It is unnecessary to describe the knoll, north of the Damascus Gate, which is now a Moslem graveyard, or the cliff on its south side in which is the so-called “Grotto of Jeremiah”; for the place is familiar to all who have visited the Holy City, and from many well-known photographs and drawings. It is called the Heidhemîyeh (or “cutting”) by Syrians, and it was very clearly outside the city in the time of our Lord, and even later, as we shall see in describing the course of the third wall. It is a site suitable for a public execution, having round it a flat amphitheatre of sloping ground. It is visible “afar off” on either side, and it is immediately east of the great north road. It is regarded still by the Jews of Jerusalem as being the ancient “House of Stoning,” and though this tradition cannot be traced in the scanty notices of the city to be found in the pilgrim texts of Jewish travellers, yet it is by no means modern, and it exists among the Sephardim families from Spain who have lived for centuries in Jerusalem. The circumstances thus enumerated give good grounds for the conclusion that this remarkable hill is not only the true site of the “House of Stoning,” but the actual site of Calvary, and as such it has been long regarded by many who have felt it impossible to accept the traditional sites shown in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[311] This site I advocated in 1878; and it was afterwards pointed out[312] that others, whose works I have never seen, had fixed on the same spot, including Otto Thenius in 1849, and Mr. Fisher Rowe in 1871; but neither of these writers has apparently mentioned the Jewish tradition. In 1881 Dr. T. Chaplin kindly arranged for me to go, with a respectable Spanish Jew, to see the reputed tomb of Simon the Just, and this guide pointed out the hill in question when we passed it as the ancient “House of Stoning.” After the publication of my suggestion in 1878, the idea was adopted, first by Mr. Laurence Oliphant, and afterwards in 1882 by General Gordon. The very general acceptance of the site was due no doubt to the great influence of the last named; but he added theories of his own, and thought that a tomb in the cliff--now known as the “Garden Tomb”--must be the true site of the Holy Sepulchre. [Sidenote: THE GARDEN TOMB]