338 
clarke’s travels. 
sides of those chambers.* The doors were so low, that, to 
look into any one of theirs, it was necessary to stoop, and in 
some instances, to creep upon our hands and knees : these 
doots were also grooved, for the reception of immense stones, 
once squared and fitted to the grooves, by way of closing the 
entrances. Of such a nature were, indisputably, the tombs of 
the sons of Hetk, of the kings of Israel, of Lazarus, and of 
Christ This has also''been proved by Shaw,| but the subject 
has been more satisfactorily elucidated by the learned Qoares- 
mius, in his dissertation concerning ancient Sepulchres.J The 
cemeteries of the ancients were universally excluded from 
the precincts of their cities. In order, therefore, to account 
for the seeming contradiction implied by the situation of the 
place now shown as the tomb of the Messiah, it is pretended 
that it was originally on the outside of the walls of Jerusalem ; 
although a doubt must necessarily arise as to the want of suffi¬ 
cient .space for the population of the city, between a bounda¬ 
ry'-so situated, and the hill which is now called Mount Sion. 
The sepulchres we are describing carry, in their very nature, 
satisfactory evidence of their being situated out of the ancient 
cit}3 as they are now out of the modern. They are not to be 
confounded with those tombs, commonly called “ the sepulchres 
of the kings'' to the north of Jerusalem, believed to be the 
burial place of Helena, queen of Adiebeue. What, therefore, 
are hey P Some of them, from their magnificence, and the 
immense labor necessary to form the numerous repositories they 
contain, might lay claim to regal honours; and there is one 
which appears to have been constructed for the purpose of in¬ 
huming a single individual. The Karaean Jews, of all oilier 
the most tenacious in adhering to the customs of their ances¬ 
tors, have, from time immemorial, been in the practice of bring¬ 
ing their dead to this place for interment; although this fact 
was not wan?ed to prove it an ancient Jewish cemetery, as 
will be seen in the sequel. The sepulchres themselves, accord¬ 
ing to the ancient practice, are stationed in the midst of gar¬ 
dens. From all these circumstances, are we not authorized to 
seek here for the sepulchre of Joseph of Anmathea, who, as a 
pious Jew, necessarily had his burying niece in the cemetery 
of h is countrymen, among the graves of his forefathers ? The 
*In the writings of the prophets, frequent allusion occur to similar places of se¬ 
pulture; thus Isaiah xiv. 15 13. Ezekiel xxxii. 20, &c. 
j Shaw’s travels, p. 263. Lond.1757 
t Vide cap. vii.(“ de forma et qualitate veterum sepulchrorum,” Elucid. T. S. 
duaresmii, tom. II. p. 127. Antv. 1639. 
