The loftiest, the most extensive, and in all respects the most conspicuous eminence, included within the site of the ancient city, was that of Sion, called the Holy Hill, and the citadel of David. This we have positive authority for fixing on the south of the city. David himself saith, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion; on the sides of the north the city of the great King[318]." "On its summit," says La Martine, "at some hundred paces from Jerusalem, stands a mosque and a group of Turkish edifices, not unlike an European hamlet, crowned with its church and steeple. This is Sion! the palace, the tomb of David! the seat of his inspiration and of his joys, of his life and his repose! A spot doubly sacred to me, who have so often felt my heart touched, and my thoughts rapt by the sweet singer of Israel, the first poet of sentiment, the king of lyrics. Never have human fibres vibrated to harmonies so deep, so penetrating, so solemn; all the most secret murmurs of the human heart found their voice and their note on the lips and the heart of this minstrel! and if we revert to the remote period when such chants were first echoed on the earth; if we consider that at the same period the lyric poetry of the most cultivated nations sang only of wine, love, and war, and the victories of the muses, or of the coursers at the Eleian games, we dwell with profound astonishment on the mystic accents of the prophet king, who addresses God the Creator, as friend talks to friend, comprehends and adores his wonders, admires his judgments, implores his mercies, and seems to be an anticipating echo of the evangelic poetry, repeating the mild accents of Christ, before they had been heard. Prophet or poet, as he is contemplated by the philosopher or christian, neither of them can deny the poet king an inspiration, bestowed on no other man! Read Horace or Pindar after a Psalm? For my part I cannot!" Near Jerusalem is a spot called Tophet, which is a ravine, which contains several ancient tombs, marked with Hebrew and Greek inscriptions. This valley is remarkable for the barbarous worship here paid to Moloch; to which deity parents often sacrificed their offspring by making them pass through the fire. To drown the lamentable shrieks of the children[319] thus immolated, musical instruments were played. After the captivity the Jews regarded this spot with abhorrence, on account of the abominations which had been practised there; and following the example of Josiah[320], they threw into it every species of filth, as well as the carcases of animals, and the dead bodies of malefactors; and to prevent the pestilence which such a mass would occasion, if left to putrefy, constant fires were maintained in the valley in order to consume the whole; hence the place received the appellation of Gehenna.