The depression south of the rocky swell is the commencement of the Valley of Hinnom, which at first is almost imperceptible; but, deepening and contracting as it winds round the western side of the city, it runs for three quarters of a mile east by south to the Yâffa Gate, where it turns at right angles round the base of Mount Zion, having broken cliffs on the right, and shelving banks on the left. Running nearly due east for half a mile, it joins the Valley of the Kidron at the Pool of En-Rogel, where these two famous valleys become one, pursuing its sinuous course to the Dead Sea. Though but 44 feet deep near the Yâffa Gate, and 500 wide, it descends to the depth of more than 500 feet below the southern brow of Zion, and is broadest at the point of conjunction with the Kidron. From the beds of these valleys rise the defensive mountains around the Holy City. Though the lowest is less than 50 feet above the average level of the town, and the highest not more than 200, yet the triple summit of the Mount of Olives is more than 400 feet above the site of “Absalom’s Pillar” in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Mount of Corruption is 422 feet above En-Rogel, and the Hill of Evil Council rises 500 feet above the scorched rocks that line its base in the Vale of Gehenna. Occupying the southern portion of its ancient site, and surrounded, as in former days, with a massive wall, Jerusalem is a city without suburbs. Unlike the approach to Zidon on the coast, which is in the midst of groves of fig, orange, and mulberry-trees, covering many miles in extent; unlike the approach to Damascus, which is inclosed with gardens of exquisite beauty, through which the Abana flows in “pearly brightness and perennial music the livelong day,” the approach to Jerusalem is arrested by high walls and guarded gates, beyond which are no habitations excepting the wretched huts of Silwân on the south, clinging to the rocky fastnesses of the Mount of Scandal. Being a capital city, and situated in the most turbulent district of the country, such a defense is necessary as a protection against the sudden attacks of the wild Bedouins of the Desert and of the Ghôr. Strongly fortified in the time of Jebus, when captured by David, its enlarged area was afterward protected by massive walls and towers, on which the sacred poets dwell with so much religious pride and delight.[73] In the days of our Lord there were two walls――one inclosing Mount Zion, the northern section of which extended a distance of 1890 feet east and west; the other, inclosing Mount Akra, extended from the Garden Gate in the first wall to near the present Damascus Gate, and, curving to the southeast, intersected the Tower of Antonia on Mount Moriah. Mount Bezetha, with the table-land beyond, then formed the suburbs of the town; but after the crucifixion the space was inclosed by a third wall, by order of Herod Agrippa. During the bloody wars occurring between