The loftiest, the most extensive, and in all respects the most conspicuous eminence, included within the site of the ancient city, was that of Sion, called the Holy Hill, and the citadel of David. This we have positive authority for fixing on the south of the city. David himself saith, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion; on the sides of the north the city of the great King[318]."
"On its summit," says La Martine, "at some hundred paces from Jerusalem, stands a mosque and a group of Turkish edifices, not unlike an European hamlet, crowned with its church and steeple. This is Sion! the palace, the tomb of David! the seat of his inspiration and of his joys, of his life and his repose! A spot doubly sacred to me, who have so often felt my heart touched, and my thoughts rapt by the sweet singer of Israel, the first poet of sentiment, the king of lyrics. Never have human fibres vibrated to harmonies so deep, so penetrating, so solemn; all the most secret murmurs of the human heart found their voice and their note on the lips and the heart of this minstrel! and if we revert to the remote period when such chants were first echoed on the earth; if we consider that at the same period the lyric poetry of the most cultivated nations sang only of wine, love, and war, and the victories of the muses, or of the coursers at the Eleian games, we dwell with profound astonishment on the mystic accents of the prophet king, who addresses God the Creator, as friend talks to friend, comprehends and adores his wonders, admires his judgments, implores his mercies, and seems to be an anticipating echo of the evangelic poetry, repeating the mild accents of Christ, before they had been heard. Prophet or poet, as he is contemplated by the philosopher or christian, neither of them can deny the poet king an inspiration, bestowed on no other man! Read Horace or Pindar after a Psalm? For my part I cannot!"
Near Jerusalem is a spot called Tophet, which is a ravine, which contains several ancient tombs, marked with Hebrew and Greek inscriptions. This valley is remarkable for the barbarous worship here paid to Moloch; to which deity parents often sacrificed their offspring by making them pass through the fire. To drown the lamentable shrieks of the children[319] thus immolated, musical instruments were played. After the captivity the Jews regarded this spot with abhorrence, on account of the abominations which had been practised there; and following the example of Josiah[320], they threw into it every species of filth, as well as the carcases of animals, and the dead bodies of malefactors; and to prevent the pestilence which such a mass would occasion, if left to putrefy, constant fires were maintained in the valley in order to consume the whole; hence the place received the appellation of Gehenna.
All round the hill of Sion[321], and particularly on that facing the Valley of Hinnom, are numerous excavations which may have been habitations of the living, but are more generally taken for sepulchres of the dead. They are numerous and varied, both in their sizes and forms; and are supposed to have been the tombs of the sons of Heth, of the kings of Israel, of Lazarus, and of Christ.
The modern sepulchres of the unfortunate Jews are scattered all around. The declivities of Sion and Olivet are covered with small and ill-shaped stones, disposed with little order:—Here are the tombs of their fathers.
The sepulchres of the kings of Judah consist of a series of subterranean chambers, extending in different directions, so as to form a sort of labyrinth, resembling the still more wonderful example, lying westward of Alexandria, in Egypt, by some called "the Sepulchres of the Ptolemies." Each chamber contains a certain number of receptacles for dead bodies, not being much larger than our coffins. The taste, manifested in the interior of these chambers, denotes a late period in the history of the arts. The skill and neatness visible in the carving is admirable, and there is much of ornament in several parts of the work. There are, also, slabs of marble, exquisitely sculptured. These sepulchres are not those of the kings of Judah. Some suppose they may have been constructed by Agrippa, who extended and beautified this quarter of the city; but the most current opinion is, that they were the work of Helena, queen of Aliabene, and her son Izatus.
The Sepulchres of the Patriarchs face that part of Jerusalem where the Temple of Solomon was formerly erected. The antiquities which particularly bear this name, are four in number: these are the sepulchres of Jehoshaphat, of Absalom, the cave of St. James, and the sepulchre of Zechariah. These tombs display an alliance of the Egyptian and Grecian taste, "forming, as it were," says Chateaubriand, "a link between the Pyramids and the Parthenon." "In order to form the sepulchres of Absalom and Zechariah," says Dr. Clarke, "the solid substance of the mountain has been cut away; sufficient areas being thereby excavated, two monuments of prodigious size appear in the midst; each seeming to consist of a single stone, although standing as if erected by an architect, and adorned with columns, appearing to support the edifice, whereof they are, in fact, integral parts; the whole of each mausoleum being of one entire block of stone. These works may, therefore, be considered as belonging to sculpture, rather than to architecture: for, immense as these are, they appeared sculptured instead of being built. The columns are of that ancient style and character, which yet appear among the works left by Ionian and Dorian colonies, in the remains of their Asiatic cities."
The sepulchre of Absalom, and the cave of St. James, are smaller works, but of the same nature as those above. All of them contain apartments and receptacles for the dead, hewn in the same curious manner.
A few paces to the north of the grot,[322] is a substantial stone building, resembling the dome of a church, almost even with the ground, having a pointed gothic doorway. It covers the reputed tomb of the blessed Virgin; and its construction, like other great monuments of this country, is attributed to the pious mother of Constantine. The descent to it is by a broad and handsome flight of forty-six stone steps. On the right-hand side, about half way down, is shown the cenotaph, erected to the memory of Joahim and Anne, the father and mother of Mary; and, in a recess on the opposite side, that of Joseph her husband. A further descent leads into a subterraneous chapel, lit up with lamps, which are kept continually burning. In the centre, a little to the right, is an altar, erected over the sacred tomb, which is an excavation in the rock. Behind, in the curve of the chapel, is an altar, at which mass is occasionally said.[323]
"The tomb of the Virgin," says Dr. Clarke, "is the largest of all the cryptæ. Near Jerusalem, appropriate chapels, within a lofty and spacious vault, distinguish the real or imaginary tombs of the Virgin Mary, of Joseph, of Anna, and of Caiaphas. Struck with wonder, not only in viewing such an extraordinary effort of human labour, but in the consideration that history affords no light whatever as to its origin, we came afterwards to examine it again, but could assign no probable date for the era of its construction. It ranks among those colossal works, which were accomplished by the inhabitants of Asia Minor, of Phœnicia, and of Palestine, in the first ages;—works, which differ from those of Greece, in displaying less of beauty, but more of arduous enterprise; works, which remind us of the people rather than the artist; which we refer to as monuments of history, rather than of taste."