To the west of Jerusalem is a fair church, where the tree of the cross grew. And two miles from thence is a handsome church, where our Lady met with Elizabeth, when they were both with child; and St. John stirred in his mother's womb, and made reverence to his Creator, whom he saw not. Under the altar of that church is the place where St. John was born. A mile from that church is the castle of Emmaus, where our Lord showed himself to two of his disciples after his resurrection. Also on the other side, two hundred paces from Jerusalem, is a church, where was formerly the cave of the lion; and under that church, at thirty steps deep, were interred twelve thousand martyrs, in the time of king Cosrhoes, that the lion met in a night, by the will of God. Two miles from Jerusalem is Mount Joy, a very fair and delicious place. There Samuel the prophet lies, in a fair tomb; and it is called Mount Joy, because it gives joy to pilgrims' hearts, for from that place men first see Jerusalem. Between Jerusalem and Mount Olivet is the valley of Jehoshaphat, under the walls of the city, as I have said before: and in the middle of the valley is a little river, which is called the brook Cedron; and across it lies a tree (of which the cross was made), on which men passed over; and fast by it is a little pit in the earth, where the foot of the pillar still remains at which our Lord was first scourged; for he was scourged and shamefully treated in many places. Also in the middle of the valley of Jehoshaphat is the church of our Lady, which is forty-three steps below the sepulchre of our Lady, who was seventy-two years of age when she died. Beside the sepulchre of our Lady is an altar, where our Lord forgave St. Peter all his sins. From thence, toward the west, under an altar, is a well which comes out of the river of Paradise. You must know that that church is very low in the earth, and a part is quite within the earth. But I imagine that it was not founded so; but since Jerusalem has often been destroyed, and the walls beaten down and tumbled into the valley, and that they have been so filled again, and the ground raised, for that reason the church is so low within the earth. Nevertheless, men say there commonly, that the earth hath so been cloven since the time that our Lady was buried there; and men also say there, that it grows and increases every day, without doubt. In that church were formerly black monks, who had their abbot. Beside that church is a chapel, beside the rock called Gethsemane, where our Lord was kissed by Judas, and where he was taken by the Jews; and there our Lord left his disciples when he went to pray before his passion, when he prayed and said, "O, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me."[334] And when he came again to his disciples, he found them sleeping. And in the rock within the chapel we still see the mark of the fingers of our Lord's hand, when he put them on the rock when the Jews would have taken him.