through which the priests bore water, drawn from Siloe, in a golden vessel, to pour out during the Feast of Tabernacles. The quaint name of Solomon's Stables, which is attached to the substructure of the south-eastern angle of the Haram, and the extraordinary width of the gateway, are among the circumstances which enable us to identify the triple gate with the Porta Equorum, or Horse Gate. Through the double Huldah Gate a line drawn to the north crosses the site of the Great Altar, and then marks the centre of a partially explored crypt, or subterranean gallery; of which Josephus speaks as affording a communication between Antonia and the Inner Temple. 6 On the west, the double gate Kipunus, of the Talmud,* is referred to by Josephus,† as leading to Akra. The arch, yet existing, is probably a Roman restoration; ancient piers exist below the surface. Over this arch yet runs the aqueduct, by which, according to the Jerusalem Talmud, water was brought from Etam to supply the brazen laver. It is probable that this was the High Gate of the House of the Lord,' which was rebuilt by King Jotham. Symmetrically disposed with this causewayed gate is one which bears the name of the Iron Gate; and thus recalls the memory of Peter's escape from prison. At the south, the remains of a second bridge, central to the Royal Cloister, and leading to the vertical scarp of Sion, show the position of the Ascensus domus David of the Book of Nehemiah. Between these two causewayed gates, and spaced at a symmetric interval, is the Bab al Magharibé, or Prophet's Gate, which appears to have given access from the suburbs to the Royal Cloister; and is probably one of the four western gates mentioned by Josephus. In the centre of the western wall, behind the Holy House, is a remarkable group of three gates, which appear to have been intimately connected with the service of the Temple-the southern adit, pierced in the wall, probably serving for the introduction of the lambs for the continual offering; six of which were always kept in a chamber at the south-west angle of the Sanctuary. North of the Iron Gate further exploration is necessary. Three gates on the western wall were probably connected with the defences of Antonia. On the north the name of the Gate Tadi, or Obscurity, is still preserved in that of the Bab al Atm; but the exact position of the ancient gate, its vestibule † Ant. XV. ii. 5. * Middoth, i. 3. and adit, have yet to be discovered. This gate alone had a pediment or inclined architrave, all the others having flat lintels; the gigantic blocks of which are in several places visible.* The intimation given in the Bible of the connexion of that gate with idolatrous worship should stimulate the explorers. Of the remaining gates on the north wall; the nine-chambered crypt that probably underlay one of the corner towers of the castle of Antonia, and the two pairs of twin tunnels which may possibly afford traces of the engineering attacks by Pompey and by Titus on that fortification, it is premature yet to speak. The north-east angle of the Haram is the only one not equidistant from the centre line. The now projecting tower is not indicated in the plan of the foundation, which runs on straight to a point at the same distance from the centre as the other angles, where the masonry changes its character.† We conclude that the original plan of the Sanctuary has here been modified, to which fact Josephus refers; probably to give accommodation to the Birket Israil. Further exploration is here requisite. The area within the great wall of the Sanctuary is irregular or level, partially covered with grass, and dotted with a few trees. Numerous little houses or chambers are there, in an order by no means regular. Near the centre of the area is the paved platform, partly walled, partly rock-hewn, on which stands the famous mosque built by the Caliph Abd el Melek to replace the original structure reared by Omar over the Praying-place of the great Prophets. The effect of the contrast from the bright light without, to the enormous, dark, gloomy building, dimly lighted with the most glorious stained glass, is more imposing than that of York, of Westminster, or of Seville. Pillars of the richest marble, but of every conceivable diameter and style of capital, the spoils of various ruined buildings, support the great dome; covered with mosaics, arabesques, inscriptions, and gilding to the very top, just dimly gleaming out of the darkness. Beneath, a canopy of bright silk hangs over the dusty rock of the Sakrah.‡ * Ez. viii. 5. Recovery of Jerusalem, p. 162. The best description of the Sakrah is to be found in M. de Vogue's Eglises de la Terre Sainte,' p. 279. He states that this venerable memorial fills the centre of the Mosque of Omar, rising from three to six feet above the pavement. The irregular hollow or cavern at the south-east end of it identifies it with the 'lapis pertusus' of Constantine; and the profound veneration with which this rock is regarded by Jews and Mahometans is probably a tradition connecting it with the Temple. No spot on the surface of the planet can appeal more powerfully to the imagination than the Great Altar Mountain of Moriah: no place is so luminous in historic association. It is the very mooring-stone of monotheistic faith. On the rocky crest of its lofty summit, in the belief alike of the Jew, the Christian, and the Moslem, the veil that shrouds the invisible world has been most often and most evidently raised. Here, according to the oral tradition handed down by eightyeight successive occupants of the dignity of high priest, the common ancestor of all the Arabian tribes laid the wood in order for the meditated sacrifice of his son. Here the shepherd who won the throne on which, as reigning over an undivided people, only three kings sat, saw the angel stand between the earth and the heaven, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Here was believed to dwell, at least for the 423 years of the first Temple, if not for the full millennium during which sacrifice was offered on the altar, the shadow of the cloud and the glory of the Shekina, and to whisper the small still voice of the Bath Col. Here, again, according to a second group of sacred traditions, to the priest Zacharias, at the Feast of Lights in the 35th year of Herod the Great (when the course of Abia was in attendance), appeared an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. In one of the numerous chambers within that colossal wall, sat the divine Child, in the midst of the elders of the Sanhedrim, both hearing them and asking them questions. Under the Royal Cloister, cresting the great southern wall, twenty years later, the Son of Mary walked in the winter, at the Feast of the Dedication. Here, again, in the belief of the present guardians of the Sanctuary, from the very place where Abraham, and David, and Solomon had prayed, the great Arabian prophet took his upward journey, in a vision more momentous to the world than either of those in which Isaiah, Amos, and Ezekiel had been rapt to the same place. No spot so consecrated by sacred legend exists on the surface of the earth. The skill, the art, the mighty toil, that have been devoted to the adornment, and to the desecration, of this most ancient place of worship, have been of extraordinary magnitude. The grandest legacy of Egyptian antiquity, the Great Pyramid, demanded, indeed, a larger amount of naked human labour; but in Moriah there is a compulsion of the features of Nature herself to the service of the builder. In actual bulk, the Great Pyramid is to the Temple rock as five to nine, if we descend but as far as the sills of the five double VOL. CXXXVII. NO. CCLXXIX. C gates of the Mountain of the House. If we carry the comparison down to the level at which the lowest foundation of the walls is inlaid in the rock at the angles of the enclosure, the bulk is three times that of the Great Pyramid. The cubic contents of the mason's work may not amount to a tenth part of that piled up by Souphis. But the hill has been honeycombed with chambers and galleries; and the declining part to the south covered with vaults and arches, to which Gizeh can show no parallel. No merely artificial structure could have so successfully resisted the resolute efforts of the two greatest military nations of the ancient world to destroy its existence and to obliterate its memory. No other monument, long surviving the era of Asiatic and Italian power, can ever, like the Noble Sanctuary, mark by its very ruins the successive periods of its glory and its fall. If we regard not so much the evidence of the labour devoted to the work of the Temple as the effect produced on the mind by its apparent magnitude, we may suggest the following comparisons: The length of the eastern wall of the Sanctuary is rather more than double that of one side of the Great Pyramid. Its height, from the foundation on the rock at the south, and near the northern angles, was nearly a third of that of the Egyptian structure. If to this great height of 152 feet of solid wall be added the descent of 114 feet to the bed of the Kedron, and the further elevation of 160 feet attained by the pinnacle of the Temple porch, we have a total height of 426 feet, which is only 59 feet less than that of the Great Pyramid. The area of the face of the eastern wall is more than double that of one side of the pyramid. Thus the magnitude of the Noble Sanctuary of Jerusalem far exceeded that of any other temple in the world. Two amphitheatres of the size of the Coliseum would have stood within its colossal girdle, and left room to spare. The Coliseum is said to have seated 87,000 spectators, and accommodated 22,000 more in its arena and passages. For such a number to have been crammed within its circle, the space for each person must have been limited to 17 inches by 20 inches. Allowing 2 cubits each way, or 4 square cubits, for each worshipper, in the Temple, the Sanctuary would have contained 30,000; the Chel, excluding the Priests' Court, 26,000 more; and there would yet have been room in the Great Court and the cloisters to make the total reach to more than 210,000. The walls of the Sanctuary do not bear the primary characteristic of fortifications. They have, with an exception to be noticed, neither salient angles nor projecting towers. Their course has been determined, as we shall show, by the most precise linear measurement. The oblique lines of the interior platform (into the reason for which we shall presently inquire) are characterised, to a certain extent, by a want of parallelism to the exterior walls. But the depth of the Kedron ravine has also been taken into consideration by the architect. The loftiest portions of the wall, at the south-east angle, and towards the northern extremity, are laid on foundations in the rock approximately level, not only with each other, but also with that of the south-west angle, which alone is rectangular. It will be seen hereafter that an irregularity, at first very perplexing, furnishes a most remarkable proof of the thoughtful accuracy that superintended the execution of the original design. Without the area of the Noble Sanctuary but little trace of the principal buildings of ancient Jerusalem has been discovered. We have yet to seek for the foundations of the royal palaces, of the Xystus, and of the monument of the High Priest John. The tombs of David and of the ten of his descendants who were buried in the royal sepulchres of Sion may even yet remain unrifled, if they were concealed as carefully as we are told by Josephus was the case. Of the aqueducts, one, the low-level line, is yet in a state to supply water to the Haram. A second has been traced, in sections, to near the Jaffa Gate but has not yet been identified within the city. A third, entering the precincts near the Damascus Gate, and thus corresponding to the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field' of the time of Hezekiah, appears to have been disused at least since the time of Herod. Its course has been traced by the west wall of the Sanctuary, till it falls into the present sewer. A remarkable rock-cut passage connected with the Pool of Siloam appears, according to Captain Warren's account, to be yet unfinished. The introduction of syphon-formed conduits, causing an intermittent flow of the water, is the most striking peculiarity of this ancient hydraulic system. The masonry of the Sanctuary wall has been examined by Captain Warren in twelve separate places. It is tedious to trace in detail so many minute observations, the combined result of which is nowhere grasped. But the labour brings with it a reward of adequate value. The ancient law-for reasons into which the criticism of the nineteenth century does not care to inquire-forbade at the same time the erection of an altar of hewn stone, and the tonsure or mutilation of the priest. A great unwritten tradi |