of Sion, which having been joined to the southern extremity of the eastern portico, about 500 feet North of this tower, ran South to this point, and here bent with the valley towards the West, until a more gradual slope allowed it to descend the ridge towards Siloam. And I would further suggest, whether traces of the eastern extremity of the Royal Porch may not, perhaps, be discerned in those shafts of porphyry and marble columns which project from the Haram Wall, at intervals, between this angle and the Golden Gate', particularly at a point where is a decided break in the eastern Wall; the masonry of which wall, Dr. Robinson has remarked, has quite a distinct character in its northern and southern parts2.

The first historical notice of this tower, posterior to the Christian era, appears to be that of the Bordeaux Pilgrim, who confounded it with the pinnacle of the Temple on which our Lord was placed by the Tempter; and found in it the corner-stone rejected by the build

possibly, have given its name to the quarter in which it was situated (as in the similar case of Acra), although this is not clear: for certainly the description of the old wall in Bell. Jud. v. iv. 3 does not countenance the notion. Yet I have so marked it in the Plan, in deference to a widely-received opinion.

1 Mr. Tipping regards them as indications of "the Eastern Portico:" but since the eastern cloister extended all along the eastern wall, why should they appear here rather than elsewhere in that line? If, on the contrary, they belonged to the Southern cloister, they would be ready to hand at this particular spot. See Traill's Josephus, p. xliv.

2 Theol. Rev. p. 625, "the present eastern wall of the Haram-area exhibits in the northern portion, as compared with all the southern part, traces of a difference of architecture and probably of era." This argument may tell either way; but Dr Robinson ought not to parade the indications of a tower, and the projections in the northern half, without noticing the tower at the south-east angle, and the projection of two feet in the southern half. Mr. Tipping remarks that South of the Saracenic doorway "stones of the largest class cease; yet the lowest course, though smaller, bear the not-to-bemistaken stamp of antiquity." p. xliv.

ers3, &c. Nor can I doubt that, in what immediately follows, we have allusion to some ancient remains, where the vaults now exist; for he writes that "at the head of the corner," and under the pinnacle of the tower itself, are many chambers, where Solomon had his Palace, and the one in particular in which he sat and described Wisdom, was covered with one stone1: for, comparing this with the modern accounts, I find that the legends of the vaults, as far back as we can trace, and those that are still current, are mostly connected with Solomon, that the whole work is called by his name, and the erection of the columns is ascribed to him3. Now Dr. Richardson remarks, that "the style of cutting and joining the stones of these piers is quite

3 Ibi est angulus turris excelcissimæ, ubi Dominus ascendit et dixit ei is qui tentabat eum. Et ait ei Dominus: Non tentabis Dominum Deum tuum, sed illi soli servies. Ibi est et lapis angularis magnus, de quo dictum est: Lapidem quæ reprobaverunt ædificantes. Item." &c. as above, p. 337, note. Compare S. Jerome in p. 335, note 8, and Prudentius, 338, note 2.

See Mejr-ed-din as cited above p. 311, note 6; and Felix Fabri, Evagratorium, Tom. 11. pp. 125, 128. "Ibi erant VIII. ordines columnarum, testudines sustentantes et superiora ædificia, quæ olim erant superædificata, jam vero superius est viridarium olivarum ad latus Templi. Dicunt autem Judæi et Saraceni quod illa subterranea habitacula fuerint equorum Solomonis stabula. Sed melius est dicere, quod ibi fuerint Nethota, hoc est, pigmentaria et apotheca aromatum." He imagines that the "domus saltus Li

bani" stood on these substructions. Benjamin of Tudela, A. D. 1160, calls them "the Stables of Solomon," which formed part of his house, unless he is writing of the passage beneath El-Aksa, as I have supposed above, p. 310, note 2. It is more true of the latter than of the former, that "immense stones have been employed in this fabric, the like of which is nowhere else to be met with." pp. 36 and 71.

5 Richardson's Travels, 11. pp. 309, 311. There is one very extraordinary coincidence, probably not accidental : the Bordeaux Pilgrim writes, immediately before he speaks of the tower, "Est ibi crypta ubi Solomon dæmones torquebat," 1. c. p. 589. Dr Richardson says, "between the first row of columns and the wall on the right, whence I entered the colonnade, they shewed me a large slab that covers a stone chest, in which Solomon had shut up the devil."

different from any other architecture in Jerusalem, and from anything he had ever seen, except in the foundation-stones of the temple or castle at Baalbek." He adds, "The whole of this subterraneous colonnade is called Habsul, or the Hidden; and when we compare the accumulation of rubbish in other parts of the town, with the depth of the rubbish in the Haram es-Sherif, I think there is little doubt that the columns once were above ground'. They rest upon rock or large coarse stones, regularly laid." To the arches he ascribes a later date, and calls them "the same as those in the Sakhrah and el-Aksa." From all which I am disposed to believe, that if the piers are in their original positions, they belong to a period anterior to the arches, and may probably have been connected with the chambers (not crypts) described by the Bordeaux Pilgrim, possibly ruins of the Ophel, or "interior palace," situated certainly in this part; but that the arches which they now support belong to a later date, and are, in fact, connected with another work, which will immediately demand our notice.

It has been already related that the Emperor Justinian, in compliance with the request of S. Saba, completed at Jerusalem the Church of S. Mary, which had been commenced by the Patriarch Elias2. The architect was Theodore, the most skilful mechanic of his

In confirmation of this, see his remark cited above, p. 311, that the stones are much more disintegrated than they are likely to have been in their present position, &c. His notion that these columns are constructed of the "three rows of hewn stones," mentioned in "the inner court of Solomon's Temple,"

(1 Kings vi. 36,) or of the "three rows of great stones" mentioned in "the order of Cyrus for rebuilding the Temple," (Ezra vi. 4,) is, of course, a mere fancy.

2 See in Vol. 1. pp. 289 and 292, the account of Cyril of Scythopolis, a contemporaneous writer.

time3, and his engineering skill was called into requisition in the erection of this Church, the full particulars of which are supplied by a contemporary historian, better versed than any writer of antiquity in architectural technicalities and phraseology. I will first transcribe, and then comment on the narrative of Procopius.

"In Jerusalem, too, he dedicated a Temple to the Virgin, to which no other can be compared, and which is called by the natives, the New Church'. I will describe its character, after premising that the city is for the most part hilly. The hills however are not of earth, but rise up roughly and precipitously, with passages like a ladder, stretching from the steep to the descent.

"Now it so happens, that all the other buildings of the city are on one kind of ground, being either built on the hill or on the level where the earth expands. But this Temple alone is not so placed. The reason is, that the Emperor Justinian ordered it to be built on the most prominent of the hills, with directions what character he required it to have generally, and what breadth and length. The hills however had not sufficient space for the completion of the work according to the Emperor's order; but a fourth part of the Temple was

When the Persians under Chosroes 1. were besieging the Romans in Dara, they designed to effect an entrance into the city by a mine which was to pass under two walls of great strength with an intermural space of 50 feet. Theodore, being aware of this, sunk a deep trench within the intermural space, in the line of the enemy's mine, into which the Persian sappers fell, and became an easy prey to the Romans. Procopius, de Bell. Pers. VOL. II.

Lib. 11. cap. xiii. p. 121. See his commendation in Vol. 1. p. 292, note 2.

The passage occurs in his work, De Edificiis Justiniani, Lib. v. cap. vi. Tom. 11. p. 465. Paris ed. The original is given in the Appendix. I have adopted the translation of a friend, to avoid, if possible, the charge of colouring the statement in "a paraphrase." See Dr Robinson in Theol. Rev. p. 608, note 3, and p. 414, note 2.

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deficient, towards the South and the East, just where it is lawful for the priests to perform their rites. Hence, the following device was conceived by the persons who had charge of the work. They laid the foundations at the extreme of the flat ground, and raised a building of equal height with the rock. When, then, they had brought it as high as its extremity, they placed over the intervening space arches from the top of the walls, and connected the building with the remainder of the Temple's foundation. In this way the Temple is in part founded on solid rock, and in part suspended; the Emperor's power having contrived a space in addition to the hill.

"The stones too of this building are not of such a size as we know elsewhere. For the workmen who had charge of the task, contending against the difficulty of the site, and labouring to gain a height equal and opposite to the rock, disdained all ordinary modes, and had recourse to strange and altogether unprecedented devices. They hewed therefore rocks of immense size from the mountains, which rise to an extraordinary height immediately before the city, and having carved them skilfully, carried them thence as follows. First, they made wagons of a size equal to the rocks, and placed a single stone in each wagon; when oxen, chosen by the Emperor's order for their excellence, drew the stone with the wagon, forty to each. Then, as it was impossible for the roads leading to the city to bear these great wagons, they cut out to a considerable extent the mountains, and made a passage for the wagons, as they arrived. Thus they completed the Temple to an extraordinary length, according to the wishes of the Emperor.