SYEIA, OR EGYPTIAN ASIA 



915 



cus, to juin the caravan for Mecca ; 3 other caravans leave each thrice a year for Bagdad, and 

 one for Aleppo two or three times a month. Population, 140,000. 



Jerusalem, the most celebrated city of the world, the cradle of Judaism and Christianity, 



and the second sanctuary of Ma- 

 hometanism, is built at the foot ol 

 Mount Sion, upon Mounts Acra. 

 Moriah, and Calvary. It is sur 

 rounded with high walls of hew? 

 stone, flanked with towers, and tht 

 brook Kedron runs near it. Sev 

 oral of the mosques are magnificent 

 edifices of gieat size, and adorned 

 with numerous columns and domes. 

 The mosque of Omar, the most 

 splendid edifice in Jerusalem, con- 

 sists of a collection of mosques and 

 chapels, surrounded by a vast en 

 closure. One of these chapels, 

 called the l?ock, is an octagon of 

 160 feet in diameter, rising from a 

 platform, 460 feet long by 339 

 broad, paved with marble, and raised 

 16 feet ; its interior is adorned with great splendor, and is always illuminated by thousands of 

 lamps it contains a stone, said to be that upon which Jacob pillowed his head, and which, ac- 

 cording to the popular tradition, bears the imprint of the foot of Mahomet, who ascended from 



JcrusuUnt. 



Hills and Walls aromd Jerusalem. 



it to heaven, and intrusted it to the care of 70,000 angels. Of Christian edifices are the 

 church of the holy sepulchre, said to be built upon the spot where the body of Je- 

 sus v.'as entninbpd', the Catholic convent of St. Saviour, in the church of which are sil- 



