All round the hill of Sion[321], and particularly on that facing the Valley of Hinnom, are numerous excavations which may have been habitations of the living, but are more generally taken for sepulchres of the dead. They are numerous and varied, both in their sizes and forms; and are supposed to have been the tombs of the sons of Heth, of the kings of Israel, of Lazarus, and of Christ. The modern sepulchres of the unfortunate Jews are scattered all around. The declivities of Sion and Olivet are covered with small and ill-shaped stones, disposed with little order:--Here are the tombs of their fathers. The sepulchres of the kings of Judah consist of a series of subterranean chambers, extending in different directions, so as to form a sort of labyrinth, resembling the still more wonderful example, lying westward of Alexandria, in Egypt, by some called "the Sepulchres of the Ptolemies." Each chamber contains a certain number of receptacles for dead bodies, not being much larger than our coffins. The taste, manifested in the interior of these chambers, denotes a late period in the history of the arts. The skill and neatness visible in the carving is admirable, and there is much of ornament in several parts of the work. There are, also, slabs of marble, exquisitely sculptured. These sepulchres are not those of the kings of Judah. Some suppose they may have been constructed by Agrippa, who extended and beautified this quarter of the city; but the most current opinion is, that they were the work of Helena, queen of Aliabene, and her son Izatus. The Sepulchres of the Patriarchs face that part of Jerusalem where the Temple of Solomon was formerly erected. The antiquities which particularly bear this name, are four in number: these are the sepulchres of Jehoshaphat, of Absalom, the cave of St. James, and the sepulchre of Zechariah. These tombs display an alliance of the Egyptian and Grecian taste, "forming, as it were," says Chateaubriand, "a link between the Pyramids and the Parthenon." "In order to form the sepulchres of Absalom and Zechariah," says Dr. Clarke, "the solid substance of the mountain has been cut away; sufficient areas being thereby excavated, two monuments of prodigious size appear in the midst; each seeming to consist of a single stone, although standing as if erected by an architect, and adorned with columns, appearing to support the edifice, whereof they are, in fact, integral parts; the whole of each mausoleum being of one entire block of stone. These works may, therefore, be considered as belonging to sculpture, rather than to architecture: for, immense as these are, they appeared sculptured instead of being built. The columns are of that ancient style and character, which yet appear among the works left by Ionian and Dorian colonies, in the remains of their Asiatic cities."