The whole account of the walls is twice repeated in describing their building and their consecration.[159] For the right understanding of these passages it is necessary to keep in mind certain practical considerations. In the first place, the lines of streets in a city are usually preserved from age to age by the fact that the ground on each side of the way is private property which can only be acquired at great cost, or by seizure in cases when a foreign power attempts the rebuilding of a town. Thus the modern streets are the same which we find described in the twelfth century; the same shown on the old mosaic map of the fifth century; the same which existed in Hadrian’s city; and very probably the same as in the days of Nehemiah. The west road approached Jerusalem at the point where the narrow neck of high ground was on the same level with that of this road outside the town. A street went straight down the Tyropœon, from the west gate to the Temple. The north road divided just outside the town of Nehemiah’s time into two lines. One of these, towards the east, led down the valley west of the Temple, and descended by steps to Siloam. These steps seem even to be shown on the fifth-century map, and the old pavements on this line--40 feet underground--have already been noticed. A gate must have existed in the south wall on this line. The western branch of the north road formed a street running due south through the middle of the city; and, ascending the steep slope of the upper city on the present line, it led probably to the gate near the south-west angle above the Hinnom Valley. Another line of street led east from a gate near the north-west side of the northern quarter, and passed north of the Temple to a gate in the east wall of the city. These are still the main streets of Jerusalem, and they lead us to suppose that the city had at least six gates, not counting those on Ophel and on the east wall of the Temple enclosure. [Illustration: JERUSALEM IN 600 B. C. REFERENCES 1 _The Sheep Gate_ 2 _The Tower Hananeel_ 3 _The Tower Meah_ 4 _The Fish Gate_ 5 _The Old Gate_ 6 _The Ephraim Gate_ 7 _The Tomb of David_ 8 _The Lower Pool_ 9 _The Valley Gate_ 10 _The Corner Gate_ 11 _The Upper Pool_ 12 _The Dung Gate_ 13 _The Spring Gate_ 14 _The Gate between Two Walls_ 15 _The Water Gate_ 16 _The Outlying Tower_ 17 _The Horse Gate_ 18 _The Healing Bath_ ]