On this, the northern side, Jerusalem as it is approached appears to the best advantage, as the cultivated grounds, the olives scattered thickly around, the verdant slopes of the Mount of Olives, towering upward just on the left, impress the visitor favorably with the environs of the city; while the walls of the city itself, at the northern end battlemented in a fanciful manner, and by numerous angles broken in a picturesque form, produce, with their numerous towers, a very favorable effect. Jerusalem, however, seen from a great many points of view, is a highly picturesque city; and I can say for myself at least, that I found it presenting on the outside a more imposing appearance than I had anticipated. War and the earthquake had left the interior wretched indeed; nor, as far as we could judge, have its narrow streets, and its low rude houses, even in better times, any thing very attractive; but from numerous places without, and particularly as we wound along the valleys below, its battlements, and castles, and towers, rising from the edge of the high steep bank, and brought into strong relief against the sky, sometimes overhanging our path, and sometimes stretching off to a distance, appearing and disappearing along the uneven ground, had a very picturesque effect. When viewed from the Mount of Olives, the whole city appears like a map at our feet. The houses, which are of stone, are seldom more than two stories in height, and on the exterior are rude and without any pretensions to beauty; but when seen from an elevated spot, the city has a singular appearance, in consequence of the domes, with which every dwelling is covered. Sometimes every chamber in the house has its dome; and as these are whitewashed on the exterior, when we look down upon it from the Mount of Olives, the whole city appears dotted over with these excrescences. A couple of open green spots just within the walls, a few trees rising here and there, the tower of the church of the Holy Sepulchre and its large domes, several minarets, and close to us the extensive open court of the mosque of Omar, with its trees, and in the centre the handsome mosque itself, complete the view as seen from the Mount of Olives. The walls of Jerusalem are twenty-five or thirty feet in height, and are flanked with numerous towers, both circular and square; and at the Jaffa gate are still further strengthened by a mass of buildings forming a castle. There are four principal gates; and on the north and south two smaller ones or posterns, which, however, I believe are seldom used.