Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/174

 156 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud.-ea. venience, a broad, deep trench was cut in the rock on the north- west ; whilst on the north-east the deep ravine and pool of Birket- Israil were sufficient barrier against inroads ; since although half filled up, they still present a depth of 20 m. by 30 broad. The pool, as was stated, was fed by a canal cut through the rock from east to west. The area of the sanctuary may be described as a rough square or trapeze ; averaging from 491 to 462 m. from east to west, and 310 to 281 m. from north to south. The broad level and con- spicuous position of the haram, enclosed throughout by a massive wall, single it out at a considerable distance. Despite the political and religious convulsions that have raged around and within its walls, despite the ruthless brutality and fanaticism that have forced open its gates, violated its precincts, and destroyed to the last stone the buildings that once formed its glory, the main outlines of the sanctuary are appreciably the same as when Herod, to please the Jews, widened the plateau to build a temple greater and more magnificent than the two that had preceded it. From that day the circumference of this colossal plinth has remained un- changed ; none of its angles have been broken off, nor have its faces been damaged. Jews and Assyrians, Greeks and Romans, have all built upon it, and the ruins of all are even now discernible. The platform is as of yore, when Titus, from Mount Olive, viewed with mixed feelings of admiration and awe the sumptuous edifices on Moriah and the adjacent slopes, fenced round by walls which rendered the haram a formidable fortress. 1 These walls, so often broken through and as often repaired, still tell the history of their ill usage. The first act of the enemy on taking possession of Moriah, was to fill in the gaps made in the wall by their war-engines ; and to raise an altar to their national god, on a site already consecrated by other religions. The lower courses of the walls are all that remain of the ramparts of Solomon ; for although old stones are met with encased in the upper layers of masonry, the work belongs to posterior epochs, clearly indicated by the smaller size of the stones and the mode of their preparation. It may be laid down as an axiom, that the place occupied by each band in the vertical plan is an index of its approximative age. But of this we shall have more to say a little further, when we come, to consider the architectural characteristics 1 Josephus, Bell. Jud., V. ii. 3.