I have mentioned, that on entering the vestibule from the outer court, we had before us the stone of unction, and on the left the entrance to the circular Church of the Sepulchre. On the right, at the distance of about thirty-five feet, is a narrow stairway of eighteen steps, cut in the solid rock, and leading to a platform elevated about sixteen feet above the lower church, and nearly square, having about forty feet on each side. This is Mount Calvary. The surface is now level, and paved with red marbles; and, by a kind of partition formed of two arches with square columns between, is divided into two chambers, one being nearly square and the other oblong. They are surmounted by a dome, more peaked than that over the church of the Holy Sepulchre. When we reached the top of the stairway, we found ourselves in the first of these chambers, or the square one; but were first taken across it into the other, where a large star, formed of marble mosaic work in the pavement, was pointed out as indicating the spot where the Saviour was nailed to the cross. That designated as the place where the crosses stood during the crucifixion is in the first chamber, at its northern side. Returning to this place, we found there a platform against the wall, running the whole way across the church, and sixteen inches in height by about three feet in width. It was also covered with marbles, and half way across had a large embossed silver plate with a hole in the centre; and this is said to be over the very spot where stood our Saviour’s cross. On each side are similar plates, said to be over the holes for the other two crosses; but the holes are so near together, that the arms of the three crosses could not have been in a line, unless, as might have been the case, that of the Saviour was higher or lower than the others. I put my hand several times through the hole in the central silver plate, and found beneath it a hollow of rough sides, rather large, and about a foot or fifteen inches in depth. Half way between it and the hole on our right, as we stood facing them, is another plate of silver about thirty inches in length, and with a narrow slit in it, corresponding, they informed us, to a fissure in the rock, the commencement of the crevice which we had seen below. There is something very much like a crack, about two inches wide, the opposite parts of which appear to correspond; but a close examination is prevented by the silver plate above; its direction is across the natural stratification of the rock. The object of these silver plates is probably to guard these places from violence, as pilgrims or other visitors are much given to chipping off fragments from such spots[53] for friends at home. Whether these are really the holes where the crosses stood, and whether this is a real fracture or “rent” in the rock, it is impossible to say; there can be no doubt, however, that this is really a mass of native rock; and its elevation is just such