=8. Tombs with a Rolling-stone.=--One other type of tomb must be noticed even in this hasty sketch. To close a “doorway” tomb securely must always have been a matter of difficulty in Palestine. It was not easy with the kind of locks they had to keep intruders out of tombs. This led to the cutting of a large groove by the side of the doorway into which a rolling-stone was fitted. When it was desired to open the tomb, the stone could be rolled back. The stones were too heavy to be easily disturbed. It was in a new tomb of this type that the body of Jesus was laid, and it was such a stone that the women found rolled away on the resurrection morning. (See Matt. 28:2; Mark 16:3, 4; Luke 24:2; John 20:1, and Fig. 238.) CHAPTER XIII JERUSALEM[229] SITUATION. GIHON. CAVE-DWELLERS. THE EL-AMARNA PERIOD. JEBUSITE JERUSALEM. THE CITY OF DAVID: Millo. David’s reign. SOLOMON’S JERUSALEM: Site of Solomon’s buildings. Solomon’s temple. Solomon’s palace. FROM SOLOMON TO HEZEKIAH. HEZEKIAH. FROM HEZEKIAH TO THE EXILE. THE DESTRUCTION OF 586 B. C. THE SECOND TEMPLE. NEHEMIAH AND THE WALLS. LATE PERSIAN AND EARLY GREEK PERIODS. IN THE TIME OF THE MACCABEES. ASMONÆAN JERUSALEM. HEROD THE GREAT: Herod’s palace. Herod’s theater. Herod’s temple. THE POOL OF BETHESDA. GETHSEMANE. CALVARY. AGRIPPA I AND THE THIRD WALL. =1. Situation.=--Since 1867 excavations have been made at Jerusalem from time to time. The most important of these were mentioned in Chapter IV. An attempt will be made here to set before the reader the growth and development of Jerusalem from period to period, as that growth is now understood by foremost scholars. Our knowledge of the situation and form of the city in the different periods is based partly on formal excavations, partly on remains that have been accidentally found, and partly on a study of the references to Jerusalem in the Bible and other ancient writings. These references are interpreted in the light of the topography and of the archæological remains. Jerusalem is situated on the central ridge of Palestine, where the ridge broadens out to a small plateau. The plateau at this point is approximately 2,500 feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea. In a narrower sense the site of the city is two rocky promontories which run south from the plateau with the valley El-Wad (in Roman times the Tyropœon) between them. On the north these promontories merge into the plateau, but on the east, south, and west the valleys of Hinnom and the Kidron sharply separate them from the surrounding land. The steep sides of these valleys made fortification easy in ancient times. The highest point of the western hill is about 400 feet higher than the bottom of the Kidron valley, which in ancient times was 20 to 40 feet deeper than now; (see Fig. 240). Indeed, the position was almost impregnable. Only on the north was the city vulnerable.