Page:Buried cities and Bible countries (1891).djvu/240

 city, and the best authorities have differed from one another in their ideas. It was with the hope of settling the disputed questions as well as with the object of uncovering antiquities, that the Palestine Exploration Society began the work of excavation.

It has often been said that there is not a single topographical question connected with ancient Jerusalem which is not the subject of controversy. This is, however, rather overstating the case, for there are points concerning which all authorities are in accord. First, as regards the natural features of the site, it is agreed that the Mount of Olives is the chain of hills east of the Temple Hill, and that the valley beneath it on the west is the Brook Kedron. It is agreed that the Temple stood on the spur immediately west of the Kedron, and that the southern tongue of this spur was called Ophel. It is also agreed that the flat valley west of this spur is that to which Josephus applies the name Tyropœon, although there was a diversity of opinion as to the exact course of the valley, which has now been set at rest by the collection of the rock-levels within the city. It is also agreed by all authorities that the high south-western hill (to which the name Zion has been applied since the fourth century) is that which Josephus calls the hill of the Upper City, or Upper Market Place.

The site of the Pool of Siloam is also undisputed, and the rock Zoheleth was discovered by M. Clermont Ganneau at the present village of Silwan. As regards the walls of the ancient city, all authorities, except Fergusson, agree in placing the Royal Towers (of Herod) in the vicinity of the present citadel, and all suppose the scarp in the Protestant cemetery to be the old south-west angle of the city. The Tyropœon Bridge—or stairway and arch—is accepted by all writers since Robinson as leading to the royal cloisters of Herod's temple, and all plans of Herod's temple start with the assumption that the south-west