66 a large square room was made by the mother of Constantine, the south side walled with the natural rock, flat at the top, and equal with the upper level, out of which arise certain little cupolas, open in the midst to let down the dead bodies. Through these we might see the bottom all covered with bones, and certain corses but newly let down, it being now the sepulchre of the Armenians. A greedy grave, and great enough to devour the dead of a whole nation. For they say, and I believe it, that the earth thereof, within the space of eight and forty hours, will consume the flesh that is laid thereon." Pococke men tions the same supposed sarcophagous virtue in the earth. He describes it as an oblong cavern, about twenty-six paces long, by twenty broad, and seemingly about twenty deep. The dead are stripped and thrown in naked in heaps, as at Naples, Palermo, and other places. Through the orifices, both Maundrell and Dr. Richardson say, the bodies are to be seen in all the stages of decomposition. "From which," shrewdly remarks the former," it may be conjectured that this grave does not make that quick despatch with the corpses committed to it, which is commonly reported." Beyond this, the sepulchres begin, which extend along the side of the ravine to the south-west and west of Mount Zion, and which, like those in the valley of Jehoshaphat, are grottoes or excavations in the rock. Of these, Dr. Clarke has given the fullest description. He recognised them as similar to those which he had seen in the ruins of Telmessus in the gulf of Glaucus, and as answering to Shaw's account of the crypte of Laodicea, Jebilee, and Tortosa. They are described as a series of subterranean chambers, "hewn with marvellous art, each containing one or 'many repositories for the dead, like cisterns carved in the rock, upon the sides of these chambers." The doors are so low, that, to look into any one of them, it is necessary to stoop, and, in some instances, to creep on hands and knees. These door-ways are grooved for the reception of immense stones, squared and fitted to the grooves, which once closed the entrance. "Of such a nature, indisputably," adds the learned traveller, "were the tombs of the sons of Heth, of the kings of Israel, of Lazarus, and of Christ." Upon all these sepulchres there are inscriptions in Hebrew and in Greek. The Hebrew, which are by the side of the doors, are so effaced, that it is difficult to make any tolerable copy; they appear to have been designedly obliterated by being covered with some chalky substance.* The Greek inscriptions are more legible: they consist of large letters deeply carved on the face of the rock, but only contain the words," Of the holy Zion." Dr. Richardson considers them to be of modern date and apocryphal authority; but agrees with Dr. Clarke that these are, in all probability, the sepulchres of the city of David, referred to Nehem. iii. 16. It is remarkable, that there are no tombs in the side of the ravine on which the city stands: these were clearly out of the city, and here it would have been more rational to fix upon a site for the holy sepulchre. But "neither the Apostles nor the early Christians appear to have had any regard whatever for the sepulchre of our Lord. It is not once mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, or in any of the Epistles. The Apostle Paul, in all One which Dr. Clarke copied, exhibited a mixture of Hebrew and the arrow-headed character, and is supposed to be Arabic, as the mode of writing corresponds to that used by Arabian Jews in their inscriptions on the hills near Jerusalem. his visits to the Holy City, in all his meetings with the Christians, never once names Calvary, or the sepulchre of Christ. The minds of these holy men seem to have been solely intent on the spread of the Gospel. In all their forcible appeals to the hearts and understandings of their hearers, the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ, are constantly mentioned, but the places where these glorious events occurred, are never referred to. Having satisfied themselves: that the body of the Messiah did not remain in the tomb after the third day, they ceased to frequent it, or to seek the living among the dead." * The only other object of interest in the ravine on the west of the city, besides these sepulchres, is the large square cistern, mentioned by Dr. Richardson as a little to the south of the Jaffa gate; evidently of Jewish workmanship. Pococke describes it as a basin about 250 paces long and 100 broad. "The bottom is very narrow, and the rock on each side appears like steps. This basin is made by building a wall across the valley. It is commonly called the pool of Bathsheba,† but seems to be the lower pool of Gihon. It is generally dry, but probably was designed to receive not only the rain waters, but also the superfluous waters from the upper pool of Gihon.. (See 2 Chron. xxxii. 30.) At the north end of it is a causeway, which leads to the road to Bethlehem. There is a channel on it from Solomon's aqueduct, which supplies a cistern on each side of the causeway, and one at the end of it, where there is plenty of water. Above this, the valley is not so deep, but capable of receiving a great quantity of water. About ichardson's Travels, vol. ii. + There is another pool of Bathsheba' within the city, near the Jaffa gate. 3 100 paces to the north, the aqueduct from Solomon's pool crosses the vale, the water running part of the way on nine arches, from four to six feet high: it is then conveyed round the hill on the west side of Mount Zion, and so round to the city and temple by a covered channel under ground. Nearly a mile to the N.N.W. is the pool of Gihon, which I suppose to be the upper pool. It is a very large basin, and, if I mistake not, is cut down about ten feet into the rock, there being a way down to it by steps. It was almost dry at that time, and seems designed to receive the rain waters which come from the hills about it. There is a canal from the pool to the city, which is uncovered part of the way, and, it is said, goes to the pool in the streets near the holy sepulchre; and when' there is a great plenty of water, it runs to the pool already mentioned, to the west of the city. For the design of these pools seems to have been, to receive the rain water for the common uses of the city, and even to drink in case of necessity. The fountain of Gihon probably arose either in the upper pool, or out of the high ground above it." The situation of Jerusalem, then, appears to have been by no means disadvantageous in respect to the supply of water. There were probably wells, besides that of Nehemiah, both within and without the city, which are now filled up or dry; and, besides these, the pools and aqueducts, together with the little stream of Kedron, must have been amply sufficient not only to supply the wants of the population, but to serve the purpose of irrigation, on which, in this climate, the fertility of the soil depends. It is very probable, that the subterraneous passage which has Travels, book i. chap. 6. its outlet in the pool of Siloam, and which Dr. Richardson describes as a conduit cut in the rock from the pool of Hezekiah above described, on the west side of the city, was formerly partly open, running in the line of the Tyropæon, or Valley of Cheesemongers, described by Josephus as separating the upper from the lower city, and terminating at the pool of Siloam. MOUNT OLIVET. HAVING now completed the circuit of the city, we have yet to ascend Mount Olivet; that consecrated hill from which the Redeemer of the world looked down on the guilty city, -on the scene of his passion and crucifixion, and predicted the destruction of Jerusalem; that hill, from the summit of which he afterwards ascended, in the sight of his disciples, "far above all heavens." The Mount of Olives forms part of a ridge of limestone hills, extending to the north and the south-west. Pococke describes it as having four summits. On the lowest and most northerly of these, which, he tells us, is called Sulman Tashy, the stone of Solomon, there is a large domed sepulchre, and several other Mohammedan tombs. The ascent to this point, which is to the north-east of the city, he describes as very gradual, through pleasant corn-fields planted with olive-trees. The second summit is that which overlooks the city: the path to it rises from the ruined gardens of Gethsemane, which occupy part of the valley. About half way up the ascent is a ruined monastery, built, as the monks tell us, on the spot where our Saviour wept over Jerusalem. From this point, the spectator enjoys, perhaps, the best view of |