=8. Parker’s Excavations at Jerusalem.=--In the years 1909, 1910, and 1911 an English expedition under Capt., the Hon. Montague Parker, a retired officer of the British army, made extensive explorations upon Ophel, the slope of the eastern hill south of the present city walls at Jerusalem. Parker was not an archæologist and the motive for the exploration is not yet disclosed. The party is said to have been abundantly supplied with money, and to have come to Palestine in a private yacht, which was anchored off Jaffa while they were at work. In 1911 the hostility of the Moslems became so excited by the rumor that they had attempted to excavate under the Mosque of Omar that the expedition came to an abrupt close, and the explorers escaped on their yacht. Through the descriptions of two residents of Jerusalem, Prof. Hughes Vincent[64] and Dr. E. W. G. Masterman,[65] we have some knowledge of the value of Parker’s work. He cleared the silt out of the Siloam tunnel so as to reveal its real depth, which seems to have been between five and six feet. It had been so silted up that it appeared to be only about half that depth. He also explored more fully the caves about Ain Sitti Miriam (the Biblical Gihon, 1 Kings 1:33), which had been partially explored by Sir Charles Warren, so that the nature and probable use of these are now known much better. More will be said of this in a future chapter. =9. Latest Excavations.=--Within the last few years the Assumptionist Fathers have been excavating on a tract of land purchased by them on the eastern slope of the western hill to the south of the present city wall. They believe that they have discovered the house of Caiaphas, to which Christ was led in the course of his trial (Matt. 26:57; John 18:24). Possibly they have found the house which, after the time of Constantine, was pointed out to Christian pilgrims as that of Caiaphas. However this may be, they have unearthed several streets of Roman and Jewish Jerusalem, and are keeping them uncovered. These streets, like the ruins of Pompeii, disclose pavements and house-foundations that may go back to the time of Christ. Here, possibly, one may look upon pavements which his feet actually trod.[66] In 1914 some excavations were made on Ophel at Jerusalem under the direction of Capt. Weil for a Jewish organization, and at the mound Balata, near Nablous, the Biblical Shechem, by the Germans. The work at Balata was under the direction of Prof. Sellin. Both are said to have made discoveries. At Balata it is said that the city gate of ancient Shechem was uncovered. Nothing has, however, been published concerning these, and the great war of 1914 brought all such work to a stop. The preparation of foundations of a new Jewish hospital near the Dung Gate has laid bare the aqueducts which conveyed the water from “Solomon’s Pools” into the city.[67]