All these look immediately down upon the royal palace, also on Mount Zion; and here the eye is wearied with tracing the labyrinth of courts, the succession of porticos adorned with rich and curious pillars, the ranges of lofty windows, giving light to halls where statuary and carved work have added their embellishments, and where the vessels are of silver and gold. And in the courts below and in the gardens are rare trees, and fountains, and brazen statues, and winding streams. No cost or skill has been spared in this palace by a prince whose resources were of the most ample kind. These palaces and courts and towers are the _Kremlin_ of Jerusalem. Observe now that long bridge, with its lofty arches, a striking feature in this scene, and adding greatly to its picturesque effect. It rises high above the dwellings of Acra, and, stretching quite across that portion of the city, connects the precincts of this palace with the Temple. But let us hasten to turn our attention to the Temple. The city has yet many striking objects that solicit our attention; the lofty and frowning castle of Antonia, palaces in great numbers, private edifices of remarkable architecture, brought out into strong relief by the uneven nature of the ground, invite our notice; but the wonderful Temple, grand, mysterious, awful, is here before us, and the eye glances impatiently at other objects. Let us turn then, and suffer our eyes to dwell and feast on this. And it is indeed a glorious sight. It stands here all before us, the walls that support its courts rising from the very depths of the valley of Jehoshaphat, and towering aloft to an astonishing, a giddy height. It was a bold and daring conception--that of carrying up this mountain of stone-work to such a stupendous elevation. This wall here fronting us is 729 feet in height![65] On the northern and western sides, owing to the inequality of the ground, the elevation is somewhat less.