one side, at the distance of five hundred feet, was the city wall; on another, the low and wretched suburb of a suburb; it was in an open place, with dusty roads to various parts of the city passing near it; a thoroughfare, in short, where the spectacle of dust and confusion was broken only by a few gardens, the remains of a larger range of such enclosures, now nearly destroyed by the encroaching suburb. Such is the scene which the result of my investigations, commenced there, and followed up since my return, places before me. I examined the ground in and about the city as carefully as my time would allow, and with the aid of Josephus, have constructed a map, which is here offered to the examination of the reader. In my younger days, I used to take great interest in maps of Jerusalem, till, finding that each differed from every other one, and that they were filled with the localities of public buildings, some of them evidently placed at random, I lost in a measure my confidence in all the plans, and as they furnished me with no means of judging for myself, I gave them up in despair; and this is probably the case with many other persons. [Illustration] In this map I have laid down nothing for which we have not authority, and I have in every part quoted the authorities; so that, if the reader chooses, he can examine and form an opinion for himself. He will find that I have been guided chiefly by Josephus, whose descriptions of the ancient city are, undoubtedly, by far the most correct as well as the most minute that we possess.[15] If I have not rightly understood them, it has not been from the want of study. I have read him carefully, and compared one part with another, and have seized on every allusion to localities, and have again and again studied and compared, and did not stop till I had a map that would correspond to all such descriptions and allusions. He is, I think, deserving of our confidence; for he spent much time in and about the ancient city; his duties as an officer in Titus’ army led him to examine, and as far as possible to get the admeasurements of its walls and towers; he must at this time have been preparing for his work on the Jewish nation, and probably made his records on the ground; and with a little allowance for the pride and prejudices of a Jew, as regards his country, seems to be a fair and candid narrator of events, a large part of which fell under his own observation. In some places he is obscure, and at times appears to contradict himself; but a little study will enable us to understand and reconcile most of these passages; in many parts, particularly in scenes of pathos, there is a simplicity and yet a force, in his descriptions, that are really admirable.