Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

Geramb, speaking of the garden of Gethsemane, says, "I am not ignorant that, during the siege of the Holy City, Titus ordered all the trees round about to be cut down;" but supposes, like a good Catholic, that eight or ten might have been saved. "It is impossible," says the learned and amiable Dr. Clarke, “to view these trees with indifference. It is truly a curious and interesting fact that during a period of little more than two thousand years, Hebrews, Assyrians, Romans, Moslems, and Christians have been successively in possession of the rocky mountains of Palestine; yet the olive still vindicates its paternal soil, and is found at this day upon the same spot which was called by the Hebrew writers Mount Olivet and the Mount of Olives,* eleven centuries before the Christian era."

On our return from this spot, so richly fraught with the most stirring associations, we proceeded to examine the ruins of St. Anne's church, a structure in the early Gothic style. We then proceeded to view several interesting spots in the Via Dolorosa, which the traveller is gravely assured is the path by which Our Lord was led to execution. It runs from St. Stephen's gate to Calvary, and there are nine stations, some of which it is, as Maundrell says, necessary "only to name. The place where Pilate presented Christ to the people, with this mystic saying, 'Behold the man.' The spot where Christ fainted thrice under the weight of his cross. Thirdly, where the Blessed Virgin swooned away at so tragical a sight. Fourthly, where St. Veronica presented him the handkerchief to wipe his bleeding brows. Fifthly, where the soldiers compelled Simon the Cyrenian to bear the cross." There are four other stations in the Holy Sepulchre.

The principal streets of Jerusalem are three in number. The Harat Bab el Hamond, the street of the gate of the Column, or the Damascus

* "And David went up the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up. that was with him."-2 Sam., xv. 30.

... and all the people

"And his feet shall stand that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east side; and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof.”—Zechariah, xiv. 4.

CHAPTER V.

GATES OF JERUSALEM EXTENT OF THE CITY ITS POSITION CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE TOMB OF OUR LORD CREDULITY OF THE PILGRIMS CHAPEL OF THE APPARITION-CALVARY—Rent in the ROCK-CHAPEL of St. HELENA-SEARCH FOR THE TRUE CROSS-CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HOLY SEPULCHRE-LETTER OF HENRY VIII. TO THE MONKS TOMB OF GODFREY OF BOUILLON THE VILLAGE OF BETHANY MOSQUE OF OMAR CHURCH OF THE PURIFICATION-DRAWING AND MEASURING THE INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE.

[ocr errors]

We next visited the gates and walls of the city. The sites of the former being well fixed, and some of the gates themselves being still in existence, we obtained much additional facility in tracing the topography of the ancient Jerusalem.

The city had formerly twelve gates, corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel. The situation of several of these has been thus defined; the Sheep Gate,* near the Temple, the name of which indicates its purpose, viz., of admitting the sacrificial sheep, after they had been washed in the pool of Bethesda, near this gate.

Considerable doubt appears to involve the site of the Fish Gate; † which some have affirmed to have stood on the west side of the city; because the sea (viz., the Mediterranean) was in that direction. But, as the Sea of Galilee also afforded fish, the greater probability is in favour of placing it

* Porta Gregis; built by the high priest, Eliasel.

✦ Porta Piscium; built by the sons of Asnaa, after the return from the captivity in Babylon.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

on the north side of the old city; making it the next gate after passing the Ephraim Gate, to a person proceeding from west to east. This supposition is strengthened, as Dr. Wells observes, by the expression of Nehemiah, xii. 39,* where the list is given in the same order. There is no dispute respecting the position of the Ephraim Gate; it was on the north side of the city, as its name indicates, leading toward the tribe of Ephraim, which lay in that direction.

The Old Gate † was so called probably from its having been one of the ports built by the Jebusites, who gave to the city the name of Jebus-Salem ; since altered, for the sake of euphony, into Jerusalem-Salem signifying

rest.

The situation of the ancient Horse Gate is also perfectly unascertained. The Gate of the Valley is supposed to have led into the valley of Jehoshaphat, at the north-east corner of the wall surrounding the court of the Temple.

The Dung Gate § of Scripture probably stood in the same place as the present gate of the same name; and therefore a little beyond the southwest corner of the wall of the Temple court. As its appellation denotes, it was used for the passage of the filth caused by the beasts that were sacrificed in the sacred precincts.

The Gate of the Fountain || comes next; but it does not appear from which spring it took its name; viz., the Fountain of Siloam, or that of Gihon. The former of these is placed by the accurate Sandys somewhat south of the Dung Gate; near it he also gives a fountain called the Foun

* 66 And upon the gate of Ephraim, and upon the old gate, and upon the fish gate, and the tower of Hananeel and the tower of Meah, even unto the sheep gate."

+ Porta Vetus; it escaped the general ruin when the Chaldeans laid waste the city. Rebuilt by Jõiada, the son of Phasea.

Porta Vallis; through this were carried the corpses of those who were executed at Calvary; constructed by Hanum on the return from Babylon; afterwards called the Golden Gate.

§ Porta Sterquilinii.

| Porta Fontis; rebuilt by Selum, son of Choloza.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »