426 Mr. J. Fergusson [Feb. 21, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, February 21, 1862. 



William Pole, Esq. M.A. F.R.S. Treasurer and Vice-President, 



in the Chair. 



James Fergusson, Esq. 

 On the Site of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. 



The speaker commenced by stating that this was perhaps the most 

 interesting subject that could be addressed to a Christian audience, 

 being neither more nor less than the re-discovery of the true site of the 

 Holy Sepulchre, after a knowledge of it had been lost for eight 

 centuries ; and it was the more interesting, as having been made by 

 a process of direct philosophical deduction in archaeology — a new 

 science, which had as yet few such triumphs to record. 



The question commenced necessarily with the undoubted fact that 

 the Emperor Constantine erected a magnificent church at Jerusalem, 

 over the site of the Sepulchre ; and the assumption that since his time 

 the church in the middle of the city always had been, and still was, 

 his " Church of the Sepulchre," coupled with the erroneous sup- 

 position that it had replaced the original building of Constantine. 



In carefully studying the subject of Saracenic Architecture, from 

 its remains in India, Egypt, Persia, Constantinople, Spain, &c., he 

 had always been unable to account for the peculiarities of one remark- 

 able building at Jerusalem — that generally known as the " Mosque of 

 Omar." This, however, was evidently a misnomer ; for the building 

 violated the invariable and essential principles of mosque architecture. 

 The precept of the Koran being, that all true believers should turn 

 their faces fowards Mecca when they prayed, a mosque was really 

 only an indicator of the direction of the Holy City, whereas the build- 

 ing in question had its principal entrance towards the South, so that 

 the worshipper on entering turned his back on Mecca — a sacrilege too 

 horrible to be conceived, and which is not to be found in any mosque 

 in the whole Mahomedan world. 



The building in question being within the Haram area, was not 

 generally accessible to travellers; and, until it had been surveyed, 

 measured, and drawn, in the year 1833, by Mr. Catherwood and Mr. 

 Arundale, no adequate representations of it had ever been made. 

 On examining these drawings, he had been at once so much struck 

 with the architectural and other features they displayed, that he im- 



