Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][merged small]

the walls are built of square stones, well jointed, and laid without cement. There were pilasters at each corner, but only the one at the north-east angle remains in a moderate state of preservation (see cut) Nearly in the centre of the chamber is a part of a column or pedestal sticking up. At the south-east angle was a double entrance with lintels over it: these have ornaments on them and on the jambs, but they cannot now be accurately traced. This Hall has every appearance of being one of the most an cient pieces of masonry in Jerusalem. Through a small hole in the south wall of this chamber, a passage is found leading into one of the Saracenic vaults supporting the Hall of Justice. There is still another passage leading from this vault south into another, which is now filled with debris and earth. A short distance from Masonic Hall is a secret passage leading under David Street; this passage is about 12 feet wide and is nearly filled with rubbish; it has been traced 250 feet in the direction of the Joppa Gate, which was doubtless its ancient termination.

[graphic][merged small]

ROBINSON'S ARCH.

This arch is outside of the south-west corner of the Sanctuary Wall, opposite the Mogrebin's Mosque (see Temple Area), and is considered to have been the entrance to the royal cloisters of King Herod. Seventy-four feet below the springing of this arch is a rock-cut canal, 4 feet wide, and 12 feet deep, running south. Jaimed in over this canal are two fallen voussoirs of an arch. One of these is much decayed, but the other is in a better state of preservation, and measures 7 feet in length, 5 feet thick at the extrados, 4 feet 4 inches at the intrados, and 4 feet high. In the middle of one side is a square joggle hole 14 inches by 11 and 4 inches deep. Opening out of this canal to the south, is a chamber cut in rock, with a segment arch. To the south a passage leads into a circular cistern cut in the rock, 16 feet in diameter, by 14 feet 4 inches in hight. In the centre of the roof is a manhole leading down from the roof of the pavement under Robinson's Arch. Near this are two curious rock-cut chambers, rectangular, and measuring 16 feet by 6 feet. In one of them is a flight of steps leading up above. Also, a base of a column which had fallen in through the roof. Several lamps, weights, jars, and an iron bar were found in this canal; also an ancient stone roller for rolling flat roofs on houses, precisely like the rollers now used for the same purpose.

Several excavations have been made in the vicinity of Robinson's Arch, in making one of which at a

depth of 21 feet 6 inches, a polished limestone slab 0 feet square was found covering the main sewer of the city. This sewer is 6 feet high by 3 feet wide, cut in the rock, nearly full of sewage, through which a current of water runs south. This is doubtless the sewer through which the fellahin entered the city, in the time of Ibrahim Pacha ;they appear to have pen. etrated up as far as David Street and found exit through some of the vaults there. In sinking a shaft near this the remains of a colonnade were found just below the surface, consisting of piers built on the rock 12 feet 6 inches apart, with fallen arches between. These piers were built of well-dressed ashlar of soft sand-stone, similar to the ruins of Suwaineh in the Jordan Valley.

In sinking another shaft the debris of a stone building, and part of a white marble column twelve inches in diameter, were found. Twenty-two feet below this is a chamber cut in the rock, ten feet square, and ten feet high, covered with plaster two inches thick and very hard. Entrance to this chamber was effected through two manholes through the roof, and it has the appearance of having been used as a secret store for grain.

Twenty feet to the south of the Gate of the Bath is a large cistern, which runs east and west and pierces the Sanctuary Wall. Near the Effendi's house is another cistern or rather prolongation of the first, but narrower. At this place it is thirty-four feet six inches from the surface of the ground to the bottom, width twelve feet, and length from east to west fourteen feet nine inches. A surface of twenty

eight feet in hight by twelve in length of the Sanctuary Wall is exposed at this place.

From an excavation made near the Sanctuary Wall on the east side of the Temple enclosure, a small passage was found which leads downwards, passing through the roof of, and into another passage, which runs east and west. This latter passage is three feet nine inches high by two feet wide, running nearly horizontal, and at its eastern end opens through the Wall of the Sanctuary, and is closed by a large stone having three cylindrical holes through it five and onehalf inches in diameter each, through which water at some former period ran. It is probable that troops defending this part of the wall came down here for

water.

THE TOWER OF ANTONIA.

This tower was at the north-east angle of the Temple enclosure, and was built up from the Sanctuary Wall; the outside was formed by that portion of the wall continuing to recede from four to seven inches, while that forming the tower recedes only one and onequarter inches, so that at twenty-two feet from where the tower begins the slant inwards is two feet, and at the surface, forty feet above, the slant amounts to seven feet.

DISCOVERY AT ST. STEPHEN'S GATE.

An excavation was made outside of this gate. When at a depth of six feet a flat stone was found, which, sounding hollow, an aperture was made through it, when a circular cave was exposed to view that

« PreviousContinue »