JEWISH, PH@NICIAN, AND EARLY GREEK ART, ETC. 25 
have measured several varying from twenty to thirty-eight 
feet in length by nearly six in thickness; and the wall itself 
rises in places to a height of one hundred and fifty feet. The 
huge platform, so constructed, is on the crown of Mount 
Moriah, and is about five hundred yards long by three 
hundred broad. Near its centre, standimg on the natural 
rock, was the Temple itself,—the vade, “shrine,” as dis- 
tinguished from the isodv, ‘sacred enclosure,” —a._ site 
now occupied by the great Mosque. I could not fail to 
admire the grandeur of the site and the magnificence of the 
masonry. I observed, as others have done, that many of the 
large stones had cut upon them masons’ marks,—Phcenician 
letters,—showing, as the sacred writers inform us, that the 
buildings were erected by Phoenician workmen. Solomon, in 
his letter to Hiram, King of Tyre, acknowledges that among 
the Jews there were no skilled workmen, and therefore asked 
men from Hiram, and when they arrived “ they hewed out 
great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house 
with wrought stone. And Solomon’s builders, and Hiram’s 
builders, and the Gebalites did fashion them” (1 Kings v. 
Crees), 
Here is the first link of connexion between Jewish and 
Pheenician architecture, and it is a remarkable confirmation 
of the accuracy of the Bible record, that we can now see the 
marks of those Phoenician masons upon the great stones they 
laid in Solomon’s days. There is another noteworthy allusion 
in the passage I have quoted. The Gebalites are specially 
mentioned, for this is the true rendering of the Hebrew word 
translated “stone squarers” in our Authorised Version. They 
were the inhabitants of the old Phcenician city of Gebal, at the 
foot of Lebanon, north of Sidon; and I have seen in its own 
old ramparts colossal stones of the very same type as those in 
Jerusalem (Cf. Ezek. xxvii. 9). They occur also in the extant 
foundations of Sidon, Tyre, and Arvad; indeed, in most of 
the ruins along the Phoenician coast and on the neighbouring 
heights of Lebanon. Perhaps, however, the most remarkable 
is the stylobate, or platform, of the temples of Baalbek. ‘The 
Phoenician architects appear to have had a special liking for 
colossal stones ; and in Baalbek they surpassed all their other 
works in this respect. Three stones placed on a massive sus- 
taining wall, at a height of twenty-five feet from the ground, 
measure in length, respectively, sixty feet, sixty-three feet, 
and sixty-four feet, by fourteen feet deep and fourteen broad. 
It is worthy of note, too, that this ancient site bears the name 
to this day of the Pheenician sun-god, Baal. Baal-bek signi- 
fies “‘ City of Baal.” The Greeks called it in their own tongue, 
