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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 Phanician characters1. 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.

at Tel

occurs here, as in the Inscriptions at

messus.

CHAP.

VII.

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 information; 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 Mot Sandys, and of many other writers, was in fact the Valley of Millo, called Tyropæon by Josephus,

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

respecting

Sion.

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 Heracleota1. 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 cœmetery of the kings of Judah; the traces and remains of Herod's palaces, called after the names of Cæsar and Agrippa; "together with the other places mentioned by Nehemiah3." 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 Absalom3, 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 cœmetery 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 present generally in use throughout the East.

CHAP.

VII.

(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.

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THE HOLY LAND-JERUSALEM.

The Subject continued-Identity of the Sepulchre
again contested-Origin of its supposed Lo-
cality-Improbability of the Tale-Further
View of the Jewish Cemeteries-Aceldama-
Inscriptions-Antient Paintings-Age of the
CRYPTA-Fountain Siloa, and Oak Rogel-
Mount of Olives-View from the Summit-
Difference between the Modern and Antient
City-Situation of Mount Sion-Pagan Re-
mains upon Mount Olivet
Mount Olivet - Their possible
Origin-Ascent of David-LAKE ASPHAL-
TITES-General appearance of Judæa-Mira-
culous Impression of our Saviour's Foot-
GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE Olives of the
Mount-Tomb of the Virgin Mary-Sepulchres

of

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