Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/638

 618 JERUSALEM tomb, covered with green cloth ; this is pointed out as the spot under which the body of David lies. At the foot of the mount of Olives, a short distance N. of the garden of Gethsemane, is the traditional tomb of the Virgin Mary, first mentioned in the 8th century. It fronts upon a sunken court reached by a short flight of steps. Within the door GO steps descend into the chapel, which seems excavated in the rock, and contains the tombs of Joseph and the pa- rents of the Virgin, as well as the empty tomb of the Virgin herself. About 100 paces from it is the traditional place of the assumption. In the city walls, a few yards E. of the Da- mascus gate, is an opening to an extensive cavern extending to a considerable distance under the city, and known as the royal quar- ries. Descending S., by a sloping hill formed of accumulated debris, the traveller arrives at the edge of a large pit, into which there is a passage in another part of the cave. To the left, through some windings, is an immense hall excavated out of the rock. Several blocks, nearly detached from the rock, may be seen, Tomb of the Virgin Mary. and the marks of the tools in the stone are plainly distinguishable. Modern exploration of Jerusalem begins with the visit of Dr. Edward Robinson in 1838, which was followed by his second journey in 1852. Dean Stanley, in his "Sinai and Palestine" (London, 1855), sug- gested the necessity of excavations in and about the city for the acquirement of certain knowledge of sacred localities ; but little was done till 1864, when Miss Burdett-Coutts, for the purpose of securing a better water supply for the inhabitants, gave 500 to pay the ex- penses of a topographical survey of the city, and Oapt. Wilson of the British army was de- tailed to conduct it. This led to the formation of the English society entitled " The Palestine Exploration Fund," which sent out in 1867 a party under the command of Oapt. Warren, R. E., who remained in Palestine three years, chiefly occupied in and around Jerusalem, where several important discoveries have been made. On the S. E. side of the city, where the wall rises to a height of about 55 ft. from the surface, a shaft was sunk and the founda- tion discovered at a depth of 73 ft., making a total height of nearly 130 ft. The masonry of the lower part must have belonged to the original wall, the bevelled stones giving indica- tions of Plioenician workmanship. On the im- mense blocks that form the base of the wall several marks in red paint were discovered, re- sembling Phoenician characters, though no one could explain their meaning ; it is supposed that they were made by Solomon's workmen. The wall extended further S. than the pres- ent one ; it ran S. by Ophel, and encompassed Zion. At the foot of Mt. Moriah, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, is the Virgin's fountain, an in- termittent spring ; the water flows out at the rear of the cave through an aqueduct excavated in the mountain into the pool of Siloam. Above this place, on Ophel, the engineers sunk another shaft, and discovered a Roman archway lead- ing to a small cave, at one end of which was a pit subsequently found to be connected with the subterranean aqueduct between the Vir- gin's fountain and the pool of Siloam. This important discovery goes far to explain how the city endured such protracted sieges. A little S. of the Jewish wailing place three large stones, forming a segment of an arch, are seen projecting out of the wall. Dr. Robinson was the first to identify it as part of the bridge that was built across the Tyropoeon. Oapt. Warren discovered the remains of the pier that sup- ported the other end of the arch, about 40 ft. beneath the surface, 50 ft. from the wall. The distance from the wall to the steep sides of Zion is 350 ft., and it is calculated that five such arches formed the bridge. Further N. he found the ruins of another similar bridge. About half a mile S. of the well of Rogel is a place called by the Arabs the Almond spring, where in winter the water flowed out; it was supposed to be an outlet to the well of Rogel, through which the superfluous water escaped. The engineers dug here, and dis- covered a passage hewn in the rock, but choked with earth and stones, which they cleared out ; it first led N. for several hundred feet, then took a N. W. direction, leaving Rogel on the right, and at last terminated in a small rock- hewn chamber, further than which no passage could be discovered. The party also excavated another remarkable rock-hewn passage, lead- ing S. toward the temple from the convent of the sisters of Zion. Mr. Schick, who discov- ered the well of Gihon, traced the aqueduct from the convent to the N. part of the city, where it is partially destroyed by the forma- tion of the ditch and the royal quarries. The chief executive and judicial officers of Jerusa- lem are Mohammedans. Christians hold sub- ordinate offices, and since the massacre of the Christians in the Lebanon, Damascus, Sidon, &c., in 1860, they have gradually been appoint- ed to places of trust. The United States, Rus-