in thickness. The chord of the remaining portion of the arch is 12 feet 6 inches, the sine 11 feet 10 inches, and the cosine 3 feet 10 inches." Its total span, if restored, (according to the statement of an English engineer3,) would be 41 feet 7 inches, supposing it a circular arch with a radius of 20 feet 9 inches.

About 100 feet northward of the arch, Abu Se'ûd's house abuts upon the wall, and presents a barrier to further investigation in the same line. The ancient masonry, however, may be traced quite up to this abutment, and is recovered at the Jews' Wailing Place, which extends along the line of wall between the Gate of the Moghrebins and that of the Chain, at the causeway, and is reached by "a narrow lane, through a cluster of humble, one-storied tenements." Here occur some of the finest and best preserved specimens of ancient masonry in the Haram wall, consisting of "five courses of bevelled stones, and over these four courses of smooth-faced stones, little if at all inferior in size." "Owing to the continuous mass of houses built up against the west side of the Haram, it is next to impossible to inspect it any further; but from some glimpses stolen here and there, among the houses, Mr. Tipping believes the west side to be the best preserved of the three, and that the covered bazaar (the Cotton Mart) has been, judging from the size of the stones, erected with ancient materials ","

Tipping, in Traill's Josephus, p. xxvi. and Robinson 1. c.

Mr. J. C. Brettell, who measured it in June 1840. Mr. Young has furnished me with his restoration.

Traill's Josephus, p. xlvi. The VOL. II.

promised careful delineation of the Wailing Place was never given, but it is well represented by Mr. Bartlett, Walks, p. 154. He also gives the spring-stones of the arch in p. 150.

21

There is, however, an important fact relating to this western wall, which has escaped the observation of all except Lieutenant Symonds, who surveyed the interior of the city in 1841, with the utmost care, and whose Plan, so far as I have been able to test it, will bear the closest scrutiny. It is this; that the western wall is not continued in an unbroken line from its southern to its northern extremity, but presents two distinct angles in its southern half; the former at a distance of 180 feet from the S. W. angle of the Haram, at the point where the house of Abu Se'ûd Effendi abuts upon the Mosk; the latter, at a further distance of 320 feet North, just South of the causeway at the Mehkemeh, or Town Hall of the city. It results from this, that the Jews' Wailing Place is 140 feet West of the wall at the ruined arch, and that the line of the wall from the causeway nearly to the N. W. corner is 90 feet West of the Wailing Place. The importance of this fact will appear in the sequel. It was so wholly unsuspected by myself, so strongly confirmatory of my previously-formed theory, and so subversive of the opposite, maintained by Dr. Robinson and others, that I have taken great pains to test the accuracy of the survey in this part, although the skill of the Officer, the scientific principles on which the survey was conducted, and the minute accuracy of the Plan in all other respects, scarcely allowed room to doubt that its departure from all preceding authorities on this point had not been made without sufficient warrant. The result of my investigation and enquiry has served to justify this confidence, for not only do some ancient and modern drawings clearly indicate a contraction of the area at these points, and so serve to

confirm the testimony of the Plan', but the subsequent observations of Dr. Schultz, to whom I communicated this important discovery, with a request that he would test its accuracy on the spot, appear, though doubtingly, to lead to the same conclusion. At first indeed he was disposed to question the accuracy of the Plan; he writes: "According to the measurements of your Engineering Officers, this wall does not run in a straight line. They have been able to go into the Mosk, I suppose: I am not allowed to do so, you know: but, as far as I see, they must have made a mistake, not in their measurements, I am sure, but most likely they supposed that the house of Abu Se'ûd Effendi, lying towards the south-western angle of the outer court of the Mosk, did not belong to the Mosk itself, as it really does; or they have, which I think not quite so probable, taken the outer walls of Abu Se'ûd's house and the Mehkemeh for part of the Mosk3. The latter supposition is somewhat likely with regard to the Mehkemeh. my survey is correct, the western wall of the outer court of the Mosk is straight and in one line, at least

I refer particularly to the ancient and accurate coloured drawing of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, apparently executed in the early part of the 15th century, now preserved in the Cambridge University Library: to Breydenbach's large drawing, A. D. 1483, which is also very accurate : modern drawings also sometimes betray the fact; which, I may add, my friend Mr. Rowlands suspected at Jerusalem, before he saw the Plan.

* Dated Jerusalem, March 1, 1847. This seems to be the fact; and if, as he has just said, this house does

If

really belong to the Mosk, they were right in doing so; and the error of other surveys is explained by their having excluded this house from the Haram. It is curious, however, that Mr. Catherwood, whose interior survey of this part of the enclosure seems to have been hastily executed, represents angles at the two spots required, though he gives no account of them. See his large Plan of the area in Fergusson's Essay (Plate IV.) I suspect that he ought to have carried out the west wall beyond those angles, instead of continuing it in the same line.

from the south-western corner up to the Mehkemeh, that is, beyond the Jews' Wailing Place towards the North." Subsequently, however, he writes: "I readily believe the Officers who measured Jerusalem in 1841, may be right in what they state about the south-west. corner of the Haram, though it does not appear to me, when I look to it with my eyes only, having no instruments for ascertaining mathematically what we want to know."

Further, the two angles in question and the increasing width of the Haram towards the North, will satisfactorily account for the difference that all statements shew between the north and south walls 2; which, even according to the lowest estimate, is too great to be accounted for by an obtuse angle at the south-east angle, and we are informed that the angle at the south-west is a right angle3.

For the completion of the survey it remains only to notice a few points without the northern boundary of the Haram. The Seráiyâh, or Government House, with a barrack and extensive offices, stands on the north side of the north-west angle, "probably occupying in part the site of the ancient fortress Antonia"." "It rests upon a precipice of rock, which formerly swept down abruptly, and has obviously been cut away to form the level below, which also bears marks of having been scarped." This rocky precipice, forming the base of

1 Under date, Beyroot, October 16, 1847.

2 Mr. Catherwood makes the length of the South wall to be 940 feet, the North 1020 feet. Bartlett, p. 175. The Officers' Survey gives the former as 877, the latter as 1180 feet.

p. 174.

3 Catherwood, in Bartlett's Walks, 4 Robinson's Bib. Res. Vol. I. p. 420.

5 Bartlett, p. 156, represented in a drawing, p. 108, of the same Work.

the building, rises to a height of upwards of 20 feet, as was seen in the interior survey".

The Gates and Pool on this side have been already noticed; but the latter will here require a fuller description. "It measures 360 English feet in length, 103 in breadth, and 75 in depth to the bottom; besides the rubbish which has been accumulating in it for ages. It was once evidently used as a reservoir;" and apparently was filled with water: for large fragments of the cement, which once cased the tank throughout, may still be seen on the wall, and the action of water is discernible upon it even in the upper parts. On the western side of its south-west angle, "two lofty arched vaults extend in westward, side by side, under the houses which now cover that part. The southernmost of these arches is 12 feet in breadth, and the other 19 feet." Notwithstanding the accumulation of rubbish within and before them, "yet 100 feet may be measured within the northern one, and it seems to extend much further. This gives the whole work a length of at least 460 feet, equal to nearly one-half the whole breadth of the enclosure of the Mosk; and how much more we do not know." The vaults, even to the top of the arches, are cased with hard Roman cement, such as was commonly used in their baths, and the casing is much less decayed in the vault than in the tank itself. Whence this Pool received the enormous supply of water that was necessary to fill it, is a question of great interest, which will be discussed when I come to speak of the waters; but the masonry of the Pool is of peculiar construction, and deserves a more detailed notice. It consists of three distinct

See above, p. 300.

7 Bib. Res. Vol. 1. p. 434, &c.