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
First of all, Captain Warren tells us that there was no ravine south
of the dome of the rock, for 'the crest of the rocky spur runs from the
north-west angle of the Dome-of-Rock platform in a south-east direction
to the triple gate in the south wall; and at these two points, and in
the line between them, the rock is at the surface.' Secondly, in
December, 1868, when the displacement of a stone by the rains enabled
Captain Warren to descend beneath the surface of the Haram, he found a
souterrain running east and west, in the line of the northern edge of
the Mosque platform, the southern side of it being scarped rock, on
which the wall supporting the northern edge of the Mosque platform is
built, but the rock itself appearing to 'shelve down rapidly to the
north.' In the following month Captain Warren ventured to suggest on
plan (lithographed plan 32) the possible course of a valley coming from
the Gate of the Inspector in the Tyropoeon, and running past the
north-western corner of the Dome-of-Rock, out eastward through the
Birket Israil (Pool of Bethesda). The souterrain may, as Captain Warren
observes, be claimed by one party as the ditch on the northern wall of
the temple, and by another as the northern ditch of Antonia; and the
valley--which owes its depth in one part of its course to what is
doubtingly called a 'natural or artificial ditch'--will of course be
claimed as that of the Asamoneans.
It is thus, in our opinion, rendered probable that the ground to the
west of that valley which runs from Damascus Gate constituted the old
town, the φρούριον of David's time, the upper market-place of
the days of Josephus; that the dome of the rock and the space to the
south of it represent the old Temple-hill; that to the north of this was
the valley of the Asamoneans; that between the latter and the valley
from Herod's Gate was the city of David, or Zion,[25] and that
north-east of the last-named valley was Bezetha. The name Zion got
transferred to the Temple-hill, or was made to include it, before or
during the times of the Maccabees, probably after the filling-up of the
intervening valley, and in the early centuries of the Christian era was
transferred to the western hill, which, after the Akra was cut down, was
the highest hill of the city.[26] Certainly there is still room for some
controversy on these points, and Captain Warren contributes something to
the discussion, in a long paper on the 'Comparative Holiness of Mounts
Zion and Moriah,' in which he argues that Zion was considered holy when
the ark was there, in David's time; that after the ark (and the
holiness) were transferred to Moriah, the name Zion got transferred
also, and that Josephus refrains from using the term Zion because he is
aware of this confusion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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