350 THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP, esting place of observation. So commanding is 
V. 
the view of Jerusalem afforded in this situation, 
the sum- that the eye roams over all the streets, and 
™ ■ around the walls, as if in the survey of a plan 
or model of the city. The most conspicuous 
object is the Mosque, erected upon the site and 
foundations of the Temple of Solomon: this 
edifice may perhaps be considered as the finest 
specimen of Saracenic architecture existing in 
the world. But this view of Jerusalem serves 
to strengthen the objections urged against the 
prevailing opinion concerning the topography of 
the antient city. D'^nville believed that an- 
tient and modern Jerusalem were very similarly 
situate ; that by excluding what is now called 
Calvary, and embracing the whole of what is 
now called Mount Sion, we should have an area 
equal in extent to the space which was occupied 
by the walls and buildings before the destruc- 
Difference tiou of the Holy City by Vespasian and Titus ' . 
But this is by no means true^: a spectator 
upon the Mount of Olives, looking down upon 
City- the space inclosed by the walls of Jerusalem in 
their present state, as they have remained since 
(l) See the Treatise of Mons. D'Jnville (sur rjnciemie Jerusalem, 
Paris, 1747.) as cited by Gibbon, vol. IV. p. 82. Lond. 1807. 
(2^ See the observations in Note (59.) chap, xxiii. of Gibbon's Hist. 
Ibid. 
between 
the Mo- 
dern and 
Antient 
