SKETCHES OF PALESTINE. 373 



merly stood the palace of Caiaphas. It is remarkable for nothing 

 but that the stone which closed up the door of the holy sepulchre 

 is built in an altar at the upper end of it, and exposed in several pla- 

 ces to be kissed and caressed, like other precious relics. It is an un- 

 polished block of compact lime-stone, the same with the rock on 

 which the city stands, and does nor, like the block of polished mar- 

 ble in present use, carry in its face the refutation of its once having 

 served the office assigned to it, though I confess there is almost as 

 little probability that it ever did. 



A few paces to the west of the chapel, there is a Christian bury- 

 ing ground ; and among the lettered tomb-stones are several inscrib- 

 ed in the language of our own country. They record the names 

 and cover the ashes of Englishmen, who are reported to have met 

 their deaths in a way not very creditable to the Franciscan convent. 

 A little to the south of this is shown the place where the Virgin 

 Mary expired ; and on the north side of the gate is shown what? 

 the place where the cock crew to Peter. 



' Such is the sum total of the information which the traveller re- 

 ceives from his guide respecting the topography of this interesting 

 spot, Mount Zion. At the time when 1 visited this sacred ground, 

 one part of it supported a crop of barley, another was undergoing 

 the labor of the plough, and the soil turned up consisted of stone 

 and lime mixed with earth, such as is usually met with in the foun- 

 dations of ruined cities. It isneaily a mile in circumference, is high- 

 est on the west side, and towards the east, falls down in broad ter- 

 races on the upper part of the mountain, and narrow ones on the 

 side, as it slopes down towards the brook Kedron. Each terrace 

 is divided from the one above it by a low wall of dry stone, 

 built of the ruins of this celebrated spot. The terraces near the 

 bottom of the hill are still used as gardens, arid are watered from 

 the pool of Siloam. They belong chiefly to the inhabitants of the 

 small village of Siloa, immediately opposite. We have here another 

 remarkable instance of the special fulfilment of prophecy : 'There- 

 fore shall Zion for your sakes be ploughed as a field, and Jerusa- 

 lem shall become heaps.' Micah iii. 12. 



' Mount Zion is considerably higher than the ground on the 

 north, on which the ancient city stood, or that on the east leading 

 on to the valley of Jehoshaphat, but has very little relative height 

 above the ground on the south and on the west, and must have 

 owed its boasted strength principally to a deep ravine, by which it 

 is encompassed on the east, south, and west, and the strong high 

 walls and towers by which it was enclosed and flanked completely 

 round. This ravine, or valley, as the term has been rendered, 

 though the word trench or ditch would have conveyed a more cor- 

 rect idea of its appearance, seems to have been formed, by art on 

 the south and on the west, the surface of the ground on each side 

 being nearly of equal height, though Mount Zion is certainly the 

 highest, yet so little so that it could not have derived much addi- 

 tional strength from its elevation. The breadth of this ditch is 

 33 



