JERUSALEM. 
'835 
notice.* * * § It is possible that their position, and the tenor of 
their inscriptions,' may serve to throw new light upon the situ¬ 
ation of Sion, and the topography of the ancient city. This, 
however, will be a subject for the investigation of future tra¬ 
vellers. We must content ourselves with barely mentioning 
their situation, and the circumstances of their discovery. We 
had been to examine the hill which now bears the name of 
Sion: it is situated upon the south side of Jerusalem, part of 
it being excluded by the wall of the present city, w hich passes 
over the top of the mount. If this be indeed Mount Sion, 
the prophecyf concerning it, that the plough should passover 
it, has been fulfilled to the letter; for such labours were actu¬ 
ally going on when we arrived. Here the Turks have a 
mosque over w hat they call the tomb of David. No Chris- 
tain can gain admittance; and we did not choose to loiter 
among the other legendary sanctities of the mountJ hav¬ 
ing quitted the city by what is called “Sion Gate, 55 we de¬ 
scended into a dingle or trench, called Tophet, or Geniunon, 
by Saudys. As we reached the bottom of this narrow dale, 
sloping toward the vally of Jehosaphat, we observed, upon 
the sides of the opposite mountain, which appears to be the 
same called by Sandys the “ Hill of Offence, 55 facing Mount 
Sion, a number of excavations in the rock, similar to those al¬ 
ready described among the ruins of Teimessus, in the gulph of 
Giaucus ; and answering to the account published by Shaw§ 
of the Cryptm ni Laodicea, Jebilee, and Tortosa. We rode 
toward them ; their situation being very little elevated above 
the bottom of the dingle, upon its southern side. When we ar¬ 
rived, we instantly recognized the sort of sepulchres which 
had so much interested us in Asia Minor, and, alighting from 
our horses, found that we should have ample employment in 
their examination. They were all of the same kind of work¬ 
manship, exhibiting a series of subterranean chambers, hewn 
with marvellous art, each containing one, or many reposito¬ 
ries for the dead, like cisterns, carved in the rock, upon the 
* Perhaps Handys alludes to them in his brief notice of “ clivers sepulchres,” &c. 
following his description of Aceldama. See p. 187.. Lond. 1637. 
t Micah iii. 12. 
j That is to say, “ where Christ did eate his last supper; where also, after his re¬ 
surrection, the doores beingshut, he appeared to his apostles, when they received the 
Holy Ghost; where Peter converted three thousand ; and where, as they say also, 
they held the first councell, in which the apostle’s creed was decreed,” b'ee Sandys’ 
travels, p. 135. Loud. 16^7. 
§ Shaw’s travels, p. 263.' Lond. 1757, 
