Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and AdventureConder, C. R. (Claude Reignier)
History
Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure
Conder, C. R. (Claude Reignier)
Palestine -- Description and travel
From the first wall the second had its start, and here the difficulty
arises, and here also the real value of the rock-levels is most
noticeable. Can the wall be drawn to exclude the traditional Calvary, or
must it of necessity include that spot? The answer, I think, may be
given without hesitation, and the present site of the Holy Sepulchre
will probably be discarded by any unprejudiced inquirer, if the
following facts are taken into consideration.
The description of Josephus is tantalising from its brevity; but one
word seems wanting--a word which must be supplied by the rocks
themselves.
“The second wall took its beginning from the Gate Gennath, which
belonged to the first wall. It encircled the north quarter of the city,
and reached as far as the Tower Antonia” (B. J. v. 4, 2).
The word rendered “encircled” cannot well be construed with any other
meaning. The wall had no angles, as had the first and third, it
therefore required no lengthy description. The second wall started from
the first wall, and running in a curve enclosed the Lower City, and
terminated at the north-east corner of the Temple.
The one statement wanted is that which should fix the Gennath Gate,
which, as is generally admitted, was somewhere in the north face of the
wall of the Upper City.
Now, as we have seen above, a great valley separates the Upper City from
Acra, and a second valley runs southwards on the west side of the upper
hill. No military man will suppose for a moment that the wall of a
fortress could have been constructed in a deep valley and commanded from
without by high ground immediately near. The wall must have stood _on
the high ground_, and must have included one valley and excluded the
other. Thus we are confined to a very narrow limit--to that saddle of
rock at the head of the Tyropœon, which connects the great peninsula
of the Upper City with the Acra knoll, for this little saddle is the
only place where the rampart could protect the lower ground east of it,
and command the valley to the west.
Here, therefore, hidden by the palace of the Protestant Bishop, still
perhaps exists the foundation or the rock scarp, in which was the
Gennath Gate; and from this isthmus of high land the second wall circled
round to Antonia. The sudden deepening and the great breadth of the
Tyropœon appear to me to render it impossible to draw the line
farther east.
If we accept this new indication, the wall can hardly be drawn otherwise
than to include the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; for the knoll on which
that building stands is, as contended above, the knoll of Acra--the
Lower City included by the wall; and if this knoll be excluded, the same
military objection will again arise--the “encircling” wall would be
commanded by a hill immediately outside it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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