When we read these descriptions in the light of our plan, things become tolerably plain. The south-western hill was the Upper City--a large flat-topped hill surrounded with deep valleys, and having a level of about 2550 to 2500 feet above the sea. The eastern hill is known to be the Temple Hill, which is number three in Josephus’s description. Bezetha (number four) is distinctly described as the hill north of the Temple Hill, and only divided from it at one point by an artificial cutting. The explorers have found this cutting, carried through a narrow neck of high ground, at the north-western corner of the Haram. Thus there is no room to question that “the second hill, which was called Akra and sustained the Lower City” is the hill projecting down from the north-west like a promontory, gibbous in its form. The Upper City was divided from Akra “by a broad valley,” now partly filled up, which was called the Tyropœon Valley, and beginning near the Jaffa Gate, “extended as far as Siloam Fountain.” The summit of Akra is not more than 2480 feet above sea level--considerably lower than the Upper City--and looks lower than it is, because the whole site of Jerusalem is tilted up from the west like an inclined plane, and because the valleys about the Upper City are deeper. Josephus says the Akra hill used to be higher, and sustained the Macedonian fortress called the Akra, which dominated the Temple. Being so near and so high, it enabled the garrison to look down into the Temple courts. They used also to run out and molest the Jews who were passing from the Upper City into the Temple by the western gate (Joseph. Ant. xii. 9, 3; 1 Macc. i. 36; and Warren in “Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology,” vii. 314). The Macedonian fortress was a thorn in the side of Jerusalem until Simon Maccabæus captured it and demolished it. At the same time he cut down the top of the hill itself; and perhaps it was with the material so obtained that he filled up the valley between Akra and the Temple. By the filling up of this valley, which it is convenient to call the Asmonean Valley, the two hills were joined together; and it would not be surprising if the terms “Akra” and “Lower City” soon after began to have an extended meaning, and to embrace all the buildings on both the hills which were now united into one. Having now a definite conception of the original lie of the ground, and knowing the four hills of Jerusalem by name and location, we can proceed to plant a few of the ancient buildings in their proper places. _The Temple of Solomon._--We have already seen reason for placing the Temple over the very summit of Moriah; but we must now make our reasons quite conclusive, and also show the limits of the Temple courts.