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Proceedings of the Eoyal Society 
existence were stigmatised as Tyrojpoeonists, from the theory that 
this was the course taken by the valley which Josephus calls the 
Tyropoeon. But not even the party which now proves to be right 
was prepared for the great width and depth of the valley. 
Having thus recovered the most important of the lost physical 
features of the site, we are better able than of old to understand the 
description given by Josephus, which is almost too well known to 
need repetition. Josephus speaks of three hills and two valleys 
within Jerusalem. First, of the great square hill, on which the 
upper city stood in his time ; which he identifies with the citadel 
of David’s time, called in the Bible the “ stronghold of Zion.” 
The lower city occupied the slope of Akra — a hill less elevated 
than the former, having a gibbous or bulging shape, and divided 
by the Tyropoeon valley from the first mentioned hill of the upper 
city. Another valley separated Akra from a third and lower hill, 
which was called Bezetha, and which was situated north of the 
Temple hill, with an artificial trench cutting it off from the Antonia 
citadel. 
All these features are recovered. The elevations all prove to be 
relatively those described by Josephus, the shapes of the hills, the 
dividing valleys, even the artificial rock-cut trench, are found cor- 
rectly to describe existing features. 
The large square hill, which Josephus incidentally identifies with 
Sion, is that now called by the same name. The flat plateau on the 
summit is 2530 feet above the Mediterranean. North of the great 
dividing valley a spur, 40 feet lower than Sion, is found bulging out 
eastwards. It is divided from the hill north of the Temple by a 
second valley which joins the first ; and the positions of Akra, 
Bezetha, the Upper City, and the Tyropoeon, are in the opinion of 
Colonel Warren, and I may be perhaps permitted to addin my own 
opinion also, now defined in the relative positions indicated some 
forty years since by Dr Bobinson. 
The course of the ancient walls which surrounded Jerusalem is 
carefully described by Josephus. On the south-east and west the 
city was defended by deep valleys, but on the north there were three 
consecutive lines of defence at the time of the great siege. The 
remains of these ancient fortifications seem, however, for the most 
part to have disappeared, and the only traces which we may con- 
