The valley of Cheesemongers, commencing, as we have seen, just south of the temple, took a course to the north-westward, and formed the boundary of Mount Zion on the north, separating this hill from another on the eastward, called Acra,[30] probably from the Greek word _αχρος_, _high_. Acra was originally a flat[31] on the summit, except at one part, where it rose to a peak of sufficient height to overlook the temple. On this Antiochus Epiphanes (B. C. 168.) erected a citadel, strengthened with high walls and towers, which proved such serious annoyance to the citizens, that, under the rule of Simon Maccabeus, (B. C. 143.) not only was the citadel demolished, but, to prevent its being rebuilt, the hill or peak itself was cut down to the level of the adjoining ground. In this way the whole of Acra got to be comparatively low ground,[32] and, to facilitate intercourse between the Temple and the “Upper City,” or Mount Zion, a bridge[33] was carried from a gate near the S. W. corner of the Temple quite across to the neighborhood of the palace of David. Of the valley of the Cheesemongers after it enters the modern city, there are at present no traces, it having doubtless been filled up at the time when Jerusalem was levelled with the ground by order of Titus; but as Mount Zion was much higher than Acra, we may expect to find some remains of the steep ascent by which they passed from this valley up to Zion, or, as it was called by them, “The Upper City.” And of this there are considerable remains. Mr. Nicholayson’s house stands about three hundred feet a little east of south from the Jaffa gate, which is designated on this map by the figure 1, at the place where the roads from Bethlehem and Jaffa meet. Sixty feet eastward from his house is a slope, about twenty-five feet high, and so steep as to make it difficult even for donkeys to ascend. Standing on its edge, we are still able to overlook a large part of the city to the east of it. This slope continues thence to the south-eastward, keeping parallel to some extensive ruins now to be seen there, the remains of a hospital belonging to the time of the Crusades; the slope being separated from them by a narrow bazaar. This slope is undoubtedly the north-eastern edge of Mount Zion, and I have so expressed it in the map which we are endeavoring to form. I have not been able to trace it further than to the end of this bazaar; but as it passes in the direction of Siloam, or the opening of the valley of Cheesemongers, I have marked it in the map as continuing down to that place, as I have no doubt that it does. This gives us the northern boundary of Mount Zion exactly as described by Josephus, who says that “this city laid over against the temple in the manner of a theatre.”[34] At the place where this slope approaches the nearest to the valley of Hinnom, or near Mr. Nicholayson’s, I have placed the tower of Hippicus, which stood at the northern angle of the city of Zion.[35]