Gates. Jerusalem at present has only four open gates, one on each of the four sides of the city, looking towards the North, South, East, and West. Besides these there were formerly four other mostly smaller gates, now closed up with walls. All these gates appear to occupy the same places as those which existed before the present city-wall was rebuilt; and some of them are evidently themselves earlier structures, which were retained at that time. In this respect we shall recur to them again hereafter, confining ourselves here to their present state and names.

On the West side of the city is the gate called by the natives Bâb el-Khŭlîl, or Hebron Gate; but which the Franks call also the Gate of Bethlehem, or of Yâfa, and sometimes Gate of the Pilgrims. From it lead the roads to all these three towns. It consists of a massive square tower; and in going out of the city one enters it from the East and passes out through its northern side. The breadth of the city from this gate to the western entrance of the Haram esh-Sherîf, is about 2100 feet or 700 yards, as near as we could determine it by paces.

On the North is the Damascus Gate of the Franks; called by the natives Bâb el-'Amûd, "Gate of the Pillar." It is more ornamented than the rest. The great road to Nâbulus, Damascus, and the North, leads from it.

St. Stephen's Gate, so called by the Franks, is on the East side of the city, a little North of the area of the great mosk. The Muslims call it Bâb es-Sũbât, "Gate of the Tribes;" while the native Christians give it the name Bâb Sitty Meryam, "Gate of my Lady Mary," probably in reference to the church and tomb of the Virgin Mary in the Valley of Jehoshaphat below. From it lead the roads to the Mount of Olives, Bethany, 'Anâta, etc. Over this gate on the outside

are sculptured four lions; which shows at least that it was not originally the work of Muhammedans.

The southern gate, called by the Franks that of Zion, and by the natives Bâb en-Neby Dâûd, "Gate of the Prophet David," opens out only upon the exterior part of Zion, towards the Muslim tomb of David, etc. Several paths indeed wind down from it to the Vallies of Hinnom and Jehoshaphat; but no important road leads from it.

Of the gates now closed up, one is on the North side, about half way between the Damascus Gate and the N. E. corner of the city. It is only a small portal in one of the towers. This is called by Franks the Gate of Herod, and by the natives Bâb ez-Zahary, "the flowery."—Another small portal, the Dung Gate of the Franks, is on the South side of the city, a little West of South from the S. W. corner of the area of the mosk, and near the bed of the Tyropoeon. The native name is Bâb el-Mughâribeh, "Gate of the Western Africans."-A third is the large double gateway on the eastern side of the area of the great mosk, now called by the natives Bâb ed-Dahariyeh," the Eternal Gate;" but which Franks are wont to speak of as the Golden Gate, Porta aurea. This is evidently a structure of antiquity, and will be more fully described hereafter. The fourth of these gates is adjacent to the South wall of the area of the mosk, just in the corner where the city-wall comes up and joins it. It is a low square tower; and if seen only from the outside, looks as if it had once led up into the area of the mosk. We examined it, and entered it afterwards from the inside, and found that it led only into the city. The

2

1) The adjacent quarter of the city, near the S. W. part of the court of the great mosk, appears at one time to have been inhabited by a colony of these people. See the History of Jerusalem by Mejr

ed-Dîn in A. D. 1495, translated by von Hammer, Fundgruben des Orients, II. pp. 98, 125.

2) The name Porta aurea goes back at least to the times of the

crusades; Will. Tyr. VIII. 3.

workmanship of it is quite modern. Of this gate I have been able to find no mention, either in Arabian or early Christian writers. Quaresmius is silent as to it; and no Frank traveller appears to have observed it, until within a few years. Richardson saw it only from the outside, and speaks of it under a wrong name, as leading up into the mosk el-Aksa.1

The Golden Gate has been walled up for centuries; and the one last mentioned, adjacent to the S. side of the same area, would seem also to have been very long disused. There is no trace of any former path connected with it, either within or without the city. The other two gates, or rather portals, the Dung Gate and that of Herod, so called,-have been apparently more recently closed. They seem to have been open in Niebuhr's day;2 and several travellers of the present century mention their names, without specifying whether they were still open or not.3 At present they are firmly walled up; although a lane which even now leads down through fields of prickly pear towards the Dung Gate, would seem to indicate that the latter had not long been closed.1

Mount Zion. Of the hills by which the surface of the city was and is divided into various quarters, that of Zion is the most extensive and important. Its northern part or brow is just South of the street which leads down directly East from the Yâfa Gate, along the bed of the ancient Tyropoeon. In going from this street southwards near the bazars, one comes almost immediately to a sharp though short ascent; and turning to the right along its brow, finds himself higher than the roofs of the small houses which line the

1) Richardson's Travels, etc. II. pp. 255, 292. Prokesch Reise ins h. Land. p. 85

2) Niebuhr's Reisebeschr. III. Comp. Kortens Reise, p.

p. 52.

112.

3) Travels of Ali Bey II. p. 244.

Chateaubriand Itin. II. pp. 67, 68. Par. 1837. Richardson II. pp. 254, 255. Prokesch. pp. 85, 86.

4) According to Schubert, both these gates have been closed up only since the rebellion of 1834; Reise etc. II. pp. 542, 544.

street below. The ascent towards the S. along the street near by the citadel is more gradual.

On the West and South, Zion rises abruptly from the Valley of Hinnom, which sweeps around its S. W. corner almost at a right angle, descending very rapidly first towards the S. and then towards the E. to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. This circumstance renders the S. W. brow of Zion apparently more lofty than any other point connected with the city now or anciently. This we measured approximately. Beginning at the first tower from the S. W. corner of the city-wall, we measured 865 feet on a course due South to the brow of Zion. Hence the well of Job or Nehemiah bore S. 58° E. at an angle of depression of 120. Descending now very steeply, still due South, we measured 140 feet at an angle of 11° depression, and 530 feet at an angle of 2340; and came thus to the bottom of the Valley of Hinnom just East of the road which there crosses it. This gives an elevation above the valley at this point of 154 English feet; which is probably not very far from the truth. The height of Zion above the valley at the S. W. corner of the wall of the city, obtained in the same way, is 104 feet; and that of the ground at the Yâfa Gate, 44 feet. But these differences arise at least as much from the rapid sinking of the valley, as from the increased height of Zion towards the South. The elevation of the southern brow of Zion above the well of Nehemiah, we were unable to obtain; but from the very rapid descent of the Valley of Hinnom in that part, I should be inclined to estimate it at not less than 300 feet.1

1) According to Schubert's barometrical measurements, Zion is 241 Paris feet higher than the Valley of Jehoshaphat. But it is not said at what point in that valley the observation was taken; though various reasons render it probable, that it was not lower down than

opposite the great mosk. If so, the estimate in the text accords well with that result; for the descent of the Valley of Jehoshaphat from that point to the well of Job, is certainly not less than 60 feet. Schubert's Reise, II. p. 521.

The summit of Zion presents a level tract of considerable extent along its western brow. The eastern side of the hill slopes down steeply, but not in general abruptly, to the Tyropoeon, which separates it from the narrow ridge South of the Haram; while at the extreme S. E. part, below Siloam, it extends quite down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Only the northern portion of Zion is included in the modern walls; and this is occupied chiefly by the Jewish quarter, and by the great Armenian convent. Here the eastern side of Zion within the city, adjacent to the Tyropoeon after it bends South, is an abrupt precipice of rock from twenty to thirty feet high, lying overagainst the S. W. part of the area of the Haram esh-Sherîf. This rock is still in its natural state; and probably presents the same appearance as it did in the days of Josephus; though the adjacent valley has doubtless been greatly filled up with rubbish.

Without the walls, the level part of Zion, as we have seen, is occupied by the Christian cemeteries, the house of Caiaphas now an Armenian convent, the Coenaculum or Muslim tomb of David, and the adjacent buildings, formerly a Latin convent. The rest of the surface is now tilled; and the city of David has become a ploughed field! The eastern slope is likewise in part cultivated; and paths wind down along the declivity to Siloam, and also more to the right to the bottom of the Valley of Hinnom. The aqueduct from Solomon's Pools, which crosses the Valley of Hinnom at a point N. of the S. W. corner of the city wall, is then carried along and around the S. W. part of Zion above the valley, till it comes out again high up along the eastern slope and enters the city.

Below the aqueduct, and indeed near the bed of the Tyropoeon, a few rods South of the Dung Gate, is a low arch, forming the outlet of a large sewer from the city. We could not ascertain from what point