Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/633

 JEKUSALEM 613 a residence for the Russian consul. Near by is another large building for the Prussian deacon- esses' schools. The country around Jerusalem is rocky and not very fertile. The rocks almost everywhere crop out at the surface, which in many parts is also thickly strewn with large stones, and the whole region has a dreary and barren aspect. At almost every siege the trees were either burned or cut down, and the vege- Plan of Modern Jerusalem. tation destroyed. The soil thus exposed was gradually washed down into the valleys and thence to the plains, which to this day are re- markably fertile. Yet olives and vines thrive on the sides of these mountains, and fields of grain are seen in the valleys and level places. The various parts of ancient Jerusalem were at dif- ferent intervals surrounded by walls. The first old wall encircled Zion and a part of Moriah. It began N. W. of the tower Hippicus, extend- ed to the Xystus, and terminated on the W: side of the temple, thus separating the upper from the lower city. The other part of the wall, toward the west, commencing also from Hippicus, passed by a place called Bethso to the gate of the Essenes ; thence it turned S. and E., taking in all the south of Zion till above the pool of Siloam ; it then turned N. E., by the slope Ophel, and joined the E. cloister of the temple. The second wall began at the gate of Gennath, in the first wall E. of the tower Hippicus. Advancing thence toward the N. gate of the city, it turn- ed S. E., and termina- ted at the fort of Anto- nia, which flanked the N. W. angle of the tem- ple. The third wall be- gan at the tower Hip- picus, extended N. "W. as far as the tower Psephinus, then turn- ing E. passed by the tomb of Helena on the north for some dis- tance, and finally turn- ed 8., joining the old wall E. of the temple. The present walls were built by the Turkish snltan Solyman the Magnificent in 1536-'9. They are 16 ft. thick at the base, and vary in height with the in- equalities of the ground from 25 to 70 ft. Their total circuit is about 2 m. The city is irregu- lar in its outline, but approaches a square whose four sides, each about i m. long, near- ly face the cardinal points. It has at pres- ent five gates that are open, two on the south, and one near the cen- tre of each of the oth- er sides. On the west is the Jaffa gate (or lab el-Khalil, Hebron gate), the chief entrance to the city ; on the north the Damascus gate (bob el-Amud, the gate of the columns) ; on the east St. Stephen's gate, called by the native Christians gate of our Lady Mary, and by the Mohammedans bab el- Asbat, gate of the tribes; on the south Zion gate (bab en-nabi Daud., gate of the prophet David), and another obscure portal, the Dung gate (bab el-Magharibek, gate of the Moors),