UC-NRLF on* jtn WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM LONDON SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIANITY AMONGST THE JEWS (Founded 1809). Qftutct) fl)i00iong to Jeto0 Patron: THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. Vice-Patrons: Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England and of Ireland. President: The Rt. Hon. Sir John H. Kennaway, Bart., C.B. "The Society is an act of reparation before God for the treatment of the Jews in this country in the past, and in some parts of Europe even to the present day." Archbishop of Canterbury, 1909. ff 231 MISSIONARY AGENTS, Including 92 Hebrew Christians employed. 45 MISSION STATIONS. Numerous Parochial Grants made. Hospitals (2,079 In- patients and 46,612 Out-patients last year), Dispensaries, Mission Schools (2,230 Scholars on the books), Industrial and other Homes, Distribution of Scriptures and Mis- sionary Tracts and Colportage Work. 3\ew and extended efforts urgently called for Help Needed towards the present Deficit. Rev. F. L. DENMAN, M.A., Secretary. Rev. E. L. LANGSTON, M.A., Asst. Secretary. Society's House : 16 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, LONDON, W.C. WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM BY THE REV. J. E. HANAUER LONDON SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIANITY AMONGST THE JEWS MCMX. PHELAN Printed in the City of London at the Edinburgh Press CONTENTS CHAPTER I i5 Knights Templars The German Temple Panorama First view of Jerusalem Colour of city walls Mud shower Jaffa Gate Visit of Kaiser William Memorial drinking fountain Other names of Jaffa Gate Arabic inscription Moslem escha- tology Alterations and innovations. CHAPTER II - - 6io The Citadel Herodian towers Site of Herod's palace and garden Depth of debris Discoveries during excavations De- scription of traditional Hippicus Survival of an old custom The Armenian quarter and Convent Valuable relics Shield of Hamza Pilgrim quarters and printing press. CHAPTER III - - 1118 Armenian Church of St. James The Apostle's chair and grave Patriarchal chair Shrine of St. James' head Old frescoes Gongs Historical associations Modern drinking fountain Old olive tree Traditional House of Annas Absurd traditions An- cient pine trees Ruins of Crusading chapel of St. Thomas Syrian convent, house of Mary, mother of Mark St. Luke's painting of the Virgin The Jewish quarter Theatre Street. CHAPTER IV 1924 Quarters of German Crusaders and Teutonic Knights Another Church of St. Thomas Site of St. Martin's Church- Palace of Herod Agrippa Palace of High Priest Synagogues Legend of Elijah Karaite Synagogue Deutscher Platz Re- moval of ancient nuisances The Zion Gate. CHAPTER V 2534 North-western part of Jerusalem Excavations and discoveries The loth Legion Importance of discoveries View from houses on site of Asmonean Palace Viri Galilee Modern Greek and Latin religious establishments The Latin Patriarchate Franciscan institutions The Crusaders' Almanac Great Greek Convent and Library Traditional Pool of Hezekiah Traces and courses of Second Wall. v. 774218 CONTENTS CHAPTER VI 35-43 Surface levels A new Gate Remains at French Boys' School Course of valley-beds Double pool of Bethesda Birket Israel Plan of City Course of Second Wall Models of rock-site of Church of the Holy Sepulchre Historical note Extant remains Chosroes Omar Charlemagne Haroun Al Raschid The late Emperor Frederic, and his son, the present Kaiser The Erloser- Kirche The mad Khalif El Hakim Invasion by the Kharez- mians The great fire of 1808. CHAPTER VII 4451 Modern dome of the Church of the Sepulchre Approach to the church Patriarch Street Hammam El Batrak Intolerance towards Jews Legend Christian Street Remarkable ancient dam An old pilaster Knights Hospitallers and the Crusading Patriarch Great courtyard Convent and chapels of Abraham and the twelve Apostles The Greek olive tree and its Abyssinian rival Ruins of Crusaders' Abbey Abyssinian hovels Dome of St. Helena's church Armenian chapel of St. James, Coptic of St. Michael Greek of Mary of Egypt Illustrative paintings- Lion legends Carvings of lions Chapels on the western side of great court Bell tower Fight between Greek and Latin monks Tombstone of Sir Philip D'Aubeny Biographical note. CHAPTER VIII - - . - - 5258 Twelfth century carvings on lintels of Church portals- Moslem door-keepers Staircase to Calvary Stone of Unction- Tombs of Godfrey and Baldwin Tombs of Melchisedec and Adam The Calvary chapel Cleft in the rock Latin altar- Chapel of Mary's agony Station of the women Stairs to Ar- menian galleries Chapels of the Resurrection and the Angel. CHAPTER IX . 5963 Place where the "Holy Fire" issues Popular notions Prob- able origin of ceremony Crowding of sacred sites Description ofJSepulchre Opinion of an eminent Roman Catholic authority on Palestine. vi. CONTENTS CHAPTER X 6471 Description of Tomb chapel Syrian chapel Coptic oratory Jewish rock-hewn tombs Blocked entrances Similar tombs in Coptic convent Earthworks of XV Legion Site of John's mon- ument The Rotunda Ventilating turret Franciscan chapels Relics of Godfrey in Latin vestry Northern transept of church Chapel of the Stocks and prison Eastern ambulatory and chapels Staircase to lower levels St. Helena's chapel Cavern of the Invention of the Cross Memorial altar to Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico Closed window Greek Cathedral Centre of the World. CHAPTER XI - - 7281 Harat ed Dabbaghah Oriental mode of shewing contempt of rival religions Fragments of ancient masonry in Russian Hospice The Muristan Corn Bazaar Kaiser Friedrich's Strasse Hospice ana church of St. John the Forerunner Ancient sub- terranean church Three parallel bazaars Varieties of costume. CHAPTER XII 8287 Description of bazaars Roman pavement Old lettering Traces of Hadrian's colonnades Medeba mosaic. CHAPTER XIII 8894 David Street Northern city in times of early kings of Judah Maronite convent Former residence of Rev. J. Nicolayson Crusading chapel of St. James the son of Alphaeus, behind Christ Church L.J.S. House of Industry workshops Ancient tower chamber The Porta Ferrea Jacobite or Syrian convent Harat el Jawa'neh The Gate Gennath, so-called House of Zebedee. HI CHAPTER XIV 9599 Site of St. Giles' Abbey Saracenic style of architecture The Mehkemeh Site of a Council chamber of the Sanhedrin Associated with history of St. Paul A i6th century fountain- Aqueduct from ''Pools of Solomon" Wilson's Arch Warren's Masonic Hall Alleged discovery of Tomb of David, etc. vii. CONTENTS CHAPTER XV 100105 Descent into Tyropoeon Harat el Magharibeh The Jews' Wailing Place Great lintel of an ancient temple gate Sir C. "Warren's excavations A nail in God's holy place Jews' as- sembling Antiquity of custom. CHAPTER XVI 106114 Bab es Silsileh Temple gate "Shallecheth" or "Coponius" Going up to the Sanctuary Rules to be observed by worshippers "going up" Ancient pavement Southern bridge over Tyropoeon Rock cutting or tunnel for aqueduct from "Pools of Solomon" Robinson''s Arch Sir Charles Warren's excavations and dis- coveries. CHAPTER XVII 115122 Masonry of different periods Depth of debris Millo Hajar el Hablah Rock dwellings The Ophel-Zion theory Arguments for this theory stated and answered. CHAPTER XVIII 123128 Minaret marking position of Pool of Siloam Traditional site of Isaiah's death Mount of Corruption Exterior of Western Huldah or Double Gate Carvings and inscription Supposed head of a statue of Hadrian The Triple Gate Gigantic course of gigantic stones The "rejected" corner stone Single Gate- Solomon's Stables Discoveries during excavations. CHAPTER XIX 129135 Herodian vaults and remains of tower Death of St. James the Less Cave with fullers' vats, discovered by Sir Charles Warren S.E. corner of Temple enclosure Depth of debris Phoenician mason marks Wall and towers on Ophel Mohammed's Judg- ment seat Fate of a Mahdi Ancient columns Moslem graves Century plant The Golden Gate Crusading postern Herod's colonnades. Viii. CONTENTS CHAPTER XX 136139 The Golden Gate Historical associations Massacre of the Jews by Heraclius Origin of the name "Golden Gate" Cru- sading procession on Palm Sundays Dragoman tale Hebrew inscription. CHAPTER XXI .... 140143 Moslem cemetery Mourners' visits Depth of debris A filled- up valley St. Stephen's Gate Herodian tower at N.E. angle of Temple-area Birket Israel Abbey of St. Anne Biblical Museum Stone weight. CHAPTER XXII - - - - - 144151 Legend of St. Anne Bethesda Location of Sheep Gate The twin pools Historical note Ex voto of Pompeiia Lucilia Description of eastern pool Remains of crypt Church of St. Anne Remarkable features Mysticism of mediaeval architects A paper war. CHAPTER XXIII - - - 152161 Further remarks on history of St. Anne's Church Crusading stones with "masons' marks" Origin of latter A vestige of the Antonia Chapel of the Crowning with Thorns Via Dolorosa and Chapels of the Flagellation Ancient pavement Nunnery and arch of the "Ecce Homo" Another pair of twin pools Ancient aqueduct Oriental time An interesting survival Re- markable rock scarp Curious pedestals Romanist Mission to the Jews Its founder House and legend of St. Veronica El Khankeh. CHAPTER XXIV 162169 Christian Street again Patriarch's entrance to Church of the Holy Sepulchre Mosque of the Serpent Charm Modern mosque El Tekiyeh A Moslem charity Entrance to the Cotton Bazaar discovery A huge cistern "The Maktesh" Excavations at St. Maria Latina The modern Serai So-called "Hospital of Helena" El Tekiyeh A Moslem charity Entrance to the Cotton Bazaar Description Baths and draw-well Historical note Approach to Temple-area. ix. CONTENTS CHAPTER XXV 170178 Bab el Kattanin Saracenic Arcades Medresset el Ashrafiyeh Curious chamber in mosque of El Borak Ancient gate passage and lintel The night journey of Mohammed Saracenic build- ings and schools Herod's western cloisters Tenz's models Arthur's leap Western gates of Herod's Temple Existing re- mains Sebil Kayet Bey. CHAPTER XXVI - - 179187 Reconstruction of Herod's and former Jewish temples made possible Various theories Principal modern views S chick's and Tenz's models Haram Area as seen from S.W. minaret And also from N.W. corner El Mawazin Dome of El Khudr Rock levels Approximate site of Beth Moked Description Remarkable rock-hewn cisterns Kubbet Es Silsileh Buildings of time of Christ Their approximate positions Marble pulpit The Liscath Ha Gazith Casting the lot. CHAPTER XXVII "^ 188197 Abd el Malik's reasons for erecting Kubbet es Sakkhrah The great mosaic inscription Historical note Description Legend of two birds and Solomon Breydenbach's picture Encaustic tiles Dome of the Chain Legends Danger of perjury Crusading capital in a minaret Approximate identification of various spots. CHAPTER XXVIII - - * 198206 Crusading chapel of the Presentation Interior of Dome of the ,Rock Mosaic windows Old material re-used Remarkable monolithic columns Curious discovery Statement by Procopius Mosaics The mediaeval grille The Rock Various traditions Boundary line between territory of Benjamin and Judah Curious colonnettes The cave and legends. CHAPTER XXIX 207214 Bir El Arwah The Lapis pertusus Identification by Williams Tradition concerning the Temple treasures Marble pulpit A broad staircase El Kas Water supply and cisterns The "Great Sea" and "Well of the Captivity" Story of Nicodemus ben Gorion Porch of the Mosque El Aksa Interior of and Galleries from Double Gate Remarkable columns. x. CONTENTS CHAPTER XXX 215225 The Masjid El Aksa Description "Mihrab" and "Mumbar" Ordeal columns Remains of Knights Templars' quarters Cce- naculum Christian cemeteries Supposed refectory or fencing hall of Templars' Mosque of Omar Curious columns and capi- talsChapel of El Arba'in, and of Yahia Tomb of the Sons of Aaron Supposed grave of murderers of Thomas a Becket Solomon's seat Legend Dome of the little Rock Turkish bar- racks on the site of Antonia Historical associations Mediaeval churches on Bezetha The Jewish quarter of Crusading times View from roof of the C. M. S. Girls' School. CHAPTER XXXI 226238 Historical evolution of Jerusalem Uru Salima, or Yebus Mixed population Israelite invasion and settlement Capture by David and Joab Building of city walls Millo Solomon's buildings Use of the names "Zion" and "Daughter of Zion" Fortifications by later kings The Maktash Destruction by Nebuchadnezzar and restoration by Nehemiah Jerusalem in the time of Christ After destruction by Titus The Legionary Camp, and Hebrew-Christian quarter, etc. /Elia Capitolina Present area Concluding remarks. APPENDICES 239257 WORKS OF REFERENCE QUOTED FROM OR MENTIONED IN THE TEXT - 259 SPECIAL SCRIPTURE REFERENCES - 260 xi. ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE I. First View of Jerusalem 2 New entrance between Jaffa Gate and Citadel 3 Cabstand outside the Jaffa Gate 4 II. Tower of David 7 Tower of David and Hippicus 8 Shield of Hamza 10 III. Church of the Armenian Convent of St. James 12 St. James' Shrine Porch of St. James' Church with gongs Square in front of Armenian Convent Entrance to Convent of St. James Ruin of the Syrian Church of St Thomas View in Harat el Meidan (Theatre Street) IV. Perushim Synagogue (interior) 19 Great Synagogue of the Chassidim 20 Do. (interior) 21 Der Deutsche Platz 22 Zion Gate 23 Shops by Zion Gate, and on site of Leper Village 24 V. Fragment of a Roman tile 25 Ancient Roman column with inscrip- tion and modern lamp stand 26 View from site of the Asmonean's house 27 Church of St. Salvator from the north 28 Ditto from the south 29 Church and Convent of Notre Dame de France 29 Latin Patriarchate and Church 30 Another view of Franciscan Convent and Church of St. Salvator 31 Greek Convent and domes of Church of the Holy Sepulchre 32 Pool of Hezekiah 33 VI. New Gate Bab es Sultan Abdul Hamid 35 Plan of Jerusalem 36 Model of original rock-site of tradi- ditional Calvary, etc. 37 Ground model of Church of the Holy Sepulchre 38 German Church (Erloser-Kirche) 39 VII. Stairs leading from Christian Street to courtyard of Church of Holy Sepulchre 43 Chapel of the twelve Apostles 45 Porch of chapel with walled-up olive tree 46 Rival olive-tree in Abyssinian con- vent 47 Abyssinian Convent and dome of St. Helena 48 Church of the Holy Sepulchre with Bell-tower, etc. 49 Tomb of Sir Philip D'Aubeny 50 VIII. Sculpture on lintel of portal to Church of the Holy Sepulchre 52 Ditto Ditto 52 Fragment in Paris 53 Stone of Unction 54 Calvary Chapel 55 Chapel of the Resurrection in the Rotunda 56 Chapel of the Resurrection 57 Entrance to the Chapel of the Angel 58 IX. The Holy Fire, place of exit 60 Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre 61 Interior of the Holy Sepulchre 62 X. Ventilating turret 65 Church of St. Helena 66 Greek Cathedral 69 Mons Calvarius, from an old book 70 Xlll. ILLUSTRATIONS. XI. PAGE Ancient Masonry in Russian Hospice 72 Ditto Ditto 73 Patched-up gateway Ditto 74 Ancient wall Ditto 75 Ruins of Church of St. Mary the Latin (Hospital of Knights of St. John) 76 Crusading Cloisters, south of Church of St. Mary the Latin 77 Mediaeval doorway in the Cloisters 78 Measuring wheat 79 Entrance to Church of St. John the Forerunner 80 XII. Vaulted Bazaar Street Scene Chained Prisoner Medeba Mosaic Map of Jerusalem, shewing "Street of Columns" 86 XIII. Vestiges of the traditional "Porta Ferrea" 87 Saracenic Arch on site of the "Porta Ferrea" 89 Entrance to Syrian Convent 90 Archway in David Street 92 XIV. Portal of Saracenic building on site of St. Giles' Abbey 94 Saracenic building 96 Another Saracenic building 97 Arabesques on Saracenic building 98 Stalactite ornaments outside windows 101 Portal of Medresset et Tunguzieh 103 XV. Jews' Wailing Place 104 Ditto as seen from the Mehkemeh 105 Ditto Ditto i ->6 XVI. A view of Bab es Silsileh Ditto Ditto Robinson's Arch restored View looking northward up the Tyro- pceon Modern buildings on site of the As- monean Palace 112 Entrance to aqueduct-tunnel 113 Robinson's Arch, present condition 114 107 1 08 109 no ill xvn. Masonry of different periods 115 Western end of south wall of Temple Enclosure 116 View of Millo 117 Another view of Millo 118 View from the brow of Zion 119 South wall of the City and Millo 120 "Hajar el Hablah, " in south wall 121 Entrances to rock-dwellings 122 Ditto 122 View from the modern Dung Gate 123 XVIII. Pool of Siloam Head of a statue of Hadrian Ancient masonry at S.E. angle Temple Enclosure of 124 125 127 Triple Gate in south wall of Temple Enclosure 128 Single gate near S.E. angle 129 Solomon's Stables 130 XIX. Looking from S.E. angle towards Mohammed's Judgment-seat 131 Ends of columns and Moslem tombs 132 Century-plant on a tomb 133 Interior of the Golden Gate 134 Crusading postern in the wall 135 XX. Ancient fountain at Jerusalem 136 Golden Gate from the east 138 Golden Gate from the west 139 XXI. Herodian tower with large stones 140 Open space by the wall 141 St. Stephen's Gate 142 Church of St. Anne and Seminary 143 Stone weight in the museum 144 XXII. Eastern subterranean twin-pool 145 Old crypt above twin-pool, and under Church of St. Maria 146 Ditto shewing apse of Ditto 147 Church of St. Anne 148 Interior of St. Anne's Church 149 XIV. ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE XXIII. Dome of the Rock from Bab Hytta 153 Fragment of Tower of Antonia 154 Reconstruction of the "Ecce Homo" Arch 155 Altar in "Ecce Homo" Chapel 156 City wall, near Solomon's Quarries, shewing walled-up aqueduct 157 Via Dolorosa 158 House of Veronica 159 XXIV. Ancient Arabic inscription from orig- inal Mosque of Omar's Prayer- place 163 Excavations at St. Maria Latina 164 Entrance to Cotton-merchants' Bazaar 165 Staircase trom Cotton-bazaar to Temple-area 166 Saracenic Fountain 168 XXV. Bab el Kattanin 171 Porch of Medresset el Ashrafiyeh 172 Dome of Mohammed's Ascension 173 Tenz's model of Herod's Temple (view from S.W.) 174 Saracenic Cloisters 175 Drinking fountain of Kayet Bey 176 Plan of the Haram Area 177 XXVI. Tenz's model of Herod's Temple (view from N.E.) 180 View of Haram Area, looking towards N.E. 181 Ditto looking S.E. 182 Arcades or "Balances" at N.W. corn- er of Platform 183 Arcade and marble pulpit on site of inner Water-gate 184 Dome of the Rock from the S.E. 185 XXVII. Arcade on top of stairs marking approximate site of Holy of Holies 189 Mosaics and clerestory windows 190 Dome of the Rock and the Dome of the Chain 191 South door of Dome of the Rock 192 Picture of Haram Area, A.D. 14834 '93 Tiled ornamentation of exterior 195 Crusading Capital in a minaret 196 XXVIII. Dome of the Rock, often but wrong- ly called "The Mosque of Omar" 199 Sacred Rock under the Dome 201 Column in quarry Column inside railing PAGE XXIX. Open-air pulpit 206 Staircase and Basin "El Kas" 208 Sebil Kayet Bey, from the Temple platform 209 Porch of Mosque "El Aksa" 210 Galleries to western Huldah, or Double Gate 211 212 213 XXX. Nave of Mosque El Aksa 216 Southern end of El Aksa, shewing " Mihrab " (prayer niche) and " Mumbar " (pulpit) 217 Tomb of David and site of Dormi- tion Church 218 Ccenaculum, supposed Chamber of the Last Supper 219 Cemetery adjoining the Tomb of David 220 Porch to Templars' Hall in Temple- area 221 North-west corner of Temple-area, shewing stairs to Antonia 223 XXXI. Diagram City of David 227 City of Solomon 228 ,, Jerusalem at time of de- struction by Nebuchadnezzar 229 ,, Jerusalem as restored by Nehemiah 230 ,, Jerusalem in the time of our Lord 231 ,, Legionary Camp 232 jElia Capitolina 233 ,, Modern Jerusalem 234 APPENDIX I. Citadel of Jerusalem 240 Jorat el Anab 241 Birket es Sultan, shewing Cattle Market, Cistern, Dam and Foun- tain, and British Ophthalmic Hos- pital 242 Mural Inscription of Soleiman the Magnificent 243 The Valley of Hinnom Judas' Tree 244 245 Rachel's Tomb, with Beit Jala in distance 246 Dislocated stone pipes of Roman Syphon 247 Lower Pools of Solomon 248 Upper Pools and Frank Mountain 249 Bethlehem and the Frank Mountain 250 Church and Convent of Sisterhood of the "Hortus Conclusus." 251 APPENDIX II. Ancient bronze vessel found in Cyprus 254 XV. ERRATA Chapter I., page 2, 2nd line from bottom : " the present potent ruler of the Ottoman Empire " should read " Sultan Abdul Hamid." Chapter III., page u, 3rd line from top: " is of the interior, showing " should read " is of the interior of the church, shewing." Chapter IV., page 16, 8th and gth lines from top: " Eastern boundary " should read " principal street." Chapter V., page 25, yth line from top : " native " should read " votive." Chapter VI., page 36, ist line from top : /J\ should be 7. Chapter X.. page 64, 4th line from top : " This circle is 26 feet long " should read " This chapel is 26 feet long." Chapter XII.. page 85, 4th line from bottom : $ should be cf> Chapter XIV.. page 96. 5th line from top: "on page 41. etc." should read "on page 136 of this book, and another on page 41, etc." Chapter XIV.. page 98. 3rd line from top: " about " should read " above." Chapter XVI., page in, last line: "84" should read "87." Chapter XXII.. page 143, 5th line from top: "on the left" should read " on the right." Chapte:: XXIII,, page 155, 7th line from bottom: "triumph- ant " should read " triumphal." Chapter XXVI., page 186, 2oth line from bottom: "Of Firstthings " should read " Of Firstlings." Chapter XXVII., page 194, 2oth line from top : " (A.D. 1620 5o) " should read " (A.D. 1520 5o)." Chapter XXXI., page 231: On diagram 176, transpose the figures 3 and 4. and do the same on page 232, fourth and fifth lines from bottom. The corrections should read " fig. 3, the council-chamber close to the gate Shallechet." and " fig. 4, the Xystus." Chapter XXXI., page 233: The diagram (178) ought to be entitled " Modern Jerusalem," placed on page 234, and numbered (179). Chapter XXXI.. page 234: The diagram (179) ought to be entitled "^Elia Capitolina, A.D. 135," placed on page 233, and numbered (178). In short, these two diagrams should be interchanged. Appendix I., page 239, i8th line from bottom: " Kelann " should read " Kelaun." Appendix I., page 239, 5th line from bottom: "four years ago " should read " several years ago " Appendix I., page 244, nth line from top: "accustomed to march " should read " accustomed to meet." Appendix I., page 250. gth line from top: "dwelling" should read " dwellings." WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM Y REQUEST I am about to act as guide to those who wish to know about the sites and scenes of Jerusalem, but who have no chance of beholding them except in pictures. I will therefore suppose that under the wing of one of the tourist agencies, which now in modern times practically do the work, minus fighting the Saracens, for which the famous monastic and military order of Knights Templars was established in A.D. 1118 we have safely reached the little railway-station S.E. of the town, and close to the neat colony occupied by the members of "the German Temple." This is not a monkish brotherhood, but an ultra-Protestant sect, which professes to desire to build up God's Kingdom and the German Temple by settling in the Holy Land. As we leave the station and reach the great Bethlehem-road, there suddenly spreads out before us a wide panorama. Begin- ning with the hill of Evil Counsel on our right, the eye ranges, as it gradually turns toward the left, over the Moab hills, Olivet and Scopus, with Gethsemane and Siloam nestling at their feet, to the great dark greyish-blue domes of the buildings in the Temple area and other edifices within the long line of tawny wall and towers that form the southern limit of the city. Here it may be as well to call attention to the fact that all the exposed southern and eastern faces of the fortifications and older build- ings are of this ochre colour, which was caused by a remarkable shower of yellow mud that fell early in February, 1857 (see " Jewish Intelligence " for July, 1857, page 221), " plastering the houses from top to bottom," the traces of which the rains of forty-eight winters have not yet washed away. The northern WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM and western faces of buildings become blackish-grey wherever exposed to ram and damp. The approach to the city follows in inverse order the course described in my notes on a visit to Artas,* and the different points there mentioned, the Jewish settlements, the Birket-es- Sultan, the Ghazza Towers, and the Citadel are all passed on the road leading to the city (see illustration i.) (i) The First View of Jerusalem. In a few minutes we have reached the Jaffa Gate. Up to the year 1898, this gate was connected with the citadel by a wall crossing the ditch surrounding the latter. When, however, prep- arations were made for the reception of the Emperor William, this part ot the great trench was filled up, and the wall lowered. There is now a great and imposing approach to the interior of the city between the Jaffa Gate Tower, and the north-western tower of the citadel and the " Grand New Hotel," just inside the Jaffa Gate. At the foot of the tower, is the drinking fountain erected a few years ago to commemorate the Jubilee of the present potent ruler of the Ottoman Empire (see illustration 2). This is the only gate in the western wall of Jerusalem, and that * Appendix I. WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM which has the most traffic. Though horribly modern, having been built at the time the present walls were erected by Suleiman the Magnificent (circa 1542), it doubtless stands on the site of an ancient city gate, in all probability on that by which, in our Lord's days, an aqueduct conveyed water into Herod's great Citadel-Palace close by. Though called the " Jaffa Gate " by Europeans, its present name amongst the natives is " Bab ul Khalil," or " the Gate of the Friend," i.e., Abraham, the reason being that the road to Hebron starts from here. An ornamental Arabic inscription facing us as we enter, reminds us that "There is no God but Allah, and that Ibrahim is His friend." By Arab writers before the sixteenth century, the gate at (2) The New Entrance between the Jaffa Gate and trie Citadel. this spot is sometimes called " Bab el Mihrab," from the " Mihrab Daoud," or " Oratory of David," shown in the adjacent castle, and sometimes "Bab Lydd," i.e., "the Gate of Lydda." This is because the road to that place starts from this point; and also because some Moslem theologians believe that the Gate .of Lydda, where, according to the eschatology of Islam, the Messih el Dejjal, or Antichrist, will be defeated and slain by our Lord, is the western gate of Jerusalem. Others, learned in the faith of Mohammed, assert that the great event will take place at 3 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM Lydda itself, and mention, as the actual spot, the famous Bir es Zaybac, or " Quicksilver Well," inside the little building, under the great sycamore, half-way between Ramleh and Lydda. A most remarkable change has taken place in the appearance of the immediate surroundings of the Jaffa Gate since I first knew it over fifty years ago. It was a time of general trouble and unrest throughout the world the time of the Crimean war, and the Indian Mutiny, and the massacres in the Lebanon. There were then no houses outside the city walls, except the Neby Daoud block outside the Zion Gate, and Bishop Gobat's (3) Cab-stand outside the Jaffa Gate. School then in building, and a small house on Consul Finn's plantation. The desert country reached on every side right up to the town-walls. One was in the open country as soon as one emerged from the gates, which were closed at sunset, and also on Fridays, from eleven in the forenoon till one in the afternoon, during the time that the garrison were at their weekly prayers in the mosque; and no one could either enter or leave the city unless provided with a special permit, not always obtain- able, from the Pasha. The writer, on several occasions about 1867, when he was serving on Sir Charles Warren's excavations, had himself lowered 4 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM by a rope over the city-wall close to the Haram, in order to be at his appointed post outside the town. At the time I am speaking of, there was no traffic at the gates. A Turkish soldier, armed with Minie rifle and sword bayonet, stood there on guard, and in the deep alcoves, now used as stalls for the sale of soda-water, iced drinks and fruit, cooked food, etc., there stood racks on which rows of rifles were ranged. The roadway was unpaved. In the rainy season there was a "slough of despond" just outside the gateway, and in the open space just beyond the inside, and within the city, a pond about one foot deep in the centre, but which might be passed if .you used the small and slippery stepping-stones which a muni- cipality regardful of public comfort, had placed for a couple of yards or so along the northern edge. In summer the bed of the little lake was encumbered with all sorts of filth, and not un- frequently by the rotting carcases of dogs, cats, and smaller creatures. A change for the better came soon after the accession of Sultan Abd ul Aziz, in whose time the road-way was paved by gangs of prisoners brought from the common jail, and made to work in chains. This was in the year 1864, about the same time that the first line of telegraph was laid, and the first petroleum oil and lamps for its use were imported, as well as the first steam-engine set up in the Holy City. Since then, other European innovations, not in every case improvements, have come in. Thus, just outside the gate, there is now a cab-stand (see illus- tration 3), which is very useful. CHAPTER II. MONGST the scores of traditional or doubtfully historical sites pointed out within the walls of Jerusalem, there are at any rate three, which are really interesting, even though in the case of only two of them, viz., the Citadel, and the Temple area, are archaeologists agreed that they really occupy the historic ground they represent. I propose on this occasion to speak of the first of these two, leaving the Haram and the famed Church of the Holy Sepulchre to be described at a future time. The Citadel, also called the Tower of David, though that name is often used in a restricted manner to designate the remarkable and ancient structure at its present north-east corner, is situated south of the Jaffa Gate, from which it was, before the visit of the German Emperor in 1898, separated by a deep fosse. This was purposely filled up at this point, in order to fur- nish a more imposing approach to the interior of the city, than that through the Jaffa Gate. The Citadel, known in Crusading times as the Castle of the Pisans, consists of three principal towers connected by a massive crenellated ; wall, loopholed for musketry, with a glacis or sloping work rising from the bottom of the trench, part of which is undoubtedly ancient Roman masonry dating back to New Testament times. All authorities are agreed that this fortress, the interior of which is in ruins, occupies the site of the palace-castle of Herod the Great, or at any rate, part of that site. That building was remarkable for its three great towers named Phasaelus, Hippicus and Mariamne, and it is believed that the two towers standing one at the north-west, and the other at the north-east corner of the Citadel mark the exact position of the two first-named. Though the tower at the north-east angle is popularly called Hippicus by local guides, it corresponds in its general plan-measurements with the description given by Josephus of the Phasaelus. It would follow that the tower just south of the Jaffa Gate, stands on the site of Hippicus, it having been found by the English Royal Engineers who had charge of the first Ordnance Survey in 1841, that its plan-measurements 6 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM tally with those that belonged to Hippicus. Connected with Herod's great structures in this part of Jerusalem as it was in the time of our Lord, there were extensive gardens and pleasure grounds, which spread over the tract now occupied by Christ (4) The Tower of David. Church, the L. J. S. boys' school and the present Armenian quarter. As a matter of fact, it is not at all unlikely that the stately pine-trees which are scattered about over the open plots of ground we meet with here and there in this neighbourhood, may be the direct descendants of seedlings from Herod's groves. The depth of debris hereabouts is very considerable. 7 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM When the foundations of Christ Church were laid, the work- men were obliged to dig to the depth of forty feet before they struck rock. When they did at last find it, they came across a very remarkable underground passage, probably intended as a conduit for water. Some authorities have suggested that this may be the aqueduct in which, according to Josephus (B. J. ii. 17 9) Ananias, the high priest, the same man who, whilst presiding at the trial of St. Paul by the Sanhedrin (Acts xxiii. 2), illegally ordered the Apostle to be struck hid himself from the robbers, who, however, eventually found and murdered him. (5) The Tower of David and Hippicus. In front of Christ Church there is at this moment lying the shaft of a large granite column which was dug up during these exca- vations,* and must originally have been brought from Egypt in order to adorn Herod's buildings hereabouts. Another column, and also a large catapult-ball, are preserved in the boys' school close by, whilst, during excavations in the Mohammedan premises just south of the school, the remains of a beautiful chamber, constructed altogether of marble, were found at a considerable depth below the present surface. * Another similar column has been discovered quite recently as well as a very beauti- ful mosaic pavement. a WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM The lower part of the traditional Hippicus is constructed of great blocks of drafted stone, and has been ascertained to be quite solid right through. On the top of this there is a large chamber of mediaeval times, which is provided with a Mihrab or niche in its southern wall, shewing that the apartment, now used as a dormitory for the Turkish soldiers quartered here, was at one time a mosque. From the roof a somewhat disap- pointing view can be had over the city. On the roof of the tower there are old pieces of ordnance, which are frequently used on special occasions, such as anni- versaries of the birth and accession of the Sultan, and Moslem festivals, to fire salutes, and also to announce to the Moham- medans of the district the proper hours for beginning or breaking their fast during the month of Ramadan. The effect of the cannonade is most startling and disturbing whenever it happens, as it often does at an hour during which a service is proceeding in Christ Church. The same remark is applicable to the Turkish brass band, which plays almost every afternoon in the open space in front of the castle and Ibrahim Pasha's barracks, just as it used to do several centuries ago, as we are told by the Moslem historian Mujir-ed-din Ubil-yemen Abd-er-Rahman, son of El 'Alemi, who died in A.H. 927 (A.D. 1520 21), and whose descendants still form a well-known family here. Immediately opposite the eastern front of the castle are situated, counting from the north south- wards, Cook's office and the United States' Consulate, the Aus- trian post office, Christ Church premises and boys' school, and the Anglo-Palestine Bank. Further south, and reaching to the city-wall, are various buildings connected chiefly with the great Armenian Convent of St. James, the son of Zebedee, the first Apostolic martyr, the burial-place of whose head is shown in a shrine, the doors of which are richly inlaid with tortoiseshell and nacre. The very chair used by the Apostle is also shewn; and, as a great favour, and to specially distinguished visitors, some of the interesting objects, preserved in the treasury of the convent, and consisting of ancient vestments, mitres and valuable copies of the Armenian liturgies and gospels, and the amber sceptre of the Armenian king Hetum, etc., are exhibited by special per- mission of the Patriarch. In the central hall of the college there is also an interesting collection of objects from various coun- tries, whilst on the wall of the Patriarch's great reception-room there hang good pictures of various European monarchs, and also replicas, made by one of his predecessors, of the beautiful 9 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM "Shield of Hamza,"* which, a quarter of a century ago, was still to be seen in the Dome of the Rock, but has now mys- teriously disappeared from there. The convent, originally founded by the Georgians in the nth century, was sold by them to the Armenians four hundred years later. It can, it is said, accommodate from 3,000 to 4,000 pilgrims, and contains a printing-press. (53) The Shield of Hamza. * Hamza was the uncle of Mohammed (See Sale's "Koran," footnotes to pp. 45, 206, Chandos' Classic edition). The beautiful object traditionally called his shield was in reality an ancient Chinese mirror and is interesting as a proof of the varied and extensive commercial traffic between Palestine and Eastern Asia during the Middle Ages. 10 CHAPTER HI. R last chapter closed with a short description of the Armenian Convent of St. James. Illustration 6 is of the interior, shewing, under the domed canopy, the back of his traditional episcopal chair, said to be placed over his grave. The other chair, the back of which is seen to the right of the former, is that of the Armenian Patriarch. Illustration 7 shews the shrine, with doors richly inlaid with mother-of-pearl and tortoise-shell, where St. James' head is said to have been buried. On the walls there hang the quaint and grim old fresco-paint- ings representing the sufferings of martyrs, the last judgment, and also pictures of various saints. In the porch of this church are two curious and interesting gongs hanging in the south-eastern corner (illustration 8); one of them is a plank of some hard wood suspended from the ceiling by ropes at either end, the other a long and thick plate of iron hung in the same way at the end of chains. Similar gongs are to be found in other Eastern monasteries. They are called "nakus" (plural "nawakis") and serve to call to mind one of the terms of the treaty made with the Christians, when, in A.D. 637, Jerusalem surrendered to the Khalifeh Omar bin El Khattab.* The stipulation in question was that the Christians were not to be allowed the use of bells on their churches, but might use these gongs. This regulation was strictly re-inforced when the Crusaders were expelled by Salad ud din in 1187. In 1823 the only bell in Jerusalem is said to have been a hand-bell in the Franciscan convent. Since the fall of Acre, in 1840, however, Christians have had more freedom, and it is probable that the old bell of Christ Church was one of the first amongst the many introduced in modern times. Before leaving the porch we notice a number of grotesque little faces painted here and there in the colouring on the walls. * The Moslem tradition is that God commanded Noah to use such a gong in order to call together the workmen building the ark, therefore gongs are permissible. II WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM 12 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM At the entrance to the convent is the drinking-fountain erected to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the accession to the throne of Turkey of His Majesty Sultan Abd ul Hamid. Closely connected with the convent of St. James is the Armenian nun- nery of Ez Zeituny, or "the olive-tree," so called because a tree in the court-yard is said to be the very plant to which our Lord was tied whilst His persecutors were deliberating as to His fate! The mediaeval church in this nunnery, which is said by tradi- tion to stand on the site of the house of the high-priest Annas, (7) St. James' Shrine. contains the usual ornamentation of encaustic tiles and paint- ings. It is remarkable for the number of crosses of different shapes (over thirty have been noted), to be seen on the walls. Close to the olive-tree a stone forming part of the corner of a building is pointed out to the visitor, who must, for politeness sake, control his features and forbear from laughing whilst the 13 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM abbess gravely relates that, when the high priest found fault with the Saviour for not silencing the children in the Temple crying "Hosanna," and He told them that if the little ones held their peace the stones would cry out, this miracle really happened. The stone here shewn, "burst into a melodious 'Hosanna' as soon as the children were silent." Another stone, "which would have cried out," is to be seen in another part of the city, in a side-lane opening into the Via Dolorosa. It is quite black and greasy with the kisses of pilgrims. We retrace our steps and leave the great convent of St. James by its western portal, which opens into a large clear square (illustrations 9 and 10), over-shadowed by some of the (8) Gongs in the Porch of the Church. ancient and magnificent pine-trees of the gardens of Herod's palace. Turning northward we follow the first lane to the right (il- lustration n). After passing the ruin of the mediaeval Syrian Church ol St. Thomas, a tortuous route, leading in a general direction N.E., brings us first to the Syrian convent, recently rebuilt, because of the damage it sustained as a result of the severe earthquake a couple of years ago. This convent is believed to stand on the site of the house of Mary the mother of Mark (Acts xii. i, 15). The church or chapel is mediaeval, resembling in plan that of St. James the son of 14 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM Alphaeus, close to Christ Church, and that of "the prison of Christ" in the traditional "house of Caiaphas," just outside the Ziori Gate. With it are connected a number of traditionary relics, such as a picture of the Virgin Mary, painted by St. Luke, the font in which the Virgin was baptized, and the door at which St. Peter knocked after the angel had delivered him from prison. It is pitiful to see how pilgrims believe that all these things are genuine. Just opposite the entrance to this convent (the only one belonging to the Jacobite Syrians in Jerusalem), are the old houses which used to be occupied by the L. J. S. Hos- pital, before it was removed to its magnificent new quarters outside the town. One of these buildings is still used for the (9) Square in Front of Armenian Convent of St. James. town dispensary and the dispenser's dwelling. It is situated at the very entrance to the old Jewish quarter which we will next visit. Before doing so, however, it may be as well to remark that the part of the town which we have been passing through, now occupied by the Citadel, Christ Church compound, the Armenian and Syrian convents, the old hospital premises and Mr. Nico- layson's house (now tenanted by Jews), the Jewish "Bikur Holim" Hospital, and the present Maronite convent, in our Lord's time was covered by the fortified residence of Herod the Great, as already related. After the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus (A.D. 70), it became the fortified camp of the loth 15 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM Roman legion which was left by the conqueror to guard the ruins. It occupied the fairly level summit of the S.W. hill, which is generally known as the traditional Zion. The long and fairly straight street called on the Ordnance Survey Plan of Jerusalem, "Harat al Jawany" and "Tarik Bab Neby Baud," and running southwards, at not quite a right angle, to "Su- weikut Allun" and "Suk al Bizar," which form the western part of "David Street," may be considered as marking the Eastern boundary within the present wall of the legionary camp which extended southward some distance beyond the present city walls and included the site of the traditionary Ccenaculum, the present Neby Baud. (10) Entrance to the Convent of St. James. From the Harat al Jawany and the Tarik Bab Neby Baud (which form the westernmost of the three fairly parallel streets that running southward, and intersected by various smaller lanes and alleys, constitute the present Jewish quarter), the descent is steep to the middle street; called the "Harat al Yahud." The surface-levels shown on the Ordnance Survey Plan (1864 5) in this part of the city make it clear that the old Jewish quarter, or Ghetto, which reaches eastward as far as the brink of the preci- pices over-hanging the Tyropoeon Valley, is built on the lower 16 WALKS ABOUT J ERUSALEM eastern slope or terrace of the hill. The third and easternmost of the three parallel streets running through this district, is called, together with a side-street opening into it from the west, "Harat al Meidan," that is, "Theatre Street." The next illustration (12) gives a view in "Harat al Meidan." The house to the right occupies part of the site of another church of St. Thomas of the Crusading period. Till a couple of years back, a large stone in the open space in the foreground (n) Ruin of the Syrian Church of St. Thomas. used to mark the spot pointed out by tradition, as that where there had been an entrance to underground passages communi- cating with Neby Daud, the traditional Tomb of David, outside the Zion Gate. (See "A Miraculous Deliverance," pp. 100 102, in "Tales told in Palestine.) The stone has now disappeared. "Theatre Street" is a most significant name and very valuable, WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM as it perpetuates the memory and points to the situation of the Roman theatre, of which, as I was informed by the late Dr. Merrill, remains were discovered a few years ago, at the time I was stationed at Jaffa, and, therefore, I had not the opportunity of seeing. They were situated just outside the city, a little S.E. of the great tower called "Burj al Kibryt" at the semi-circular recess shewn on the Ordnance Survey between the levels marked respectively B.M. 2376.2 and 2.322. Through the Harat al Meidan, then, we may, without any great stretch of fancy, be justified in imagining the pagan population of pre-Hadrianic Roman Jerusalem, and later on that of Aelia Capitolina coming, the legionaries from the west, and the traders and others with their families from the north, to behold the gladiatorial and other exhibitions, perhaps the death of Christian martyrs in the theatre. (12) View in Harat al Meidan (Theatre Street). 18 CHAPTER IV. the Crusading period the Harat al Meidan was the quarter allotted to the Germans. The great Convent of the Teutonic Knights and another Church of St. Thomas, were situated here, whilst the Church of St. Martin, with the various build- ings therewith connected, stood where the Khurveh, or synagogue, and school of the Ashkenazi Perushim now stand. (Illustration 13). (13) Perushim Synagogue. In New Testament times the palace of Herod Agrippa stood somewhere on the line of the Harat al Meidan, on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the Xystus and the Temple-courts, and not far south of the point where the present Harat al Meidan opens into the "Tarik Bab es Silsileh," as the eastern part of David's Street is now called (Josephus, Wars. Bk. ii. ch. 16 3). The 19 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM palace of the high priest probably stood at some distance to the S.W., perhaps somewhere not far from "where the great syna- gogue of the Chassidim now stands. Illustration 14 gives a view of the exterior taken from a house-top in Der Deutsche Platz, shewing the entrance to the right from the Harat al Meidan. The other illustration (15) shews the interior of this synagogue. The Jewish population of Jerusalem is of a comparatively modern date. The soldiers of the first Crusade massacred every Jew or Jewess they could find in the Holy City, and as their suc- cessors barely tolerated the presence of Jews in Jerusalem, there (14) Great Synagogue of the Chassidim. was little that would encourage the latter to settle there. When Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela visited Jerusalem he found only 200 Jews there. That was about A.D. 1130. The successes of the Moslem arms, combined with the brutal treatment which was experienced by the Jews in England and France, were the cause of a fresh immigration of the sons of Israel into the Holy Land, and accordingly, about the year 1200, we find that some 300 rabbis came from France and England to settle at Jerusalem. About twenty years later the celebrated Rabbi Nachmanides was successful in making a collection and purchasing from the Mos- lems the above-mentioned Crusading Church of St. Martin, which was a handsome building with many columns and a dome. After some repairs it became the Jewish synagogue. In 1493, just after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, many of the exiles came 20 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM and settled in Jerusalem. After various trying experiences, those of the Ashkenazim rite were obliged to flee, the Moslems con- fiscating the synagogue. It was probably some time after this that the Sephardim who had hitherto worshipped at the Khurveh with the Ashkenazim, and appear somehow always to have managed better than did their brethren from Germany and Eastern Europe to get on with their Mohammedan neighbours, acquired and erected the curious group of synagogues connected with each other and built almost underground. These are still used by them and sit- (15) Great Synagogue of the Chassidim. uated in the elbow of the crooked street leading from Harat al Yahud to Harat al Meidan. The oldest of them is a small dark perfectly subterranean apartment called "the synagogue of Elijah," from the legend that some centuries ago, in the time of persecution, when the handful of Jews who lived in the Holy City were in great fear and danger, and could therefore only meet in secret for the purposes of public devotion, it happened one Sabbath day that the service could not be held because there were only nine Jews present, and a tenth could not be found in order to form a minyan or congregation of ten. At 21 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM this juncture a venerable Jewish stranger, who had never been seen before by any of those assembled, and suddenly disap- peared as soon as the service was ended, entered the synagogue and joined the congregation which, as it had now reached the minimum number needed to form a devotional quorum, pro- ceeded with the service. The unknown stranger was the prophet Elijah, who is believed to be the guardian saint of Israel, appearing suddenly from time to time to avert danger from the chosen race and to prevent or punish wrong. The ancient and curious underground synagogue of the Karaites is also worth visiting. It is exactly opposite to the great Chassidim synagogue (illustrations 14 and 15). To return, (16) Der Deutsche Platz. however, to our historical notes. The Ashkenazim did not return to Jerusalem till 1690, when Rabbi Jehudah Chassid came with a large following of Ashkenazi rabbis and others, and they re-purchased the old synagogue buildings. Thirty years later, however, the Ashkenazim were again driven away, and the said buildings once again seized by the Moslems; nor was it till after the Egyptian occupation of Palestine, in 1831, that the Ashkenazim were allowed to settle again in Jerusalem, and re- ceived back the ruined "Khurveh," which was restored and re- opened for public worship after having been closed for 116 years, two months and three weeks. Fiorty years ago there was a large tract of waste ground to the south of the Jewish quarter, and situated between it and the southern city-wall. Of late years, 22 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM however, a great part of this tract has been built over by German Jews, and it is now known as "der Deutsche Platz" (illustration 16). In order to annoy the Christians the Moham- medans centuries ago opened a tannery close to the Church of the Sepulchre; and in like manner, and to vex the Jews, they placed the shambles at the southern entrance to the Jewish quar- ter. Both these nuisances still existed when I was a child, but were removed after the close of the Crimean war, as a result of pressure brought to bear upon the local authorities by the dif- ferent Consulates, at the representation of Dr. Macgowan who, (17) The Zion Gate. with his assistants, Drs. Sims and Atkinson, all three of whom the writer knew, were the only European medical men in southern Palestine, and had great influence. The memories, however, of both these nuisances, tannery and shambles, are perpetuated by the name El Dabbaghah, the tannery by which the site of the Knights of St. John's Hospital and churches is known ; and that of Harat al Maslah, or Shambles Street, which still clings to 23 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM the southern part of Harat al Yahud. At the southern end of this street and the Harat Neby Daud, and between them and the Zion Gate, there was an open space partly occupied by the leper village. This was removed many years ago. The place then became the weekly cattle-market, and now that the market is held in the Birket es Sultan, new bazaars for the use of butchers, have been completed on the spot. (18) Shops by the Zion Gate. The first view of the Zion Gate (17) is from the outside; the second (18) is taken from within the city walls, showing the row of these new shops or bazaars recently erected for the sale of "kosher" meat, on the site, as stated, of the old cattle-market and leper village of 25 years ago. 24 CHAPTER V. E greater part of the space included within the north-western corner of the city walls, and reaching as far south as the great thoroughfare leading from the Jaffa Gate eastwards toward the Temple-area, was sixty years ago unencumbered by buildings, and comprised open enclosures or fields, which in winter and spring were sown with grain and in summer lay bare. It was the prowling ground of dogs that flocked thither to fight over the dead carcasses of asses and horses, left there to rot and breed pestilence. So serious did the nuisance become that at (19) Fragment of Roman Tile. last the French Consul, his various colleagues, and the one or two European medical men then in Jerusalem, were obliged to protest to the Governor, who ordered reforms. Since then stu- dents of Scripture have often had an opportunity of witnessing the scene described in Jer. xxii. 19 "The burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." Buildings have now risen to fill up this void. Just facing the northern wall of the Castle is the Grand New Hotel, the 25 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM foundations of which were laid in 1885. It is interesting because of the discovery during those excavations of a fragment of what, in our Lord's time, was the second wall enclosing Jerusalem on the north, outside which was the spot where He was crucified. Here also Roman tiles of the tenth legion were found (illustration 19) and part of the shaft of a column (illustration 20) bearing a native inscription in honour of the Augustan legate, Marcus (20) Ancient Roman Column and Street Lamp. Junius Maximus. The monument was erected by the tenth legion, and in particular by Caius Domitius Sergius Julius Honoratus. who was the legate's strator or equerry. We give a fragment of one of these ancient tiles bearing the stamp of the tenth legion, "(Eu) fretensis," photographed to a scale of centi- metres (5 cent.=2 inches). The piece of column with the inscription now forms the ped- estal of a street lamp-stand (illustration 20), and has been fixed 26 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM close to the spot where it was originally found. Its discovery here is of peculiar interest, because we are expressly told by Josephus (Wars vii. i, 3) that, when Jerusalem was taken, A.D. 70, Titus left the tenth legion as a garrison amongst the ruins, instead of sending them again to their former station in the Kuphrates valley. The position of their new camp may be determined from the statements of Josephus, who says that Titus left a part of the west wall standing, that it might serve as a protection to the garrison. He also left the three great towers of Hippicus, Phasael and Mariamne, probably for the use of the garrison, though the Jewish historian suggests that it was (21) View from Site of the Asmonaeans' House. with a view of impressing future ages with the strength of the city which he had conquered. It is just at this point that the recovered inscription comes in to verify Josephus' statement about the camp of the tenth legion inside the city. The place where the broken column was dug up, and where the Grand New Hotel now stands, is just inside the west wall, and on one side close to the Tower of David, which is probably formed by part of the ancient Phasa- elus, with which its plan-dimensions agree. On the other side it is as near to the great tower south of the Jaffa Gate, standing, in all probability, on the site of Hippicus. 27 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM There is a good view (illustration 21) from the roof of one of the buildings on the site of the house of the Asmonaeans (Josephus, Wars, Bk. II. chap. 16 3). This shews the Wail- ing Place; the Mahkameh (on the site of Sanhedrin Council Chamber); the minaret built over the modern Gate "Bab es Sil- sileh," which stands on the site of the ancient Temple-gate, "Shallecheth" or "Coponius"; the Dome of the Rock and part of surrounding courts. In the background, is the northern summit of Olivet, called "Viri Galilei," from a worthless tra- dition not traceable further back than Crusading times, that it was here that the angels said to the disciples, gazing heaven- wards at the Ascension, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye (22) Church of St. Salvator. gazing up into heaven." Another tale, equally valueless, is that this spot was "the mountain in Galilee," where the disciples were to meet Christ after His Resurrection. The buildings now crowning the hill belong to the Greek Convent. The spot is, however, interesting for two good reasons. (i). It was here that the tenth Roman legion encamped at the commence- ment of the siege of Jerusalem (A.D. 70). Roman tiles, bearing the legionary stamp, LEG. X FR., and, in some cases &.lso the 'sketch of a nog or of a galley, sometimes both, have been dug up here. (2). A remarkable catacomb of early Chris- tian times has been discovered here. To the north of, and behind, the Grand New Hotel are the new substantial buildings of the Greek Hospital, and the Greek 28 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM College just facing it on the eastern side of the street leading to the Franciscan Casa Nuova, and their lately rebuilt Church and Monastery of St. Salvator. We give three views of this fine (23) Church of St. Salvator. building (illustrations 22, 23 and 26). 22 is a general view, 23 is taken from the roof of the Grand New Hotel, and illus- tration 26 shows the Convent and Church within the city wall to the left, and the Augustinian Assumptionist Convent to the (24) Church of Notre Dame de France. 29 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM right. To this corporation belong the Church and Hospice of Notre Dame de France (illustration 24), which was described in "Jerusalem Notes" in "Jewish Missionary Intelligence," 1905, p. 28. To the west of these are the great piles of the Latin Patriarchate Church and clergy-house, and the great French boys' school, superintended by the "Christian Brothers." The view of the Latin Church, including the interior of the western city wall, is taken from the roof of the Grand New Hotel. The great buildings are so surrounded by others that only distant views are procurable (illustration 25). The re-establishment of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (25) Latin Patriarchate Church. dates back to the middle of last century. Beside him there is a Greek, an Armenian, and a Syrian Patriarch, and no end of archbishops, bishops, and other ecclesiastical dignitaries (many of them merely titular), of various old historic churches and sects. Jerusalem may be considered from many points of view. It certainly is, in one aspect, a museum of fossilized forms of religious profession. During the period between the final expulsion of the Crusaders from Jerusalem (A.D. 1243) and the re-establishment of the Latin Patriarchate, the interests of the Roman Church in Jerusalem and the East were represented by the Franciscan, Minorite or Cordelier monks, whose brown habit and rope-girdle may be met with everywhere. The founder of this order himself visited the Holy Land and Egypt A.D. 1219, WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM and obtained from the Fatimite Sultan permission for the members of the Brotherhood to remain in the Holy Land, for the entertainment of European pilgrims and the care of the so- called holy sites. Since then, according to the Franciscan publi- cation "The Crusader's Almanac for 1906," during the course of centuries more than 4,000 Franciscans have offered up their blood in the service of Christ, and more than 2,000 in the office of ministering to lepers. Though, of course, this statement should be taken "cum grano salis," yet, when one reads old books of Eastern pilgrimage and travel, truth obliges one to con- fess that this Brotherhood was very useful to travellers in bye-gone centuries, when Eastern travel was dangerous and difficult and there were no hotels whatever. At present, the (26) Church of St. Salvator. order has, according to the almanac above-mentioned, convents and "sanctuaries" at Jerusalem, Bethlehem, .Ain Karim, Emmaus, Ramleh, Nazareth, and Capernaum; at Jaffa on the coast, as well as in the Galilean place of the same name; at Nain, Mt. Tabor, Cana, Sepphoris, and Tiberias. In the service of their "mis- sions" in the East the Franciscans have 218 priests, 44 clerics, and 245 lay-brothers. According to latest statistics 2,141 European and American Roman Catholic pilgrims received hospitality at various Latin Convents in Palestine during the year 1904. The Franciscan Convent of St. Salvator above mentioned was first occupied by the fraternity during the latter part of the six- Si WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM teenth century, after their expulsion from the Ccenaculum in 1560. St. Salvator, recently re-built, probably occupies the site of the famous Iberian monastery erected by King Vachtung in the fourth century (A.D. 446 499), and afterwards repaired by Justinian. Beside the church and cells for the monks it con- tains a steam-press, an excellent library, and several large work- shops. It has boys' and girls' schools and a free dispensary. To the south of the great Franciscan establishment, and adjoining it is the great Greek Convent of Constantine (illus- tration 27), where the orthodox Greek Patriarch resides. This monastery is said to have been originally the Palace of the Crusading Kings of Jerusalem. After the year 1118, on the institutior of the Order of Knights Templars, the buildings adjoining the Aksa Mosque, which till then had been occupied (27) Greek Convent and Domes of the Holy Sepulchre. by royalty, were given up for the use of these military monks. The convent itself is a huge straggling building, extending southwards as far as the crooked street leading eastward from Grand New Hotel; and reaching eastward beyond Christian Street and right up to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It contains a magnificent library, including most valuable books and MSS. from the libraries at Mar Saba and the Convent of the Cross, which were incorporated with it about twenty years ago. There are over 100 ancient Greek MSS. on vellum, a large folio MS. of the whole Bible in excellent preservation, a folio copy of the Book of Job, written in large letters, with notes in a smaller hand, and having on almost every page i2th century 32 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM miniatures of Job and his three friends. It is a great treasure. The convent contains besides several small chapels, a printing press, schools, etc. There are about 200 monks and priests in residence, and many apartments for pilgrims. This is only one of several Greek monasteries in Jerusalem. In the angle formed by the great street leading eastward from the Jaffa Gate, and that leading northward, as above de- scribed, past the Grand New Hotel toward the Casa Nuova, we note a nunnery of the Roman Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph, a Coptic Convent of St. George, a Greek nunnery, and, besides other buildings, the Great Coptic Khan or caravanserai, built (28) The Pool of Hezekiah. during the early part of last century (1838) inside the northern part of the great pool Birket Hammam al Batrak ("Pool of the Patriarch's Bath.") This is called by tradition the Pool of Hezekiah, but was in ancient times the Pool Amygdalon, or the "Almond Pool," and situated, as we read in Josephus (Wars. Bk. V. xi. 4), close to the spot where the soldiers of the tenth legion were, during the siege of the city, carrying on military operations against the second wall. Some remains of this wall were, as above related, discovered 33 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM in 1885, just west of this pool. The reservoir is now 240 feet long and 144 feet wide, but it was ascertained in 1838, when r as already remarked, the Coptic khan was built inside its northern end, that it was originally 57 feet longer than it is at present. As the pool was inside the second wall, which ran encircling the north part of Jerusalem as far as the Castle of Antonia, which was situated at the N.W. of the Temple-area; and as our Lord was crucified outside this second wall, it is very difficult to believe that the present Church of the Holy Sepulchre could have been outside this second wall. However, this is a question about which over a score of learned works (each as dry as dust) have been written, and with which I shall not bewilder the reader. Illustration 28 shows the so-called Pool of Hezekiah, with a Coptic Khan to the left, and, in the background, the domes of the Church of the Resurrection, popularly known as that of the Holy Sepulchre. To the foregoing I will only add that the name "Pool of Hezekiah," is given to this great artificial basin, because it is traditionally identified with the one made by that king, of whom the Bible and Apocrypha relate (2 Kings, xx. 20; 2 Chron. xxxii. 30; Sirach. xlviii. 17) that he "made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city," and also that he stopped the upper water-course of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. Several modern scholars, have, indeed, of late years tried to prove that the pool and conduit were in Siloam, in a quite different part of Jerusalem. On the other hand, others still adhere to the idea that the traditional view is the correct one, and that the aqueduct which, till the last few years fed the pool with water from another outside and west of the city, was the "conduit" referred to in the Scripture passages quoted above. 34 CHAPTER VI. HE level of the ground inside the walls of the Holy City varies as greatly as it does outside. The highest point, just inside the north-western angle, where the new gateway, "Bab es Sultan Abdul Hamid" (illustration 29) was opened twenty-three years ago, is 2,580 feet above the Mediterranean. The lowest in the corner east of the Dung Gate and south-east of the city (not to be confounded with the south-east corner of the Temple (29) The New Gate Bab es Sultan Abdul Hamid. area), is quite, as the contour lines on the plan of the city show, two hundred feet lower. From the north-western .angle the ground falls steadily eastward and southward. At the Jaffa Gate 35 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM the Ordnance Survey Bench-mark, /|\ cut in 1864 on the city walls, shows the level to be 2,528 feet at that particular spot. Passing southward the ground rises twenty feet at Christ Church and in the Armenian quarter. It falls again, as we move eastward, (30) A Plan of Jerusalem. 36 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM to 2,450 on the verge of the great cliffs at the eastern edge of the Jewish quarter, and overhanging the low ground of the Tyropceon valley, at the Jews' Wailing Place, the Mohammedan Mughrabi (North African) quarter, and the neighbourhood of the Dung Gate ("Bab al Magharibeh.") Returning to the New Gate, we observe that the large French boys' school in the angle of the city wall, south-west of it, is built on the site of a ruined Crusading fort called "Kala, 'at El Jalud," i.e., "Goliath's Castle," sometimes also "Tancred's Tower." Some of the remains of these old middle-age fortifi- cations are shown to inquisitive visitors or pilgrims. They are preserved in the cellars of the school, and do duty, as a placard i (31) Model of Original Rock Site of Calvary. on the spot shows, for the remains of Herod's great tower of Psephinus. The contour-line, passing respectively the N.W. corner of the city, the Damascus Gate, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Bishop Gobat's school to the south-west of the town, bears the number 2,479, showing that these points are approximately at the same level, and one hundred feet lower than the New Gate. Hezekiah's Pool (Birket Hammam el Batrak) S.W. of the Church of the Sepulchre, occupies the head of a deep and broad depression, or valley basin, which is 800 feet wide at its mouth, and sweeps eastward, ever deepening till it joins another valley coming from the neighbourhood of the Damascus Gate, and is usually called "El Wad," or the Tyropceon. 37 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM These two united valleys continue southward and eastward after having passed beyond the city's southern limit, and at last open into the Kedron, or Valley of Jehoshaphat, at the lower pool of Siloam, a little north of the place where the Wad-el-Rababi, the traditional Valley of Hinnom, comes sweep- ing from the west and south of the high land on which the town stands. It opens into the Kedron at a spot marked on the Ordnance Survey by a bench-mark cut into a rock-scarp, as being 2,035 f eet above sea-level, or exactly 555 feet lower than the level at the New Gate. Another valley, the head of which is indicated by the bend of the contour-line 2,479 between the Mohammedan cemetery (32) Ground Model of Church of the H6ly Sepulchre. to the north of the city (Gordon's Calvary) and the N.E. angle of the city wall, descends in a south-easterly direction, crossing the Haram, or Temple-area at its N.E. corner, about halfway be- tween the St. Stephen's and the Golden Gates, and opening into the Kedron opposite the traditional Gethsemane. This valley, however, is now so filled up with debris that it is only discern- ible from certain points, such as the high ground on Bezetha, just inside Herod's Gate. In its bed lie the mysterious double Pools of Bethesda, close to the Church of St. Anne, and the huge Birket Israel, now being purposely filled up with rubbish but which, before the re-discovery of the double Pools just mentioned, used to be pointed out as the Pool of Bethesda. 38 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM In the preceding remarks I have tried to make it clear that the unequal heights of the ground inside the walls of the Holy City are produced by the presence of three valleys that intersect the mountain-site. First, there is a broad depression running eastward from Hezekiah's Pool; next, a great ravine running from the Damascus Gate to the S.E. corner of the city, just east of the Dung Gate ; and in the . third place, the valley running (33) The German Church. from between Gordon's Calvary, the N.E. angle through Beth- esda and the N.fc. portion of the Temple-area. Between this valley and that coming from the Damascus Gate lies a great long hill slope or ridge, the top of which steadily descends towards the S.E. The Ordnance Survey has determined its highest point, just opposite the Mohammedan cemetery, to be 2,524 feet above sea-level. At the N.W. corner 39 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM of the present Turkish barracks, on the site of the Antonia, it is 2,448. Inside the N.W. angle of the Temple-area it has fallen to 2,429, to rise again on the summit of Moriah (which the levels show to be connected by a narrow neck or saddle with Bezetha) to 2,440, and then gradually to descend again till, on the verge of the great precipice overhanging the Pool of Siloam, at the southern end of the Ophel spur outside the city, it is 2,129, or almost four hundred feet below its highest point. Between the Damascus Gate valley and that starting from Hezekiah's Pool is the hill called Acra, covered on its higher levels, as we have seen, with large modern buildings. Its highest point within the walls, as already mentioned,, is at the N.W. angle of the city close to the New Gate. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is situated on its south- eastern slope, but fully one hundred feet lower than the New Gate. Joined to Acra by the neck or saddle on which the Jaffa Gate stands, and to the south of the Pool of Hezekiah valley, is the traditional Zion, occupied, as we have seen, by the Cita- del, the L. J. S. mission premises, and the Armenian convent, and, on its lower and eastern terraces, by the Jewish quarter. The plan of the city (illustration 30) reduced by photo- graphy from a large one kindly given me by Dr. Merrill shows the present city walls. I have marked the course the second wall must have taken if the Church of the Sepulchre really and truly marks the actual spot of Golgotha and our Lord's tomb which were outside the wall. The outer dotted line shews the course of the second wall as described by Josephus, in- cluding the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The minute numbers on the series of contour-lines show the height above the Mediterranean in English feet. The letters refer to the following: A., Armenian quarter. B., Jewish quarter. C.C., Latin and Greek, etc. D., Moslem (North African). E., general Moslem quarter, on Bezetha. X., Grand New Hotel. Having thus tried to describe the general line and respective elevations of the different parts of Jerusalem within the walls, we shall now start on our projected visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The writer's object, as already stated, is not to uphold or promulgate any theory. In a former chapter I alluded to the difficulties of the theory that the Church marks the actual site of the crucifixion and resurrection of the Saviour. I now, in justice to those who maintain the contrary, give views of two models (illustrations 31 and 32) made from the 40 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM drawings and notes of the late Dr. Schick. The former shews the nature or appearance of the rock site, as it must have presented in our Lord's time. Namely, i. Calvary. 2. The Sepulchre. 3. Traditional sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. 4. Quarries. 5. A slight valley. 6. Tomb of Adam. The other (32) is a photograph of a model made from Dr. Schick's drawings, to show the alterations that have taken place, as a result of the cutting away of the rock in order to receive the foundations of present buildings i. Calvary. 2. The Sepulchre. 3. Tomb of Joseph and Nicodemus. 4. Chapel of St. Helena. 5. Cathedral of the Greeks. 6. Chapel with tra- ditional tomb of Adam. Whether the reader accepts or doubts the genuineness of the site of the famous Church as being that where, in our Lord's time, Calvary was situated and the garden of Joseph of Ari- mathea, no one will deny that the place has a marvellous his- tory, reaching back fifteen and three-quarter centuries. Here, between the years A.D. 327336, the Emperor Constantine the Great erected his fine buildings. On the west is a great Rotunda, the circular Church of the Anastasis or Resurrection, with what was really believed to be the Holy Sepulchre in its centre. Further east, is a large open court with colonnades running along its northern and southern sides. Further east still, is a handsome and spacious basilica or cathedral, built on a plan resembling that of Roman law courts, i.e., with a great central nave and side aisles, the roofs of which were supported by columns, and having at the east end three deep apses or semi-circular recesses. Easternmost of all, and with a grand pillared entrance from the street, now called Khan Ez-Zeit, is an atrium or great square court, with colonnades running along all its four sides. The area covered by these structures is'stated by Dr. Schick to have extended 500 feet east and west from the Khan Ez-Zeit to Christian Street, and from the present Via Dolorosa north to the street now running along the south side of the Church of the Sepulchre block, or about 200 feet the area covered being more than 10,000 square yards. A few vestiges of Constantine's grand edifices may still be seen in the Russian Hospice east of the Church of the Sepulchre, consisting of two of the pedestals of the entrance porch, and a fragment of a massive wall. Other interesting remains on this spot are of later periods Byzantine and Crusading. The buildings having been destroyed by the army of Chosroes II. of Persia in A.D. 614, a new set of WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM edifices, on a much smaller scale, was erected between the years 616 626 by the Abbot Modestus, who received pecuniary help from the Christians in Syria and Egypt, and used such of the old materials as were available. As a result, four separate buildings were raised; viz., the Church of the Resurrection, or the Rotunda; the Church of the Cross, situated over the site of the present Chapel of St. Helena; the Church of Calvary, on the present site; and the Church of the Virgin, which prob- ably stood on the spot now occupied by the great bell-tower and the south transept. When, in A.D. 637 Jerusalem opened its gates to the Khalifeh Omar ibn El Khatlab, the Moslem con- queror generously left the Christians in peaceable possession of their churches. Later on, when Haroun Al Raschid, of Arabian Nights' celebrity, came to the throne, among the presents he sent to his equally famous contemporary Charlemagne (A.D. 800) were the keys of the Church of the Sepulchre. Charlemagne took advantage of the favourable political rela- tions between himself and the Oriental ruler, in order to establish a hospice on a site S.E. of the church. A church, that of St. Mary of the Latins, was afterwards erected here, and when,, long after the Crusading period, it had gradually fallen into ruin, the site and remains were in 1869 presented to the King of Prussia, and taken possession of by his son, afterwards the Emperor Frederick, whose son, the present Kaiser William, had the church rebuilt on the old lines. It was consecrated on the occasion of his visit to Jerusalem in 1898, and, under the name of the "Erloser Kirche," is the place of worship of the German Protestants (illustration 33). The churches on the site of the Church of the Sepulchre r having suffered dilapidation from various causes, and on two occasions from fire, were again repaired in the years 830 and 969. Having been quite destroyed in 1010 by the orders of the mad Egyptian Khalif El Hakim, whom the Druses to this day worship as a god, they were rebuilt as separate chapels on the various holy sites. After the Crusaders had obtained pos- session of the country in 1099, they erected the present building, which includes the shrines which till their coming had been shown under different roofs. It was in this church that several of the Latin Kings were crowned, and here, around the so-called stone of unction, their tombs were preserved, till in 1224, the Kharezmians, a fierce Tartar horde, having over-run Palestine and taken Jerusalem, destroyed the monuments and rifled the graves, in hope of finding treasure. 42 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM Though at that time and subsequently, the last occasion being the great fire of 1808, which destroyed the Chapel of the Resurrection and the great dome over the Rotunda, the inner arrangements of the Church of the Sepulchre have ex- perienced various vicissitudes and alterations, yet, on the whole, the outer shell and walls of the building remain practically, except for the wear and tear of eight centuries, much the same as they were when the Crusaders were turned out of Jerusalem in 1187. (34) Stairs leading from Christian Street to the Courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 43 CHAPTER VII. HE present iron dome and galleries over the ro- tunda in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre were put up in 1868, the work being done with the consent of the Sultan and at the joint expense of France and Russia, which countries sent archi- tects and workmen. The only approach to the church is by the great courtyard in front and south of it. The church may be entered either from a door at its S.E., or by another at the top of a staircase at its S.W. corner. We will visit it from the latter direction, starting from the great open space to the east of the Citadel. At the N.E. corner of this space is the head of a long street of stairs leading down eastwards to the Temple-area, 500 yards distant and 106 feet below us. We begin to descend this street, and, having proceeded about 200 feet, turn sharply to the left, following a straight and level street leading northwards. It is now called Christian Street, because, till about twenty years ago, the shops on either side were occupied solely by Christians, no Jew daring to show himself in the vicinity of the Church of the ^Sepulchre. Now all this is changed, most if not all the shops being occupied by Jews. In Crusading times this was called Patriarch Street, because it led to the residence of the Patriarch, at the corner where it joins the Via Dolorosa, where the present mosque and minaret El Khankeh are situated. The old mediaeval name is still perpetuated in that of Hammam El Batrak "Patriarch's Baths," the Turkish bath of that name, on the right of the street being supplied with water from the Pool of Hezekiah. A curious Jewish legend is connected with this bath. It is said that, over a century ago, Chacham Saleem esh Shelebi, who was then the Rishon le Zion, or head of the Jewish com- munity in Jerusalem, was told by his servant that the quantity of water needed to satisfy the rabbinical regulations at this bath was insufficient, and that unless more water was supplied no Jews would bathe that day. The rabbi happened to be at his prayers, and was wearing both tallith and phylacteries when he was told this, and, forgetting to take them off, he at once 44 WALKS ABOUT JERUSA L E M went to the bath. As he approached the place a fanatical young Moslem noticed that the tallith had in its pattern a stripe of green, a colour which none but a Moslem was at that time allowed to wear. He at once drew his dagger to kill the Jew, who, as he thought, was insulting Islam. Before, however, he could strike the unconscious rabbi, his arm and his whole body were paralysed, and he stood rooted to the spot, a rigid statue. The attention of the rabbi being drawn, as he was leaving the bath, to the would-be assassin, he consented, after many solici- tations, to pray for his recovery, but on the condition that no Jew should again be molested in the Holy City. These terms (35) Chapel of the Twelve Apostles. being agreed to, he uttered a short prayer, and by a command restored to his assailant his powers of life, speech and move- ment. (See "Tales told in Palestine," p. 95.) Christian Street is remarkably straight, and for the first half of its course, level, the reason being that in that part it passes along the top of a huge, and very ancient, dam or causeway, which forms the eastern limit of the Pool of Hezekiah. The western side of the dam-top has houses built along it, and that is the reason why this remarkable specimen of ancient engi- neering, which is about 200 feet long and 50 wide, escapes notice. We now take the first turning to the right and descend a. winding street of stairs, at the foot of which is the great court 45 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM in front of the Church of the Sepulchre. On the left hand side, in line with the lowest step of the staircase (illustration 34) is the S.E. corner of the great Greek Convent of Constantine, and just here we notice an old pilaster with a beautiful i2th century basket work capital, and the spring of an arch rising from its abacus. In line with this pilaster we notice, stretching east- ward, the broken bases of columns. These remains are the (36 Porch of the Chapel with Walled-up Olive Tree. only existing vestiges of the beautiful arcade which stood along the northern front of the great Hospital of the Knights of St. John. There was at the time another approach to the courtyard from the west, and it is related that on one occasion, when there was a dispute between the Latin patriarch and the Hospitalers, who claimed to be independent of his authority, the military monks, knowing that the church dignitary and his clergy were about to visit the Church of the Sepulchre in solemn pomp and order of rank, ranged up under this arcade and received the train with nights of arrows (blunt ones we hope). This obliged 46 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM those in the .procession to run away as fast as they could, re- linquishing every attempt at dignity, into the shelter of the church, amidst the derisive shouts of laughter raised by the Knights. "As are the times, so are the manners." "Every age," says ,the corresponding Arabic proverb, "sports with its own generation." In those days the games seem to have been rather rough. The courtyard in front of the church, which, during the pil- grim-season is thronged by vendors of beads, crosses, etc., is (37) Rival Olive Tree in Abyssinian Convent. about 80 feet long and 54 wide. There are vaulted chambers underneath it. It is bounded on its eastern side by the Greek Convent of Abraham, which contains on its upper terrace the small chapel of Abraham, where visitors are allowed to celebrate the Lord's Supper by special permission of the Greek Patriarch; the chapel of the twelve Apostles (illustration 35); and the care- fully walled-up olive-tree (illustration 36). This tree, according to a Greek legend, was the very plant amongst whose branches the ram was found entangled by his horns at the time of Abraham's offering of Isaac. The Abyssinians, however, protest against this legend as rank heresy, and claim that they possess the veri- table olive-tree in their own convent, a cluster of hovels amongst the ruins of the Crusading Abbey of the Canons of the Sepulchre, 47 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM east of the Great Church. Illustration 37 shews this rival olive- tree in the courtyard of the Abyssinian Convent. In the back- ground are seen part of the Church of the Sepulchre, and some remains of the walled-up cloisters of the Crusading Abbey of the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre. In illustration 38 is another view of the Abyssinian Convent, with the dome of the Chapel of St. Helena in the foreground. (38) Abyssinian Convent and Dome of St. Helena. In the lower storey of the Convent of Abraham, with doors opening into the court, are the Armenian Chapel of St. James, and the Coptic Chapel of the Archangel Michael, whilst in the N.E. corner of the court, underneath the Latin Chapel of Mary's Agony, is the Greek Chapel of Mary the Egyptian. Who was she? The Greek priest in charge of the shrine, a little room scarcely twelve feet square, pitying our ignorance, points to a series of coarsely executed pictures illustrating her story. Picture 48 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM 1. Mary, who has been leading a gay life in Egypt, embarks at Alexandria in order to visit the Holy City in pilgrimage. Picture 2. An angel meeting her at the gate of Jerusalem forbids the sinful woman to enter. Picture 3. Mary, the penitent, retires to the desert to live a life of penance. Picture 4. Starving and in rags, she was discovered by a holy hermit, who instructs her in the truths of the Gospel. Picture 5. Being convinced of her sincere repentance and piety, the hermit, whose name I forget, gives Mary the Holy Communion. Picture 6. Coming^ one day (39) Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with bell tower and . cypress tree. to visit his convert, the hermit finds that she had died since his last visit. He is>just in time to say the funeral service, a god- fearing lion having dug her grave, and is on the point of burying Mary the Egyptian, when the saint comes up. The story is characteristic, and typical .of many other such, and illustrative of the doctrine held by so many Easterns and others that men can be saved by their own works. It is remarkable that lions play a part in several of these Oriental saint-stories.' " In paint- ings St. Jerome is often represented accompanied by the lion whose wounded paw the saint cured in the deserts of Chalcis, 49 WALKS A BOUT JERUSALEM and who in gratitude became the healer's protector and faithful servant" (see Prothero's 'The Psalms in Human Life," p. 27). Mar Saba is allowed by a hospitable lion to share his den, and when the couple find that the quarters are not roomy enough for two, the lion generously seeks other lodgings. A lion, as we have seen, buries Mary the Egyptian, and, about three-quarters (40) Tomb of Sir Philip D'Aubeny. of a mile west of the Jaffa Gate, the cave is still shewn to which in 614 A.D., when the Persians had massacred 60,000 Christians at Jerusalem, a lion reverently conveyed their bodies for burial. It really seems a pity that such a, race of pious animals no longer exists ! Built into the wall, just above the entrance to the Chapel of Mary the Egyptian, is an old carving representing two lions. It is much mutilated, and connected therewith is the legend related on page no of "Tales told in Palestine." On the west of the great court are ranged, side by side, the three Greek Chapels of St. James, St. Mary, and the Forty Mar- tyrs. The last-named is in the lower storey of the great bell- 50 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM tower, which, together with the projecting exteriors of the apses of the three chapels, is seen in illustration 39, between the dark cypress-tree and the fagade of the Church of the Sepulchre, the latter surmounted by the white-washed dome of the central Greek Church of the middle of the world. In the N.E. corner of the court, to the right of the blocked-up gangway, is seen the Latin Chapel of Mary's Agony, roofed with a small drum and dome, and with a staircase leading up to its door. The ques- tion as to who had the right to sweep that staircase was the cause of a sanguinary encounter between the Latin and Greek monks some years ago. Stretched in front of the cluster of columns, between the two great portals of the Church of the Sepulchre, is a marble slab, bearing the epitaph of Philip D'Aubeny, and a Norman shield with his armorial bearings (illustration 40). A good many years ago the writer succeeded, by reference to ancient records, in proving that this is the tombstone of Sir Philip D'Aubeny, tutor of Henry III. of Winchester, who, crowned when only a child of eight years of age, was entrusted to his care during the protectorship of the able Earl of Pembroke. Before the accession of Henry III., however, and during the reign of King John, we find the name of Sir Philip D'Aubeny amongst the barons who signed the Magna Charta. Sir Philip D'Aubeny left England for the holy wars in Palestine in 1222. He resided in the country for fourteen years, dying in 1236. Matthew Paris, the famous historian, describes him as "miles strenuus, ac morum honestate commendabilis," "a valiant soldier of honour- able and commendable manners," and refers to his death in the following terms: "Circa illos dies, nobilis ac Deo devotus, in armis strenuus miles, Philippus de Albineto, postquam militav- erat Deo in Terra Sancta, peregrinando pluries, tandem in eadem diem claudens extremum, et finem faciens laudabilem, sanctam meruit in Terra Sancta, quod vivus diu desideraverat, sepul- turam," which may thus be translated: "About this time" (A.D. 1236) "the noble devotee to God's service, the unflinching warrior, Philip de Albineto, after that he had fought for God in the Holy Land, and oft made pilgrimage there, at last closed his days in the same, and, making a laudable end to his godly life, merited, what living he had long fervently desired, holy burial in the Holy Land." The identity of the personage buried here has been incontestably proved by the armorial bearings, as well as by historical references, with the family of D'Aubeny, still existing in England, the chief seat of which appears to have been the manor of South Petherton, Somersetshire. 5 1 CHAPTER VIII. HE lintels . over the portals to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre are ornamented with choice i2th century carvings, those sculptured over the left-hand entrance gate (illustration 41), being scenes from, the life of our Saviour, whilst those on the right-hand walled-up gateway (illustration 42) are of a mytho- logical character, with a spirited figure of a centaur in the (41) Sculpture on Portal. centre. A fragment of the scene depicted on the western portal was broken away some centuries ago, but, having been recovered, is now preserved in the Louvre (illustration 43). See Professor Ganneau's "Archaeological Researches." (42) Sculpture on Portal. Entering the church, which is open only at certain hours, we notice, first of all, on our left, the deep-cushioned recess constantly occupied by the Moslem door-keepers. These having official custody of the key, open and close the building at the appointed times, and are said to be willing to open at other hours as well for backsheesh. The office of door-keeper to 52 WALKS ABOUT JER U S A L E M the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is hereditary in the very old Moslem family of the Ensaybehs. In the corner opposite the door-keeper's recess, we notice some quadrant-shaped stairs, which form the lower part of an ascent to the large vaulted chamber called "Calvary." There are other staircases to it from other parts of the church as well. Just in front of us, as we step northwards, lies stretched east and west the traditional Stone of Unction, on which the body of the Saviour is said to have been laid in order to be anointed for burial. At either end are great tripod candlesticks, and suspended over it ornamental lamps. These accessories are (43) A Fragment in Paris. the property of the different religious communities, Orthodox- Greek, Armenian, Roman, and others, who possess "rights" in the great church. The stone itself, which is said at one time to have lain further north, is nine feet long, four feet six inches wide, and one foot high (illustration 44). It is of the native red limestone, and has, it is asserted, been placed here only in order to protect the real stone, which lies underneath, from the hands of eager pilgrims. The first mention of it is found in the 1 2th century narrative of Saewulf's pilgrimage. At that time the stone was shewn in the Chapel of. the Virgin, which, as above noted, is supposed to have occupied the position now in part occupied by the bell-tower. It lies in what is really the south transept of the church, though, because of the filling up of the great arch behind the stone and the separation of this 53 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM part of the building from the central Greek Cathedral, which is actually the nave of the church, it is difficult to realise this with- out having a ground-plan of the building before one. On our right hand, as we stand before the stone of unction, we notice, a doorway admitting the visitor to a chapel situated underneath the Greek Chapel of the Exaltation of the Cross, or (44) The Stone of Unction. "Calvary" (illustration 45). Just inside the door-way are two benches, one on either side. That on the left marks the spot where once stood the cenotaph of Duke Godfrey de Bouillon, the first Crusading King of Jerusalem. The tombstone disap- peared at the time of the great fire of 1808, though, fortunately, descriptions and sketches of it are extant, from which we learn that it was "a roof-shaped monument of fine porphyry, with vertical gable ends and ornamental edges supported on four 54 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM dwarf-twisted columns, resting on a plinth of marble. On the sloping surface was the following inscription: "Hie jacet inclytus Dux Godefridus de Bulion Qui totam istam terram Acquisivit Cultui Christiano : Cujus Anima regnet cum Christo. Amen." The epitaph may thus be rendered: "Here lies the celebrated Duke Godfrey de Bouillon, who won the whole of this country to the Christian religion. May his soul reign with Christ. Amen." It is noticeable that in his epitaph the hero is not styled Rex, a king, but Dux, a duke, because, though elected (45) Calvary Chapel. king, he would not, in his humble piety, accept the royal title, and refused to wear a kingly diadem in the city where his Sav- iour had worn a crown of thorns. Surrounded as we are on this spot by sites of doubtful genuineness, and by absurd traditions, it does one good to realize that one is standing beside an actually historic site commemorating a man of Godfrey's char- acter. The tomb of Baldwin, his brother and successor, is marked by the bench on the opposite side of the doorway. Further on in the chapel we are shewn the tomb of Melchizedec, the place where the skull of Adam was buried, and also the lower part of the rent made in the rock by the earthquake at the time of our Lord's crucifixion. The upper portion of what is said to be the same crack is shown in the"Calvary" Chapel over head, and the tradition is that some of the blood of the Saviour dropped through the fissure on to the head of Adam and raised 55 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM our first ancestor to life. The idea may be traced back to the days of Origen (second century). In the south wall of this chapel of Godfrey, Baldwin, Melchizedec, and Adam, is a door- way leading to a chamber used as an office by the Greek ecclesi- astical officials. From this room there is access to another, in which are preserved various antiquities and relics, which are shewn to visitors who care to look at them. Leaving this place we pass the eastern end of the stone of unction, and a couple of steps round the corner to our right bring us to the foot of another staircase leading up to the Calvary Chapel, belonging to the Greeks. Under the altar at the (46) Chapel of the Resurrection in the Rotunda. eastern 'end (shewn conspicuously in illustration 45), is a round metal-lined hole, in a marble slab, said to be the very hollow in which the Saviour's cross was fixed. Just to the right of the altar is a long slit in the marble, covered with a movable metal lid. This is visible in the photograph, and does duty for the upper part of the cleft in the rock. The altar further to the right is Latin property, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary; and yet further to right, the southern half of the large chamber, above the chapel of Adam and the Greek ecclesiastic's office, belongs to the Latins, and is furnished at its east end with their altar. Though it is really only an upper floor room with chambers underneath, it is gravely pointed out to credulous pilgrims as the place where our Lord was nailed to the cross. Through a barred window, which was formerly a doorway, we look into the Latin Chapel of Mary's Agony, said to mark 56 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM the spot where she stood during the Crucifixion. It is remark- able for its painted glass window, and was originally a porch with steps leading up to it, by which the Calvary Chapel chamber could be reached from the outside, without entering the great Church doors. Descending to the southern transept we once more pass the stone of unction, and, proceeding westwards, notice, on (47) Chapel of the Resurrection. our left, a circular slab in the floor covered by a sort of metal cage. It is said to mark the place where the women stood afar off beholding the Crucifixion, and afterwards where the Virgin Mary stood whilst the body of Jesus was laid on the stone of unction to be prepared for burial. Behind this a staircase, with very high and slippery steps, leads up to the 57 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM Armenian part of the lower gallery, behind the eighteen great piers encircling the rotunda. Leaving this behind us, we turn northward into the rotunda, the lower western part and piers of which are seen in illustration 46, which also shews the front of the Resurrection-Chapel in the centre. In illustration 47 we see the same front of this chapel, but in a different light, in which the lamps and candelabra, of which a certain fixed number belongs to various communities^ (48) Entrance to the Chapel of the Angel. are more clearly distinguishable. The entrance porch leading into the front chamber (illustration 48), is called "the Angel Chapel," because on a pedestal in its centre is shewn a fragment of the very stone which was rolled from the door of the tomb, and on which the angel was seen sitting on the Resurrection morning. Another piece of the same stone is shewn built into an altar in the Armenian chapel of the Palace of Caiaphas outside the Zion Gate. 58 CHAPTER IX. jWO oval windows in the wall right and left indicate the place where the Holy Fire first appears on the Greek Easter-Eve (illustration 49 and 50). These shew the general appearance of the Sepulchre Chapel in the Rotunda. It is well-known that the popular notion amongst the lower classes in the Greek Church is that this fire comes direct from Heaven as a result of the prayers of the titular Bishop of Petra, who is the special official to perform the ceremony. More educated and enlight- ened Greeks believe that it is merely a symbolical ceremony commemorative of the light of hope, joy and life bursting upon the darkened and mourning Church by the good news of our Lord's resurrection from the tomb. Much has been written on the subject rightly deploring and denouncing the abuses the ceremony has led to, and calling it an imposture, How it first came to be observed seems to be generally unknown. One usually reads in works on Palestine a repetition of the statement in Robinson's "Biblical Researches," vol. I. page 393, that the monk Bernhard, who visited Jerusalem A.D. 870, is the first traveller to mention the jugglery of the Greek holy fire. May I therefore venture to call attention to what I believe to have been the forgotten origin of a commem- orative anniversary service, which has unfortunately led to dis- graceful abuses ? Descriptions of scenes witnessed in the Church of the Sepulchre on occasions whether remotely or more recently past, are numerous, and I need not dwell on that side of the subject. The Church historian, Eusebius, quoted in Williams' "Holy City," vol. I., page 226, relates that during the episcopate of Narcissus (A.D. 180 222), one of the most godly of the early Bishops of Aelia Capitolina, several notable miracles were per- formed in answer to that prelate's prayers. One is specially mentioned: "It was on the great Vigils of the Feast of Easter, when oil was wanting for the church, and the drawers were greatly per- plexed, that he ordered them to draw water out of the nearest 59 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM well, which, being consecrated by his prayers, and poured into the lamps with sincere faith in the Lord, contrary to all reason and expectation, by a miraculous and Divine power, was changed into the fatness of oil." (49) The Holy Fire Place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Whilst dwelling on this subject I may add that the present crowding and grouping of so many holy sites together, in so 60 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM incongruous a manner, under one roof, may probably have in a like way not have originated in an intentional purpose to- deceive, but have grown out of services held in remote periods at different spots for the instruction of ignorant pilgrims, a very small percentage of whom, it must be remembered, were (50) Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. able to read the Gospels for themselves in the dark Middle Ages. There may have been special arrangements that the pilgrims should have an opportunity of hearing one part of the Gospel story read in one memorial chapel, whilst at the same time in another a different portion of Scripture was read at another service. As the pilgrims came by thousands then, just 61 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM as they do now, and as the Church of Christ was not then as divided as it unhappily is in our days, there must have been some arrangement made for different congregations to meet in differing places of worship. As time went on, the purely com- memorative character of the church, chapel or oratory, would gradually be lost sight of, and the memorial church of St. James or St. Peter, for instance, would come to be considered as the (51) The Interior of the Holy Sepulchre. very place where the former was beheaded, or the latter wept, when he heard the cock crow after he had denied his Master. A next step would naturally be the exact localization of the details of the story, and the square yard would be identified on to which the martyr's head rolled, or where it was buried, and the pillar would be found and recognized upon which the cock happened to be standing. Thus, round a perfectly innocent and even praiseworthy beginning, misunderstandings, misrepresen- 62 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM tations, and finally shameful abuses would gradually grow. I write this as the most likely and most charitable explanation of much in the Church of the Sepulchre and its surroundings, as well as in other parts of Jerusalem, that offends us as being grotesque, absurd, grossly idolatrous, and dishonouring to the name of Christian. Just behind the pedestal (illustration 48), which is supporting the stone on which the angel sat, is seen the low entrance, which must perforce be entered in a stooping posture, to the tomb chamber itself, the interior of which illustration 51 shews. The artificial bench formed of white marble, cracked through the centre and much worn by the lips of pilgrims, has, suspended over it and constantly burning, forty-three hand- some lamps, which are fed with olive oil. Of these, thirteen belong to the Greeks, thirteen to the Latins, and the same number to the Armenians, whilst the Copts are only allowed four. The curiously shaped tent-roofed turret upon the roof of the chambers is hollow in its centre, and has windows for venti- lation. The room itself is so narrow that only three or four persons can at the same time kneel before the stone bench. The whole of this Sepulchre-chapel, built of native rose-coloured limestone, with marble accessories, in 1810, by the architect ComnenoS; of Mitylene, whose name is recorded on an inscrip- tion just inside the inner doorway, is modern. Of the original tomb, discovered by Constantine the Great's excavators (leaving aside the question as to whether it really was the sepulchre in which our Lord lay, or not), it is most unlikely that a vestige exists. The following is, in brief, the utterance of a leading modern Roman Catholic authority on Palestine. "His- tory teaches us that of the ancient rock-cave of which the Holy Scripture tells us (which was seriously injured, first by Con- stantine the Great, out of love to Christ, and then by the Persians A.D., 614 out of hatred to Christianity), nothing but the site where it stood remains; seeing that in A.D. 1010 it was destroyed down to the very ground by Hiaroth, governor of Ramleh, and by the orders of the Khalifeh El Hakim." (Mom- mert's "Golgotha," ch. xii., p. no). CHAPTER X. (EAVING the Tomb-chapel we turn to the right in order to walk round the little building and between it and the circle of piers constituting the Rotunda. This circle is 26 feet long, 18 broad, and pentagonal at its west end. It is built of the native rose- coloured and white crystalline limestone, and orna- mented in front with slender spiral marble columns, etc. Illustrations 49 and 50 give an idea of the general ap- pearance of the structure. Clinging to the west end, inside an iron cage, is a small oratory belonging to the Copts, and just opposite this, and between two of the columns of the Rotunda, is a door leading into the dark Syrian chapel, which is simply the western apse of the church. Through a low doorway in the wall of this chapel, the real ownership of which is claimed and sometimes fought over by both Armen- ians and Syrians, we enter a small chamber, one side of which is formed by the circular outer wall of the Rotunda, and the others by those of an ancient Jewish rock-hewn tomb with kokim, or oven-shaped recesses to receive the dead. There are two of these loculi in the southern wall, with a lamp burning before them. These are said by tradition to be the graves of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea, the last-named of whom is supposed to have made arrangements that when he and his colleague died their bodies were not to be laid in the tomb originally intended for himself, and in which the Saviour's body was laid till His Resurrection, but in this tomb close by. On the western side of the chamber are the blocked-up entrances to other kokim, which, by the removal of the rock partitions between them, have been made into one chamber, which is fitted with a wooden door. It is generally kept locked, but on the occasion of the last visit of the late Sir Charles Wilson to Jerusalem, it was opened for him by the orders of the Greek Patriarch, and the writer was honoured by receiving an invitation from Sir Charles to accompany him and Mr. Dickson, the late British Consul, and Mr. C. A. Hornstein, when they went to examine it. In the floor just in front of the entrances to the kokim of Joseph and Nicodemus is a shaft cut in the rock, and at the 64 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM bottom of this are other kokim. Similar tombs exist in the Coptic Convent just outside the church at its eastern end, so there is no doubt that at one time or other the place where the church now stands was really a cemetery. This fact, however, does not bring us any nearer the solution of the problem as to whether the sepulchre of Christ was here, because, in the first place, nobody doubts that, during the time of the kings of (52) Ventilating Turret on Roof of the Sepulchre Chapel. Judah, and before the building of the second wall, the place was outside the first wall which was much further south, and ran from the citadel, near the Jaffa Gate, straight to the Temple- area. Secondly, we know from several passages in Josephus (Wars v., chapter ix. 2; chapter xi.. 4, etc.), that during the siege by Titus, there actually was a sepulchral monument, that of the high priest John, situated somewhere very close to, if 65 F WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM not on the actual site of, the present church itself. It adjoined the spot where the Roman fifteenth legion was engaged in constructing banks. It is therefore quite possible that the mound of earth which in A.D. 327 the workmen of Constantine the Great removed, when they discovered what was taken to be our Lord's Sepulchre, was really part of the bank raised by this fifteenth legion. Who can tell? From "Wars, book v. ix. 2, we learn that the mound or "bank" in question was cast up, "at John's monument," and after the taking of the second wall. It, therefore, seems clear that the monument was situated inside the second wall. But one cannot now be quite sure. Returning to the Rotunda we notice ; as we now pass to the north of the Tomb-chapel, that between each pair of the great Church of St. Helena. circle of piers (illustration 46), there are chambers, which have been formed at some period after the Crusading time by dividing up the ambulatory that originally ran round this part of the church and between the piers and the outer wall. The series of rooms thus formed is apportioned out amongst the various sects, and used as store-rooms. Above this set of rooms are galleries. In illustration 52, taken from the Armenian gallery, we have a view of the ventilating turret on the roof of the Chapel of the Sepulchre, and also of some of the piers. Having noticed this w.e reach an open space to our left, forming a vestibule to the Franciscan Chapel of the Apparition. In the floor of the vestibule two stones, a little distance from 66 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM each other, mark the traditional spots where the risen Lord and Mary respectively stood when He appeared to the latter and she took Him to be the gardener. In the Franciscan chapel the visitor is shewn a piece of a pillar to which our Lord is said to have been tied, and in the vestry, which is on the left-hand side as we leave the chapel, the sword and spurs of Godfrey de Bouillon. People who are made Knights of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre are invested with these and pay high sums for the doubtful honour and privilege. I am told, on good authority, that the price of the lowest grade is 40. East of the vestibule of the Chapel of the Apparition is the northern transept of the great church, and here, in the shape of arches supported by masonry, flying buttresses, etc., we note vestiges of structural alterations of different dates. At the eastern end of the transept is a low white-washed chapel belonging to the Greeks, and called "The Prison of Christ." At its entrance one is shewn "the stocks," two round holes in a marble slab. In prolongation of the northern transept is the great eastern ambulatory, very dark and gloomy, containing three apses fitted up as chapels, and named respectively, beginning with the most northerly, the Greek chapel of Longinus; the Armenian, and the Greek. Situated between the two last-named is a great, steadily widening staircase, with cross marks and names of pilgrims carved on its side walls, and leading down to the underground Church of St. Helena (illustration 53). It is a very picturesque structure, the northern and southern sides being partly rock, cased with masonry. The rough floor is fully 16 feet lower than that of the Rotunda, and the chamber measures, according to a statement which the present writer has not verified, but supposes to be fairly correct, 51 feet by 43. It is divided into a central nave with lateral aisles by four ancient Byzantine columns with dilapidated massive basket capitals patched with piaster. The roofs are groined, and from the central one, above the four capitals, rises a low drum, pierced with four windows, lighting up the chapel, and supporting a semi-spherical dome. The exterior of this drum and dome rises, like a mountain standing in the niiddle of a plain, from the courtyard of the Abyssinian con- vent (illustrations 37 and 38 above). The Church of St. Helena is said to have belonged to the Abyssinians formerly, but was seized by the Armenians at the time that the Abyssinians in Jerusalem died out, during the plague of 1838. It contains two altars, that to the north being dedicated to the penitent thief, and that next to it to St. Helena. 67 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM Close to the latter is shown the stone seat which that lady rested on whilst superintending the excavations in search of our Lord's Cross, but unfortunately for the legend, it cannot be historically proved that Helena did institute such a search. The tradition connecting her with the Invention of the Cross and the building by Constantine of the Church of the Sepulchre, did not originate till over half-a-century after her time, and her contemporaries mention none of the circumstances related in the legend. A rough rock-hewn staircase in the S.E. corner of the church leads down into the cavern where the three crosses are said to have been discovered. The exact spot, belonging to the Greeks, is pointed out where they lay. The true one was identified by the circumstance that when laid beside a dying woman it restored her to perfect health, the other two having failed to do her any good. Such tales must be taken with much salt. Of genuine, but melancholy, interest is the altar with a statue in the north- ern part of the cave. It belongs to the Latins, and commemorates the visit to Jerusalem, 50 years ago, of the ill-fated Maximilian, then Archduke of Austria, and afterwards Emperor of Mexico, shot at Queretaro in 1867 by the victorious insurgents. Before leaving the Church of St. Helena, we are shewn on the northern wall, not far from the altar of the penitent thief, what seems to be a plastered-up window, and we are gravely informed that there was originally an orifice here which reached down into purgatory, so that people could distinctly hear sighs, cries and groans of anguished souls undergoing punishment. As these sounds proved too trying for the nerves of modern sinners, the crack was very wisely closed up. A similar absurd story is related concerning the stone said to mark the middle of the world in the great central nave of the Church of the Sepulchre, set apart as the Greek Cathedral (illustration 54). This Cathedral lies east of the Rotunda, and opposite the Tomb-chapel, and is best approached from that direction, al- though there are two doors opening into it from the ambulatory north and south. It is divided from the northern and southern transepts of the Church of the Sepulchre by stone walls lined with carved gilt and painted wooden wainscoting. On the west it opens from the Rotunda by a great pointed arch. Within is the great central lantern of the church formed by three similar arches, north, south and east, and rising like the western one from four huge masonry piers about 40 feet apart, north and south, and 98 feet east and west. These arches support a drum 68 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM with a "masonry dome, the inside of which was once ornamented with a I2th century fresco painting of the mystic Vine of David. Only some traces of this are still distinguishable. To the east of the lantern is a great apse, separated from the Catholicon, or body of the church, where the congregation assembles, by a richly gilt screen, the Iconostasis, which is intended, as in all Orthodox Greek churches, to hide the priest consecrating the elements of the Holy Communion from the gaze of the people. No female is allowed to pass behind this screen. Ranged round this apse, are stone benches, raised in steps one above the other, like a Roman theatre in miniature, for the clergy to sit in ecclesiastical order x>f precedence on either side of the Patriarchal chair, which is placed in the centre higher than all. From this apse, (54) The Greek Cathedral. called the "Hagion," or Sanctuary, there are staircases to the Calvary-chapel and other chambers, built over the great ambulatory, round the Church of the centre of the world, which is thus named from a low stone pedestal in the centre of the nave (illustration 54), and said to mark that spot. An old Greek priest once solemnly informed the writer that there is a tradition that before this pedestal was placed there, a hole was there to purgatory, or rather hell, for the Greeks profess not to believe in purgatory. Along both the northern and southern walls of the nave are arranged stalls for clergy, and two episcopal thrones; that on the north for the Patriarch of Antioch, the southern for his brother of Jerusalem. Between these and the Iconostasis are two ancient stone pulpits, rarely, if ever used. 69 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM Another "centre of the world" at Jerusalem is in the Temple- area, and revered by Jews and Moslems, though the former may not visit it. The idea of a centre of the world in the Holy City, though a quaint one, is not actually absurd. It has, as B. CapcHaieconda; C. Sjtvtcc.-jutra del Mote, (damo D l>uuc i u ucnutt la teftad* A- jS/S'cppicro dd Re 'Balctuino. G/La picrra (JelPonuone. H. Eate deila Ciiieia. >, (55) Photograph of Mount Calvary. Dr. Schick remarks, "a typical meaning, as Jerusalem is to the Jews, Christians, and Moslems, a Holy City." I am indebted for illustration 55 to a friend who furnished me with the negative of a reproduction of a picture in an old book ("Zuallardo's Travels") in the library of the Franciscan Convent. 70 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM The author and artist were here in 1586, and the picture is inter- esting, not only because it shews the chapels on the traditional Calvary in very much the same condition as they are now, but because in the chapel below, the exact positions respectively of the monuments of the first two Crusading kings, Godfrey and Baldwin, are indicated, and drawings of the same shewn. The following explanation of the letters may be interesting: A. The Calvary Chapel (Greek). B. Chapel where according to tradition our Lord was nailed to the Cross (Latin). C. Underneath same roof as the Calvary Chapel, and to the 1 right of the altar. "The rent in the rock." D. Underneath Calvary Chapel, Chapel of Melchizedec and place of Adam's skull. E. Monument of Godfrey. F. Do. Baldwin. G. Stone of Unction. H. In ambulatory to left of picture is the staircase leading up to Calvary Chapel in 1586. In a remarkable address, by the Rev. Dr. Munro Gibson, one of the speakers at the Sunday School Convention, delivered in Jerusalem, in 1904, he said: "We can all put the centre of the earth where we like now-a- days. The most interesting map I ever saw was a map that made Chicago the centre of the earth. ... I have at home a classical map of the ancient world. . . . I measured the length of it and breadth of it, and took the exact centre, and it was right in Jerusalem. "Palestine, though small, was in no corner of the earth. South of it was Egypt; east, Babylon; north-east, Assyria; north, Tyre, Sidon, and Syria; and west, Greece and Rome. If you take Jerusalem as the centre of a radius of twelve degrees of latitude, and describe a circle, you will include the capitals of all the countries which figured in the world's history up to the time of Alexander the Great. There is no other capital of which this can be said. . . . The world of course was not nearly so large in ancient times as it is now, but such as it was, the Holy Land was in the centre of it. Think of it and you will see that it would have been impossible to have chosen a better position. This rocky ridge lifted up above the great river-plains around where grew and flourished the empires of antiquity was a mag- nificent rostrum from which to reach the nations with the Word of God. Well might the Hebrew prophets lift up their voices to the nations far and near, with a cry like this: 'O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.' Or, this: 'Hear, ye people, all of you : hearken, O earth, and all that therein is.' " CHAPTER XI. JEAVING the great courtyard in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by the small door at its south-eastern corner, we enter a short street leading eastwards. This is generally called "Palmers' Street," from the supposition that it was here that, in the middle ages, pilgrims from Europe, who had fulfilled their vows and were about to return to their native land, purchased the palm branches which they took with them in attestation of the journey. As a matter of fact, the old "Palmers' Street" was a few yards further north, though it ran parallel with (56) Ancient Masonry of the Russian Hospice. the modern one. The large vaulted refectory in the lower part of the Convent of Abraham, was originally part of the older street of the palm-sellers. Palmers' Street is called by the natives, "Harat ed Dabb- agha," or "Street of the Tannery," from a tannery, the smells and refuse water from which constituted a nuisance which made it almost impossible to pass that way. This state of things con- tinued till after the close of the Crimean War. 72 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM From the earliest times it has been the custom amongst victorious Oriental nations to endeavour to cast ridicule upon the adherents of a rival faith, by giving to their places of public worship names of reproach sounding very similar to their real appellations; and, whenever they had the power, by installing nuisances either upon or, at any rate, as close as possible to (57) Ancient Ruins in the Hospice. their -sites. We find in Scripture a good many allusions illus- trative of this mode of action (II. Kings x. 27; Daniel iii. 29), and the way in which proper names are used to play upon, in such passages as Micah i. 10-15, where we may read: "In Dust-town (Beth Aphrah) I wallow in the dust. Ye people of Fair-town (Shaphir), in shameful nakedness pass away. The people of Flock-town (Zaanan) have not gone forth like a flock. The calamity of Neighbour-town (Beth-ezel) makes 73 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM it no neighbour to give you refuge. For the people of Bitter- town (Maroth) have writhed with pain for something good and pleasant. . . . Ye people of Horse-town (Lachish) bind the horse swift for flight to the chariot. . . . Therefore must thou, O Israel, give up possession of Gath's possession (Moreshethgath). The houses of False-town (Achzib) shall be as a false fountain to the kings of Israel. I will yet bring an inheritor who shall lay claim to you, ye people of Heritage-town (Mareshah).* In like manner, though much more offensively, the Moslems, who for centuries have been the ruling class in Jerusalem, call the Church of El Kiamah or the Resurrection, the Church of El- (58) Old Roman Gateway. Kamamah, that is, of the dunghill; and that of St. Martin, or Mar Martin, where the great synagogue of the Perushim now stands, El-Maraghah, which means, "The place where don- keys roll." The appearance of Palmers' Street has altogether changed for the better since the days when the writer first knew it, fifty years ago. Not only has the offensive tannery disappeared, but also the great mounds of rubbish and ruin which then towered above the narrow pathway on either side; and in their stead there are handsome two-storied structures in the ornamental French and Italian style. Some of the most important and * It has been suggested by some commentators that the name "Mount of Corruption" (II. Kings xxiii. 13), in like manner originated in an offensive caricaturing of playing or punning upon the word anointing. Mischah nH^D anointing thus becoming "Maschith" coriuption. 74 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM interesting bits of ruin have been carefully preserved inside the new Russian Hospice, at the eastern end of the thoroughfare, and just opposite the German Emperor's Erloser-kirche, a repro- duction of, and standing on the site of, the old Crusading Church of St. Mary of the Latins, which belonged originally to the famous Order of the Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem. For the outside appearance of the Erloser-kirche see illustration 33. Illustrations 56 and 57 shew two interesting pieces |of ancient masonry as they appeared before the erection of the (59) Ancient Wall in Russian Hospice. Russian Hospice. Illustration 58 is the ruin of an old Roman .gateway which was repaired at some unknown period with materials taken from the ruins of some Byzantine structure. Illustration 59 shews a remarkable fragment of ancient wall, discovered nearly half a century ago, and around which ex- cavations were made forty years ago by the late Sir Charles Wilson. He found that it had formed part of the great buildings of the Emperor Constantine, and, as the holes in its face shew, 75 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM had at one time been covered with marble slabs. The remains of the copper clamps, which held the latter in their places, are still clearly visible inside the holes. Nevertheless, the supporters of the view that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre contains the actual and true site >of Calvary maintain that this is a genuine fragment of the second wall of Jerusalem on the north in our Lord's time, outside which He was crucified. The southern end of this relic is seen (illustration 56) covered with heaps of (60) Ruins of the Church of St. Mary the Latin. stones, and adjoining masonry of much later dates, most of which are now removed. The above-mentioned Russian Hos- pice, where this wall and other ancient remains can now be easily examined, is worth a visit. All along the southern side of "Palmers' Street" lies the "Muristan," or site of the magnificent buildings once belonging to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The western part, occupying about two-thirds of the whole, belongs to the Ortho- dox Greek Church. All traces have been quite removed of the 76 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM splendid *Church of St. Mary the Greater, which stood a few yards to the west of St. Mary of the Latins (illustration 60), and was so called in order to distinguish it from the latter, which was a smaller edifice. The southern apse, which is clearly shewn in this illustration marks "The old Hospital of St. John," though this description is not correct. The apse, and also the Saracenic staircase, the latter built after the Crusaders had been driven from the city by Saladin in 1187, had to be removed when the "Erloser-kirche" was built, as above related. (61) Crusading Cloisters, south of Church of St. Mary the Latin. Immediately adjoining the latter on the south are still existing ruins of the building supposed to have been occupied by the Sisterhood attached to the Order of St. John. These mediaeval and very interesting remains belong to Prussia, and * A few years ago the apses and other remains of the Greater St. Mary were dis- covered, but have now all been removed in order to erect new buildings. A few of the beautiful capitals have been preserved and may, at present, be seen in the entrance hall to the Convent of Abraham, where also are some fragments, including a magnificent group of an archer (Sagittarius) attacked by a wolf, and other stone carvings that formed part of a sculptured "Zodiac,"' like that over the portal to St. Mary the Less (Erloser-Kirche), but on a grander scale. 77 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM stretch southward as far as David Street, the old vaults "bord- ering which, on the north, are used partly as shops and partly as the corn bazaar. Here the process, so often described by writers on Eastern manners and customs, of measuring grain with "good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over," may be watched at all hours of the day (illus- tration 63). The Greek portion of the "Muristan" is separated from that belonging to the Germans by a new street, cut a few years ago right through the ruins from north to south, and called the (62) Mediaeval Doorway in the Cloisters. "Kaiser Friedrich's Strasse," in memory of the father of the present German Emperor, who, in 1869, when he was Crown Prince of Prussia, visited the Holy City, and took possession of the ruins which had been presented to his father by Sultan Abdul Aziz. Remains of the old cloisters adjoining the Er- loser-kirche are shewn in illustration 61, and a handsome mediaeval doorway opening into them, in illustration 62. In the south-western part of the "Muristan," in the angle formed by the junction of David Street with Christian Street, is the hospice and church of St. John the Forerunner, the latter 78 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM being a mediaeval structure, restored in 1847. It is very peculiar in shape, consisting of three apses and a corridor running across from north to south, to the west of them. Still more remarkable, however, is the much more ancient crypt or underground church, lying some twenty feet or thereabouts below the level of Christian Street, and just beneath the church we have described. It was apparently a Byzantine building, which suff- ered alterations at some later period. In shape it resembles the building above it with the three apses and a western corridor, but the existence of large windows and a door, all of them walled up, reveals the startling fact that its floor, now so far (63) Measuring Wheat. underground, was, at the time it was built, the ordinary ground level of this part of the City, perhaps fifteen hundred years ago. As a matter of fact, this subterranean and forgotten Christ- ian place of worship, together with a series of very large cisterns which honeycomb the ground both north and east of St. John the Forerunner, occupy the hollow on the eastern side of the great dam upon which Christian Street runs northward. Some authorities believe that this is a vestige of "the Broad Wall" of Nehemiah iii. 8; xii. 38. The underground church and cisterns also furnish a further proof that the present "Muristan" occupies and fills up the head of what was, at 79 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM one time, a wide valley. Illustration 64 shews the entrance to this Church of St. John. On the east the "Muristan" is bounded by the westernmost of three parallel bazaars or market-streets. These are one of the most picturesque parts of the city, as far as concerns the variety of costumes one meets with as one traverses them. Turkish soldiers in tattered cotton uniforms; fellahin from different parts of the country; government officials in red fezzes and ill-fitting European clothing, and wearing coats somewhat clerical in shape; townswomen in long white or coloured sheets, envel- oping them from head to foot; Christian ecclesiastics, wearing (64) Entrance to Church of St. John. long dark robes, and headdresses of different shapes; Ashkenaz Jews in long kaftans and black hats; peasant women in dark blue gowns and with white veils over their heads; Bedu from the Belka, armed with scimitar and huge old-fashioned flint-lock pistols; and tall fierce-looking Circassians, who have, in san- guinary fights, ousted those very Bedu from the old camping grounds and pasture-land east of the Jordan; Greeks from the Archipelago; Persians, wearing long conical and comical brown sugarloaf-like hats, with green turbans wrapped round their 80 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM bases; negroes, Hindus, Arabs, gipsies, Italians, Frenchmen, Orientals, Europeans, Africans and Yankees; in short, all sorts and conditions of men and women, in all sorts and conditions of clothing, meet and jostle each other as they pass through the narrow thoroughfare, or try to do so. (65) A Vaulted Bazaar. 81 CHAPTER XII. |HE bazaars themselves, may perhaps be best described as very long-vaulted corridors or tunnels, built of ancient and very ruinous-looking masonry, with small chambers, by courtesy called shops, on either side. (Illustration 65). These shops are deep recesses, not more than twelve feet square at the most, inside. The passage-way along the bazaars is perhaps fifteen feet wide, not more. The only light and air come in from the ends of the tunnel, some hundred yards distant, or from holes in the centre of the vaulted roofs, twenty feet overhead, which also serve as vents for the escape of blue smoke and vapour from numerous cook and blacksmiths' shops located in the above-mentioned recesses. The western- most of the three tunnels is set apart for the use of butchers, blacksmiths and coppersmiths, and makers of the rough camel- leather shoes worn by the peasantry. Here and there, spread upon the floor of the street, just in front of one or the other of these shops, we find a huge raw camel's hide put out to be tanned, and whether we approve of the occupation or not, we have to help, by walking over it, to turn it into leather. It is hardly necessary to say that the atmosphere, in the western bazaar especially, is most unwholesome. The middle corridor is called "Suk el Attareen," or "Market of the Apothecaries," because it is occupied chiefly by Eastern druggists, who, seated cross-legged and generally smoking at the doors of their respective places of business, sell spices, nails, sulphur, oriental saddle bags and saddlery, rope and string, and many other dissimilar articles which are not easy to get in other parts of the town. The pathway between the two rows of shops in this "bazaar is so narrow that it is hardly possible for two persons to walk through it side by side, and the shopkeepers on the iopposite side of the street sit scarcely two yards apart, looking into each other's shops and faces. Now and then you will find an open shop, whose owner is absent. In case his neighbour in the right or left hand shop, or those just opposite, happens not to have the special article you are in search of, but knows that the absentee shopkeeper has it, one or the other will 82 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM not only offer you a seat, and perhaps a cigarette, or a cup of coffee, in order to induce you to await his return, but will even leave you in sole charge of his own shop, whilst he himself goes to call him, always supposing that he be not very far off. Such is Eastern courtesy. Here is an open shop without a shopman, but you notice that a piece of twine-netting has been stretched over the wares exposed for sale, or that a chair has been laid on its back upon them. This is a sign that the merchant has been called away on special business, or has gone to the (66) A Street Scene. mosque to pray, and has left his property and his business, under the guardianship of his brother tradesmen. Woe to the impudent thief who, under such circumstances, would venture to cStretch out his hand to abstract the smallest object from this shop! The third and easternmost of the three bazaars, is about one- half as long as the two others, and is used by silversmiths and oriental drapers. It is worth visiting, because it alone, of all the streets of Jerusalem, has as yet remained unaltered from the 83 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM condition in which it was sixty, perhaps a hundred, or several hundreds of years ago.* Along the sides of the street, and in front of the shops, are stone benches, about two feet high and a yard wide. The two leaves of the shop-doors are not hinged on to the side-posts, as in ordinary doorways, but, respectively, to the door-sills and the thresholds, and meet in the middle, half way up the door (67) A Chained Prisoner. way. When the shop is open, the lower leaf lies flat upon the stone bench, and if covered with a carpet, forms a convenient dais or platform on which the merchant and his customers sit whilst conversing, or else as a counter upon which the shop- keeper lays his wares. The upper door-leaf is lifted up, and * This place is too dark and too lively to make it possible to photograph, but pictures of shops just like those here described will be found on pages it and 15 of Lanes ""Modern Egyptians," vol. ii. 8 4 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM kept in position either by an iron bar, which fastens it to the wall behind, or is propped up in such a manner that it hangs stretched either horizontally or else sloping upwards over the bench below, so as to form a canopy or pent-house. From the lower side of this various goods are hung as advertisements to passers by, on the same principle that European shop- windows are "dressed." Here and there some Koranic text or religious motto, in curiously interlaced ornamental Arabic char- acters, and placed inside a frame under glass, advertises the piety of the shop-owner. From the centre of the upper and overhanging door-leaf, there hangs a knotted and often very grimy piece of rope, at which the merchant, who has been sitting cross-legged, clutches, whenever he wants to raise him- self to an erect posture. Up till the years 1863 4, all the native shops in Jerusalem were like those in this part of the bazaars, but about that time, as has been elsewhere related, the local authorities had all the "mwstabehs," or raised benches running along the streets and on both sides of the latter, removed, and the thoroughfares repaved. About 1885 this pavement was taken away, and the streets paved as they now are, with the middle raised, and the channels for rain-water at the sides. Till the latter date, there had been only one gutter, and that down the middle of the street. Illustration 66 is a view of a bazaar in line with those just described, but further north, which shews, in the imme- diate foreground, the place where the great street, running southward from the Damascus Gate, is crossed by the "Via Dolorosa," at the point said by a worthless tradition to have been the 7th Station, or halting place of our Lord during His progress from Pilate's House to Calvary. I mention the above apparently trivial circumstances because it was at the time that the first alterations were made, toy working parties of chained prisoners (illustration 67), that the fine old Roman paving slabs, which might be noted here and there along the line of these three bazaars, disappeared. For- tunately, however, a portion of the same pavement was uncovered some years ago, in the Russian property in Palmers' Street, and has been preserved in its original place and condition in the Hospice. As we walk through the old bazaars we notice other proofs, of their antiquity. Here and there, where the whitewashed plaster has fallen from the walls, we remark old lettering cut 85 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM deeply into the stones; generally a capital T, or the words "Seta Anna." The former shews that the shops or buildings on which it occurs belonged to the Knights Templars, and the latter marks the property of the Crusaders' Church and the nunnery of St. Anne, just inside the St. Stephen's Gate. The * o O *J shops in the fine new buildings which, during the last twenty years, have been erected by the Greeks, are in like manner marked with cj) the sign or monogram for "taphos" the Sepul- chre. Thus in modern days we still have survivals of mediaeval customs. The late Dr. Schick and some other competent authorities believe that even in the time of Christ there was a 86 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM market on the site now occupied by these bazaars. However, here in the East the Crusading period is considered horribly modern, and therefore it is satisfactory to find in these bazaars other proofs of yet greater age. Not only have we the mention, by Bernard the Wise, A.D. 867, of the market existing here in his time, but here and there the shafts of erect columns, still in sight, peeping through the surrounding masonry, are relics of the magnificent colonnades erected by Hadrian. These, as the now famous mosaic map of Medeba attests, ran right through his Roman town of Aelia Capitolina, from the Gate of Neapolis, a triumphal arch on the site of the present Damascus Gate, southward to the neighbourhood of the modern Zion Gate. Illustration 68 is taken from a reproduction, now in the library of the College of St. George, of the city of Jerusalem as it is represented on the Medeba mosaic, and shews this grand Street of Columns. 87 CHAPTER XIII. |HE Muristan is bounded on the south by a part of the great street which, starting from the Jaffa Gate, traverses the city, and ends at the western wall of the Temple-area. Amongst the Frank residents in Jerusalem it is generally called "David Street," but amongst the natives its three different parts are known by as many different names, with which, however, we need not burden the reader. The first and westernmost part of it ends, after a descent of twenty-six steps, at the point where "Christian Street" starts on its course northward. From this point the great street continues to run eastward past the Muristan, and as far as the easternmost of the three bazaars described above. Here the second part of its course ends, and it suddenly turns to the right, that is, to the south, for about ten or fifteen yards, when it again turns eastward and continues its course in that direction to its end. Just where the street forms an elbow, before starting on the third portion of its course, is the entrance to the Jewish quarter in this direction. At the point where the first part of the great street ends, at the foot of the first twenty-six steps, and on the side exactly opposite to the entrance to Christian Street, we ascend a very narrow staircase, or short street scarcely seven feet wide on an average, along the sides of which wooden benches are placed, making the roadway yet narrower, but serving to accommodate the customers of a coffee-stall keeper, who for the last fifty years has made this staircase his place of business. No camel ever passes up or down this way, and donkeys rarely, and as we ascend the staircase, in single file, the coffee-drinkers cour- teously draw in their feet under the seats to let us pass. Having got nearly to the top, we turn sharply to the left, that is to the east, and having mounted the twenty-third step after leaving the level of Christian Street we follow a short but rather crooked street which runs in a general way parallel to the second part of David Street, though at a considerably higher level. The fact is that David Street lies, on the plan, along what, in 88 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM the days of the kingdom of Judah was the great high road along, but outside, the northern wall of Jerusalem ; and there is reason to believe that the other rather crooked street, which we are about to traverse, runs along the very top of the said northern city-wall, which probably still exists, buried under debris. (70) Saracenic Arch on Site of Porta Ferrea. We pass the Maronite convent on the right. At its north- east corner the street of stairs turns off to the south, leading upwards past the eastern side of the convent, which was originally the house built for a former British Consul; it then became the first premises of the Kaiserswerther Deaconesses' school and hospital, before the erection of their new buildings outside the city, after which it was sold to the Maronites. If 89 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM we follow the staircase it will bring us past the house which was occupied by the London Jews Society's missionary, the Rev. J. Nicolayson, partly built over the now desolate Crusading chapel of St. James the son of Alphaeus, situated just behind Christ Church, and now a deserted and ruinous mosque. Instead, however, of going along this staircase, we shall (71) Archway entrance to Syrian Convent. follow the old street on the top of the buried city-wall on its eastward course. Almost immediately after passing the Maronite establishment, we come past the House of Industry workshops, and the house originally built by Dr. Macgowan, and left by him 90 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM to the above Society. It was afterwards occupied in succession by Drs. "Wheeler and Masterman. The carpentry workshops and the house between them and the doctor's, were formerly the Girls' School premises, and stand in Dr. Macgowan's old garden. Though the doors to these two houses open directly from the street on its northern side, yet we cannot help being struck with the circumstance that to reach the workshops, we have to descend nights of stairs as soon as we have set foot inside the house doorways. The reason for this is that the said houses are built up against the ancient wall, two towers belong- ing to which were discovered at the time the foundations for the present structures were dug. In the basement of the house next to that occupied by Dr. Masterman there still exists a curious "tower-chamber," described in the Palestine Explor- ation Fund "Quarterly Statement" for October, 1906, and, ac- cording to monkish tradition, was the prison in which St. Peter was bound (Acts xii.) A few yards distant, on the opposite side of the street, we notice a displaced capital once belonging to a pilaster of the Corinthian order, and about half a dozen other old stones in a modern wall. These are, according to tradition, the last vestiges of the Porta Ferrea, or "iron gate (Acts xii. 10). Unfortunately for the tradition the said iron gate has been shewn in other parts of the city at various periods (see Robinson's "Biblical Researches," vol. ii. page 200 footnote). Just beyond these vestiges (illustration 69) a Saracenic arch is built across the street (illustration 70) over the entrance to the doctor's house above mentioned, and at right angles to the latter runs the traditional street along which the Apostle pro- ceeded, past the place where the L.J.S. hospital formerly was, and its town dispensary now is, to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark (Acts xii. 12). The Jacobite, or Syrian Convent, is asserted by tradition to occupy the site of this house. The building, having been seriously damaged by earthquake some years ago, has lately been rebuilt, but its mediaeval doorway, that at which St. Peter knocked, according to tradition, has been preserved (illustration 71). In the church is shewn a picture of the Virgin, said to have been painted by St. Luke, who is alleged to have been, like one or more of our modern missionary bishops, not only a doctor but an artist as well. The font in which tradition says the Virgin was baptized is also shewn here. WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM The street passing this monastery gate winds away uphill in a general direction to the south-west, till, having passed the (72) Archway in David Street. ruined chapel of St. Thomas, it enters the street leading from the Jaffa Gate to the great Armenian Convent and Church of St. James. 92 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM We continue our walk from the L.J.S. doctor's house east- ward, descending till we come upon the Harat el Jawany, running at right angles to our course. On market days this bit of thoroughfare is so crowded that it is difficult to get along. The pavement is covered with peasant-women squat- ting beside baskets of farm produce, fruit, eggs, vegetables, leben, poultry, etc. Vendors of native made strawmats and baskets, range their goods against the wall of the street quite covering up the ancient arch, which some erroneously sup- pose to be the remains of the gate Gennath, mentioned by Josephus as the point from which the second wall of Jerusalem on the north started. It was situated near the Herodian tower called Hippicus, and could not have been so far east as this mysterious and walled-up archway is. On either side of the street are the shops of native dyers, and we find a number of Bedawee women haggling with them about the cost of col- ouring some of their rough homespun. In order to escape from the throng, we turn aside into what is now a coffee-shop with a thoroughfare leading right through it to the elbow of David Street, above mentioned. It is a curious place. Four roughly constructed arches, rising res- pectively from as many massive ancient columns, apparently "in situ," with much battered Byzantine capitals, form a kindred structure to the Church of St. Helena. This coffee-shop seems to have been an old cruciform church. Little is known about it, but tradition says that it was really an ancient place of Christian worship, and built on the site of the house which belonged to Zebedee, the father of St. James and St. John. The Franciscans curiously hold that the reason why St. John was known to the high-priest (St. John xvii. 16), was the very simple one that the family of Zebedee used to supply the high- priest's household with fish from the lake of Gennesareth; and, as that was at least three days' journey from Jerusalem, the Apostle's parents, as a matter of course, must have had a dwell- ing and a place of business in the Holy City, and this was where it stood. We pass through this puzzling old coffee-house, which is said to have at one time served as a bath-house, and also as a mosque, and find ourselves at the spot where the last portion of David Street commences its descent eastward. The arched and vaulted tunnel street is dark and gloomy, and the pavement dirty and slippery all the way, even after we have got out again into (daylight, and can more clearly see the squalid and tumble-down buildings on either side. About half-way down the street we 93 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM notice that it is joined by another coming down from the south, that is from our right. It is the "Haret el Meidan," or Theatre Street, and along which are the sites respectively of the As- monean palace and gallery, the German Crusaders' quarters, etc. (73) Portal of Saracenic Building on the Site of St. Giles' Abbey. Just at this point are some quaint old Saracenic buildings. An archway spans the street, and close by, on the right, is a picturesque Moorish window balcony, and, just by the lamp, is the entrance to the Haret Meidan (see illustration 72). 94 CHAPTER XIV. the opposite side of the street, and just beyond, and partly underneath the archway, is an old and handsome Saracenic building on the site of the Crusading Church and Abbey of St. Giles, men- tioned in the "Norman Chro'nicle." Some remains of the Christian building still exist hidden in the basement of the later structure. The entrance to the latter, is in the characteristic pendentive Arab style (illustration 73). This ornamental portal is immediately opposite the entrance to the street by which later on, turning sharply to the right, we descend another steep and winding staircase in the Tyropceon Valley on our way to the Jews' Wailing Place. Illustrations 74 and 75 will give an idea of the general features of the fronts of ancient Oriental houses in the same street. It will be noticed that they are constructed of massive stones of different colours, and in some cases have very elaborately carved Arabesque tracery on the outer walls (illustration 76) and stalactite-like ornaments over the doors or windows (illus- tration 77). The portal of the "Medresset et Tunguzieh," or College of the Emir Tunguz, which is situated at the very, end of David Street, at the eastern extremity of the more northerly of the two great causeways which in our Lord's Day crossed the Tyropceon, from the Temple-hill to Mount Zion, furnishes a very fine example of pendentive or stalactite ornamentation (illustration 78). This special building, which is now used as the "Mehkemeh," or court where the Cadi sits, occupies the site of the council chamber of the Sanhedrin, which was situated at the Temple gate called "Shallecheth" and also "Coponius." There were indeed other chambers where the great Jewish tribunal sat, within the Temple precincts, but as they seem to have been situated in those parts of the sacred enclosure which Gentiles were not allowed to tread, we may justly suppose that it was in the council chamber that stood where the Mehkemeh now is that St. Paul was brought under the protection of Roman sol- diers, and made the memorable defence of which we have an account in Acts xxiii. 95 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM Just outside, and close to the portal of the .Tunguzieh College, is a very handsome sixteenth century fountain, which, however, seems to have been constructed out of much older material, some of which appears to be mediaeval and some older. A picture of this fountain will be found on page 41 of the "Jewish Missionary Intelligence" for 1890. There is another on (74) Saracenic Building in David Street. page 28 of the same magazine for February, 1908. The archi- tectural rose ornament seen above the Arabic inscription of Solomon the Magnificent (A.D. 1520 60), probably at one time adorned some Crusading church, whilst the highly decorated trough was in all probability at one time a sarcophagus in some rock-hewn sepulchre of the Herodian period. There are several 96 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM such fountains in Jerusalem, both inside and outside the Temple- precincts, and though in general form they are similar, yet this one is by far the handsomest. The water which supplies these fountains comes all the way from Solomon's Pools, through a four-inch iron pipe which was laid a few years ago. Before that time the water came through an aqueduct, which was very (75) Another Saracenic Building. frequently out of repair, but which delivered the water through two branches, one supplying the northern part of the Haram and the other the southern, as the present pipe still does. A few yards to the east of this fountain is a curious and domed little structure, through which one could get to the 97 H WALKS ABOUT JERUSAL EM aqueduct whenever it needed repairs. When standing in the open space in front of the fountain we happen to be just about the famous "Wilson's Arch," as the first vaulted link in the great northernmost of the two causeways, which in our Lord's time joined the Temple-hill to Zion, is named. The (76) Arabesques on Saracenic Building. whole of this causeway still exists entire, but is so hidden by houses built upon it and also against its sides, that it is difficult to realize its existence. Forty years ago it was still possible to get under this ancient and gigantic bridge, but now it cannot be done because the local authorities had the access walled up. 98 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM To the west of Wilson's Arch the causeway is constructed of a series of remarkable vaults built alongside others, and in some cases over some at a lower level. They end in a noteworthy vaulted passage which was intended to facilitate the bringing of troops into the Temple enclosure from the great citadel near the Jaffa Gate, which is fully described in the publications of the Palestine Exploration Fund. There are, in fact, two ancient twin viaducts running side by side, and the combined widths of which exceed that of Wilson's Arch, of which they form the continuation, by 18 inches. "The southern of these twin via- ducts is broken in its continuity to the west by a large . . rectangular vaulted chamber of ancient construction, with a column or pedestal sticking up from the centre." I mention this curious chamber which General Sir Charles Warren calls "the Masonic Hall," from some circumstances connected with its discovery. Dr. Russell Forbes tries, in his work entitled "The Holy City Jerusalem," page 33, to identify this undoubtedly exceedingly remarkable apartment, with that in which (accord- ing to the account by Philostorgius (vii. 14) of the discovery of the Tomb of David, etc. during the reign of the Emperor Julian), there was found also at the same time, and lying upon a pedestal wrapped in a cloth, a manuscript of the Gospel of St. John. It is not the object of the writer of these "Walks" to enter into any controversy, but as he has been more than once questioned by tourists about this very matter, he must seize this opportunity to point out that Sir C. Warren, on whose staff he was employed when the chamber was discovered, did not "find an ancient sepulchre" situated underneath "the Masonic Hall"; for details concerning which I must refer the reader to the description given in the P.E.F. "Recovery of Jerusalem," pages 87 89. The present entrance to the Temple-area, standing at the eastern end of the causeway, occupies the site of an old Temple gate. We now retrace our steps in order to reach again the entrance to the street of stairs already mentioned, as leading down from the southern side of David Street into the Tyropceon and the different interesting spots there situated. 99 CHAPTER XV. JETRACING our steps as far as the portal of the Saracenic building, on the site of the Crusading Church of St. Giles, we turn to the left, and de- scend by a crooked and slippery street of stairs into the low-lying quarter of the town occupying the Tyropceon Valley south of David Street, and west of the Temple-area. This quarter of the city is popularly known as "Harat el Magharibeh, or street of the Western Arabs," because it is inhabited by Moslems whose fathers, if not they themselves, originally immigrated into the country from North Africa. They may easily be distinguished from others by the white burnoose, or hooded surplice-like cloak which they wear over their other garments. They are mostly tall, well-formed men, with spare wiry frames, and keen fierce-looking features. Many of them are the descendants of the refugees who came over from Algiers about the middle of last century, when the brave and chivalrous 'Abd el Kader with many of his gallant followers went into exile. The houses in this depression are all low, one-storied and poorly-built. The streets by which we reach the open space in front of the Jews' Wailing Place are very narrow and filthy. Crowds of Jewish and other beggars squat on the sides of the thoroughfare, and though many of them are blind and crippled, yet I cannot recommend the visitor to give any alms here, because one's doing so would be the signal for the whole swarm to beset and pester the good-natured philanthropist to such an extent that he will repent his ever having evinced a desire to help any. The Wailing Place has been so often described by others that it seems almost a waste of time to say much about it. In the lower part of the sixty feet high wall are several courses of great stones of the Herodian period in a fine state of preservation, and above them are several courses of large stones of later Roman work, with yet others of more recent date, higher up. Between these stones we notice growing at different heights, bushes of the caper-plant (capparis spinosa) which some people, on apparently insufficient grounds, have identified as "the hyssop 100 WALKS ABOUT J E R t/'S'A L'E'M which springeth out of the wall." As this is not the place to discuss this subject, I would refer such of my readers as may be interested in it, to Dr. Post's masterly article in Hastings' "Dictionary of the Bible." The total length of the Wailing Place is roughly speaking fifty feet, measuring from the southern wall (77) Stalactite Ornaments outside Windows. of the Mehkemeh, or Cadi's Tribunal-hall. The magnificent drafted Greek masonry of which the lower courses of the wall, as now visible, are formed, are attributed by universal consent amongst those who are authorities on such subjects, to Herod the Great. The courses, as will be seen (illustration 79) are about four feet high. 101 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM In the same wall, about thirty feet from the present southern end of the Wailing Place, and two hundred and seventy feet from the south-western angle of the Temple enclosure, there was visible till about twenty-five years ago, and inside one of the low houses, the enormous lintel of one of the four gates by which the Temple used to be approached from the west. The lintel itself was apparently first prominently brought into notice about the middle of last century, by Dr. Barclay, of the United States, in his "City of the Great King," and was thoroughly examined by Sir Charles Warren, whose account in the "Re- covery of Jerusalem," pp. no 117, I am using as reference. It is about 24 feet 8 inches long, and excavations reveal the fact that the gate itself, which still exists, buried in debris, is about 28 feet 9 inches high, measuring from the bottom of the lintel, to the top of the sill or threshold. During the excavations at this place, and at the time when the writer of these "Walks" was an interpreter on Sir Charles Warren's staff, "the Sanctuary wall was bared to a depth of 78 feet 6 inches from the bottom of the lintel" above men- tioned "to the rock." It was then discovered that the massive drafted masonry, of which only a few courses are now seen at the Wailing Place, reach right down to the rock. "There are twenty-six courses in all, twenty-two below the lintel, two on a level with the lintel, and two above it. These two latter courses do not now exist immediately above the lintel, but can be seen a little further to the north at the Wailing Place. Above these again, are four courses of squared stones, without drafts, except in a portion of the fourth and lower course, at the farther end, near the Hall of Justice, where drafts are to be seen." The great stones at the Wailing Place are, as the illustration shews, very much worn and damaged. In the crevices between them we notice a number of iron nails, which have been left there by Jews who, from superstitious motives, wished to leave as mementoes of their visit, "a nail in" God's "holy place" (Ezra ix. 8). Some of these nails are shewn in the illustration in the horizontal line just above the lowest course, and under the stone in front of which the first figure to the right is standing. Illustration 79 looks northward toward the Mehkemeh; and illustrations 80 and 81 are views from the windows of the same, which can be obtained only when the intervening trees (seen in illustration 79) are leafless. The little door in the background, in front of which a crowd of Jews is seen, gives admission to a garden enclosure, where the continuation of 102 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM the great wall is visible. This garden for some years past, has been opened by its owners, for a compensation, of course, to such Israelites as cannot find standing-room in the other open space, and are able and willing to pay for the use of a quiet corner. (78) Portal of Medresset et Tunguzieh. The great lintel is no longer visible, as, in order to discourage the visits of travellers, it has, for about twenty years past, been purposely covered over with plaster. It has, however, been identified inside the Temple-area, with "the upper part of a magnificent portal, the upper portion of which consists of a 103 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM single stone" above "20 feet long," still visible in the subter- ranean Mosque of El Borak, which is at present closed against Christian visitors, but has been, in former years, several times examined by the Palestine Exploration officers, and was rightly believed by Ali Bey, who discovered it in 1807 (just a century ago) to have been one of the gates of the Temple. ("Travels" vol. ii. p. 226, compared with the plan and explanation prefixed to vol. i., as referred to in Williams' "Holy City" ii../ 39). A great cistern, immediately east of this ancient gateway, and in continuation of the same, has been recognized by competent authorities as the ancient gate-passage belonging to this approach to the Sanctuary. The excavations above referred to also (79) The Jews' Wailing Place. shewed "that the road to this gate from the Tyropceon Valley may have been by means of a causeway, raised 46 feet above the rock. Whether it may have been solid or supported on arches is not apparent." On all days of the week Jews may be found at their devotions on this spot. It is, however, on Friday afternoons and the eves of fast or feast days, that they assemble here in great numbers. Here, bowed in the dust they may at least weep undisturbed over the fallen glory of their race; and bedew with their tears the soil which so many thousands of their forefathers once moistened with their blood. It is often said that this custom is a mere hypocritical formality; but this is a harsh judgment. 104 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM Though with many it may have become part of a trade to pray at this place for people in other parts of the world who send money to be prayed for, yet doubtless, in the case specially of newcomers or visitors to the Holy Land, the grief of the mourners is the result of genuine and heartfelt emotion. The custom is of ancient origin. After the futile insurrection under Bar Cochab had been suppressed in a deluge of blood, A.D. 135, the Jews were excluded from the city; and it was not till the fourth century that they were permitted to look upon (80) Wailing Place as seen from the Mehkemeh. Jerusalem from the neighbouring hills (Robinson's "Biblical Researches," i. 23). St. Jerome, commenting on Zephaniah i. 15, relates that in his day (A.D. 410) they were obliged to purchase from the Roman soldiers the privilege of visiting the city once a year, on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple (the gth of Ab), in order to wail over its ruins; and Benjamin of Tudela, who came to Jerusalem in the i2th century, mentions the custom. 105 CHAPTER XVI. HAVE succeeded in obtaining photographs of the Bab es Silsileh from the west (illustrations 82, 83 and 84), and add some remarks about this gateway. It is called Bab es Silsileh, or "Gate of the Chain," from the tradition that a "Melik en Namsa," or "King of the Austrians," was put to death here many centuries ago, by being hanged with a chain which was (81) Wailing Place from the Mehkemeh. long preserved in memory of the event, but which has now disappeared. However, leaving this worthless fable out of account, this Saracenic gateway, erected in the early part of the isth century, 106 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM and adorned with marble capitals and colonettes from Christian Churches, is noteworthy for several reasons. I have already remarked that in site it is, with great likelihood, believed to occupy the position where, at the eastern end of the great causewaj* terminating in Wilson's Arch, the ancient Temple Gateway "Shallecheth," or "Coponius," once stood. Besides this, it perpetuates what was a special feature of all the Temple gates, its being double. There were four such gates in the (82) Bab es Silsileh., western wall of the great enclosure, but though their exact positions are known, their remains are at present inaccessible to Christians; and so, before describing Robinson's Arch in the ancient "Millo," or "filled up," or "Causeway" quarter of the city (both renderings are equally correct and appropriate), it is inter- esting to note that in our Lord's time, and before that, it was always customary to use special respect and ceremonial observ- ance in approaching the Sanctuary. Thus one never, even 107 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM though residing in a higher quarter of the city than was the Temple-hill, spoke of "going down" but of "going up" to the Sanctuary. This usage may be traced back to the time of Israel's sojourn in the wilderness, when, though the .camp formed a great square with three tribes pitching their tents on each of the four sides having the Tabernacle in the centre of a great empty space ifi (83) Bab es Silsileh. the middle, and not, in a physical sense higher in level to the other tents, the dignity associated with the place as the abode of Deity caused the approach of His worshippers thereto to be thought of as an "ascent." Thus we read in Numbers xvi. 12, that when Moses "sent to call Dathan and Abiram" they said "We will not come up." This idea of the superiority in dignity of the Sanctuary should be borne in mind, as it supplies a key IQ8 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM to .several Scripture passages which would otherwise be, as indeed they have been, misunderstood. Further, it was a rule that "No one was to come to the Temple except for strictly religious purposes, either to make the Temple mound a place of thoroughfare, or to use it to shorten the road. Ordinarily the worshippers were to enter by the right and to withdraw by the left, avoiding both the direction and the gate by which they had come." Therefore, there would have been two different streams of people, each going in the opposite direction from the other through the right and left hand portals. "But mourn- ers, and those under ecclesiastical discipline, were to do the (84) Bab es Silsileh. reveise, so as to meet the stream of approaching worshippers, who might address to them either words of sympathy ('He who dwelleth in this house grant thee comfort'), or else of admonition ('He who dwelleth in this house put it into thy mind to give heed to those who would restore thee again')" (Edersheim, "The Temple," chap, iii.) In fact, the directions given by our Lord to His disciples, when He sent them forth without money in their purses, without scrip, staves, etc. (St. Matt.' x. 9 10; St. Mark vi. 8; St. Luke ix. 3) were, as is shewn clearly in Light- foot's "Temple Services," chap, x., identical with rules to be observed by worshippers approaching the Sanctuary, and the 109 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM lesson which would suggest itself to the disciples would natur- ally be that their missionary journey was to be carried out in the same spirit in which their prayers in the House of God ought to be. Before leaving this gateway, we notice the ancient paving- stones of the Roman period, seen just across the thresholds of the portals, and inside the Temple enclosure. There are about twenty, very much worn and exactly like similar paving- stones of the same period found in other parts of the city. Here they are specially interesting for two reasons, namely: first, our Lord's feet may have trod on this very pavement, (85) Robinson's Arch Restored. and, secondly, their being inside supplies a valuable indication as to the level of the outer Temple-court at this point. Leaving the Wailing Place, and passing through other narrow lanes, we reach an open space planted in part with cactus or prickly pear (Opuntia vulgaris), and partly used as gardens for the cultivation of gourds and cauliflowers. This spot, in New Testament times, was occupied by the Xystus, the southern of the two bridges leading across the Tyroposon from the Temple hill to the traditional Zion; and Herod's hippodrome. The remains of the first and last named of these structures are no WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM invisible, being probably hidden under the immense accumu- lation of rubbish which now fills up the valley. Of the bridge a remarkable relic survives in the so-called "Robinson's Arch," which is one of the most interesting remains of antiquity still extant, and for the discovery and identification of which we are indebted to the author of that standard work on Palestine, the "Biblical Researches"; who, in 1838, noticed in the western wall of the Temple-area, and at a distance of 39 feet from the south-west angle, three courses of huge stones projecting from the wall and forming the segment and spring of (86) View Looking North up the Tyropceon. an arch, the span of which when entire was, as shewn by Sir Charles Warren's excavations, "a trifle over 41 feet 6 inches." The distance from the wall across the valley to the precipitous side of Zion where the Palace of the Asmoneans once stood, on the eastern verge of the present Jewish quarter, was 350 feet, which was the approximate length of the ancient bridge. Il- lustration 85 shows the Asmonean Palace on the left, and the position of the Temple on the right. In the next illustration (86) is seen a view looking northward up the Tyropoeon valley at the present day, from the same point of view as that of the restored viaduct, and shewing, in the background, the modern buildings masking the northern and still extant causeway ending in Wilson's Arch. Illustration 84 is a view of the modern buildings on the site of the As- izi WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM monean Palace, and showing, amongst the rocks on which they are perched, the entrance to an ancient tunnel through which the aqueduct from the Pools of Solomon was led around the base of the traditional Zion to the Temple. The entrance to the said tunnel is the subject of illustration 88, whilst Robinson's Arch is shewn in illustration 89. For details con- cerning this stupendous specimen of ancient engineering I must refer the reader to the publications of the Palestine Exploration Fund. All authorities are pretty well agreed that the portion of the western wall of the Temple-area from Wilson's Arch to the S.W. angle, and the southern from the S.W. angle to the double gate, is of the Herodian period. The spring of Robinson's Arch, (87) Buildings on the Site of the Asmonean Palace. however, belongs possibly to an older structure. Already twenty years before Herod was made king we find the bridge definitely mentioned by Josephus ("Wars," i. 7, 2). During the siege by Pompey the adherents of Aristobulus are represented as re- treating from Zion into the Temple, and breaking down the bridge behind them. The same historian also tells us that the house of the Asmonean family was situated above the Xystus, opposite the Temple, and where a bridge connected the Temple with the Xystus. ("Wars," ii. 16). The said bridge was, later on, rebuilt by Herod, for in another passage of the same history we are told of Titus standing on the western side of the outer court of the Temple, there being a gate in that quarter 112 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM beyond the Xystus, and a bridge which connected the upper town with the Temple. ("Wars," v'i. 6, 2). It seems certain, therefore, that we have here the remains of the structure so often and so clearly described by the historian. Sir Charles Warren's excavations consisted of a series of shafts and mining galleries, sunk in a line across the valley from west to east in order to determine, in the first place, the line of the original rock or valley-bed, and next, in order if possible, to discover remains of the bridge. The enterprise (88) Entrance to the Tunnel. was successful. Not only the remains of a colonnade which probably had formed part of the Xystus, but also the pier of the great arch, and of another further west, were found. "Stretching from the base of the great pier to the sanctuary wall is a pave- ment, falling slightly to the east, and on this were found the fallen arch-stones and debris of Robinson's Arch." Twenty-three feet below the pavement there was found rock, "and following it up to east," two fallen voussoirs, or arch-stones, of a yet older bridge than Robinson's Arch, "jammed in over a great WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM rock-cut canal running from north to south, 12 feet deep, and 4 feet wide .... which had probably been in use before the sanctuary wall at this point had been built. .... The bottom (89) Robinson's Arch as at Present. of this canal is 74 feet below the spring of Robinson's Arch, and 107 feet below the level of the old roadway." (See "Recovery of Jerusalem," pp. 94 in). The width of the viaduct was 50 feet. 114 CHAPTER XVII. |N the same way that a geologist is able, by the study of the section of a quarry, to draw inferences as to the history of the earth's crust, so in like manner it is possible from a study of the different kinds of masonry lying over or- beside each other in different parts of the walls of the city, or of the Temple-area, to tell the dates of various parts of those structures and obtain (90) Masonry of Various Periods. other valuable results. Here, for instance, at Robinson's Arch, and the south-western angle of the Temple enclosure, we have several sorts of masonry contiguous to each other. In illus- tration 90 we have some of these. In the lower left-hand corner, behind the leafless branches of a tree, are the upper stones of Robinson's Arch-spring, twenty-five feet long, of Herodian times, and possibly earlier. Next above it, on the right, is early Arab masonry, over which come the bossed stones of the Templars* buildings, whilst to the left again, and over the great Arch- spiing, we have the small and insignificant stones of the early "5 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM part of last century. Round the corner, at the south-western angle, the masonry is different from any of these, and consists of massive cubical stones, measuring about three or four feet, in length and breadth, built to a considerable height, each course receding backward an inch or so, in pyramid-fashion, and dating apparently to late Roman or Byzantine times. They reach from the south-western angle as far as the heap of ruins, just south of the Mosque el Aksa, seen to the right of illustration 91, and all along and above them stretch the Templars' buildings referred to above, and hiving a row of large windows. The depth of rubbish in this part of the city is very great. (91) South Wall of Temple Enclosure. Just underneath the third window, counting to the right from the south-western angle it has been found to be ninety feet. Below the present surface the great Herodian stones stretch in complete courses from the south-western angle eastward as far as the Double Gate, underneath the Aksa; and northward as far as Wilson's Arch. As they quite differ from the more ancient masonry which is found to the east of the Double Gate, and as far as the south-eastern angle of the Haram enclosure, and also from that to the north of Wilson's Arch, it is clear that they are of later date. The excavations and investigations have proved that, though the portion indicated, i.e., from Wilson's Arch 116 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM northward to the corner, and thence to the Double Gate, is Herodian, and was built across the Tyropceon at this point, yet that during the period between the death of Solomon, B.C. 976, and up to the commencement of the Herodian period, B.C. 17, it was not included within the Temple precincts. The presence of the two great viaducts, and the enormous amount of debris found here, could not be more suitably described than by the name "Millo," which has been rendered into English by "The filling up," or "The causeway," which at the present day extends southward as far as the southern city wall east of the Dung Gate, and eastward from the foot of Zion to the city wall, bounding the open space called Hakurat el Khatuniyeh on the (92) A View of Millo. east. If illustrations 92 and 93 be taken together they form a panorama which includes the whole of this part of the city, and embraces, on the left of illustration 92, the part from the minaret above Bab es Silsileh as far as Robinson's Arch. In illustration 93 is the remainder from the latter point to the south-eastern corner of the "Hakurat." The former view is looking toward the Dome of the Rock, and the latter toward Olivet, whilst illustration 94, is taken from the same point, viz., the brow of Zion, looking over the southern city wall, with its crenellations on top and narrow walks along its inside, and over the roof of the small white tower at the Dung Gate (where a figure is seen stooping and looking over the battle- 117 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM ments), toward Siloam and the Mount of Corruption with a Benedictine monastery on its top. The large illustration (95) is a view of 'the present south wall of the city and of Millo, shewing its relation to the Mosque el Aksa and the southern wall of the Temple enclosure outside the city. The huge stones seen in the lower courses of the south "Millo" wall are old material re-used one of them, which is only half-dressed, and has a boss bulging from it (illustration 96), is called "Hajar el Hublah," or "stone of the pregnant one." A similar legend is also told concerning the famous great stone in the quarry at Baalbek, that during the time for forty (93) Another View of Millo. years after Solomon's death, the Jan, unaware of his decease, were toiling upon the construction of his stupendous buildings, and a female Jin was at work on this stone when news came of the King's death, and so she left off work and her task remained unfinished. .Another legend is that the stone here shewn was placed in position by the Virgin some time before she gave birth to our Saviour. In the outer angle formed by the eastern wall of the Hakurat el Khatuniyeh, the excavations carried on by Dr. Bliss in 1897 revealed the existence of very ancient rock-cut dwellings (see Palestine Exploration Fund "Quarterly Statement" for that year, page 267). These have been covered up again, but similar ones have been found on the eastern slope of Zion, within the space once included in the City of David, and may 118 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM have been used by the ancient Jebusites. I am able, thanks to Mr. G. E. Franklin, who kindly lent me his negatives of these ancient remains, to give illustrations 97 and 98, which are views of the entrances to some of them. Illustration 99 is a view taken just outside the Dung Gate, by which we now leave the city for a while, looking downward toward Siloam. The grove of olive trees in the dark foreground is on the ridge of Ophel, and marks the place where, according to a learned and strange theory, about twenty years old, but upheld by many scholars, Zion, the City of David, once stood. Let me state their arguments briefly but fairly, as well as the objections to the same. (94) View fro.m the Brow of Zion. -' . ' .;## 1. Zion was an important fortress, and therefore must have been close to the Gihon spring, the only perennial fountain in the neighbourhood. A fortress must have a good water-supply. 2. Most authorities are agreed in identifying the present "Vir- gin's Fount," at the eastern foot of Ophel with Gihon, and the famous subterranean tunnel from the "Virgin's Fount" to the Pool of Siloam with "the conduit" made by Hezekiah when he "stopped the upper spring of the waters (R.V.) and brought them straight down on the west side of the City of David" (2 Chron. xxxii. 30).- As Gihon (Virgin's Fount) is east of Ophel, and the Pool of Siloam on the west of the ridge, it follows conclusively that "the City of David" must have been situated on Ophel. 119 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM 3. Whenever we read of the Kings of Judah going to the Temple, they are always spoken of as "going up" to the sanctuary. Thus Solomon "brought up" the ark. As Ophel was the only hill-top lower than Moriah, it follows that the city of David must have been on Ophel. In answer to these arguments, which at first sight seem very plausible and even strong, there are the following objections: i. Zion was not near the water. It had no fountain to supply it. The name itself means "Waterless." Like several other (95) South Wall of the City and Millo. strongholds in Palestine, the castles at Banias, Kula'at el Eshkif, Rabbath Ammon, etc., the citadel was on a high hill somewhat distant from the spring. It depended for its principal water- supply on the ancient rock-hewn cisterns with which the site of the traditional Zion is still honeycombed. A few years ago such an ancient Jebusite cistern was quite unexpectedly dis- covered at the London Jews' Society's boys' school, close to Christ Church. It had been hidden for centuries under a depth of forty feet of rubbish. It seems absurd to argue that a place named "the Waterless," should be close to a fountain. 120 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM 2. As regards the argument founded on 2 Chron. xxxii. 30, there is no doubt whatever that the passage is vague and ambiguous, and that the words, which in both the authorised and Revised Versions are rendered "the west side of the city of David," may, as is pointed out in the article on "Jerusalem," in Hastings' "Dictionary of the Bible," be equally well translated, "straight down westwards to the City of David," and this would strengthen instead of weaken the claims of the south-western hill or the traditional Zion. It is clear, therefore, that no conclusive argument can be built on this passage. 3. That the post-Davidic Kings should be said "to go up" (96) "Hajar el Hablah" in South- Wall. whenever they went to the Temple is natural, because, as is generally allowed, the palace was south of the sanctuary, and lower than it, in the space between the Double Gate and the south-eastern angle of the present Haram enclosure, somewhere near where the celebrated vaults called "Solomon's Stables" now are. But when Solomon "brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion," to the Temple, which actually stood on lower ground, we must remember what has already been said in our notes on Bab es Silsileh, about the use of the expression "going up" as a term of dignity for the approach to the House of God 121 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM Thus all the chief arguments in favour of the Ophel site for Zioii are answered, and others might be adduced which favour the traditional site. (97) Entrances to Rock Dwellings. (98) Entrances to Rock Dwellings. 122 CHAPTER XVIII. |ROM the Dung Gate a road leads southward down the western side of the Tyropceon Valley, outside the city walls, to the Pool of Siloam. The top of the minaret (illustration 100), close to the pool, is in full view from the point where the above- mentioned road is crossed by another coming down along the city wall from the Zion Gate, situated one hundred and forty feet above us, and fifteen hundred distant to the west. (99) View from the Modern Dung Gate. Beyond the minaret, we notice the large enclosure at the mouth of the Tyropceon, marking the lower pool of Siloam, commonly called Birket el Hamra. The wall of the city in the time of the Jewish kings ran along the top of the massive buttressed dam, closing the valley mouth on the eastern side of this pool. The mulberry-tree as tradition pretends, growing on the spot where Isaiah met with his death, by being sawn asunder by command of Manasseh stands on a stone platform at the S.E. angle of 123 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM the pool. The Mount of Corruption, with the houses of the Yemenite settlement at Siloam clinging to its steep sides; and beyond, the Ke^dron valley winding away amongst the hills to the S.E. toward the ancient desert monasteries of St. Theo- dosius (Deir Ed Doseh) and Mar Saba, close in the landscape. We turn to the left and follow the road leading eastward for about five hundred feet along the city wall, which here forms (100) Pool of Siloam. the (Southern rampart of the Millo quarter. This wall now turns northward, for two hundred feet to the spot where, some thirty years ago, might have been noticed traces of a walled-up gateway of Crusading times, and called, from its being first observed by a traveller of that name, "Richardson's Gate." When this part of the wall was rebuilt, all exterior traces of this gateway disappeared, but the great passage-way, with lofty 124 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM groined roof, still exists inside the town underneath the old ruins, already mentioned as having been part of the Templars' buildings south of the Aksa, and at the north-eastern corner of the present Hakurat el Khatuniyeh. A few steps further east, we round two more corners and reach the spot where the city wall abuts on to the southern wall of the Temple en- closure, running up against the ancient gate-post between the (101) Head of Statue of Hadrian. closed portals of the western Huldah or double gateway. Only part of the eastern part of the gate is visible from without, as a great heap of debris is piled against it in the corner. Just above the lintel (under which is another archway with carvings, supposed to be of the time of Julian the Apostate, A.D. 363), we notice a stone with some letters on it. They stand on their heads and belong to the well-known inscription which is con- 125 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM jectured to have formed part of the pedestal of the statue of Hadrian, that was seen both by the Bordeaux pilgrim (A.D. 333) and St. Jerome (A.D. 410), standing close to another of Jupiter of the Capitol, and on the site of the Holy of Holies (Hierony- mus "Comment, ad Isaiae"), "Hadriani statua et Jovis idolum collocatum est." The inscription reads TITO AEL HADRIANO ANTONINO. AVG PIO, PP. PONTIF AUGVR D.D. "To Titus Aelius Hadrianus, Antoninus Augustus Pius, Father of the Fatherland, Pontiff, Augur, decreed by the Senate." Illus- tration IOT shews a magnificent marble head which belonged to a life-size statue, supposed to be the very image of Hadrian in question. This interesting relic was discovered in 1873, and came into the possession of a now deceased acquaintance, a Russian ecclesiastic sometime resident at Jerusalem. It is now supposed to be at Sst. Petersburg. Leaving this fascinating spot we proceed eastward for about two hundred feet and reach the eastern Huldah Gate, also walled up. Stretching between it and the Double Gate we notice the famous string course of massive stones, each six feet high, double that of the other ancient stones. It extends, with inter- ruptions, beyond the eastern Huldah to the end of the south wall of the Temple enclosure, and it has been discovered that the architects who laid it must have been men of great technical skill. When the Temple wall along this side was free from the debris which have since accumulated against it, this gigantic course passed from end to end for 600 feet, touching, near its centre, the crest of the hill which sloped downward, eastward and westward. Had the great course been laid perfectly level, it would, by an optical illusion, due to its contiguity to the curve of the hill, have appeared bent downward at either end. In order to obviate this, the ancient master builders actually laid the course with a slight upward curve sufficient to correct the error. The huge corner-stone at the end of this course, seen at the south-eastern angle of the Haram area, used in mediaeval times to be pointed out as that referred to in Psalm cxviii. 22, and alluded to by our Lord in St. Matt. xxi. 42, as "the stone which 126 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM the builders refused." It is clearly seen in illustration 102, being the third course above the head of the standing figure. The great stones in this picture tower above the ground to the (102) Ancient Masonry at S.E. Angle of Temple. height of 75 feet, their limit upward being marked by the pro- jection seen near the upper right hand corner. The eastern Huldah Gate was originally a double gate like the western, but was altered in the late Roman period and turned into a triple gateway, with three parallel passages leading toward the upper 127 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM levels (illustration 103). Yet further east we reach "the Single Gate," a Crusading one (illustration 104), which, when open, gave access to the remarkable subterranean vaults, popularly called "Solomon's Stables" (illustration 105), which exist at this point just inside the angle formed by the southern and eastern walls of the Temple-area. These were substructions intended to support the great platform at this point, and were called "Sol- omon's Stables," because the Templars used to keep their animals here. As we wander through the forest of square (103) Triple, or Eastern Huldah Gate. columns, we notice that many of them are perforated at the corners, in order to receive "tether ropes." Here and there are remains of mangers. It is not unlikely that the royal stables during the period of the Jewish monarchy may have been here- abouts, though at a lower level. During his excavations, Sir Charles Warren discovered, about twenty feet below the sill of the Single Gate a passage running at a lower level, between the piers which support the vaults above. It is built of magnificently dressed stones, and was traced northward for sixty feet. 128 CHAPTER XIX. |N one corner of the present substructions may still be seen remains of the original underground Herodian vaults, whilst in the south-eastern angle there exist the lower courses of a great tower which stood at this spot, and the top of which is identified witb "the pinnacle of the Temple" on which our Lord was placed by the Tempter (St. Matt. iv. 5), and also, and by a very ancient tradition, with that from which St. James the Less was (104) Single Gate near S.E. Angle. cast by his persecutors. Not being killed by the fall, a fuller, who was amongst them, struck him on the head with his club and thus put an end to his sufferings. It is a remarkable fact, that scarcely one hundred yards from this spot, and two hundred feet south of the Triple Gate, a cave filled up with fuller's vats was discovered during Sir C. Warren's excavations. As we wander about amongst the many dim, mysterious and deserted aisles grouped side by side inside the south-eastern angle, we notice that materials from other buildings have been freely used 129 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM for repairs. In one place is a stone richly carved with the classic egg and dart pattern; in another, the huge lintel of an ancient gateway set on end, and furnished with sockets for bolts, serves to form part of a restored pier ; whilst in an obscure corner is a Herodian fragment elaborately ornamented with vine leaves, grapes, and trellis work, like that on the ceiling of the vestibule of the Double Gate, and evidently a relic of the Temple of our Lord's time. It is well known that underground passages and great cisterns exist in different parts of this old world souterrain, but we must not weary the reader by trying to describe them. Passing the Single Gate, we come to the south-eastefrn corner of the Temple enclosure, about one hundred feet I (105) Solomon's Stables. distant (illustration 104). The depth of debris at this point, however, has been ascertained to be fully 80 feet, and the grand old masonry reaches all the way down, founded on the rock. There still exists therefore at this place a portion one hundred and fifty feet high of the ancient structure. The foundation stone is let into the rock. It was on the stones of the lower courses that in 1868 were found old Phoenician mason-marks, some cut into the stone and others painted on it, the discovery of which roused such great interest at the time. Starting from this south-eastern angle and running southward was discovered the great Wall of Ophel, fortified with towers and erected by the ancient kings of Judah. Somewhere here was probably the "Horse Gate" of ancient Jerusalem. 130 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM Illustration 106 is a view of the eastern side of the ancient wall, as one looks northward on turning the south-eastern angle. In the distance, on the sky line, is seen the projecting column upon which, according to popular Moslem eschatology, Moham- med will sit on the Day of Judgment. For the grotesque details connected with this belief see "Tales told in Palestine" (Jennings and Graham, New York) page 136. As a matter of historical (106) Looking towards Mohammed's Judgment Seat. fact I may, however, mention that three or four hundred years ago when Jerusalem was taken by a Mahdi, who had arisen amongst the Bedouin east of the Jordan, the leader of the Arabs took his seat upon this column, and intended to rehearse for the edification of his followers what would happen at the Day of Judgment, when he became giddy, as well he might, and falling headlong, perished. "Mohammed's Seat" is not the only column built into the eastern wall of the Temple enclosure. WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM In our Lord's time, open colonnades ran all along the sides on the edge of the outer court, and as we walk along, we notice many of them of porphyry and other beautifully coloured stones built in with their ends protruding, as shewn in illustration 107, where we see the ends of single columns here and there, and in one place a whole row of them above a group of sepulchral monuments marking the graves of well-to-do Moslem towns- people. The characteristic mark of such tombs is a cenotaph with two short upright columns fixed at either end. and little stone-basins of water for the use of passing birds, and also of the departed. I have as yet not been able to get any satisfactory (107) Ends of Columns and Moslem Tombs. explanation of the symbolical significance of the two upright columns. The graves of the poor fellahin of Siloam are marked by a simple circle of stones, on which in many cases (illustration 108) grows a century-plant or giant aloe (agave Americana). The use of this plant is decidedly symbolical. In sound, its name "sebr" is exactly similar to that of the Arabic word for "patience." It is therefore the dumb expression of the patient and hopeless resignation of the humble Moslem to the inexorable fate decreed by Allah. Moslems believe in the Resur- rection, but I have not found that the tardy blooming of this remarkable plant several decades after it has been planted, is in any way connected with thoughts suggestive of a hope after 132 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM death, such as those to which a Christian mind is awakened by the sight of Olivet in full view, a thousand feet distant, across the Kedron and beyond Gethsemane. We are now approaching the Golden Gate. This is so well known that I need not say much about it. It is a late Byzantine structure, on the site of a more ancient gateway, possibly that called "Miphkad" (Nehemiah iii. 31). Illustration 109 shews (108) A Century-Plant on a Tomb. its interior. Just before reaching this spot we notice a little closed Crusading postern in the wall (illustration no). A cross painted in the centre of a circle of rays on the face of the mediaeval lintel has survived the weather of eight cen- turies, and all efforts of the Moslem to deface it. It is just distinguishable in the photograph. "The bust of Queen Victoria," seen on the large stone in the second course on the right, is simply a freak caused by special conditions of light on 133 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM the weather-worn surface. It is therefore not always distinguish- able. A closed-up entrance on the eastern side leads one to conclude that there must be other chambers and vaults in the (109) Interior of the Golden Gate. south-eastern angle of the Temple-area, and at a considerably lower level than that of "Solomon's Stables." Possibly the original stables may still exist there. 134 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM It is generally acknowledged by competent authorities that the space just inside, and along the southern wall from the Double Gate to the south-eastern angle, was at first occupied by the palatial structures of the successor of David, and the kings following him, the south wall west of the Double Gate being Herodian. In New Testament times, the substructions now called "Solomon's Stables," which bear evident traces of reno- vation, alteration and repair at subsequent periods, supported (no) Crusading Postern in the Wall. the great platform, on which from east to west for a length of 922 feet extended the great Royal Cloister of Herod, with its three aisles, the middle one broader and loftier, cathedral-like, their roofs upborne by four rows of great columns, 162 in number (Josephus' "Antiquities," Bk. xv. chap. xi. 5). '35 CHAPTER XX. IHE Golden Gate is a late Roman or Byzantine structure, concerning the exact date of which there is still a great deal of uncertainty, for whilst some authorities are inclined to attribute it to the age of Hadrian (Robinson's "Biblical Researches," i. p. 296), others think it a work of Constantine, who, however, does not seem to have built within the Temple-area, (in) Ancient Fountain at Jerusalem. in which, as late as the time of St. Jerome (died A.D. 410), there were still standing the equestrian statue of Hadrian and an image of Jupiter.* Others, again, attribute the Golden Gate- way to the time of Justinian (e.g., Professor Hayter Lewis, * Hieronymus Comment, in Esiam ii. 8, "Ubi quondam erat templum et religio Dei, ibi Hadriani statua et Jovis idolum collocatum est." Also Comment, in Matt. xxi. 15, "de Hadriani ecjuestri statua, qua? in ipso Sancto Sanctorum loco usque in presentem diem stetit." "Where formerly was the temple and religion of God, there the statue of Hadrian and the idol of Jupiter is placed." "Of Hadrian's equestrian statue, which to the present day stands on the very site of the Holy of Holies." 136 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM in his "Holy Places of Jerusalem"), possibly overlooking the fact that the Persians and Jews who took and sacked Jeru- salem in A.D. 614 are not likely to have spared a building like this. Whatever the exact date may be, however, it cannot be later than the Moslem occupation, A.D. 637, and therefore we may suppose that it was rebuilt by orders of Heraclius. He entered Jerusalem in triumph by this gateway eight years previously, in 629, when he visited the city bearing upon his shoulders the so-called "wood of the true Cross" which he had recovered from the Persians. This supposition re- ceives colour from a curious mediaeval tradition current in 1 102, and preserved by Saewulf. "By this gate the emperor Heraclius entered Jerusalem when he returned victorious from Persia, with the cross of our Lord; but the stones first fell down and closed up the passage, so that the gate became one mass, until humbling himself at the admonition of an angel, he descended from his horse, and so the entrance was opened unto him." (Bohn's "Early Travels in Palestine," p. 40.*) Now, as the buildings of Justinian were erected about A.D. 527, and the pilgrim Antoninus of Placentia, who came to Jerusalem about forty years later, found "what was once the beautiful Gate," in ruins with the "threshold and posts still standing"f (Palestine Pilgrim Text Society's translation of Antoninus Martyr, p. 15) it is difficult to believe the present structure to have been built by Justinian. On the other hand, the great monoliths inside the gateway, forming respectively the northernmost and southernmost jambs, are of great antiquity, and probably "the posts" noticed by Antoninus. They appear to have belonged originally to an * This visit of Heraclius brought about a dreadful massacre of the Jews. They had helped the Persians to sack the Holy City and destroy the Christian churches, but when Heraclius "came to Tiberias the Jews who dwelt ... in that country, came out to meet him, bearing presents, wishing him good luck, and begging him to grant them security, which he promised, and set his seal to a written covenant with them. The monks and people at Jerusalem told him how the Jews had sided with the Per- sians." . . . and said "Do us a favour and put away all the Jews." . . . Hera- clius answered, "How can I suffer them to be slain when I have already granted them security and have sealed a written covenant with them to that end ? Unless I uphold this covenant I shall be thought by all men to be a liar, a cheat, and a man unworthy to be trusted, besides the great sin and wickedness whereof I should be guilty before our Lord Christ." . . . They answered, "The Lord Christ knoweth that their slaughter will be to thee for a remission of sins, and for an atonement for thy offences . . . and we will take this sin from thee upon ourselves, and will atone for it for thee, begging our Lord Jesus Christ not to lay it to your charge. Moreover, in the week wherein eggs and cheese are eaten that is, the week before the great fast we proclaim a complete fast, . . . with abstinence from eggs and cheese as long as the Christian religion shall endure . . . abstaining from all flesh and fat ... that it may be an atonement for that which you have granted to us." So Heraclius consented to them in this matter, and slew countless numbers of the Jews. (Eutychii .Annales, Pilg. Text Soc. version, pp. 4749). The above is an historical association too often forgotten. t "Pprtam civitatis (quae cohaeret portae speciosae, quse fuit Templi, cujus liminare et tribulatio stant) ingressi sumus in sanctam civitatem." Antoninus Martyr Ugolini Thes- aurus, tome vii. p. mccxiii. 137 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM ancient Jewish Temple Gate at this point, which is about 1020 feet north of the S.E. angle and, as seems likely, marks the N..W. angle of the Temple-area in pre-Christian times. Here probably stood the "Gate Miphkad" (Neh. iii. 31). The name "Golden Gate" is the result of two mistakes, viz: first, the supposition that this richly decorated Byzantine portal must have been the "Beautiful Gate" mentioned in Acts iii. 2 and 10. Secondly, the change of the Greek word "Horaia," meaning "beautiful," into the Latin "Aurea," meaning "golden." In Crusading times, as we learn from the "Norman Chron- icles," this gate was opened only on two occasions every year, (112) The Golden Gate from the East. namely on Palm Sunday, and on the feast of the Holy Cross in September, in commemoration of the visit of Heraclius. On both these occasions religious processions passed into the city this way. The Gate of Jehoshaphat, now called St. Stephen's, served as an eastern outlet from the city at other times. We noticed in the last chapter the little postern a short dis- tance south of the Golden Gate. There was also another little postern, a good deal further south. It has been examined by the P.E.F. officers and is described in the "Quarterly Statement" for 1882, p. 169, but is now difficult to identify, as a great quantity 138 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM of rubbish was thrown against it after that date, so that now scarcely anything but the lintel is visible. With regard to the familiar "dragoman-tale" that the Moham- medans keep the Golden Gate walled up, because they fear, if left open, the Christians will take the city, I would remark that it does not seem to be of earlier date than the fifteenth century. Inside the gate chamber, on the south wall, between (113) The Golden Gate from the West. the two pilasters, and at the height of about three feet from the ground, the writer recently noticed traces of ancient square Hebrew lettering, which seem to have hitherto escaped ob- servation. We have already given a view of the interior of the Golden Gate, and now give two illustrations (112 and 113) of the outside, the smaller one being from a photograph taken by Miss Blyth. 139 CHAPTER XXI. JEAVING the walled-up "Golden Gateway," we pro- ceed northward. The road still passes through the great Moslem cemetery, which stretches along the whole eastern side of the city as far as its north- eastern angle. The only break is where the road to Gethsemane and Olivet leaves the St. Stephen's Gate. On Thursdays especially the burial-ground is much frequented by the Mohammedan women, who come to visit their dead, and to tell them (whom they, by a flight of imagin- ation truly Oriental, believe capable of hearing all that is said to (114) Herodian Tower, with Large Stones. them, and of taking an interest in domestic matters) all that has happened in their families since the last visit. As the writer has frequent occasion to pass this way, he has often had oppor- tunities of overhearing some sorrowing peasant mother or sister telling the deceased "how the brother or cousin has been taken as a conscript; and the tax-gatherer has seized more than his due; or the black ox has died of the cattle-plague." Moslem townswomen are often accompanied by some blind sheikh whom they pay for reciting passages from the Koran for the edification of the souls of the departed. They also generally 140 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM bring with them bunches of flowers, which they leave on the graves or tombstones. This custom originated, as the writer has been informed by a very learned Moslem, in the following manner: A certain Moslem of wicked life having died could not find rest in his tomb, but, as was evident to passers-by, from the groans that proceeded from the grave, was undergoing great torments. Being at a loss what to do for the departed soul, his relatives asked the prophet's advice, and his counsel was that Scripture should be read by the graveside, and flowers laid on the tomb. Unless told so, nobody proceeding along the eastern city wall from the Golden Gate toward that of St. Stephen would ^^ (115) Open Space by the Wall. dream that he was crossing a deep but now filled-up valley; yet such is undoubtedly the case, for the excavations carried on here forty years ago by Sir Charles Warren, have proved that whilst there are from 30 to 40 feet of debris just outside the Golden Gate, there are 125 feet of debris at a point 260 feet further north. From this point the rock rises, till, at the southern end of the great tower at the north-eastern corner of the Temple-area, the depth of rubbish is no feet, and at St. Stephen's Gate there are 20 feet of debris between the present surface and the rock. In illustration 114 is the great Herodian Tower 141 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM at the north-eastern corner of the Temple-area, clearly shewing the immense stones (one of which is twenty-one feet long) still visible above ground up to a height of about thirty feet, to which we must, with our mind's eye, add the no feet now covered up at this point, or the 125 feet to the now effaced valley-bed above referred to. Instead of continuing our walk to the north-eastern angle of the city, along the rock-cut trenches of Saladin, which join on to those on the north wall of the city, we re-enter the town by the well-known St. Stephen's Gate (illustration (116) St. Stephen's Gate. 116), called by the Jews "the Lion Gate," because of rude sculptures that adorn it. For the legends connected with this gate I must refer the reader to "Tales told in Palestine," p. 19, or to "Folk-Lore of the Holy Land," p. 94, et.seq. (London: Duckworth & Co.) Right before us, leading westward, is the great street ending in the Via Dolorosa, whilst on the left is an open space (illustration 115) between the city wall and the huge pool called "Birket Israil," which is now being rapidly filled up with rubbish. This, in our Lord's time, formed one of the strongest defences of the Temple precincts on the north, and till about forty years ago, when the now famous twin- 142 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM pool, close to St. Anne's Church, was re-discovered, it used to be shewn to tourists as the "Pool of Bethesda." Illus- tration 115 shews the open space just referred to, with the highest visible courses of Herodian work at the north-eastern angle, and on the left, "Bab el Asbat," a name given to the approach to the Temple-area at this point. We continue our walk westward, and almost immediately notice on our right the entrance to the grounds of the recently restored Crusading Abbey Church of St. Anne, occupying the site, according to a tradition dating from the fourth century, of (117) Church of St. Anne and Seminary. the dwelling of the parents of the Virgin Mary (illustration 117). Foolish as the legend seems, it has a very interesting origin. We have on a former occasion visited the interesting Biblical museum of St. Anne ("Jewish Missionary Intelligence," 1903, p. 94), where are other things to be noticed on the spot, for example, a stone weight, one talent (illustration 118). 143 CHAPTER XXII. HE legend about the Church of St. Anne can be traced back to the fourth century. It originated in the same way as the name "Golden Gate," which was given to the structure so-called, in the misunder- standing of an older title in a different language. Such mistakes are very common, and fruitful sources of mediaeval traditions and legends. We shall meet with yet an- other such instance when we come to the traditional "House of (118) A Stone Weight in the Museum. Veronica," in the Via Dolorosa. In order to explain that of St. Anne's Church we must turn to the narrative (St. John v. i 18), telling of the healing of the impotent man, at the pool called in Hebrew "Bethesda" (Bethsaida, or Bethzatha), "having five porches and close to the sheep gate or market." This sheep gate 144 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM was north of the Temple; and besides the great pool "Birket Israil," noticed in the last chapter, there existed, in the fourth century, a very remarkable twin-pool, that is, two pools lying side by side and surrounded by cloisters or colonnades on the four sides, whilst a fifth, making five porches, came be- tween the two pools, and staircases led down to the water. (119) The Eastern Subterranean Twin-Pool. This pool is in the same valley which, as has been previously shewn, rises east of Jeremiah's grotto hillock, and opens into the valley of Jehoshaphat, at a point between the N.E. corner of the Temple-area and the Golden Gateway. Peter of Sebaste (A.D. 381), mentions a church in the same place. Other writers 145 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM of mediaeval times speak of the twin-pools as the Piscina Interior. As time passed on, the fourth century church was probably destroyed by the Persians (A.D. 614), and, as the heaps of debris around had encroached upon, and partly filled (120) Old Crypt in Church of St. Maria. up the rock-cut pools, it became necessary in the Crusading period to shorten the latter and roof them over. In order, however, to preserve the memorial of the five porches, a church, "St. Maria in Probatica," was erected over one of the reduced pools, and the crypt of this church was divided into 146 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM five transverse sections, to represent the porches. This church was in its turn destroyed, and its very existence, as well as that of the twin-pools, forgotten, till they were re-discovered forty years ago, during excavations conducted by the French at the time that the adjacent church of St. Anne, which had been given to the Emperor Napoleon III. after the Crimean (121) Another View of the Crypt. War,* was being restored. "The Sanctuary of the House of St. Anne," says Professor Clermont Ganneau, in his "Archaeo- logical Researches," vol. i. p. 119, "built upon the actual site of Bethesda, has for its origin a play upon the words 'Beth- esda' and 'Beth Hanna,' both of which mean 'House of Grace.' The legend guarantees the exactitude of the Gospel tradition and fixes its exact locality. We have a decisive material proof * It had, according to Hunter's "History of the War in Syria," a book which I now have no access to, been offered to England after the bombardment of Acre, in 1840, but refused. 147 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM of this, in the marble foot, discovered at St. Anne's itself, and bearing .... an 'ex voto' in Greek, of 'Pompeia Lucilia, in gratitude for her cure at the Sheep Pool.' " On the other hand several scholars, following the sugges- tions of Dr. Robinson ("Biblical Researches," vol. i* 342), are (122) The Church of St. Anne. inclined to identify the Pool of Bethesda with the Virgin's Fount (the ancient Gihon spring) in the Kedron and close to Siloam, the reason being that they think that the intermittent flow of the latter, due probably to the action of a natural syphon, may have been the troubling of the water alluded to 148 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM by St. John. No such phenomenon has as yet been noticed in the waters of the re-discovered twin-pools. The interior of the eastern of these, both of which are now underground, is seen in illustration 119. It will be noticed that the three rectangular masonry piers on the right stand on the fragments of more ancient and massive circular columns. (123) Interior of St. Anne's Church. The wall on the left-hand side is rock, that on the right, as well as that in the background, masonry. In illustration 120 is seen a view taken in the ruined crypt of the church of St. Maria in Probatica, and looking west- ward. The door-way seen in the background, gives access to the western of the twin-pools, and the railing on the left, between two of the transverse arches which divided up the 149 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM crypt into five parts, as above stated, is to keep visitors from approaching, and damaging by their touch, the remains of an interesting i2th century fresco-painting on plaster, repre- senting the angel troubling the water. Another view, taken from the same spot, is given in illus- tration 121, but looking in the contrary direction. It shews a person descending the staircase leading down into the pool (illustration 119), and above, in the back-ground, the remains of the semicircular apse of St. Maria in Probatica. In illustration 122 is a front view of the extremely interesting and typical Crusading church of St. Anne, which is situated about thirty yards S.E. of the pools and ruins above mentioned and illustrated. Just over the doorway in the arched portal, and behind the coat of arms, there still exists the Arabic inscrip- tion recording the fact that Saladin turned this church into a Moslem college or Medresseh, after he had wrested Jerusalem from the Christians in 1187. He was a wise and sagacious, as well as a brave monarch, and having other foes of Islam besides, and more dangerous than the Christians, to contend with, namely, the various heretical and sectarian parties, such as the Ismaeliyeh, the Nuseiriyeh, the Druzes, and the adherents of the "Sheikh el Jebel" or Old Man of the Mountain, with the latter's blindly and fanatically devoted "fedawis" or assassins (see Besant and Palmer's "History of Jerusalem," pp. 359 363), he and other rulers of El Islamiyeh who succeeded him, strove to counteract their dangerous and murderous doctrines by educating the Moslem youth in the real teachings of the Koran. For this purpose there were founded at Cairo, and in other cities, including Jerusalem, great Saracenic Colleges, such as we have, had occasion to refer to in this book heretofore, and in the "Jewish Missionary Intelligence," 1905, pp. 28, 29. A view of the interior of St. Anne's Church, looking eastward toward the altar, is seen in illustration 123. Like several other Palestinian churches of the same period, it consists of a nave and parallel aisles. St. Anne's has several curious features.' It is, for example, seen by a visitor, standing at the western end of the axial line of the nave, to be unsymmetrical. The left hand .aisle, for instance, is not exactly like the right hand one, and the small eastern window over the eastern apse seems to be too much on one side. These seeming irregularities are as I have been told by a learned Roman Catholic priest, char- acteristic not only of this, but also of other churches of the 150 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM same age, especially in the south of France. The mediaeval architects, most of them "religious," i.e., monks, tried to give "sermons in stones," and to impress upon worshippers, amongst other doctrines, not only that the church was the "navis," or ship in which the believer passed safely over the waves of this troublesome world into the land of eternal rest; but that it was also the "Corpus Christi," or spiritual body of Christ, the temple in the walls of which true Christians were the living stones. In order to express this idea, churches were often built, like St. Anne's, lop-sided, so as to remind one of Christ's body hanging on the Cross, with His head inclined to one side. In the southern, or right-hand aisle, is a broad flight of steps leading down to chambers, or crypts, said to have been the apartments in which the parents of the Virgin dwelt, and where she was born. We need not either visit or describe them, for many of the Romanists themselves doubt the genuine- ness of these churches, and a fierce paper-war has been waged by the Franciscans against the "White Fathers," who own the church of St. Anne. They have, as it would appear, materially enlarged the chambers, besides adding new ones "for the edification of the faithful," i.e., of the credulous. CHAPTER XXIII. leaving the precincts of St. Anne's Church and the modern seminary adjoining it, a few further remarks on the history of the place may not be deemed superfluous. From Moslem writers, such as Abul Feda, we learn that before the Crusaders took Jerusalem it had already become a Moslem "dar el 'ilm," or house of learning, but that "when the Franks took Jerusalem, it was once again turned into a church." A Benedictine Sisterhood was then installed in the adjoining convent, and St. Anne's Abbey rose to great importance in the days of Baldwin I., who compelled his wife Arda, an Armenian princess, to take the veil there. Not long after- ward, the convent of St. Anne had the honour of receiving a princess of the blood-royal, Ivette, the daughter of Baldwin II., who afterward became abbess of the convent of St. Lazarus at Bethany, the modern El Azariyeh, a wretched little Moslem village built amongst the ruins, and with the materials of the said convent. When the Crusaders were turned out of Jerusalem, Saladin, as we have noticed in the preceding chapter, again turned the church into a Mohammedan school. Leaving this interesting spot, we continue our walk along the street leading westward. After passing an archway thrown across the street, and generally sheltering a group of coffee- drinkers and smokers from sun or rain, we cross a street leading to Bab Hytta, one of the northern entrances to jthe Temple-area. Illustration 124 gives a glimpse of the Dome of the Rock from this gateway. We do not turn aside to gaze at it, but still proceed westward. The Saracenic buildings bordering the street on our left are of later date than the Crusading era, for we notice, built into the lower courses here and there, many stones with the peculiar and characteristic Crusading diagonal dressing and "masons' marks." "Masons' marks," of which there is an endless variety, are found on i2th and i3th century buildings not only in Palestine, but also, it is said, on many edifices, such as churches, etc., of the same period in different parts of Europe, including Great 152 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM Britain and Ireland. The first writer to notice the existence of such interesting marks on buildings at Jerusalem was the Fran- ciscan Morone da Maleo, in 1669. Of late years they have attracted a great deal of notice and study from antiquarians. It is supposed that they are the "hall-marks" of various guilds of masons and stone-cutters who travelled from country to country in order to put up important buildings, in the same way in (124) Dome of the Rock from Bab Hytta. which, when Christ Church, Jerusalem, had to be built nearly sixtj' years ago, it was necessary, there being then no competent workmen on the spot, to bring stone-cutters from Malta. Thus history repeats itself. Immediately in front of us, another heavy arch bestrides the street, throwing a very deep shadow; and just before we reach it, we notice (illustration 125) a remarkable ruined minaret 153 WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM or mosque-tower on the right-hand side. This is often pointed out to tourists as "the tower of Antonia." As a matter of fact r it is very likely that the seven courses of massive masonry forming its lower portion, really are a relic of that famous fortress, part of the site of which is occupied by the Turkish barracks at the N.W. corner of the Temple-area. A few minutes :.* (125) Tower of Antonia. after passing this arch and minaret we have on our left the sai