The entrance to the cave appears to have been in the face of a projecting mass of rock—there are many such round Hebron—which rose in the field of Ephron the Hittite. The trees which bordered it[54] were probably co-extensive with the walls which now enclose the Haram of the Mosque. At a very early period, probably not later than the times of David or Solomon, an edifice was erected over the cave. The stones are of great size, with the characteristic Jewish bevel. Dr. Wilson measured one which was thirty-eight feet in length. The architecture is peculiar, being neither Saracenic nor Christian. A series of flat pilasters run round the sides. From the main entrance a flight of stone steps runs up between the outer wall and the mosque. We thus rise from the bottom of the cliff in the face of which was the entrance of the cave up to the top. Into the cave itself no one is allowed to enter. Even the mosque is guarded with jealous care. No Jew or Christian had been permitted to set foot within it, until, after immense difficulty, permission was granted to the Prince of Wales and his suite in the year 1862. Within the last few years the severity of the restriction has been somewhat relaxed. In the year 1873, I was allowed to go about halfway up the flight of steps outside the mosque and to put my hand through a hole in the wall, which I was told led into the cave. I was then led round the outside on to the roof, that I might look down through the lattice-work of a tower into the mosque. All, however, was perfectly dark, and I could see nothing. The locality of the shrines was pointed out to me, which agreed with the description given by Dean Stanley in the narrative of his visit with the Prince of Wales. [Illustration: ARRANGEMENT OF TOMBS IN CAVE OF MACHPELAH.] It is to Dean Stanley that we are indebted for our knowledge of the interior. He found the chapels or shrines of the patriarchs and their wives, arranged in order, over the places where the bodies were said to lie in the cave beneath. They stand as in the annexed plan. As we turn away from the secret and mysterious cave, where lie the ashes of the illustrious dead, under the jealous care of their Arab guardians, hallowed memories and yet more hallowed hopes suggest themselves. The hushed silence of well-nigh four thousand years shall one day be broken, and He, who is “the resurrection and the life,” shall call forth the sleepers from their resting-place of ages. “What though the Moslem mosque be in the valley! Though faithless hands have sealed the sacred cave! And the red prophet’s children shout ‘El Allah’ Over the Hebrews’ grave! Yet a day cometh when those white walls shaking Shall give again to light the living dead; And Abraham, Isaac, Jacob reawaking Spring from their rocky bed.”