of Edinburgh, Session 1879 - 80 - 
487 
mately determine the original surface within very narrow limits of 
error, and which render the relative positions and elevations of the 
principal features as certain and definite as is necessary for anti- 
quarian purposes. 
The most important discovery resulting from these researches is 
that of the great valley which occurs in the very heart of the city, 
having its head not far from the Jaffa Gate. The rock appears in 
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in two places at a level 10 feet 
above the floor, hut just south of the church there are vaults 18 
feet deep. 
The rock is also known in many places along the top of the hill 
called Zion by the modern Christians, hut between these two 
eminences it is never visible on the surface, which is somewhat 
depressed. 
Dr Eobinson pointed out that there was apparently a valley 
separating the southern hill from that on which the Church of the 
Holy Sepulchre stands. Yet this was so little capable of proof 
before the levels of the Ordnance Survey had been taken, that Canon 
Williams did not hestitate to affirm that no such valley existed. 
In 1872 the excavations on the site of the Hospital of St John 
resulted in the discovery of magnificent vaults, 50 feet deep and 
200 feet long, which formed vast reservoirs for Hie supply of the 
Hospital. These were cleared out to the bottom, and the rock was 
found at a level 60 feet below the top of the Holy Sepulchre hill 
and traced all along the vaults. 
In 1876 another vault was found further east, measuring 120 feet 
north and south. The rock floor was found to fall rapidly south- 
wards, and the slope of the north bank of the great valley was 
thus defined over a considerable section. In 1870 Colonel Warren 
had made observations which define the position of the south bank, 
and the number of observations in and near the valley now number 
about thirty in all. The general result is, that its course is traced 
eastwards to the Haram, where it joins a narrower valley running 
north and south from the Damascus Gate. The newly recovered 
valley is 60 feet deep and 600 feet wide north and south. 
The existence or non-existence of this important natural feature 
used to form one of the favourite subjects of Jerusalem research. 
Those who, following Dr Eobinson, continued to believe in its 
