From Aceldama we can ascend to the top of the hill to visit the ruins of Deir-Kaddis-Modistus. This appears to have been an ancient convent, at the time when the anchorites inhabited the caverns. Now we see a Mohammedan tomb, and two Arab cottages, erected by the Greek Archimandrite, Nicoforus, who has purchased a large estate there; and in a few years the mountain-side, after so many centuries of sterility, will be again fertile. When these were being built, I often visited the place, and noticed that, as the rubbish was cleared away, some remains of ancient Jewish and Roman walls were discovered; the occurrence of which, renders it not at all improbable that a fortress occupied the position in the time of the Maccabees.
We descend the Hill of Evil Counsel to the Bethlehem road, and follow this northward till we reach the valley of Gihon on the north-west. On our left is a new mulberry plantation, in the middle of which stand a small tower and the beginning of a house, all the work of Nicoforus, who intends to establish here a spinning-mill for silk. This spot is Kasr el-Asfur or el-Ghazal (House of the young sparrow, or of the gazelle)[744]. Here we find many cisterns entirely excavated in the rock, and a quantity of hewn rock, still bearing marks characteristic of the ancient tools. Dressed stones and fragments of walls of the Jewish period are not unfrequently found here by the labourers, when digging deep to bring the ground under cultivation; but unfortunately the Archimandrite is not as fond of archæology as of farming; and these remains are blown up with gunpowder to gain two or three inches more soil for the roots of a tree, so that the traces of ancient works, of the highest importance in determining the former topography of the neighbourhood of the city, are thus obliterated.
A little to the north of Kasr el-Asfur is a large plot of land enclosed by a new Arab wall, on which stands a long building, certainly not remarkable for its good architecture and internal arrangement. It is a hospice for Jews, founded in 1858 by Sir Moses Montefiore of London, with the assistance of others professing the same creed. It has been erected to supply lodgings for the poor, where they may enjoy a purer air than they do in their own quarter of the city. Behind the principal building, to the west, Sir Moses Montefiore erected a wind-mill, which would be of the highest value to the whole country if only its advantages were understood; but the Arabs still prefer using their own miserable hand or horse-mills, which spoil their flour, to the trouble of carrying the grain this short distance from the city. In time, no doubt, they will perceive the obligation they are under to this philanthropic Israelite.
In the lower part of the valley, to the east of the above-named establishment, is a very large pool excavated in the rock, except on the north and south side, where its waters are retained by walls. It is the largest in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and bears the name Birket es-Sultan (Prince's Pool). It is so called because the popular belief is that it was originally constructed by David or Solomon, and afterwards repaired by various sultans. An Arabic inscription on the frontispiece of a fountain (now dry) to the south, called Aïn el-Melik, informs us that it was restored by the Mamaluke Sultan el-Melik en-Naser-Mohammed, between the years 693 and 741 of the Hejra (from 1294 to 1340 A.D.). It was also repaired by Sultan Solyman I. in the sixteenth century. Owing to a mistake made by Bonifacius[745] it has been wrongly supposed to be the Pool of Bersabeë (Bathsheba), where the wife of Uriah the Hittite was bathing, when she was seen by David. This is however obviously contrary to the words in the Bible[746], that "David walked upon the roof of the King's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, &c." Besides, it is in the last degree improbable that a woman of good reputation would bathe in a pool by the side of a public road. It is more likely that it bears the name of Bethsabeë or Bersabeë, because it is at the beginning of the road leading to the city of Bersabeë[747]. I have no doubt that this is the 'lower pool' mentioned by the Prophet Isaiah[748]; but I shall discuss this question in the Chapter on the Waters, and give an account of the aqueduct, which runs along its western side, and then after turning eastward goes to Sion. In the middle ages it was repaired by one Germanus, as the following passage shews: "When they had descended the mount," it is told in our account of the thirteenth century, "they found a pool in the valley, called Germanus' Pool, because Germanus constructed it to catch the water that descended from the hills when it rained; there the horses of the city used to drink[749]." It is true that the above quotation asserts that Germanus made the pool, but I understand this only to mean repaired; because it is far too great a work to have been undertaken in the time of the Crusades, simply to form a watering-place for horses, when other ponds in the neighbourhood of the city would have served for this purpose. It is also mentioned in the Cartulary of the Holy Sepulchre in the year 1177. The pool is now dry, and even after rain the water does not remain in it, although it could be restored for a small sum. During the harvest the farmers dry and thresh out their crops in it.
Hence we return to the city by ascending the rough road leading up to that part of the wall enclosing Mount Sion, which bears the name of Abraj Ghazzah (towers of Gaza), and after passing the south-west corner of this, we arrive on the plateau of the hill, which is occupied by a cemetery, divided among the different Christian communities in Jerusalem. At the south-east corner of this stands a group of buildings, known by the names of the Tomb of David and the Cœnaculum. A small dome, surmounted by a crescent, marks the position of the former[750]. That this is the site of the tomb of the Royal Psalmist and his successors, I trust to shew by the aid of the Bible, of history, of tradition, and of local evidence at the present time. We find the following passages in the Bible: "David took the stronghold of Sion, the same is the city of David.... So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David[751]. So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David[752]." Again, after the death of the Psalmist, several of his successors are mentioned as being buried "with their fathers in the city of David[753]." But this is not all; in the Book of Nehemiah[754] we find "the gate of the fountain repaired Shallum ... and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the King's garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David. After him repaired Nehemiah ... unto the place over against the sepulchres of David, and to the pool that was made, and unto the house of the mighty." From this it is clear that the wall, in coming from the direction of the King's garden and the pool of Siloam, mounted the eastern slope of Sion as far as the Tomb of David, and that the 'pool that was made' is Birket es-Sultan, and possibly the 'house of the mighty' may be the citadel. Hence the Tomb of David must have been well known to the Jews of later ages. Again, Josephus[755] states that Solomon buried great treasures in his father's tomb, and that Hyrcanus the High-priest broke open the tomb and took therefrom three thousand talents. This happened about 129 B.C. In another place[756] we find, "As for Herod, he had spent vast sums about the cities, both without and within his own kingdom, and as he had before heard that Hyrcanus, who had been king before him, had opened David's sepulchre, and had taken out of it three thousand talents of silver, and that there was a much greater number left behind, and indeed enough to suffice all his wants, he had a great while an intention to make the attempt; and at this time he opened the sepulchre by night and went into it, and endeavoured that it should not be at all known in the city, but took only his most faithful friends with him. As for money he found none, as Hyrcanus had done, but that furniture of gold and those precious stones that were laid up there, all which he took away. However, he had a great desire to make a more diligent search, and to go further in, even as far as the very bodies of David and Solomon; where two of his guards were slain by a flame that burst out upon those that went in, as the report was. So he was terribly affrighted, and went out, and built a propitiatory monument of that fright he had been in, and this of white stone, at the mouth of the sepulchre, and at a great expense also." This took place about the year 12 B.C. Had the tomb been outside the walls, it is less likely that it would have escaped destruction in the various sieges of Jerusalem; and the account just cited produces the impression that it was within the city. S. Peter[757], addressing the Jews, says, "Let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day." This brings us down to the year 34 A.D. Dio Cassius[758] states that part of the Tomb of David fell down of itself in the time of Hadrian, which was considered by the Jews to be an evil omen. S. Jerome[759] also informs us that it was visited by the Christians, when he says to S. Paula and S. Eustochium her daughter, "When shall we be allowed to enter the Sepulchre of the Redeemer, and to pray in the Tomb of David?" He does not indeed expressly say that it was within the city, but we may infer it from his mentioning it together with the Sepulchre of Christ, and not alluding to it when he describes the visits to the Sanctuaries in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. This evidence brings us down to the fifth century. The Jewish tradition also on this point is of real weight, because it has never placed the tomb otherwise than on Sion, outside the present city-walls, though without fixing its exact position. Benjamin of Tudela[760], who wrote A.D. 1173, relates that about fifteen years before his arrival at Jerusalem one of the walls of the oratory on Mount Sion fell down, and that while it was being repaired two of the workmen went on with their labour while the rest were absent, and broke away a stone that formed the mouth of a cavern; into this they agreed to enter in search of treasure, "and they proceeded until they reached a large hall, supported by pillars of marble incrusted with gold and silver, before which stood a table with a golden sceptre and crown. This was the Sepulchre of David, King of Israel.... They further saw chests locked up, the contents of which nobody knew, and were on the point of entering the hall when a blast of wind like a storm issued forth from the mouth of the cavern, so strong that it threw them down almost lifeless on the ground. There they lay until evening, when another wind rushed forth, from which they heard a voice like that of a man calling aloud, Get up and go forth from this place." Now I do not attempt to deny that this story may be false or greatly exaggerated, but at any rate it proves that the Tomb of David was clearly pointed out by tradition at that time as being on Sion. A Florentine lady, Sophia degli Arcangeli, erected a hospice containing 200 beds near the Cœnaculum, in the year 1354, to entertain pilgrims to the Holy City, and then began to excavate on Sion a subterranean chamber to bury the Latins who died during their visit. When the work was commenced in the Latin cemetery, near to the boundary of that belonging to the Armenians, the ground gave way, and a great underground cavern appeared. For this reason the attempt was abandoned lest it should lead to disputes with the neighbours. Now this fact does not give us any indication of the place of the Tomb of David, but it proves the existence of a cavern, such as is now seen, with its opening on the west side of Sion. This then especially occupied my attention, as I thought it would afford the means of determining the Tomb of David, which all the Jews now in Jerusalem unanimously assert to be on Sion. They do not indeed generally assign any exact position to it, not I believe from ignorance, but from religious scruple; some however less anxiously cautious, say that it is on the site usually pointed out, namely at Neby Daûd, which is the Arab name for the eastern part of the building attached to the Cœnaculum. Quaresmius[761], who was Guardian of the Holy Land in 1630, and visited the tomb with the interpreter of the Latin convent, assures us that nothing remains under the present place. I allude to this to shew that the tradition of the tomb being near the Cœnaculum was also current among the Franciscan monks.
Before bringing forward my own investigations, and the conclusions derived from them, I quote the words of M. Mislin[762]: "I visited the Tomb of David, April 1, 1855. It was three o'clock in the afternoon; Kiamil Pasha and the chief personages awaited us in a small court, the entrance to which is on the left-hand side of the great doorway. We at once descended by a staircase of only six or eight steps into a low vaulted chamber, which, so far as I can judge, is situated exactly under the Church of the Institution of the Eucharist, of which it is only the crypt. No doubt it was one of the three churches, placed one on the other, mentioned by Fabri[763]. 'It had consecrated places on three different levels, namely a crypt underground, a church above ground, and over that another decorated tabernacle.' After passing through the vestibule we arrived at the part corresponding with the single nave of the church above. Here however the nave is divided into two by a row of massive piers of rock in the middle, supporting the vaulted roof. The latter half, or rather part of this crypt, for it is smaller than the other, is separated by a transverse railing, and is itself divided by another railing at right angles to the former, so as to form two spaces at the southern end of the chamber. The entrance is by that on the right hand, and the tomb occupies almost the whole of that on the left. When we had entered the former chamber, which I will call the Mihrab, because in it is the niche for prayers, ... the place in which we were was very dark, and the neighbouring chamber was worse; so that all that we could see on the other side of the railing separating us from it, was a carpet, which was not enough to satisfy our curiosity. Kiamil Pasha remarked to the Sheikh that we were come to see the tomb; he then opened the door with a very good grace. The Pasha kneeled down and pressed the fringe of the carpet covering the tomb to his mouth and forehead for a moment, and then allowed us to examine it at our pleasure. Before us was a sarcophagus about seven feet high, and twelve long. It was covered with seven very rich carpets. The upper was blue silk with large deeper coloured stripes; it was worked over with texts from the Koran. In the middle of the sarcophagus there is also a square piece of stuff richly embroidered, with a gold fringe; on it also are texts from the Koran, worked in gold thread. It was the gift of the Sultan Abdul-Medjid. The second carpet is bright blue with flowers worked in silver thread. The others are well worn and less rich than these. From the roof a canopy of silk is suspended, striped white and blue. The Sheikh who accompanied us raised a corner of the carpet, so that I was able to touch the sarcophagus; but owing to the many folds of the cloth, I had great difficulty in forming an opinion of its shape and material. Observing that I was not yet satisfied, he then took courage and raised the whole of the carpet from the part where there was the best light. By this means I saw the entire front of the sarcophagus, which appeared to me to be made of unpolished grey marble. In the middle was a medallion of darker colour, and I asked its meaning. The Sheikh informed me that it marked the position of the Prophet's navel. I examined the walls; they are covered with earthenware tiles with a blue pattern on a white ground. Bronze lamps are placed here and there around the tomb. Near the door, on the left hand on going out, is a chain suspended from the wall, with oblong links. The Sheikh told me it was a model of one made by David himself.... The Mohammedans act wisely in keeping this tomb concealed, in order to invest it with some importance." The last is an unfortunate remark; the Mohammedans, and especially the Sheikhs who are in charge of the place, know very well what they are about, as I will presently shew.
I visited the chamber described by M. Mislin in February 1859; having obtained admission from the same Santon in return for certain services I had rendered him, also by bribes and presents at various times, by the recommendation of Surraya Pasha, and by having won the good will of the Mohammedan families who occupy the houses about Neby Daûd; most of whom let out horses and beasts of burden for hire, and were under obligations to me for recommending them to travellers. For all these reasons, and after much expenditure of money and patience, I gained entrance into the Sepulchre of David, visited his pretended tomb, and made the observations I am about to describe. The description of M. Mislin is very accurate, but I am able to make the following additions to it: (1) Under the earthenware tiles in the chamber of the sarcophagus, I discovered, by means of an examination made from the outside, the walls of an ancient Jewish building, combined, in the parts above the floor, with masonry of a later date, which has been introduced during repairs. This is to be found especially on the east and north sides. (2) The sarcophagus is not of unpolished grey marble, but of whitish Palestine breccia, called marble by the ancients, from its resemblance in working and polish. The greyish colour is due to its age, and perhaps also to the bad light or to the shade cast by the upraised carpets on the small part of it that was examined. (3) The medallion does not mark the position of the Prophet's navel, as the Sheikh said, but is a simple decoration attached to the sarcophagus; it is repeated on each of the other sides. Neither is it of darker marble, but as it is continually kissed by devotees its colour has been altered. (4) The form of the sarcophagus is a rectangular parallelepiped, formed of different blocks of breccia well fitted together without mortar. The lid is à dos d'âne[764], of several pieces of stone; at least so it appears at each end, but in the middle and on the top I have been unable to detect the divisions. All this shews that it is not a real sarcophagus, but only an imitation or cenotaph erected on the spot to conceal something below. (5) On lifting up the mats at the corners of the chamber and near the tomb, I found that the pavement is laid upon the rock, which corresponds in its nature with that exposed all about the upper part of Sion. I carefully examined the north side and the base of the monument, in the hope of discerning signs of an opening, but in vain. When I asked the Sheikh for information on the point, he appeared surprised at my question, and from that moment endeavoured to get me out of the place as quickly as possible; and under the circumstances I had no choice but to comply.
I did not, however, believe that I had visited the Tomb of David, but was convinced that there was below or on the north side of the chamber containing the sarcophagus, a communication with the true tomb, which must be excavated in the solid rock; and, like all the other very ancient sepulchres, consist of many chambers, in which were sarcophagi, differing in their arrangement from those at the Tombs of the Kings and Judges, on the north of Jerusalem[765]. I accordingly determined to descend into the vault, which I have already mentioned as having an opening on the western side of the hill[766]. After I had descended a steep sloping plot of land, I found some steps forming the commencement of a staircase cut in the rock; which, however, is now almost covered with soil, ashes, and bones. Below was a huge vault, which I perceived to run under a large portion of the cemetery above; and so understood how it was that they came upon it in excavating a burial-place in 1354. It is now almost full of bones, which are thrown in whenever they are found in digging graves. As I unfortunately made the examination in the rainy season, it was not very successful; the water had soaked through and run down into the interior, so that I was impeded by mud composed of wet soil, ashes, and bones; and I do not know whether I should have been able to extricate myself from the fetid quagmire, if I had not had two men with me, and taken my usual precaution, when visiting an unexplored place, of fastening a rope round my body. Consequently I was obliged to wait for a better opportunity. At the same time I examined the ground in the neighbourhood of the opening, and not only found the rock all round it at a slight depth, but also ascertained that it had once been larger, and had been reduced in size by masonry, so that it could be closed with a stone. The rock, when uncovered, shewed traces of the iron tools with which it had been wrought, and also exhibited the small holes made to admit clamps of iron or lead to fasten down the stones that were laid upon it. These marks have brought me to the conclusion, that this must have been the entrance into the Tomb of the Jewish Kings, and that here Herod erected his monument in order to render the place secure. Hence the sarcophagus, which is called David's Tomb, is only a representation of it, after the usual custom of the Mohammedans, who indeed have another repetition of it in wood on the upper floor; which is placed there to content the believers who come to pray, and saves the Sheikh the trouble of conducting them down into the lower chamber. It may not be out of place to observe here, that I made a report to Surraya Pasha, that the principal causes of the constant fevers in Jerusalem were the shallowness of the graves on Sion, which were so dug to avoid coming upon this vault by going too deep; and the presence of this charnel-house. At the same time I proposed a plan by which, at a small expense, the sepulchres of Aceldama might be restored, and the remains of the corpses removed to them; a change which would have produced the best possible effect on the sanitary state of the city. The Pasha understood this, but unfortunately, owing to the number of previous formalities which were requisite, the execution of the design was almost impossible. I must confess that the public good was not my only motive on this occasion, as the opportunity it would have afforded me for making researches, and excavating inside the cavern, would probably have furnished me with most valuable information to aid in identifying this place with the Tombs of the Jewish Kings.
In the month of May in the same year I was able with much difficulty to examine, to some extent, the above-named cavern: not indeed as thoroughly as I could have wished, but as far as circumstances would allow. I was obliged to remove a quantity of skulls, masses of bones, and other materials, and this with the help of only one European servant; as I was unable to find any other assistant, owing to the disgusting nature of the labour. It was further impossible to get help from the Arabs, who would not have aided me for any price that I could have offered, and who would very likely have embroiled me with the inhabitants of Neby Daûd. By little and little, on many days, I was able to make a Plan of the place[767]; I do not claim for this very strict accuracy as regards the measurements, but its shape and bearings are to be trusted, up to the part where it narrows on the east. Although I saw the beginning of the corridor on the east, I was unable to enter it, as it was quite filled with rubbish, and I have only inferred its junction with the chamber containing the sarcophagus which passes for David's Tomb. I found over a large part of the cavern the marks of the tools used in excavating it. At some places there appeared to be the upper parts of doorways; these perhaps might be entrances into other vaults; the mass of rubbish however made it impossible to determine this. I also thought that the vaulting was supported by piers; but was unable to satisfy myself on this point, as what I saw might have been caused by a settlement of the ground above that had brought the roof into contact with the rubbish accumulated inside, which was in such quantities, that I could not without great labour have distinguished the one from the other. As then I cannot conceive this great work undertaken for any other than an important purpose, I believe that it is the vestibule of the Tombs of the Jewish Kings; but of course to establish this we must wait until the rubbish is cleared out of it. It is in the fortress of Sion, the city wherein David dwelt, and no other place in Jerusalem agrees so well with the data of the Bible and Josephus, and with tradition, as this position, which has in its favour every argument derived from the configuration of the ground. I hope to be able to renew my investigations here; but if unhappily I am prevented from carrying my intention into effect, I recommend archæologists to devote themselves to the subject; trusting that in that case they will find that I have directed them to the real tombs of the Jewish Kings on Sion.
Let us now consider the 'Cœnaculum;' the name of which is derived from the belief that it is the place where our Saviour ate the last Paschal supper with His Apostles. The Bible[768] tells us no more than that it was a large upper-room, but the tradition is of very great antiquity. It asserts that here the Apostles met after the Resurrection, when the Saviour shewed them His wounds; that here He ate before them, and breathed on them that they might receive the Holy Ghost[769]; that here Thomas was convinced[770], and Matthias elected an Apostle[771]; that here the Holy Ghost descended on the day of Pentecost[772], and the first converts were added to the Church by S. Peter[773]. A church must have been erected on this spot at a very early period, for S. Epiphanius[774] says, with reference to Hadrian's journey in Palestine: "He found Jerusalem levelled with the ground, the Temple itself destroyed and trodden under foot, save only a few houses, and a certain small Christian church which had been built upon that spot on which the disciples, after that the Saviour had ascended into heaven, assembled together in the Cœnaculum." We read in the Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril[775]: "The Holy Ghost, who spake in the Prophets, and who on the day of Pentecost descended on the Apostles in the form of fiery tongues, here in Jerusalem in the Upper Church of the Apostles." This shews that the church was divided then, as it now is, into two floors. It is not known who built it. Nicephorus Callistus[776], an author of the fourteenth century, attributes it to S. Helena; but Eusebius does not mention it, and the Bordeaux Pilgrim only says: "Continuing along the same road up Mount Sion, you may see the place where was the house of Caiaphas the priest; and to this time the column still remains where they scourged Jesus." S. Jerome[777], in his Itinerary of Paula, writes thus: "The column was shewn there, supporting the portico of a church, stained with the Lord's blood, to which He is said to have been bound and scourged. The place is pointed out where the Holy Ghost descended upon one hundred and twenty believers." In the year 415, on Dec. 26th, the remains of the Proto-martyr S. Stephen were transported to the Apostles' Church, during the patriarchate of John[778]. Antoninus of Piacenza, Arculf, Willibald, and Bernard the Wise, in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries respectively, mention the basilica on Sion[779]. Arculf describes its plan without details as a regular parallelogram of considerable length. We do not know whether the church, described by these authors, was the same as that spoken of by S. Cyril; but it is very probable that, owing to the persecutions suffered by the Christians, the fabric was destroyed and rebuilt more than once. At any rate, by the end of the eleventh century it had entirely fallen to ruin, as we find from the Gesta Francorum[780]. The Crusaders rebuilt it, and though their church no longer exists, we possess an accurate description of it by the authors of the twelfth century. I abbreviate this from the work of M. de Vogüé[781], who has derived it from the anonymous writers of the manuscripts of Vienna and of Paris, and from John of Würtzburg and John Phocas. "The church was composed of two parts: the lower, consisting of a nave and two aisles, with barrel-vaults, was terminated, like most of the buildings of the period of the Crusades, by three apses at the east. In the apse most to the north was an altar, supposed to mark the place where the Virgin died.... That on the south was supposed to indicate where Christ appeared to His disciples after His Resurrection. In this lower church, sometimes called the crypt in the middle ages, they say that Our Saviour washed the Apostles' feet. The upper church had a groined roof, with a central dome. This was the Cœnaculum, properly so called, where tradition placed the scene of the Last Supper in the nave, and of the descent of the Holy Ghost in the principal apse. The two floors communicated one with another by means of an inner staircase of 61 steps (this number, given by Phocas, is evidently exaggerated), which opened from the ground-floor in the southern apse. The interior of these two churches, in the time of the Latin Kings, was covered with wall-paintings, representing the subjects of the traditions attached to the spot." After giving a list of these, M. de Vogüé goes on to say, that "on the left of the principal church was a small one dedicated to S. Stephen, in remembrance of a very ancient tradition, according to which the martyr's body was removed from its first resting-place at Caphar Gamala to this place. A convent had been built in the neighbourhood, occupied by a chapter of Augustinian Canons, who had the care of the Sanctuaries under the direction of an Abbot. The society bore the twofold name of S. Mary of Mount Sion and of the Holy Ghost." M. de Vogüé then describes the seal of the convent, and gives a list of the Abbots.