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
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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
Let us now examine the north side of the _Haram_. I have already
mentioned the depth of the foundations of the north walls of the
barrack[287]; but on the south the masonry rests upon the bare rock,
which here rises 35 feet above the level of the _Haram-es-Sherîf_ as is
shewn in the drawing[288]; its north face being 55 feet above the bottom
of the valley. Hence I cannot admit the common tradition that the
barrack stands on the site of the Antonia, but consider that the rock
above named is the true position of the _north_ side of the ancient
tower. This opinion, I think, is in accordance with all that Josephus
says of its height and situation, divided from Bezetha by a valley and
ditches[289]. If its southern side had coincided with that of the
barrack (which the height of the rock mentioned above entitles us to
assume), I cannot understand why it was built in so bad a position,
where it would be completely commanded by Bezetha, and from which it
could not have been separated by any work of defence. Besides, where are
we then to place the pool Struthium[290]? We must remember that the
shape of the Antonia was a square, each side being half a stadium; it
must therefore have extended to the north right across the valley. Now
if it had stood in this position, Titus would not have been obliged to
batter its walls with engines, and to throw up banks to support them and
to enable his troops to make the assault; because he could have poured
upon it such a storm of stones and combustibles from the summit of
Bezetha, that the garrison would have been obliged to evacuate so
untenable a post. Moreover, Josephus states, that the perimeter of the
Temple and the Antonia together was 6 stadia[291]. Now according to
every estimate of this measure, this condition cannot be satisfied
unless the latter is placed _within_ the north-west angle of the
_Haram_, as the description in Josephus seems to require[292]. We are
also told that it was razed by Titus; the place which I assign still
bears traces of this; and as a still stronger proof, there remains, in
the middle of the rock that has been thus levelled, a fragment of the
ancient Herodian wall; which I believe to have formed the south-east
corner of the inner buildings of the tower, i.e. of the Prætorium. On
the west is the house belonging to the Pasha, governor of Jerusalem, and
there I have seen, by means of excavations, the rock in the foundations
and, resting against it, the earth which conceals the valley filled up
by the Asmoneans. Lastly, there is a vault, which starts from the
position I assign to the Antonia and goes towards the present Golden
Gate. This I discovered by descending into two cisterns on the north of
the _Haram_, and by the fall of the west portion of an old wall, near
the north-west corner of the above gate, which, being washed away by the
rain, exposed the other end. I was not able to pass along its whole
extent, as it was nearly filled up by rubbish, but by examining the two
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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