Jerusalem Explored, Volume 1—Text: Being a Description of the Ancient and Modern City, with Numerous Illustrations Consisting of Views, Ground Plans and SectionsPierotti, Ermete
History
Jerusalem Explored, Volume 1—Text: Being a Description of the Ancient and Modern City, with Numerous Illustrations Consisting of Views, Ground Plans and Sections
Pierotti, Ermete
Jerusalem -- Antiquities; Jerusalem -- Description and travel
The central valley has already been mentioned several times. It agrees
in every respect with the Tyropoeon of Josephus[51], which
"distinguished the hill of the upper city from that of the lower, (and)
extended as far as Siloam." Many who have written on the topography of
ancient Jerusalem, especially Dr Robinson, assert that the Tyropoeon
valley ran eastwards from the Jaffa Gate till it joined the central
valley, at the point where the latter bends to the south-east, in its
course to the Pool of Siloam. In opposition to this opinion, and in
confirmation of my own, I have certain facts to bring forward. The
valley which I consider the Tyropoeon still drains the whole city; all
along it runs a sewer receiving those from the eastern and western
divisions. I have had frequent opportunities of ascertaining this, while
repairs were being carried on[52]. I found that the central sewer,
although 12, 16, and sometimes even 18 feet below the surface, was not
based upon rock, but upon made ground. During the repairs I searched for
the rock in the upper part of the valley, and found it at a depth of 18
feet, near the Damascus Gate, of 26 feet near the Temple Bazaar, of 22
feet at a few paces to the north of the Dung Gate. These facts shew that
there was formerly a valley in this part of Jerusalem. Now we cannot
adopt the position assigned to the Tyropoeon by Dr Robinson, for the
following reasons: (1) In the north ditch of the Castle of David we find
the rock, which extends thence in a north-west direction. I came upon it
in 1860, when a building (now used as a custom-house) was erected by the
Greek convent outside the wall adjoining the Jaffa Gate. (2) The rock,
found under the new buildings belonging to the Latin Patriarch a little
to the north of the castle, under the English church and under a new
building to the north of it, plainly shews that the head of the valley
could not be at this spot. On the south side of the Christian Bazaar is
the Greek Convent of S. John, and a few paces to the south of this the
Prussian hospital. While this was being built in 1858, I examined its
foundations, and ascertained the shelving stratum on which they rest to
be a continuation of the rock beneath the convent. Where then could the
valley be? (3) A similar state of things is found on descending about
350 feet to the east. (4) From west to east along the course of the
supposed valley runs a sewer, 6 feet below the ground, cut in some parts
in the rock. This I helped to repair at several points in 1856, and was
able to ascertain that there was but very little made ground anywhere
near it; I cannot therefore allow that there ever was a valley at this
place. Brocardus about A.D. 1283, Adrichomius and Villalpandus near the
close of the sixteenth century, assert that this valley existed, but to
prove their statement they ought to have made excavations. They must
have seen Jerusalem in a condition very like its present, especially as
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