British Quarterly Review, American Edition, Vol. LIII: January and April, 1871Various
History
British Quarterly Review, American Edition, Vol. LIII: January and April, 1871
Various
English periodicals
It would be easy from these descriptions to trace an ideal map of
Jerusalem with its ancient hills and valleys; but such a map would not
correspond by a long way with Jerusalem as it is now. The city, as
enclosed by its walls to-day, approximates to the form of a
parallelogram whose eastern and western sides run north and south, but
whose western side as a whole stands more southerly than its eastern
side as a whole. From outside the Damascus Gate, near the middle of the
north wall, a very marked valley traverses the city, deepening as it
runs southward, and terminating by a junction with the Kedron valley
outside the south wall, near the Pool of Siloam. The half of the city to
the west of this valley is the higher of the two, and is itself highest
at its north-western part; the half of the city to the east consists of
the Haram esh-Sherêf--a raised platform about 1,500 feet from north to
south and 900 feet from east to west, and of about an equal space of
streets and houses. The Haram is the southern portion and is separately
enclosed with walls, though its entire east wall and two-thirds of the
south are coincident, so far, with the walls of the city. The one valley
from Damascus Gate gives us two hills within the city; but according to
Josephus there were four, and even if we suppose that Bezetha, the 'new
town,' last added to the city, was afterwards excluded from it by a
narrowing of the compass of the walls, we must still find a second
valley to give us a third hill. In the part of the city to the north of
the Haram area a valley runs down from Herod's Gate in the north wall
towards St. Stephen's Gate in the east wall; but the narrow ridge on the
north-east side of this valley is connected with the high ground outside
the city, and can hardly be of itself the third hill we are in search
of. There must have been a valley then which has become obliterated--in
fact, Josephus tells us that the Maccabees did fill up a valley, to
connect the city with the temple, in the second century B.C. But
inasmuch as the valley is not now apparent, it has to be supplied from
conjecture, and in consequence we have had a mass of topographical
controversy unequalled for its extent, its confusion, and its
bitterness. The valley from the Damascus Gate is usually identified with
Josephus's Tyropoeon valley or valley of the cheesemakers; but some
writers bring a valley across from the Jaffa Gate, which is near the
middle of the west wall, into this north-and-south valley, and call it
the Tyropoeon from Jaffa Gate to Siloam. The valley from Damascus
Gate, again, is often made to send off a branch to the east across the
Haram platform, cutting it sometimes near its northern wall and
sometimes farther south than the dome of the rock or Mosque of Omar,
which stands on a smaller platform near the centre of the larger. It is
disputed, also, which is the valley of Hinnom, which the valley of
Kedron, whether Hinnom was not on the east of the city, and whether
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