Page:Buried cities and Bible countries (1891).djvu/248

 90 feet from the south-west angle. There is a steep scarp from the Upper City down to the present Tyropœon, and thence the rock shelves down to the ancient valley bed.

(By permission of the Palestine Exploration Fund.)

On the Ophel Hill.—Ophel is the southern slope of Mount Moriah; and as we stand on the slope, looking northward, we face the south wall of the Noble Sanctuary. Right in the middle of it is the Triple Gate, from which the surface of the ground shelves down 22 feet to the south-east angle, while westward it maintains its level. Yet really, in that western part (hidden from us just now by the wall of the city) the true bed of the Tyropœonan] runs out, and the depth of soil or rubbish is 85 feet. At the Triple Gate itself the rock is found about 2 feet below the sill; but at the south-east angle again we should have to sink a shaft 80 feet deep to find it. Thus the original surface of Ophel is all covered up, and its true contour disguised. Buried in the rubbish Warren has found the Wall of Ophel, abutting on the wall of the Sanctuary at the south-east angle. It is about 12 feet