V. The Restored Walls. In the light of recent excavations at Jerusalem it is possible to follow Nehemiah's work in detail. In the destruction of the walls by the Chaldeans the city had suffered most on the north where it was nearly level and protected by no descending valleys. Just north of the temple area a little valley ran up from the Kidron, leaving but a narrow neck of land connected directly with the plateau on the north. Here two great towers were restored that probably occupied the site of the later Roman tower of Antonia. Thence the wall ran westward across the upper Tyropoean Valley, which was here comparatively level. Numerous bands of workmen were assigned to this part of the work. The gate of the old wall was probably identical with the corner gate at the northwestern end of the city. The Ephraim Gate a little further to the southwest apparently corresponded to the modern Joppa Gate. From this point a broad wall ran to the western side of the city where the hill descended rapidly into the Valley of Hinnom, making its defence easy. At the southwestern end of the city stood the Tower of the Furnaces and the Valley Gate of which the foundations have recently been laid bare. The gate itself was narrow, being only eight feet wide, but the wall was here nine feet in thickness. The eighteen hundred or two thousand feet of wall along the Valley of Hinnom was evidently practically intact, for its repair was Intrusted to but one group of workmen. Across the southern end of the Tyropoean Valley the ground was almost level, so that a strong wall was required. Excavations have shown that it was twenty feet thick at its base and supported by six strong buttresses. The Fountain Gate, through which ran the main street down the Tyropoean Valley out into the valley of the Kidron, was the chief southern gate of the city. It was nine feet wide and defended by a tower about forty-five feet square. Portions of this ancient thoroughfare, with its stones, worn smooth by the feet of the inhabitants of the ancient city, have here been uncovered. Just above the Pool of Siloam, which was within the city walls, was the King's Garden. Thence the Hill of Ophel ascended rapidly making necessary the stairs mentioned in Nehemiah 3. The wall on the southeast was readily repaired, for it ran along the sloping western side of the Kidron Valley. The Water Gate probably led down to the Virgin's Fount, and the Horse Gate further to the north opened directly from the Kidron Valley to the public buildings that occupied the site of Solomon's palace immediately to the south of the temple. It is the space to-day occupied by the southern end of the temple area, which was thus extended in the days of Herod. Opposite the northeastern end of the temple area the wall curved westward until it reached the great towers that guarded the northern end of the city.