Before the façade of the church is an oblong open court[400] paved with large slabs of Palestine breccia, which are all cracked, apparently by the action of fire; no improbable cause, when we remember how many Christians have suffered martyrdom by burning on this spot[401]. On the south side is a number of bases of columns arranged symmetrically, shewing that an arcade, if not a porch, formerly stood here. A flight of three steps leads down from these, and the rest of the area is perceptibly lower than the ground on the south, west, and north, and very slightly than that on the east. I remark this to shew, that as the place is in a hollow, it might have been used for a garden, but not for public executions. Below the pavement is the rock, which lies at the same level under the interior of the church, and under the floors of the buildings on each side, east and west. The cistern at the south-east corner of the place is a stronger proof that it was not used for executions. The court is bounded on the west side by the chapels belonging to the Greek convent of S. Constantine; and at the north-west corner is the bell-tower, erected between the years A.D. 1160 and A.D. 1180, and mutilated A.D. 1187 by the loss of the lantern which originally surmounted it. The Greeks have made rooms in it, which are now occupied by the monks[402]. On the east side is the Greek convent of S. Abraham; on the ground-floor of which are two chapels, one belonging to the Armenians and the other to the Abyssinians: through the latter the roof of the chapel of S. Helena, on the east, can be reached. Inside the convent of S. Abraham the Greeks point out to the credulous the spot where Melchizedek planted the first olive; on which one of those trees is still growing. They also shew the spot where he made the first bread, and that on which Abraham offered up his son Isaac.