of the modern platform--to be about 2,420 feet above the sea, or 12 feet below the Priests’ Court. Thus not more than 2 feet of foundation and pavement are needed. Beyond this court the rock is somewhat lower, and the natural surface was no doubt allowed to remain outside the court for some distance, and was banked up near the outer walls, to the present levels of the enclosure outside the platform. It appears, however, that on the north-west side of the Priests’ Court the rock had been cut down to form the inner court of Antonia. It is everywhere visible on the surface in this direction, at the level 2,432 feet above the sea, which we have seen to have been that of the Priests’ Court. The House Moḳed, therefore, required no outer steps. Josephus seems to allude to this when he speaks of there being no steps towards the west, and in his account of the final siege of the Temple[259]; for the Romans battered the wall of the inner court at this point. Moḳed (“hearth”) was the great north-west gatehouse, projecting from the wall of the Priests’ Court. From its north-west chamber a winding staircase (perhaps wooden) led down to a gallery, which extended to the Gate Ṭadi (or Ṭari) in the outer wall of the Temple enclosure, and which communicated with the “bath-house.” It is described as being under the _bîrah_, or “fortress,” and under the _ḥíl_, or “rampart,” outside the Priests’ Court.[260] If the Temple stood over the Ṣakhrah, this gallery exactly coincides with an existing rock passage 24 feet wide (18 cubits), and now 130 feet long, the bottom being 30 feet beneath the surface of the present platform. Descending into this gallery--now converted into a tank--I found that the south wall, as well as those at the sides, was of rock, but that the north end was blocked by a rough masonry wall, so that the passage does not extend farther south, but may run north to the line of the old north wall of the outer rampart. To the west of this gallery is another curious excavation which probably was the “bath-house.” Producing the directions of these two galleries, they meet just where the old north wall ran, and this must be the position of the Gate Ṭadi. [Sidenote: THE TEMPLE GATES] The Priests’ Court had three gates on the north and three on the south,[261] and near the “Water Gate,” on the south, was the “Chamber of the Draw-well,” where apparently a wheel and rope were used to draw water. There is a great rock-cut tank still in use just outside the line of the south wall of the Priests’ Court. Taking these two indications of position with the levels, it appears to me evident that the exact position of the Temple is fixed by the existing remains of its subterranean excavations, as I first suggested in 1878.