Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/634

 614 JERUSALEM near the centre of the Tyropoeon. The Golden gate, on the E. side, is now walled up with solid masonry, and against it a tower has been erected, where a Mohammedan soldier is con- stantly on guard ; for the Turks have a tradi- tion that the Christians will some day enter by this gate and possess the city. Among the ancient gates mentioned in Scripture were the gates of Ephraim and Joshua, the horse, sheep, and fish gates (probably with adjoining mar- ket places for the sale of horses, &c.), and the old, fountain, and water gates. The streets are narrow, winding, dirty, and badly paved ; the principal and broadest street is about 15 ft. wide, and some are only 5 or 6 ft. The houses are built of heavy masonry, with thick walls supporting arched roofs. They have neither symmetry nor elegance, but the rooms are generally lofty and well ventilated. The houses are usually two or three stories high, with a plain front, few or no win- dows in the lower stories, and doors so low that a per- son must stoop in entering. The roofs are terraced or rise in domes, and the apart- ments receive light from inte- rior courts, which in the larger houses form cool and agreeable promenades, and sometimes are turned into gar- dens, where the household spend their leisure time. The principal apartments are in the upper story, the lower being having been the threshing floor of Araunah, an altar was built, and materials were collect- ed for the temple. The building was erected by Solomon about 1012-1005 B. 0., its general plan being taken from the ancient tabernacle, while the dimensions were exactly doubled. It was 120 ft. long and 60 ft. wide, and consisted of three parts, the porch, the holy place, and the holy of holies, surrounded on all sides but the front by small chambers arranged in three stories, for the priests. The porch probably rose in a lofty second story, and its ceiling was supported by two highly ornamented pil- lars of brass. The temple stood within courts and cloisters of great beauty, and was connect- ed by stone bridges spanning the Tyropceon valley with the royal palace and the city on Mt. Zion. It was destroyed by Nebuchadnez- zar in 586 B. C., and was rebuilt by Zerub- The Great Mosque (Kubbet es-Sakhra). occupied by lumber rooms, kitchens, stables, cisterns, and offices. Some of the houses are three or four centuries old. The city, as seen from the mount of Olives, above the an- cient Gethsemane, appears to be a regular inclined plane, sloping gently and uniform- ly from W. to E., or toward the observer, and indented by a slight depression or vale running N. and S., the Tyropceon, which was formerly a deep ravine, but was filled up by Simon Maccabfeus when he razed Acra. The elevation W. of the Tyropceon is Zion, E. Mo- riah and Ophel, N. Acra, and N. E. Bezetha. The S. E. corner is occupied by the great mosque and its extensive and beautiful grounds on Mt. Moriah, comprising about one seventh of the modern city. This enclosure corre- sponds, in part at least, with the ancient tem- ple area. The site was purchased by David, babel about 520, but of its restored charac- ter we have little information. The temple of Zerubbabel was standing however in the time of Herod, and the restoration by that king was in two parts: the temple proper, which the priests rebuilt in 18 months, not trusting the work to profane hands, and perhaps only re- pairing the ancient building; and the courts and porches or cloisters, which Herod greatly enlarged, spending eight years in fitting them for use, while the work of completion con- tinued nearly 50 years. The facade of the temple consisted of a lofty arch spanning the entrance. The temple was surrounded by a court about 360 ft. long and 270 ft. wide, adorned by porticoes and ten magnificent gates, one of them probably the "gate called Beautiful;" while beyond this was an en- closure about GOO ft. square, bounded by por-