the pomp of royalty with the vigilance of despotism. Beyond this hill and the walls lies 
the Tomb of the Kings. 
At the foot of the spectator is the Valley of Jehoshaphat, through which flows the 
brook Kedron. Immediately under the Gate of St. Stephen is a small church traditionally 
standing over the burial-place of the Virgin Mary. Close to it is the memorable Garden 
of Gethsemane. To the right of the garden is the Pillar of Absalom* and lower down are 
the disputed “pools of Siloam.” 1 
1 Robinson, vol. i. p. 391. 
ENTRANCE TO THE TOMB OF THE KINGS. 
This remarkable sepulchre* strongly resembling those of the Egyptian Thebes, is the finest 
relic of the kind in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Its present name has been long given 
by the Europeans, from a vague conception of its being the burial-place of some of the 
Jewish monarchs. From the elegance of its front and the general beauty of its sculpture, 
it has been compared with the sepulchres of Petra, and thence conjectured to have been the 
work of Herod, whose descent was Idumsean. But the weight of evidence inclines to its 
being the tomb of Helena, Queen of Adiabene, who had become a convert to Judaism. 1 
The sepulchre lies to the north of the Damascus Gate, and at a short distance from it, 
on the slope to the Valley of Jehoshapliat. The portal was originally twenty-seven feet 
long, hut it is now much broken away. The sides of this portal were ornamented with 
columns or pilasters; and there were two intermediate columns, now broken down, which 
divided the front into nearly three equal parts. The rock above is richly sculptured in the 
later Roman style. The sepulchre consists of a large square pit sunk in the solid rock. 
In the western wall of this sunken court is a hall also excavated in the rock, thirty- 
nine feet long by seventeen wide, and fifteen high. To this belongs the portal just 
mentioned. Within this hall is the entrance to an ante-chamber, and within this again 
are three large and two smaller chambers containing the fragments of marble sarcophagi. 2 
Josephus, B. J. v. 4. 2. 
2 Robinson, vol. i. p. 528. 
