Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/194

 i;6 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud/ea. rain fall in the year occurs, the besieged felt no dearth of water, although the Romans, to bring them more speedily to terms, had the supply from the outside stopped. This aqueduct, as well as drains to carry off used water and the blood of the victims, foundation walls, pavements, vast cisterns, and secret passages, instanced on the south face under is the Single Gate, have been every- where recovered. 1 Under the rock projection of about two metres in the centre of the Sakhra, is an irregular excava- tion or cave, now dry, of 7 m. by 6 m. 90 c. and 3 m. deep. It is descended by a flight of steps, eleven in number, and there is a cutting in the upper portion of the rock, which may be the opening of the cistern and older than David. In Syria, where springs are rare, it is not un- usual to dig a cistern under the threshing-floor, situated, as we have seen, on raised ground. Why should Araunah's thresh- ing-floor have lacked so indis- fig. 123.— Frame of Golden Gate. De Vogué, pensable a commodity for man and beast ? It may be objected that cistern and threshing-floor were swept away when Solomon laid the foundations of the temple. But against this is the curious fact that the portion of the rock which forms the Sacred Cave has never been disturbed, and has always been jealously guarded by Mohammedans. The tradition which places here the apparition of the angel, to inform David that the plague was stayed, may in some measure account for the degree of religious awe that surrounds it. Most likely, however, this hollow, natural or otherwise, was used as an altar for holocausts, in which the priest could sacrifice unseen by the people. 2 What gives colouring to this hypothesis is a hole 1 Fig. 119 shows one of the secret passages near the south-east angle. It will be found on a larger scale, Plate XX., Plans, Elevations, etc., Palestine Exploration Fund. 2 Mr. Chaplin's supposition that the "foundation stone," aven sheteyah, was no HHH