the platform surrounding the Dome of the Rock, where an ancient scarp with projecting buttresses was found by Sir Charles Warren in 1868; and the rock outside this scarp is at least 20 feet lower, which makes it about 40 feet below the level of the Ṣakhrah crest. [Illustration: DOME AT THE DOUBLE GATE. From de Vogüé.] Besides these remains of the walls we have those of the south-west gatehouse, which is now known as the “Double Gate,” and these are of peculiar interest as regards the architectural character of Herod’s Temple; for Fergusson, de Vogüé, and other authorities regard the interior hall at this gateway as being of the Herodian age. The original gate was double, with a central pier supporting two great lintel stones, to which an arched cornice was added above in the Byzantine age, on the outside. The hall floor is on the level of the rock outside, and the gate was underground, a passage leading up north from the back of the gatehouse to the surface of the courts within, under the royal cloister. The present “Triple Gate,” which was altered later, seems originally to have had the same plan, and these two gates were called Ḥuldah (“mole”), because of their subterranean character. The Double Gate hall has a monolithic pillar in its centre, of such girth as to agree with the description by Josephus of columns “such that three men might with their arms extended measure round”[250]--a fact which I verified by experiment. The hall measures 40 feet (30 cubits) east and west, by 54 feet (40 cubits) north and south. Flat arches spring from the central pillar on each side, and four flat domes are thus supported, forming the roof of the hall.[251] The capital of the pillar is remarkable, with acanthus leaves and lotus leaves in low relief. One of the domes has also a very interesting ornamentation with geometrical designs connected by a vine: an outer circle of corn ears and rosettes, with other details, present just that style which we find in the Jerusalem tombs of the Herodian age--half Greek, half Jewish. [Sidenote: THE SI’A TEMPLE]