RUINS OF JERUSALEM. 



eyes, 'instead of peering through the spectacles of priests, that leit. 

 to the discovery of antiquities undescribed by any author: and 

 marvellous it is, considering their magnitude, and the scrutinizing 

 inquiry which has been so often directed to every object of the 

 place, that these antiquities have hitherto escaped notice. It is 

 possible that their position, and the tenor of their inscriptions, 

 may serve to throw new light upon the sifuation of Sion, and the 

 topography of the ancient city. This, however, will be a subject 

 for the investigation of future travellers. We must content our. 

 selves with barely mentioning their situation, and the circumstances, 

 of their discovery. We had been to examine the hill which now 

 bears the name of Sion : it is situated upon the south side of Jeru- 

 salem, part of it being excluded by the wall of the present city, 

 which passes over the top of the mount. If this be indeed Mount 

 Sion, the prophecy concerning it, that the plough shall pass over 

 it, has been fulfilled to the latter ; for such labours were actually 

 going on when we arrived. Here the Turks have a mosque over 

 what they call the tomb of David. No Christian can gain admit, 

 tance ; and as we did not choose to loiter among the other legen- 

 dary sanctities of the mount, having quitted the city by what is 

 called Sion Gate, we descended into a dingle or trench, called To. 

 phet, or Gehinnon, by Sandys. As we reached the bottom of this 

 narrow dale, sloping towards the valley of Jehosaphat, we ob- 

 served, upon the sides of the opposite mountain, which appears to 

 be the same called by Sandys the hill of offence, facing Mount Sion, 

 a number of excavations in the rock, similar to those already de. 

 scribed among the ruins of Telmessus, in the gulph of Glaucus,' 

 and answering to the account published by Shaw of the Cryptae of 

 Laodicea, Jebilee, and Tortosa. We rode towards them ; their 

 situation being very little elevated above the bottom of the dingle, 

 upon its southern side. When we arrived, we instantly recognised 

 the sort of sepulchres which had so much interested us in Asia 

 Minor, and, alighting from our horses, found that we should have 

 ample employment in their examination. They were all of the same 

 kind of workmanship, exhibiting a series of subterranean chambers, 

 hewn with marvellous art, each containing one, or many, reposi- 

 tories for the dead, like cisterns carved in the rock upon the sides 

 of those chambers. The doors were so low, that, to look into any one 

 of them, it was necessary to stoop, and, in some instances, to creep 

 upon our hands and knees : these doors were also grooved, for tht 



