shown a tomb, sunk in the rock, which may have been the burying-place of Lazarus. It is thus described by Mr. Buckingham. "We descended into it by a flight of narrow steps, to the number of about twenty-five, and first reached a small square apartment. Below this, on the left, we descended, by three or four steps, into a vaulted room about eight or ten feet square; and of sufficient height to allow of our standing upright."Sandys speaks of Bethphage, as being on the north of the road to Jerusalem; there appears to be no other authority respecting its situation. The Mount of Olives has three summits, as represented by a rough figure in Sandys; and the road from Bethany at present lies north of the middle one. From the part of the road where it begins to descend to the southwest, there is a full view of Jerusalem, which is seen on an inclined plane lying from the south-west towards the north-east; and there can be no hesitation in representing this as the spot where, in the midst of the exultation of his disciples, our Saviour wept over the city. Nor is there any room for doubt that it was on the middle summit, which was the highest, and overlooked the Temple, that he uttered the awful prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the all-important declarations respecting the transactions of the more awful day, when 'before him will be gathered all nations', to receive their doom. Harm. p. 222-231. Tradition places the spot whence he ascended into heaven, on the west side of the hill; but it was certainly on the other side (p. 303) close to Bethany. The Mount of Olives is separated from the city by a kind of ravine, of somewhat irregular curvature, but generally from north to south, through which the Kedron runs, which rises in the flat district north of the city, and, as already stated, winds between rugged and desolate hills, into the Dead Sea. During nine months of the year, this brook has but little water, and in the summer it is quite dry; but there are bridges over it; and as it sometimes becomes a torrent, there must have been one, at least, in the days of Christ. The chief bridge is at the northern foot of Mount Moriah, on which the Temple stood, and on which the grand Turkish Mosque now stands. The gate conducting to the city is called St. Stephen's Gate, as being near the place where, it is said, the martyr Stephen was stoned to the south of this is the Golden Gate leading from the Mosque; and there was, in like manner, a gate from the temple towards the Mount of Olives, the highest summit of which, is less than half a mile from it."

Nothing of the ancient city remains; but much may be learnt from an

I conjecture that he was hurried through this eastern gate of the Temple, from Solomon's Portico, outside of which there may have been a sufficient space for the work of persecution.

accurate survey of its hills. in the time of our Lord. given in the Appendix to Chateaubriand's Travels will be much employed, with Mr. Hardy's recent account; great aid being derived from Mr. Catherwood's Plan of Jerusalem.*

Our present object is the state of Jerusalem In describing this, D'Anville's Dissertation,

Josephus gives us a general idea of Jerusalem when he says (Bell. Jud. VI. vi.) that it is scated on two hills facing one another, and separated by a valley. That which was called the Upper City, occupied Mount Sion, the most extensive as well as the most elevated of these hills; the other, Mount Acra, was the site of the Lower City. The most remarkable declivity of Sion is on the west and the south sides, sinking into a deep ravine, through which flows a brook called Gihon, proceeding from pools which also are so named, the upper of which is at the foot of Mount Gihon, situated westwards of Acra. The west and south-west part of this ravine was called the Valley of Gihon or Rephaim; the southern part was called Gehenna, or the Valley of Hinnom. Near where this valley joins that of the Kedron, the Jews, in the period of the Kings, placed an image of Moloch, and sacrificed to it even their own children. To prevent the cries of the victims being heard, drums were beaten; and hence this valley was called Tophet, from toph, a drum. After this abominable worship had been ended, the ravine was employed as the receptacle of the filth of the city, and even the carcases of criminals were thrown there. To consume these impure substances, fires were kept continually burning; and from this circumstance, and the fact that worms were always feeding on the refuse, Gehenna supplied the imagery, by which, in the time of our Lord, the punishments of a future life were denoted. The southern part of the Valley of Hinnom enters, on the east, into the valley of Kedron; and thus the extent of Mount Sion is defined. The modern city occupies very little of it.

Acra rose to the north of Sion; its east side looking towards Mount Moriah, on which the Temple was situated, and from which it was separated only by a valley; and this the Maccabees had partly filled up, by lowering the summit of Acra, because Antiochus Epiphanes had erected a fortress upon it, to overawe the city and annoy the Temple.

Mount Moriah was at first only an irregular hill; and to give sufficient space on it for the area of the Temple, its sides were supported by immense works. The east side bordered on the valley of the Kedron, which was very deep. The south side, overlooking a very low spot, was faced from

This Plan is beautiful, valuable, and unexpensive. The various hills, valleys, &c., with the walls, streets, and buildings of the modern city, are all distinctly marked; and it gives clear ideas respecting the extent both of the ancient and of the modern city. The ancient boundary could not, however, have included the sepulchres of the Kings.

top to bottom with a very strong wall, of about 150 yards in height; and for its connection with Sion, a bridge or terrace was erected across the intervening space. On the north, an artificial trench separated the Temple from a hill named Bezetha, which was afterwards joined to the city by an extension of its area.

Golgotha, or Calvary, the place of execution for criminals, was not, of course, within the walls and if the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre corresponds with that of Calvary, the wall of the city could not have extended far to the west of the Temple. Modern travelers are much divided in their opinion on this point: after considering all the reasonings I have met with, I acord with the judgment of those who hold that Calvary was where tradition has placed it. D'Anville states, on the authority of Epiphanius, that Jews who had been converted to Christianity took up their abode in the ruins of the city, after its destruction by Titus; and it is most improbable that the spot should have been then, or before, unknown, where the solemnly-affecting scene of the crucifixion took place. There might have been difficulty in discovering the tomb of Christ, when the Empress Helena erected the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; but there could surely be none in discovering the spot where he was crucified.—In examining this matter, it is always to be recollected, that before Herod Agrippa, the northern limit of the city did not extend beyond Fort Antonia; and we have only to suppose that the wall inclined thence a little to the south, and we exclude the elevated spot called Calvary ;-Bezetha, the new City, having no share in deciding the direction of the western course of the wall. If we know the site of Calvary, we know the general locality of the sepulchre; and whether or not the form and size of it were as described in the time of Maundrell, we are quite certain, from the description of the Evangelist, that it was a cave hewn out in the side of a rock; and we may reasonably believe, therefore, that the front of it was artificial, so as to contract the opening into it.

At the head of the western ravine, there was a gate which formed the entrance to the city from Joppa, Bethlehem, &c. A short way to the northwards of this gate was the hill of Calvary, at some distance to the west of which was Mount Gihon. From this place the ground gradually rises, Mr. Hardy says, till it reaches the north-west corner of the present wall, where the gate of Damascus is; from which it declines as far as the north-east corner, when it becomes more level. About a mile from the wall, on the right hand of the Damascus road, are those sepulchral caverns of the kings which are mentioned by Josephus, and fully described by Hardy and other modern travelers; and which, as they are on the route to Galilee through Samaria, our Lord may have sometimes visited.

Northwards of the city, the country is level for some distance; and it is from this side that the best view of modern Jerusalem is obtained. After passing the north-eastern corner of the city, we come into the valley of the Kedron, which, near the site of the Temple, between the city and the Mount of Olives, becomes much deeper and narrower, and there is termed the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

Opposite St. Stephen's Gate, above the north-east part of the Temple, close to the bridge and the road to Bethany, was the Garden of Gethsemane, the present state of which, with Moriah in the back ground, is depicted, just as one would desire to see it, in the Landscape Illustrations. "When Mr. Catherwood was here in 1834", says the Rev. T. W. Horne, in his description of the engraving, "taking his drawings for his beautiful panorama of Jerusalem, it was planted with olive, almond, and fig-trees. Eight of the olive-trees are so large that they are said to have been in existence ever since the time of Jesus Christ. Although we are informed by Josephus that Titus cut down all the trees within one hundred furlongs of the city, yet it is not improbable that these trees, which are unquestionably of very remote antiquity, may have arisen from the roots of the ancient trees; because the olive is very long-lived, and possesses the peculiar property of shooting up again, however frequently it may be cut down. The trees now standing in the Garden of Gethsemane, are of the species known to botanists as the Olea Europea: they are wild olives, and appear pollarded from extreme age, and their stems are very rough and knarled.” The sketch from which the drawing of this most interesting spot has been prepared, was made by Mrs. Bracebridge, to whom many must feel under deep obligations for it.-From the bridge, it appears, a foot-path to Bethany branches off to the south-east of the main road; and this we may reasonably suppose to have been the course which was taken by the women on their way back to Bethany, after the resurrection, and in which they saw the Lord. Harm. p. 285. From the commencement of the ravine of the Kedron, to the end, Hardy says, with the exception of the slopes under the temple, the sides are perforated with sepulchres hewn out in the rock : some having only one room, and others eight or ten. They are of all sizes, from two yards square to twenty: some of them lofty; and in general high enough for a man to walk upright in them. Farther down the valley, is another bridge over the Kedron; and on the east side of it are some ancient sepulchral monuments, two of which, with their columns and ornaments, have been cut out of the rock where they stand. One of these, which is figured in different works, is called the pillar of Absalom; but Hardy shows that the designation of it is unfounded, though the monument may have been erected in the time of the Maccabees. About and above

these sepulchres are the graves of modern Jews, in countless numbers. They believe that the last judgment will take place in the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and it is the most earnest desire of the pious Israelite, that his bones should be laid there. After passing the Temple, we come to the village of Siloam, in the steep sides of the hill opposite Mount Sion; most of the houses having been tombs, the village cannot have existed in the period of the Gospel history. Opposite to it, near the southern side of the Temple, is the Pool of Siloam; and at the south-western corner of the ancient wall of Sion, is another pool so designated, above which was the Tower of Siloam.—On this side of the city, the region of Mount Sion, the descent was perpendicular, with a strong wall from top to bottom, and immense outworks; but "so many ruins", says Hardy, "have been thrown down it, that it may now be ascended without much difficulty. The valley is occupied by gardens, watered from the stream that supplies the pool, the whole of which is soon lost in the numerous little rills into which it is divided." The royal gardens are believed to have been situated here, which brings us back to the period of the Gospels; and near them, by this lower pool of Siloam, tradition places the tomb of Isaiah.-The southern summit of the Mount of Olives is over the village of Siloam; and the caravan road to Jericho, pursued by Lamartine, winds to the south of it.

According to Josephus, the circumference of the city, at the time of its greatest extent, did not exceed thirty-two stadia, that is four miles. Mr. Catherwood's Plan, conjectural as to the northern boundary of Bezetha, very closely accords with this. At the south-eastern corner of the ancient city, the valley of Kedron enters into that of Hinnom, already described p. cxviii.; and on entering the latter, south of the Gihon, is a spot which tradition says is Akeldama, the field purchased with the price of Judas's treachery. Opposite Mount Sion, is a hill called the Hill of Evil Counsel; round which, on the east, run the aqueducts that bring water from near Bethlehem; and on which, tradition says, was the country-house of Caiaphas, at which the faction of the High Priest formed their malignant purpose against our Lord. Few only of the almost numberless traditions connected with Jerusalem, are worthy of notice; but these, if held as resting on tradition only, may serve to give a reasonable locality to known facts. For this purpose we may mention the following. About the central part of Mount Sion, is placed the Palace of Caiaphas; and near it, towards the Temple, the House of Annas. Southwards of the former, is placed the house of Mary, the mother of Mark; and still further, the house of the Last Supper. There is no improbability in any of these. More securely, however, we may say that the Palace of Herod the Tetrarch lay a few hundred yards northwards from the north-west corner of the Temple :