IN PALESTINE IN KELATION TO THE BIBLE. 



247 



the means to undertake this enormous work. From this point 

 the excavations of Messrs. BHss and Dickie* help us to pick up 

 its course. From the Maudslay Scarp the ancient course of the 

 wall can be followed as it passes north of the Anglo-German 

 cenieterv. Immediately to the east of this, Dr. Bliss excavated 

 the base of a great tower, and on the east side found the wall 

 running in two directions ; in one direction the ruined 

 foundations could be traced running north-east, in the other 

 south-east. It is possible that the first of these was the line of 

 Solomon's wall. It ran high up along the edge of the west hill 

 towards the present ruined remains known as Burj el Kehrtt 

 and thejice crossed the valley (El "Wad) to tiie " City of David." 

 The point of crossing may have been the ]\Iillo or " filling up " 

 fortified by David. 



If these conclusions are correct the fortifications of Jerusalent 

 must have been more than doubled in length during Solomon's- 

 reign. As he had at his command the wealth of a large district,, 

 and w^orkmen from far distant parts, there seems nothing against 

 tliis ; indeed it must be supposed that Jerusalem was left by 

 Solomon extremely strongly protected for it to have held its 

 own when in the next reign more than half the Hebrews severed 

 themselves from her, and became her active enemies, a state of 

 war which existed for sixty years. 



The other line of wall, followed throughout by Bliss, after 

 branching off at the point mentioned ran down the hill on the 

 edge of the cHffs above Wady cr Rababi (Valley of Hinnom) as 

 far as the Pool of Siloam. Here it at one period apparentlyf 

 surrounded the pool following the line of the rocky scarp, at 

 another it crossed the valley by a great dam. The former line 

 must have been the more primitive. From here traces were 

 lost, but it is supposed that it ran along the edge of the Kidron 

 valley, following the scarp visible at places, and was connected 

 with the great piece of wall discovered by Sir Charles Warren 

 running south-west from the south-east angle of the Temple 

 area. The traces of foundations on the west hill clearly showed 

 two distinct periods of construction. The first, the lower. Bliss 

 supposes, belonged to some time in the later Jewish monarchy, 

 the one nearer the surface would then be the wall of Xehemiah, 

 which professedly followed the lines of the wall destroyed by 

 ISTebuchadnezzar. Unfortunately, nothing was found by whicli 



^ Excavations at Jerusalem, 1894-97, 98, by BUss and Dickie, 

 t The scarped rocks along which it ran are visible, but all the stones 

 have been removed because they lay unburied. 



R 



