VIII 
358 THE HOLY LAND. 
^^j^^- building of Tiberias upon the Lake Gennesareth ; 
when, owing to the sepulchres found there, it was 
necessary to grant extraordinary privileges to 
persons who would reside on the polluted spot'. 
To this species of pollution the Crypt now men- 
tioned seems to have been condemned, from a 
very remote period ; and it may be presumed, 
that a place which had once become an ossuary, 
or charnel-house, among the Jews, would never 
be appropriated to any other use among the 
inhabitants oi Judcua. If it be observed, that 
the painted stucco, with which the interior of 
this is coated, denotes a more recent epocha in 
the history of the arts; then the walls of the 
Cryptce near the pyramids of Egypt, and in other 
parts of the East — nay, even the surface of the 
Memphian Sphinx^, which has remained so many 
ages exposed to all attacks of the atmosphere — 
may be instanced, as still exhibiting the same 
sort of cement, similarly coloured, and equally 
unaltered ^ 
(1) See p. 221 of this Volume. Also Josephi j^ntiqidt. lib. xviii. c. 3. 
Colon. 1691. 
(2) The author will have occasion to refer to this fact again, in the 
sequel. 
(3) At the same time, in determining the real origin of the subter- 
raneous conical Crypt upon the summit of the Mount of Olives, the 
learned Reader must use his own judgment. For this purpose, it is 
necessary he should be informed, that it is not upon the spot which is 
shewn to travellers as the place of our Saviour's Ascension ; this last 
being 
