armenian Convent is the most striking object, and that nothing remarkable in an architectural point of view.

Akra, the northwestern hill, is next in height to Zion, and is, indeed, a part of the great ridge extending northwest of the city. This is the best built part of the town. Near the crest of the hill stands the Latin Convent, and on its steep declivity, to the southeast, the Greek Convent adjoining the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Although we enjoyed from our point of view a near and good prospect of the city, it must not be supposed that we obtained any such conception of it as can be had by overlooking any modern-built town, with wide streets and open squares. You can see nothing but the upper parts of blank stone walls, and the flat, plastered roofs, finished in every case with low, closed domes. The aspect of the city is thus at once strange and gloomy. No streets are visible, no busy throngs, no bustle of life and trade; nor does even the hum of business, that stirring yet solemn sound which generally rises from a city crowded with life, strike upon the ear.

VOL. I.-U

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THE ENVIRONS.-MOUNT OF OLIVES.

Near the walls, both within and without the city, are to be seen patches of wheat and prickly pear; wherever the ancient rubbish has been thoroughly decomposed, it produces a rich soil, which is ploughed and sowed. Without the city, the hills are generally barren and rocky; though, wherever the soil is good enough, the stones are gathered into piles to admit of the tillage of the ground. On the north there are many of these cultivated spots, and scattered olive-trees give something of a rural appearance to the scene. Looking to the northeast, up the Valley of Jehoshaphat, we see a far more cheerful sight; the sides of the valley, and the plain into which it opens, are covered with cornfields, vineyards, and gardens. Turning our view eastward, the eye rests upon the best authenticated spots in the Christian antiquities of Jerusalem-places full of the holiest and most solemn associations. Beneath the ridge at our feet lies the Valley of Jehoshaphat, through which, in the rainy season, flows the little brook Kedron. From it rises suddenly the Mount of Olives, across whose rugged surface winds the path to Bethany, so often trodden by the feet of Jesus, and on its brow appears the ruined Church of the Ascension. In all substantial features the hill is just what it was in the time of Christ; time can have made few changes in its hard proportions. The terraces and gardens that formerly adorned it are gone; the gay dwellings that enlivened it have crumbled; and but a few olive-trees, scattered here and there, remain to show the propriety of the name of Olivet. But the precious memories that belong to the hill so often trodden by the Saviour of men will never be effaced: no Christian can gaze upon it without the deepest emotion.

Let us now return to our stand-point (A), in the angle

VALLEY AND POOLS OF GIHON.

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of the wall west of the Latin Convent. To the north and west is the open plain, on which, in all time, the besiegers of Jerusalem have marshalled their forces for the attack. Here lay the camp of Titus in that memorable siege which ended in the utter destruction of the Temple of the Lord. Here, too, in the days of the Crusades, Godfrey de Bouillon and Tancred formed their lines of warriors, burning to dispossess the Saracens of the Sacred City. Turning to the west, we see, at no great distance, the upper Pool of Gihon, with its solid walls of ancient masonry sunk deep in the valley, and just north of it the Turkish cemetery, full of monuments and tombs. Between it and the walls we trace the opening of the Valley of Gihon, which takes the name of Hinnom lower down, makes the circuit of Mount Zion, and unites southeast of the city with the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

Let us take now another point of view (C), in the southwest angle of the wall, on the very brow of Zion. Just at our feet, to the west, is the shelving brink of the hill, falling away into the Valley of Gihon. The ruinous masonry of the lower Pool of Gihon is seen at a little distance westward, and near it the road to Bethlehem winds up out of the valley. On the south, the summit of the hill of Zion stretches for some distance beyond the walls, and on it we see the cemeteries for strangers, and the Saracenic-looking building known as the Tomb of David. Looking across over the gorge of Hinnom, we see the Hill of Evil Counsel, a bold and precipitous height, rising suddenly just opposite to Zion. Turning to the south and east, we look down the side of Zion, which here rapidly declines to the Tyropoon and Hinnom its rugged surface ill commemorates the mount which the royal poet sung as "beautiful for situ

232

ACELDAMA.

-SILOAM.-HILL OF OFFENCE.

ation, the joy of the whole earth." On the angle of the cliff that borders Hinnom on the southeast, we see the gloomy charnel-house of the Aceldama, or Field of Blood. Due east, in the eastern cliff of Jehoshaphat, appears the Turkish village of Siloam, made up principally of tombs anciently cut in the hillside, which are now occupied as dwellings by the wretched Arabs. Farther on rises the Hill of Offence, so called because Solomon worshipped idols in its high places.

I have thus rapidly sketched the general views of the city and its environs to be obtained from different points on the walls. If the reader has carefully accompanied his perusal of it by an inspection of the map, I think he will have obtained a tolerably correct idea of the localities.

TOMBS OF THE JUDGES.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

JERUSALEM.-WALK II.

TO THE TOMBS OF THE JUDGES, AND DOWN THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT.

Great Plains Northwest of the City.-Tombs of the Judges.-Why so called.-Course of the Valley of Jehoshaphat.-Tombs of the Kings.—Various Apartments.-Pleasant Rural Scene.-Tomb of the Virgin Mary.— Tomb of Absalom.-Of Jehoshaphat.-Of St. James.-Of Zechariah.Cemetery of the Jews.-Village of Siloam.-Potter's Field.

WE issued from the Damascus Gate, in the northern wall, under the conduct of our guardian Mustapha, for an excursion on the great plain north and west of the city. The whole space between the present wall and the site of the ancient third wall (marked on the map by a dotted line) was formerly occupied by the city. Everywhere are to be found traces of tombs, buildings, and subterranean arches and cisterns. We took first the northwest road, that leads to the Tombs of the Judges. These are situated at about half an hour's distance from the Damascus Gate, a little to the right of the path, and not far from the head of the Valley of Jehoshaphat. They are cut in the limestone rock, in the midst of a thousand others, lying on both sides of the valley, and on the ridge between it and Wady Beit Hannina. As the rock has no great elevation, the tombs were near the surface, and most of them are now laid open from above by the destruction of the superincumbent stone; and even those whose chambers and niches are entire, have lost the sculptured doors which closed them. Having just come from Petra, I could not but notice the general resemblance between the tombs around that remarkable place and those before us. If