The temple of Jerusalem, in which the national life of the Jews was concentrated, was also, as we have said, the summary of their art and industry. In vain have many archæologists, during the last sixty years, made efforts to discover in Palestine, or in the other regions of southern Syria, and even in the heart of Arabia, traces of an art which might have flourished in these regions before the arrival of the Greeks and Romans. Travellers have indeed observed at Ala-Safat, at Jebel-Musa, in the land of Moab, on the Bahr-el-Huleh in Galilee, near Hesban, and in many other places, dolmens and upright stones, analogous to those in Africa, in Brittany, and on Salisbury Plain, and remains of walls of Cyclopean masonry, no doubt built by those giants, the Rephaim and the Anakim, who, as the Bible tells us, were the first inhabitants of these regions. Certain circles of great blocks, like those of Minyeh and Deir Ghuzaleh in the land of Moab, may have marked the bounds of sacred enclosures, temples in the open air, that is to say, of those _bâmoth_, or “high places” of which the Scriptures so often speak. But these barbaric remains, like the borders of certain wells at which, perhaps, the flocks of the patriarchs slaked their thirst, have little interest for the history of art. No idea can be formed of civil architecture except by imaginary restorations. Solomon’s palace, which communicated with the temple and was situated to the south, upon Ophel, was demolished and rebuilt twenty times with incessant modifications, until its final ruin. The principal building, standing in the middle of a spacious court, enclosed by supporting walls which bounded the hill like the temple-enclosure, was called the _House of Lebanon_, after the place whence the timber was brought of which it was partly constructed. It was 100 cubits long, 50 broad and 30 high; its walls were built of large blocks; forty-five cedar columns were counted in it, divided into three rows, and supporting architraves of the same sweet-smelling wood.[89] This edifice was used as an arsenal: like the monarchs of Nineveh, the kings of Judah had a magazine of weapons in their palace. Behind were the royal apartments, consisting of a hall of columns, and another room panelled with cedar, called the _throne-room_; in front of the former stood a porch 50 cubits long by 30 broad. There were also the _selamlik_ and the _hareem_, arranged as in all oriental palaces. The offices communicated with the city by means of the _Horse Gate_; the _Upper Gate_ gave access to the temple-enclosure. This is the extent of our information upon the subject of Solomon’s palace.