•From the great maritime plain of Philistia and Sharon. This road led by the two Beth-horons up
to the high ground at Gibeon, whence it turned south, and came to Jerusalem by Ramah and Gibeah,
and over the ridge north of the city. Topography.—To convey an idea of the position of Jerusalem,
we may say, roughly, that the city occupies the southern termination of the table-land which is
cut off from the country round it on its west, south and east sides by ravines more than usually
deep and precipitous. These ravines leave the level of the table-land, the one on the west and the
other on the northeast of the city, and fall rapidly until they form a junction below its southeast
corner. The eastern one—the valley of the Kedron, commonly called the valley of
Jehoshaphat—runs nearly straight from north by south. But the western one—the valley of
Hinnom— runs south for a time, and then takes a sudden bend to the east until it meets the valley
of Jehoshaphat, after which the two rush off as one to the Dead Sea. How sudden is their descent
may be gathered from the fact that the level at the point of junction -about a mile and a quarter
from the starting-point of each— is more than 600 feet below that of the upper plateau from which
they began their descent. So steep is the fall of the ravines, so trench-like their character, and so
close do they keep to the promontory at whose feet they run, as to leave on the beholder almost
the impression of the ditch at the foot of a fortress rather than of valleys formed by nature. The
promontory thus encircled is itself divided by a longitudinal ravine running up it from south to
north, called the valley of the Tyropoeon, rising gradually from the south, like the external ones,
till at last it arrives at the level of the upper plateau, dividing the central mass into two unequal
portions. Of these two, that on the west is the higher and more massive, on which the city of
Jerusalem now stands, and in fact always stood. The hill on the east is considerably lower and
smaller, so that to a spectator from the south the city appears to slope sharply toward the east.
Here was the temple, and here stands now the great Mohammedan sanctuary with its mosques
and domes. The name of Mount, Mount, MountainZion has been applied to the western hill from
the time of Constantine to the present day. The eastern hill, called Mount, Mount, MountainMoriah
in (2 Chronicles 3:1) was as already remarked, the site of the temple. It was situated in the southwest
angle of the area, now known as the Haram area, and was, as we learn from Josephus, an exact
square of a stadium, or 600 Greek feet, on each side. (Conder (“Bible Handbook,” 1879) states
that by the latest surveys the Haram area is a quadrangle with unequal sides. The west wall measures
1601 feet, the south 922, the east 1530, the north 1042. It is thus nearly a mile in circumference,
and contains 35 acres.—ED.) Attached to the northwest angle of the temple was the Antonia, a
tower or fortress. North of the side of the temple is the building now known to Christians as the
Mosque of Omar, but by Moslems called the Dome of the Rock. The southern continuation of the
eastern hill was named Ophel, which gradually came to a point at the junction of the valleys
Tyropoeon and Jehoshaphat; and the norther BEZETHA, “the new city,” first noticed by Josephus,
which was separated from Moriah by an artificial ditch, and overlooked the valley of Kedron on
the east; this hill was enclosed within the walls of Herod Agrippa. Lastly, ACRA lay westward
of Moriah and northward of Zion, and formed the “lower city” in the time of Josephus.
Walls.—These are described by Josephus. The first or old wall was built by David and Solomon,
and enclosed Zion and part of Mount Moriah. (The second wall enclosed a portion of the city
called Acra or Millo, on the north of the city, from the tower of Mariamne to the tower of Antonia.
It was built as the city enlarged in size; begun by Uzziah 140 years after the first wall was finished,
continued by Jotham 50 years later, and by Manasseh 100 years later still. It was restored by
Nehemiah. Even the latest explorations have failed to decide exactly what was its course. (See
frankie
(Frankie)
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