so.'nn. MEDEBA MOtSAlC MAP OF PALESTINE— CASANOWICZ. 369 

 3. JERUSALEM AND SURROUNDING REGION. 



Jerusalem. — Above the city plan is read in large red characters, 

 "Holy city Jerusalem." For the various parts of the city itself 

 are used green, red, yellow, black, and white. Contrary to the 

 later medieval plans of Jerusalem, which have a circular outline 

 (perhaps influenced by the idea that Jerusalem was the center of the 

 world), divided into four quarters by two streets crossing one another 

 at right angles, the plan of the city on the mosaic is oval or eUiptical, 

 with the streets running parallel to one another. The southeast 

 corner is destroyed on the mosaic. The city is surrounded by a wall, 

 which on the east side shows an irregular hne of jutting-out towers 

 and buildings. A series of gates provides for the intercourse of the 

 city with the outside. 



Entering the city from the north (left) side there is a gate flanked 

 by two towers leading to a semicircular space on which is a column. 

 It corresponds to the modern Damascus Gate, which still bears the 

 name of ''gate of the column (Bab el-amud)." From this gate 

 issue two streets, lined on either side with columns. One of the 

 streets runs in a straight line almost through the entire length of the 

 city; the other makes about midway a bend eastward, crossing a 

 lesser artery which enters from the eastern gate, and thence proceeds 

 due south, parallel to the main street. The western colonnade of 

 the main street is broken by steps leading through three portals to a 

 great church building which abuts on the west wall. It is generally 

 agreed that it represents the church of the Holy Sepulchre built by 

 Constantine and Helene and dedicated in 336 (Eusebius, Life of Con- 

 stantine, III, 37). It consists of a basihca, the Martyrium, on the 

 alleged site of Golgotha, and a rotunda in the middle of which was 

 the tomb of Jesus, called the Anastasis (place of the resurrection). 

 The basihca is at the east and the rotunda at the west. At the north- 

 east extremity of the city is another church, perhaps that of the 

 Nativity of the Virgin (now St. Anne). The gate in about the middle 

 of the east side corresponds to the present St. Stephen's Gate (Bab 

 Sitti Mariam) and the street issuing from it westward would be the 

 Via Dolorosa of tradition. South from it is another gate — the 

 Golden Gate (Bab el-Daheriyeh). The large building at the south- 

 west, at the end of the main street, may represent the Church of 

 Holy Zion, also known as the church of the Last Supper (Caenaculum) . 

 On the west side one gate can be discerned, which would answer to 

 the present Jaffa Gate (Bab el-Khalil). 



It may be assumed that the picture of Jerusalem on the mosaic, 

 which bears evidence of being executed with great care, preserves a 

 good summary of the city's main features in the time of Justinian. 

 S1022° -Proe.N.M.vol.49— 1.^) 24 



