The modern Jerusalem is about three fourths of a mile at its greatest length, and about two thirds of a mile in width.[54] It contains a population of about 20,000 persons; namely, 10,000 Mahomedans occupying principally the northern and eastern portions; 6,000 Jews living on what was formerly the Acra; 3,500 Greeks and Catholics, around the church of Calvary; and about 500 Armenians, in and about their great convent on Mount Zion. Of the last eminence only a small portion is included within the limits of the present city. Seen from the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem appears to stand on a plain declining gently towards the east; but the ground is far from being an unbroken level. On the contrary, it is quite uneven, though in no part rising into hills, unless the remains of Mount Zion be entitled to this name. The steep descent from Zion on the eastward I have already noticed. Passing from Calvary to the south-east, we begin immediately to descend, and towards the site of the ancient castle of Antonia the slope is very rapid; then succeeds a piece of low ground for the space of 100 feet; and next as we reach the site of the castle is an eminence fifteen or twenty feet in height, with a rapid ascent from the west, but sloping gradually down towards the gate of St. Stephen (marked _c_) in the eastern wall. From Calvary, northward and westward, the ground ascends by a gentle inclination, with the exception of the rapid slope already mentioned, at the line which I have marked for Agrippa’s wall. But this slope does not continue far. Without the city on the south and west, after crossing the valley of Hinnom, we find ourselves on an open and rather barren plain ascending gently as it recedes from the city, and stretching off for a distance of two or three miles; on the northward the ground is rolling for a few miles, when it begins to ascend, and at the distance of about five miles attains considerable elevation; there was probably the _Scopus_ of ancient times.