In front of us, on the opposite side of the valley of Jehoshaphat, were now two remarkable objects, and descending, we crossed a bridge which here spanned the dry channel of Kedron, in order to examine them. They are two square monuments, lying about thirty feet above the bottom of the valley, and seem to be partly imbedded in the side of the Mount of Olives. In fact they are cut out of that mountain, being composed each of the solid undetached rock, but isolated from the hill by a channel ten or twelve feet wide, cut at the back and sides. They are called the monuments of Zachariah and Absalom. The first of these is ornamented on each face with four semi-columns of the Ionic order, and a pilaster at each angle, crowned by an entablature, making, with the columns, an elevation of about twenty feet; all of this is one solid piece of rock. The whole is surmounted by a flat pyramid of masonry, the sides of which are smooth, and come down to the edges of the cubical mass. We can discover no opening of any kind in this monument, though there is doubtless a cavity beneath the pyramid. The monument of Absalom stands about one hundred feet north of this, and is nearly of the same dimensions; the columns in this, however, are of the Doric order, and with an entablature to correspond. These are also cut in the same mass of rock, but are surmounted by a square block of masonry edged with mouldings; this again by a circular mass similarly enriched, and this by a sharp pointed dome, which, finally, is crowned by a stone ornament resembling a flame of fire. In the hinder side of this monument is an opening about ten feet from the ground, giving access to a chamber in it, which is now nearly filled up with pebbles. Both Mahomedans and Christians, as they pass along, throw a pebble at the monument, to show their detestation of the unfilial conduct of him whose name it bears. The authority for calling it after Absalom is in 2 Samuel xviii. 18. “Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king’s-dale, ‘for,’ he said, ‘I have no son to keep my name in remembrance;’ and he called the pillar after his own name; and it is called unto this day Absalom’s Place.” It has been conjectured that the columns and other exterior ornaments are of more recent date than the rest of the work; but the parts all correspond so well, and harmonize also so well with the shape and proportions of the main body of the rock, that I can see no room for such an opinion.