CHAP. sepulchre somewhat farther towards the west

than the last described.

VII.

From the imperfect state of this inscription, and the decomposition of the rock itself

upon

which it is placed, the copy may be liable to error. It was made, however, with great care, and due attention was paid to the position of the lines. The words of the inscription are supposed to be Arabic, expressed in Hebrew and Phænician characters. The arrow-headed character

rather bewilder than illustrate. In doubtful inscriptions, the pencil of an artist will frequently effect a more genuine copy than the pen of the profoundest scholar who ventures to supply the vacant spaces, and even to alter the letters according to his manner of reading those inscriptions.

(1) This method of writing is said, by a learned Oriental scholar, (Mr. Hammer, now Secretary to the German Minister at Constantinople,) to have been adopted by Arabian Jews, in their inscriptions upon the hills near Jerusalem.

occurs here, as in the Inscriptions at Tel- CHAP.

VII.

messus.

hich

All the face of this mountain, along the dingle
described as the Vale of Gehinnon by Sandys, is
marked by similar excavations. Some of these,
as may be seen by reference to a former Note,
did not escape his searching eye; although he
neglected to observe their inscriptions, probably
from keeping the beaten track of pilgrims
going from Mount Sion to the Mount of Olives,
and neglecting to cross the valley in order to
examine them more nearly. The top of the
mountain is covered by ruined walls and the
remains of sumptuous edifices : these he also
noticed ; but he does not even hint at their
origin. Here again we were at a loss for infor-
mation and future travellers will be aware of
the immense field of inquiry which so many
undescribed monuments belonging to Jerusalem
offer to their observation. If the foundations
and ruins, as of a citadel, may be traced all over
this eminence, the probability is that this was Conjecture
the real Mount Sion; that the Gehinnon of Mount
Sandys, and of many other writers, was in fact
the Valley of Millo, called Tyropæon by Josephus”,

to

respecting

Sion.

(2) De Bell. Jud. lib. vi. c. 6.

VII.

CHAP. which separated Sion from Mount Moriah,

and extended as far as the Fountain Siloa, where it joined the Valley of Jehosaphat. The sepulchres will then appear to have been situate beneath the walls of the citadel, as was the case in many antient cities. Such was the situation of the Grecian sepulchres in the Crimea, belonging to the antient city of Chersonesus, in the Minor Peninsula of the Heracleote'. The Inscriptions already noticed seem to favour this position; and if hereafter it should ever be confirmed, “ the remarkable things belonging to Mount Sion," of which Pococke says there are no remains in the hill now bearing that appellation, will in fact be found here,—-~ the Garden of the Kings, near the Pool of Siloam, where Manasseh and Amon, kings of Judah, were buried;" the cæmetery of the kings of Judah ; the traces and remains of Herods palaces, called after the names of Cæsar and Agrippa ; “ together with the other places mentioned by Nehemiah.” All along the side of this mountain, and in the rocks above the Valley of Jehosaphat, upon the eastern side of Jerusalem,

(1) See the First Part of these Travels, octavo Edit. vol. II. p. 209. (2) Description of the East, vol. II. Part I. p. 9. Lond. 1745.

(3) Ibid.

as far as the sepulchres of Zecharias and Absalom, and above these, almost to the top of the Mount of Olives, the Jews resident in the city bury their dead, adhering still to the cæmetery of their ancestors : but having long lost the art of constructing such immense sepulchres as those which have been here described, they content themselves with placing Hebrew inscriptions upon small upright slabs of marble, or of common limestone, raised after the manner at

manner at present generally in use throughout the East.

(4) See the Plans of Jerusalem, in the volumes of Sandys, Doubdan, Quaresmius, Shaw, and Pococke. Those in Quaresmius (Elucid. T. S. p. 38. tom. II. Antv. 1639.) are taken from Brocardus and Villalpandus, and adapted to their descriptions. That of Sandys is the best. See also the Plan engraved for this work.

1

The Subject continued—Identity of the Sepulchre

again contested— Origin of its supposed Locality-Improbability of the Tale — Further View of the Jewish Coemeteries-Aceldama-Inscriptions—Antient Paintings—Age of the CRYPTÆ-Fountain Siloa, and Oak RogelMount of Olives—View from the SummitDifference between the Modern and Antient City-Situation of Mount Sion-Pagan Remains upon Mount Olivet - Their possible Origin— Ascent of David-LAKE ASPHALTITES-General appearance of Judæa- Miraculous Impression of our Saviour's FootGARDEN OF GETHSEVANE - Olives of the Mount— Tomb of the Virgin Mary, Sepulchres

of