continued with one or two angles to the Gate of St Mary, Eastward; and Westward, past the Franciscan Convent, to the North-West corner of the City. The Western part of this, as far as St Stephen's Street, is "the Street of the Holy Sepulchre;" the Eastern is now "the Via Dolorosa1." From the Damascus Gate another main street diverges from St Stephen's Street, until it meets the Via Dolorosa at a large ruined Bath, then, running parallel to the Western wall of the Haram, traverses the whole length of the valley, which has been noticed as intersecting the City, as far as the Street of the Temple. It here meets with an obstruction, the cause of which will be presently explained, but is thence continued, in the same Southerly course, to the small closed gate, marked in modern plans as the Dung Gate2. This is "the Street of the Valley of the Mills; " but it will be more convenient to designate it "the Valley Street," and the Valley, "the Mill Valley." With these data, we shall be in some measure prepared to enter upon the disquisition of the topography of the ancient City; but as I am first to address myself to that part of the subject which affects the authority of the Holy Sepulchre, a somewhat more minute description of its site, and of the Christian quarter in which it is situated, will be desirable. It may be well to state that the Via Dolorosa is called by the French writer, la rue de Josaphat, and the Eastern gate la porte de Josaphat. This gate is commonly known to travellers as St Stephen's gate, but I call it by its native name, St Mary's Gate, to prevent confusion, as I have to speak of a street of St Stephen, which is in no way connected with this gate, but with the old St Stephen's, now the Damascus Gate. 2 "La posterne de la Tanerie" of the French description. The Arabic alone names the street, but carries it only to the Street of the Temple: the French description reckons it all one street to the gate, as indeed it is. A line drawn along the course of the walls from the Jaffa to the Damascus Gate, down the Street of St Stephen to the South end of the Bazaar, and up the Street of David to the Jaffa Gate, would describe the Christian quarter3. The parallelogram formed by the Streets of the Patriarch and St Stephen, West and East, and the Streets of David and the Holy Sepulchre, South and North, is divided into almost equal parts by Palm Street, forming a communication between the two former. The Northern part is occupied by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Southern by the ruins of the Hospital of the Knights of St John. This will be enough for our present purpose. The question is, Was this space included in the second wall of the City, as described by Josephus, or was it not? If it was, the tradition of the site of the Holy Sepulchre falls to the ground, for obvious reasons; if it was not, then the tradition must be allowed to stand until some valid objection be shewn against it. Having thus broadly stated the question, I may refer to a former chapter for a description of Jerusalem, as it existed in our Saviour's time, before the erection of the third wall by King Agrippa. It will be sufficient here to state, that Acra was the hill sustaining the Lower City, separated from Sion, the much higher hill on which the Upper City was built, by the broad valley of the Tyropoon; that the Gate Gennath was a place in the North wall of Sion, near which the wall encompassing Acra had its beginning; and that 3 William of Tyre, Hist. Orient. Lib. IX. XVIII. p. 773, of Bongar's cd. thus describes it. 4 Vol. 1. p. 146, &c. : the original is given in the Appendix to this Volume, so that I need not swell the foot-notes by citations. this North wall of Sion commenced at the Hippic Tower, from whence it ran Eastward to the Temple area. The points to be determined then, are, 1, the site of the Hippic Tower; 2, the position of the Gate Gennath, and the line of the Second Wall; 3, the situation of Acra; and 4, the course of the Tyropeon; for, at present, I must assume Mount Sion and the Temple Mount to occupy the positions which the almost universal consent of the learned has assigned them, as already described. 2 I. I do not assume that the site of the Hippic Tower corresponded with that of the Tower of David at the N. E. of the present citadel, because I much question whether this can be clearly established1. Not that I can for a moment admit the new and strange hypothesis that would remove it to the N.W. corner of the present City, and find traces of it in the ruins of Tancred's Tower, called by the natives Kasr Jalûd-the Tower of Goliath. I hope to be able to adduce proof that it occupied a space on the platform of the modern citadel, only at its N.W. instead of its N. E. angle. That it is to be sought for in this part of Mount Sion, is clear from Josephus's description of Jerusalem just referred to; where the Hippicus is assumed as the starting point of two of the City walls, i. e. of the wall that encompassed the Upper City, and of Agrippa's wall, which enclosed the New City. It was a square tower, twenty-five cubits on a side, solid 1 I assumed this from Dr Robinson (Bib. Res. Tome 1. pp. 453-457) in my first edition. D'Anville held it to occupy the site of the Tower Psephi nus. Châteaubriand's Itinéraire, Tome II. pp. 45 and 262. 2 This is Mr Fergusson's hypothesis, which will be noticed elsewhere. |