1 The City as It Is
Its position.—Jerusalem is well described in Smith’s Dict. of the Bible. It lies near the summit of the broad mountain ridge, or high, uneven table-land which extends from the Plain of Esdraelon to the desert of the south. This tract is everywhere not less than from 20 to 25 miles in breadth, and has a surface rocky and uneven. Its height at Jerusalem is 2500 feet above the Mediterranean Sea; but it continues to rise towards the south, until, in the vicinity of Hebron, the elevation is nearly 3000 feet. The city occupies the southern termination of a table-land which is cut off from the country round it on the west, south, and east sides, by ravines more than usually deep and precipitous. These ravines leave the level of the table-land, the one on the west and the other on the north-east of the city, and fall rapidly until they form a junction below its south-east corner. The eastern one—the Valley of the Kedron, commonly called the Valley of Jehoshaphat—runs nearly straight from north to south. But the western one—the Valley of Hinnom—runs south for a time, and then takes a sudden bend to the east until it meets the Valley of Jehoshaphat, after which the two rush off as one to the Dead Sea. How sudden is their descent may be gathered from the fact that the level at the point of junction—about a mile and a quarter from the starting-point of each—is more than 600 feet below that of the upper plateau from which they commenced their descent. Thus while on the north there is no material difference between the general level of the country outside the walls and that of the highest parts of the city, on the other three sides, so steep is the fall of the ravines, so trench-like their character, and so close do they keep to the promontory, at whose foot they run, as to leave on the beholder the impression of the ditch at the foot of a fortress, rather than of valleys formed by nature.
The promontory thus encircled is itself divided by a longitudinal ravine—called the Tyropœon Valley, running up it from south to north, rising gradually from the south like the external ones, till at last it arrives at the level of the upper plateau, dividing the central mass into two unequal portions. Of these two, that on the west—the Upper City of the Jews, the Mount Zion of modern tradition—is the higher and more massive; that on the east—Mount Moriah—is at once considerably lower and smaller, so that, to a spectator from the south, the city appears to slope sharply towards the east. The central valley, at about half-way up its length, threw out a companion valley on its left or west side, which made its way up to the general level of the ground at the present Jaffa Gate.
One more valley must be noted. It was on the north of Moriah, and separated it from a hill on which, in the time of Josephus, stood a suburb or part of the city called Bezetha, or the New-town. Part of this depression is still preserved in the large reservoir with two arches, usually called the Pool of Bethesda, near the St Stephen’s Gate.
All round the city are higher hills: on the east the Mount of Olives; on the south the Hill of Evil Counsel, rising directly from the Vale of Hinnom; on the west the ground rises gently to the borders of the great wady; while on the north, a bend of the ridge connected with the Mount of Olives bounds the prospect at the distance of more than a mile. Towards the south-west the view is somewhat more open; for here lies the Plain of Rephaim, commencing just at the southern brink of the Valley of Hinnom, and stretching off south-west, where it runs to the western sea.
This rough sketch of the terrain of Jerusalem, which I take mainly from Sir George Grove, will enable the reader to appreciate the two great advantages of its position. On the one hand the ravines which entrench it on the west, south, and east—out of which the rock slopes of the city rose almost like the walls of a fortress out of its ditches, must have rendered it impregnable on those quarters to the warfare of the old world. On the other hand its junction with the more level ground on its north and north-east sides afforded an opportunity of expansion, of which we know advantage was taken, and which gave it a remarkable superiority over other cities of Palestine, and especially of Judah, which, though secure on their hill-tops, were unable to expand beyond them.
The western side of the city is more than 100 feet higher than the eastern; but the Mount of Olives overtops even the highest part of the city by more than 150 feet.
The Walls and Streets of the City.—Jerusalem is surrounded by walls some 40 to 50 feet high, imposing in appearance but far from strong. For the most part they were erected as they now stand by Sultan Suleiman, in the year 1542, and they appear to occupy the site of the walls of the middle ages, from the ruins of which they are mostly constructed. On the eastern side, along the brow of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the section of the wall south of St Stephen’s Gate is of far earlier date, and is constructed in part of massive bevelled stones. A great stone at the south-eastern corner is estimated to weigh more than one hundred tons; and this block is one of a course of stones, 6 feet in thickness, which extends along the south wall for 600 feet, though not without gaps. The walls nearly resemble York and other ancient cities in England, having steps at intervals leading up to the battlemented breastwork; and the circuit of them, according to Robinson and others, is something less than 2½ English miles. The form of the city is irregular, the walls having many projections and indentations; but it is easy to make out four sides; and these nearly face the cardinal points.
There are at present five open gates in the walls of Jerusalem—two on the south and one near the centre of each of the other sides. They all seem to occupy ancient sites, and are by name (1) the Jaffa Gate, or Hebron Gate, on the west, to which all the roads from the south and west converge. (2) The Damascus Gate, or Gate of the Column, on the north, from which runs the great north road, past the Tombs of the Kings, and over the ridge of Scopus, to Samaria and Damascus. (3) St Stephen’s Gate, or Gate of my Lady Mary, or Gate of the Tribes, on the east, whence a road leads down to the bottom of the Kedron, and thence over Olivet to Bethany and Jericho. (4) The Dung Gate, or Gate of the Western Africans, on the south, and near the centre of the Tyropœan Valley. A path from it leads down to the village of Siloam. (5) Zion Gate, or the Gate of the Prophet David, on the summit of the ridge of the hill now called Zion. Besides these, there are two gates now walled up, one being the Gate of Herod, on the north side, about half-way between the Damascus Gate and the north-east angle of the city; the other the Golden Gate, in the eastern wall of the Haram. The Arabs call this the Eternal Gate, and it is sometimes called the Gate of Repentance.
About one-sixth of the area of the city is occupied by the Haram or Sanctuary, on Mount Moriah, within which stands the great mosque, called the Dome of the Rock, and where also there is ample breathing space.
Jerusalem is not a fine city according to western ideas. It is badly built, of mean stone houses: and its streets and lanes are narrow, dirty, and ill-paved. There are, however, some beautiful bits of architecture; there are the grand walls of the temple area; and there is, above all, the intense interest of its Scriptural associations.
Entering the city by the Jaffa Gate we find on our right the citadel, with the so-called Tower of David. The street right before us is now called the Street of David, and descends eastward to the principal entrance to the Haram. Another main street commences at the Damascus Gate and traverses the city from north to south, passing near the eastern end of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and through the principal bazaar, and terminating a little eastward of the Zion Gate. These two streets divide the city into four quarters. The north-east is the Moslem quarter, the north-west the Christian quarter, the south-west the Armenian, and the south-east the Jewish. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is, of course, in the Christian quarter, where also we have the Latin Convent, very conspicuous from its lofty position near the north-west angle of the city. In the Moslem quarter is the Serai or palace, and most of the Consulates, and the beautiful little Church of St Anne. The Armenian Convent, the largest building in the city, occupies a noble site on the south-western hill. Near it, on the north, is the English church. But by far the most remarkable and striking building in this quarter of the city is the Citadel, whose massive towers loom heavily over all around them. The Jewish quarter has no structure of note with the exception of the new synagogues.
Jerusalem is not like Damascus, where the Moslem religion and oriental customs are almost unmixed with any foreign element, but is a city in which every form of religion and every nationality of east and west are represented at one time. “So motley a crowd” (says Major Conder) “as that which is presented daily in David Street and in the market-place under David’s Tower, is perhaps to be found nowhere else. The chatter of the market people, the shouting of the camel drivers, the tinkling of bells, mingle with the long cry of the naked Santon, as he wanders, holding his tin pan for alms, and praising unceasingly “the Eternal God.” The scene is most remarkable in the morning, before the glare of the sun, beating down on the stone city, has driven its inhabitants into the shadow. The foreground is composed of a tawny group of camels, lying down, donkeys bringing in vegetables or carrying out rubbish, and women in blue and red dresses slashed with yellow, their dark faces and long eyes (tinged with blue) shrouded in white veils, which are fringed perhaps with black or red. Soldiers in black and Softas in spotless robes are haggling about their change, or praying in public undisturbed by the din. Horsemen ride by in red boots with red saddles, and spears 15 feet long. The Greek Patriarch walks past on a visit, preceded by his mace-bearers and attended by his secretary. Up the narrow street comes the hearse of a famous Moslem, followed by a long procession of women, in white “izars,” which envelop the whole figure, swelling out like balloons, and leaving only the black mask of the face-veil visible; their voices are raised in the high-pitched tremulous ululation which is alike their cry for the dead and their note of joy for the living. Next, perhaps, follows a regiment of sturdy infantry marching back to the Castle, with a colonel on a prancing grey—men who have shown their mettle since then, and fat, unwieldy officers, who have perhaps broken down under the strain of campaigning. Their bugles blow a monotonous tune, to which the drums keep time, and the men tread, not in step, but in good cadence to the music. If it be Easter the native crowd is mingled with the hosts of Armenian and Russian pilgrims, the first ruddy and stalwart, their women handsome and dark-eyed, the men fierce and dark; the Russians, yet stronger in build and more barbarian in air, distinguished from every other nationality by their unkempt beards, their long locks, their huge fur caps and boots. Not less distinct are the Spanish, Mughrabee, Russian, and German Jews, each marked by a peculiar and characteristic physiognomy.”
Ten sects or religions are established in Jerusalem, and if their various sub-divisions are counted they amount to a total of twenty-four, more than half of which are Christian. The late Mr C. T. Tyrwhitt Drake gives the different races and creeds as follows:—
1. Abyssinians.
2. Armenians: (a) Orthodox, (b) Catholic.
3. Copts.
4. Greeks: (a) Orthodox, (b) Catholic.
5. Jews: (a) Ashkenazim, (b) Sephardim, (c) Karaite.
6. Latin or Roman Catholics.
7. Maronites.
8. Moslems: Sunni,—(a) Shafii, (b) Hanefi, (c) Hambeli, (d) Maleki. Shiaï,—Metawili, &c.
9. Protestants: (a) Church of England, (b) Lutheran.
10. Syrians: (a) Jacobite, (b) Catholic.
All these sects have their churches, synagogues, monasteries, hospices, which take up no inconsiderable portion of the square half mile of space within the city walls. Yet the population of Jerusalem was estimated at 20,000 in 1878, and there has been further influx since. But many of the new comers build dwellings outside the walls, and there is now quite a large suburb on the north-west.
The Haram esh Sherif, or Noble Sanctuary, on Mount Moriah, is a large, open space, of peculiar sanctity in the eyes of all true Moslems. Its surface is studded with cypress and olive, and its sides are surrounded in part by the finest mural masonry in the world. At the southern end is the Mosque El Aksa, and a pile of buildings formerly used by the Knights Templars; nearly in the centre is a raised platform paved with marble, and rising from this is the well-known Mosque, Kubbet es-Sakhrah, with its beautifully proportioned dome. Within this sacred enclosure stood the temple of the Jews; but all traces of it have long since disappeared, and its exact position was a fiercely contested question before the time of the recent explorations.
The Haram is a quadrangle of about 35 acres in area. The angles at the south-west and north-east corners are right angles, and the south-east angle is 92° 30´. The true bearing of the east wall is 352° 30´ (general direction). The length of the south wall is 922 feet on the level of the interior. The west wall is 1601 feet long; the east wall, 1530 feet. The northern boundary for 350 feet is formed by a scarp of rock 30 feet high, projecting at the north-west of the Haram.
The modern gateways giving entrance into the interior are eleven in number: three on the north and eight on the west. Of the ancient gateways there were two on the south, now called the Double and Triple Gates; while east of the latter is the mediæval entrance, known as the Single Gate, beneath which Colonel Warren discovered a passage. On the east wall is the Golden Gate, now closed; and two small posterns in the modern masonry are found south of this portal. On the west wall the Prophet’s Gateway (sometimes called Barclay’s Gate) is recognised as the southern of the two Parbar (or Suburban) Gates, mentioned in the Talmud; while the Northern Suburban Gate appears to have been converted into a tank, and lies immediately west of the Dome of the Rock. (This is Tank No. 30, Ordnance Survey.)
The raised platform in the middle of the Haram enclosure has an area of about 5 acres, and is an irregular quadrangle. The Kubbet es-Sakhrah, or Dome of the Rock, on this platform, covers the sacred rock, which rises 5 feet above the floor of the building, the crest being at the level 2440 feet above the Mediterranean. The Dome of the Chain is immediately to the east of the Kubbet es-Sakhrah.
The Jami’a el-Aksa, or “distant mosque” (that is, distant from Mecca), is on the south, reaching to the outer wall. The whole enclosure of the Haram is called by Moslem writers Masjid el Aksa, “praying-place of the Aksa.”
Entering by the gate of the Cotton Bazaar we stand within the temple courts. Before us are the steps which lead up to the platform where shoes must be removed; for while the outer court, like the old court of the Gentiles, is a promenade, the paved marble platform is a sacred enclosure, not to be trodden except barefoot.
Over the outer arcade of the Dome of the Rock runs the great Cufic inscription, giving the date of the erection of the building in 688 A.D. “The Dome of the Rock” (says Conder) “belongs to that obscure period of Saracenic art when the Arabs had not as yet created an architectural style of their own, and when they were in the habit of employing Byzantine architects to build their mosques.”
From the bright sunlight we pass suddenly into the deep gloom of the interior, lit with the “dim religious light” of the glorious purple windows. The gorgeous colouring, the painted wood-work, the fine marble, the costly mosaics, the great dome, flourished all over with arabesques and inscriptions, and gilded to the very top—all this splendour gleams out here and there from the darkness.
And in honour of what is this beautiful chapel built? A low canopy of rich silk covers the dusty limestone ledge round which the “Dome of the Rock” has risen. According to Arab tradition this Rock of Paradise is the source of the rivers of Paradise and the Foundation-stone of the world. From this rock Mohammed ascended to heaven (here is the impression made by the hand of the angel Gabriel, who held the rock down to prevent it from following the prophet), and this Rock is the Place of Prayer of all the Prophets.
Even more mysterious than the Sacred Rock is the Sacred Well below it. Descending a flight of steps at the south-east corner of the rock we enter a cave, in the rocky floor of which is a circular slab of marble, which returns a hollow sound when struck, but which is never uplifted. The Arabs appear to regard it as the mouth of Hell, for they call it the Well of Souls, and have a dread of the consequences if any evil spirit should escape. It is a tradition that in the Temple the ark of the covenant used to stand over this cave, and that it was afterwards concealed in the cave, or below it, by Jeremiah, and still lies hidden beneath the sacred rock.
The ground of the Haram enclosure is honeycombed with tanks, into some of which the water finds its way by unknown channels. One of the tanks is called the Great Sea, and would hold 2,000,000 gallons of water; another would hold 1,400,000, and all the tanks together 10,000,000 of gallons at the least. This would be more than a year’s supply for the city in its best days, a valuable resource in times of siege.
Solomon’s Stables.—Under the Haram area, at the south-eastern part, are the vaults known as Solomon’s Stables—thirteen rows of vaults of a variety of spans. They were used as stables by the Crusaders, and the holes in the piers by which the horses were fastened may still be seen. The name of Solomon’s Stables is supposed to have been given by the Crusaders, who may, however, have been guided by some earlier tradition. The vaults are in part ancient and in part a reconstruction, probably about the time of Justinian (sixth century A.D.).
The Jews’ Wailing Place.—Outside the Haram, on the west, and not very far from the south-west corner, is the Wailing Place of the Jews. From the Jaffa Gate we may reach it by going down David Street and through the fruit bazaar, and then turning through a by-lane. The Wailing Place is a narrow court, in which the temple rampart happens to be free and exposed in the Jews’ quarter. Every Friday the court is crowded with Jews who come to read and pray, and bemoan the condition of their temple, their holy city, and their scattered people. The scene is striking from the great size and strength of the mighty stones, which rise without door or window up to the domes and cypresses above, suggesting how utterly the original worshippers are cast out by men of alien race and faith. Here we may see venerable men reading the Book of the Law, women in their long white robes kissing the ancient masonry, and praying through the crevices of the stones, Russian Jews, Spanish Jews, German Jews, men, women, and children, with gray locks, or blue-black hair, or russet beard, and dressed variously, according to their country—strange and unique is the spectacle! “It reminds one forcibly” (says Conder) “of the unchanged character of the Jews. After nineteen centuries of wandering and exile they are still the same as ever, still bound by the iron chain of Talmudic law, a people whose slavery to custom outruns even that of the Chinese to etiquette, and whose veneration for the past appears to preclude the possibility of progress or improvement in the present.”
Pools and Fountains of Jerusalem.—Jerusalem is at present chiefly supplied with water by its cisterns. Every house of any size has one or more of them, into which the winter rains are conducted by little pipes and ducts from the roofs and courtyards. These private cisterns are generally vaulted chambers with only a small opening at the top, surrounded by stonework, and furnished with a curb and wheel. Many of them are ancient.
But besides these covered cisterns in the houses and courts, there are many large open reservoirs in and around the city. In the upper part of the Valley of Hinnom, west of the city, is the Birket el Mamilla, often called the Upper Pool of Gihon. Lower down in the same valley, and not far from the south-western angle of the city wall, is the Birket es Sultan, frequently called the Lower Pool. Because these pools are clearly related to one another as upper and lower, it has been usual to assume that they are upper and lower pools of Gihon, which seem to be referred to in 2 Chron. xxxii. 30, and elsewhere. But although the Sultan’s Pool has been called Gihon from the fourteenth century downwards, it is known to have been constructed by the Germans only two centuries before, and the word Gihon means a spring-head. From the Sultan’s Pool we may ride down the deep valley, on the south bank of which are the traditional Aceldama and the tombs of many Christian pilgrims, till we come to Bir Eyub (Joab’s Well), where the Valley of Hinnom unites with the Valley of Kedron. The Crusaders, who were never too well informed, identified Joab’s Well with the Biblical En Rogel. From this place we ride northward to the junction of the Kedron with the Tyropœon, and there, in a verdant spot, we find the Pool of Siloam, with dry stone walls and a little muddy water. With the village of Siloam on our right, we ride up the Kedron Valley some 300 yards, and arrive at the Fountain of the Mother of Stairs, also called the Virgin’s Fountain. Descending by a flight of sixteen steps we reach a chamber, its sides built of old stones and its roof formed of a pointed arch. Then going down fourteen steps more into a roughly hewn grotto, we reach the water. Mejr ed Deir states that the water of this fountain was a great test for women accused of adultery; the innocent drank harmlessly, but the guilty no sooner tasted than they died! When the Virgin Mary was accused, she submitted to the ordeal, and thus established her innocence. Hence the spring was long known as the Fountain of Accused Women. Dr Robinson imagined that this was the true Bethesda, because the water is considered to possess healing virtue, and every day crowds of men and women, afflicted with rheumatism and other maladies, descend the steps and wait for the moving of the waters. The flow is intermittent—due, it is supposed, to a natural syphon—and the waters rise suddenly, immersing the folks, fully clothed, nearly up to the neck.
The water wells up in the cave, and when it has attained a height of 4 feet 7 inches runs away through a passage near the back, into a small tunnel, and goes to supply the Pool of Siloam.
About 100 yards north-east of St Stephen’s Gate is the Pool of My Lady Mary, outside the walls.
Within the city, on your left as you enter by St Stephen’s Gate, is the Birket Israil, Pool of Israel, the traditional Pool of Bethesda (but only so since the twelfth century). It is now a receptacle for ashes and rubbish of all kinds; but it has at some time been used for water, for Warren found the bottom lined with concrete 16 inches thick.
Sometimes the Virgin’s Fountain is spoken of as the only spring of living water at Jerusalem, but it is possible, as suggested by Warren, that another existed at the Hammam esh-Shefa, or Bath of Healing, in the Tyropœon. The entrance to the fountain is by a narrow opening in the roof of a house behind the bath.
We need only mention further the Pool of Hezekiah, a large reservoir which lies in the centre of a group of buildings, in the angle made by the north side of David Street and the west side of Christian Street. It is stated that a subterranean conduit from the Birket el Mamilla passes underneath the city wall near the Jaffa Gate, and supplies both the Pool of Hezekiah and the cisterns of the citadel.
In ancient times water was brought into the city by two aqueducts, the “low level” and the “high level,” but the course of the former can alone be traced within the walls of the city. It crosses the valley of Hinnom a little above the Birket es Sultan, and winding round the southern slope of the modern Zion, enters the city near the Jewish almshouses; it then passes along the eastern side of the same hill, and runs over the causeway and Wilson’s Arch to the Sanctuary. The numerous Saracenic fountains in the lower part of the city appear to have been supplied by pipes branching off from the main, but the pipes are now destroyed, and the fountains themselves are used as receptacles for the refuse of the town. This aqueduct derived its supply from the Pools of Solomon (near Bethlehem), from Ain Etan, and a reservoir in Wady Arûb, and still carries water as far as Bethlehem; its total length is over 14 miles, not far short of the length of the aqueduct which Josephus tells us was made by Pontius Pilate.
The Pools of Solomon near the head of Wady Urtas are three in number; they receive the surface drainage of the ground above them and the water of a fine spring known as the Sealed Fountain. The pools have been made by building solid dams of masonry across the valley, and are so arranged that the water from each of the upper ones can be run off into the one immediately below it. The lower pool is constructed in a peculiar manner, which appears to indicate that it was sometimes used as an amphitheatre for naval displays; there are several tiers of seats with steps leading down to them, and the lower portion of the pool, which is much deeper than the upper, could be filled with water by a conduit from one of the other reservoirs.
The “high level aqueduct,” called by the Arabs that of the Unbelievers, is one of the most remarkable works in Palestine. The water was collected in a rock-hewn tunnel 4 miles long, beneath the bed of Wady Byar, a valley on the road to Hebron, and thence carried by an aqueduct above the head of the upper Pool of Solomon, where it tapped the waters of the Sealed Fountain. From this point it wound along the hills above the valley of Urtas to the vicinity of Bethlehem, where it crossed the watershed, and then passed over the valley at Rachel’s Tomb by an inverted stone syphon, which was first brought to notice by Mr Macneill, who made an examination of the water supply for the Syria Improvement Committee. The tubular portion is formed by large perforated blocks of stone set in a mass of rubble masonry; the tube is 15 inches in diameter, and the joints, which appear to have been ground, are put together with an extremely hard cement. The last trace of this aqueduct is seen on the Plain of Rephaim, at which point its elevation is sufficient to deliver water at the Jaffa Gate, and so supply the upper portion of the city; but the point at which it entered has never been discovered, unless it is connected in some way with an aqueduct which was found between the Russian convent and the north-west corner of the city wall.
The present supply of water is almost entirely dependent on the collection of the winter rainfall, which is much less than has generally been supposed, as, by a strange mistake, the rain-gauge was formerly read four times higher than it should have been. According to Dr Chaplin’s observations, the average rainfall during the years 1860–64 was 19·86 inches, the maximum being 22·975 inches, and minimum 15·0 inches.
In addition to Bir Eyûb, which has been described above, the inhabitants draw water from the Fountain of the Virgin and the Hammam esh-Shefa.
[Authorities and Sources:—Smith’s “Dictionary of the Bible.” “Survey Memoirs,” Jerusalem volume. “The Recovery of Jerusalem.” Sir Charles Warren. “Palestine.” Major Conder. “Modern Jerusalem.” C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake. “Walks about Jerusalem.” W. H. Bartlett. “Quarterly Statements of P. E. Fund.”]