548 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



was more probably due to some deed of violence for, unfortunately, 

 we now know that this cave has repeatedly been the scene of horrors 

 that make the heart sick to contemplate. This method of cutting out 

 ashlars was economical of material and it produced very little debris 

 in the quarry. The stones were also cut so nearly of the desired shape 

 that they required little dressing before taking their places in the 

 building. This method of quarrying also agrees with the scriptural 

 account of the precision with which the stones of Solomon's temple 

 were prepared in the quarry. 



Although we have now so much evidence of the true nature and 

 great antiquity of this cave, from and after the destruction of Jerusalem 

 by Titus it remained unknown for centuries. Its entrance became so 

 covered with the debris which accumulated in the destruction and re- 

 building of the city that all knowledge of its position, and even of its ex- 

 istence, became lost until the year 1852, when its only now known en- 

 trance was discovered by Dr. J. T. Barclay, an American missionary. Dr. 

 Barclay gives a brief account of his discovery and exploration in his 

 book, 'The City of the Great King,' wherein he estimates the length of 

 the cave at rather more than a quarter of a mile, and its greatest breadth 

 at less than half that distance. His estimate of its length agrees with 

 my own, but Dr. Adler, in the Jewish Quarterly Review, for April, 

 1896, estimates it at about 1,000 feet. Its position is approximately 

 indicated upon some lately published maps by an outline which shows 

 a length of only about 500 feet, but this representation is too far from 

 the truth to deserve consideration. _The distance from the entrance of 

 the cave in the north wall of the city to the south wall of the same is 

 barely 3,000 feet, and by my estimate of the length of the cave it 

 extends considerably more than one third the distance across the city. 

 I am, therefore, of the opinion that it extends beneath the northwest 

 corner of the temple area and consequently beneath the governor's 

 residence, which is closely adjacent. 



Sir J. W. Dawson, in his book ' Egypt and Syria ' suggests that there 

 was formerly a ramp or sloping tramway, leading from the quarry 

 into the temple area by which stones were taken up to the building site 

 of the temple. Nothing of that kind, however, has ever been discovered 

 and the suggestion does not agree with the statements made by Pro- 

 fessor H. Graetz in his ' History of the Jews. ' Professor Graetz states 

 that the stones used in the building of the temple were obtained 

 from underground quarries by men who were compelled to labor there. 

 He says that ' ' Eighty thousand of these unhappy beings worked in the 

 stone quarries day and night by the light of lamps. They were under 

 the direction of a man from Biblos (Giblem), who understood the 

 art of hewing heavy blocks from rocks and of giving them the necessary 



