Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/37

 JERUSALEM. 2. The Second Wall, and the Lower City. — Tlic account of the second wall in Joseplius, is very meagre. He merely says that it began at the Gate Gennath, a place in the old wall ; and, after cn- compiissint; the Lower City, had its termination at the Fortress" Antonia." There is here no clue to the position of the Gate Gennatli. It is, however, quite certain that it was between the Hippie Tower and the Xystus: and the noith-west anj;le of the Upper City was occupied by the extensive palace of Henxl the Great, and its iniptsint; towers stood on the north front of this old wall, where a rocky crest rose to the height of 30 cubits, which would of course preclude the possibility of an exit from the city for some distance to the cast of the tower. Other incidental notices make it clear that there was a considerable space between the third and the second wall at their southern quarter. Comparatively free from buildin!:s,and, consequently, a considerable part of the north wall of the Upper City un|irotcc'ted by the second wall: — e.g. Cestius, having taken the outer wall, encam]ed within the New City, in front of the Koyal I'alace {B. J. ii. 19. § 5) ; Titus attacked the outer wall in its southern l)art, " both because it was lower there tlian else- where, inasmuch as this part of the New City w;»s thinly inhabited, and affurdcd an easy passage to the third (or inmost) wall, through which Titus had hoped to take the Upper City " (v. 6. § 2). Accordingly, when the legions had carried the outer and the second wall, a bank was raised against the northern wall of Sion at a pool called Amygdalon, and another about thirty cubits from it. at the high- priest's monument." The Almond Pool is no doubt identical with the tank that still exists at no great distance from the modern fortress; and the monu- ment must, therefore, have been some 50 feet to tiie east of this, also in the angle formed by the north wall of the Upper City and the southern jiart of the second wall. There is the head of an old archway still existing above a heap of ruins, at a point about half way between the Hippie Tower and the north-west angle of Mount Sion, where a slight depression in that hill brings it nearly to a level with the declivity to the north. This would afford a good starting- jwint for the second wall, traces of which may still be discovered in a Kne north of this, quite to the Damascus gate where are two chambers of ancient and very massive masonry, which a))pear to have flanked an old gate of the second wall at its weakest part, where it crossed the valley of the Tyropoeon. From this gate, the second wall probably followed the line of the present city wall to a point near the Gate of Herod, now blocked up ; whence it was carried along the brow of the hill to the north-east angle of the fortress Antonia, which occupied a con- siderable space on the.north-west of the Temple area, in connection wth which it will be described below. 3. Hie Third Wall, and the New City. — The third wall, which enclosed a very considerable space to the north of the old city, was the work of Herod Agrippa the Elder, and was only commenced about iliirty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, and iicver completed according to the original design, in tonsequeiice of the jealousy of the Roman govern- ment. The following is Josephus's account: — " This third wall Agrippa drew round the super- added city, which was all exposed. It commenced at the Tower Hippicus, from whence it extended to the northern quarter, as far as the Tower PsejJiinus ; JERUSALEM. 21 then, passing opposite to the Monuments of Helena, and being produced through the Royal Caves, it bent, at the angular tower, by the monument called the Fuller's, and, joining the old wall, terminated at the valley of the Kedron." It was connncnced with stones 20 cubits long and 10 wide, and was raised by the Jews to the height of 25 cubits, with the battlements. (1) As the site of the Hippie Tower has been already fixed, the first point to be noticed in this third wall is the Psephine Toicer, which, Joseplius informs us, was the most wonderful part of this great work, situated at its north-west quarter, over against Hippicus, octagonal in form, 70 cubits in height, commanding a view of Arabia towards the cast, of the Mediterranean towards the west, and of the utmost limits of the Hebrew possessions. The site of this tower is still marked, by its massive foundations, at the spot indicated in the plan ; and con.siderable remains of the wall that connected it with the Hippie Tower are to be traced along the brow of the ridge that shuts iu the upper jiart of the valley of Hinnom, and almost in a line with the modern wall. At the highest point of that ridge the octagonal gromid-plan of the tower may be seen, and a large cistern in the midst of the ruins further confirms their identity, as we are infonned that the towers were furnished with reservoirs for the rain water. (2) The next point mentioned is the Monuments of Helena, which, we are elsewhere told, were three pyramids, situated at a distance of 3 stadia from the city. (^Ant. xx. 3. §3.) About a centui7 later (a. d. 174) I'ausanias speaks of the tomb of Helena, iu the city of Solyma, as having a door so con- structed as to open by mechanical contrivance, at a certain hour, one day in the year. Being thus opened, it closes again of itself after a short in- terval; and, should you attempt to o{)cn it at another time, you would break the door before you could suc- ceed. (Pans. viii. 16.) The pyramids are next men- tioned by Eusebius (^Jlist. Kecks, ii. 12), as remark- able monumental pillars still shown in the suburbs of Jerusalem ; and St. Jerome, a century later, tes- tified that they still stood. (^Epist. ad FAistochium, Op. torn. iv. pars ii. p. 673.) The latest notice is that of an Armenian writer in the 5th century, wh» describes the tomb as a remarkable monument before the gates of Jerusalem. (^Ilist.Annen. lib. ii. cap. 32.) Notwithstanding these repeated notices of the sepul- chral monuments of the queen of Adiabene, it is not now possible to fix their position with any degree of certainty, some archaeologists assigning them to the Tombs of the Kings (Robinson, Bib. Res. vol. i. pp. 465, 535 — 538)^ others to the Tombs of the Martyrs, about f of a mile to the west of the former. (Schultz, Jerusalem, pp. 63 — 67 ; De Saulcy, torn. ii. pp. 326, 327.) A point halfway between these two monuments would seem to answer belter to the incidental notices of the monuments, and they may with great probability be fixed to a rocky court on the right of the road to NebiSamwil, where there are several excavated tombs. Opposite the Monuments of Helena was the Gate of the Women in the third wall, which is mentioned more than once, and must have been between the Nablus road and the Psephine Tower. (3) The Royal Caves is the next point men- tioned on the third wall. They are, doubtless, iden- tical with the remarkable and extensive excavations still called the Tombs of the Kings, most probably