EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE CITY ON THE NORTH AND WEST—THE MONUMENT OF HELENA OF ADIABENE, AND THE CHURCH DEDICATED TO S. STEPHEN—ROYAL CAVERNS—GROTTO OF JEREMIAH—HOUSE OF THE VINE—TOMBS OF THE KINGS—SHEIKH JERRAH—ANCIENT SYNAGOGUE—TOMB OF SIMON THE JUST—TOMBS AT THE HEAD OF THE KIDRON VALLEY—KIDRON POOL—VARIOUS TOMBS ON THE NORTH-WEST—TOMBS OF THE JUDGES—SHEIKH AYMAR—RUSSIAN BUILDINGS—VALLEY OF GIHON—BIRKET MAMILLAH—MONUMENT OF HEROD, AND RUINS OF THE CHURCH OF S. BABYLAS—GREEK CONVENT OF THE HOLY CROSS—PROPERTY OF THE ARCHIMANDRITE NICOFERUS.
Let us return to the picturesque Damascus Gate[794], and begin our examination from this point. In the first chapter[795] I mentioned that there was a Cufic inscription under the archway on the west side; this contains the Mohammedan confession of faith, namely, "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his Prophet." Outside the gate, on either hand, is a mound, formed by the continual accumulation of rubbish and soil which have been brought and cast down here for many centuries; the last addition being on the building of the Austrian hospice in 1857. These render it impossible to see the full extent of the ditch, which was made in the reign of Agrippa to defend the city-walls[796]. Following the road northward, some chiselled rocks are seen on the left hand, which I have already[797] stated to be, in my opinion, the remains of the monument of Helena of Adiabene. We must now consider the claims of this place to be the scene of S. Stephen's martyrdom; since we saw[798] that the present site, near S. Mary's church, was inadmissible. The Bible[799] tells us no more than that the Saint was "cast out of the city;" and as S. Paul witnessed the martyr's death, he may not improbably have pointed out the place to the Christians. In the fourth century this was said by tradition to be on the north of the city, as we gather from a letter of the Priest Lucian, preserved by Quaresmius[800]: "He was stoned outside the north gate, which leads to Kedar." In the fifth century a magnificent church was erected here by the Empress Eudoxia, in honour of S. Stephen. This must have been built between the years A.D. 450 and A.D. 461, as she resided at Jerusalem during that period, having retired there on the death of her husband, Theodosius II., and died in 461; that is, in the fourth year of the reign of Leo I., Emperor of the East[801]. She was buried in this church[802]. From Evagrius[803] we also learn that "she built a church in memory of S. Stephen, Proto-deacon and Proto-martyr, of remarkable magnificence and beauty, which is not a stadium distant from Jerusalem." This place is about a stadium from the Damascus Gate. Nicephorus Callistus[804] also informs us that the church was the above distance from the city, and was of great size and beauty. This church is also celebrated for the synod which assembled there, A.D. 518, at the instigation of S. Saba, to maintain the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon, at which a great number of monks was present; and we learn incidentally from the author of S. Saba's life[805], that the church was "able to hold a very large multitude." Antoninus of Piacenza, in the sixth century, calls the present Damascus gate the Gate of S. Stephen, and expressly states that through it was the way to Cæsarea and Diospolis, so that there can be no doubt of his meaning. This name was retained until the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt by Solyman I., A.D. 1536, when it was changed, for what reason history does not tell us; but we may conjecture that the church had by this time disappeared, and the tradition was misinterpreted by the Christians. The church built by Eudoxia can scarcely have escaped destruction during the persecutions of Chosroes II. in 614, and Hakem in 1010; but it was probably rebuilt on a smaller scale, for we learn from Robert the Monk[806], an author of the time of the first Crusade, who describes the details of the siege, that "the Counts of Normandy and Flanders encamped on the north of the city, near the church of S. Stephen the Proto-martyr, on the spot where he was stoned by the Jews." Again, Sæwulf[807] informs us that "the stoning of S. Stephen took place about two or three arbalist-shots without the wall, to the north, where a very handsome church was built, which was entirely destroyed by the Pagans." Again, we find the following allusion in Albert of Aix[808]: "But Robert, Prince of the Normans, and the British Count, pitched their tents near the walls, where is the oratory of the Proto-martyr Stephen." Hence it is evident that up to the eleventh century, the traditional site of the Saint's martyrdom was always on the north of the city; and that the ruined church of Eudoxia was replaced by an oratory, which was also destroyed by the Mohammedans on the approach of the first Crusaders. The church was rebuilt in the earlier part of the twelfth century under the Latin kingdom, for it is marked on the Plan of the Brussels manuscript with this title, 'Monasterium S. Stephani[809],' and is by the side of the north gate, there called 'Porta S. Stephani Septentrionalis.' It was served by the monks of a convent, which, however, is not mentioned in any history; but its seal has been published by Sebastian Pauli. Before its doors ran the Royal road[810], along which all the pilgrims from beyond the sea travelled to Jerusalem. On the other side of the road, on the left hand going to the city, "was a great house in front of this church, which was called the asnerie; there they were wont to keep the asses and beasts of burden of the house of the Hospital, whence its name asnerie. The Christians of Jerusalem destroyed this church of S. Stephen before they were besieged, because it was near the walls. The asnerie however was not demolished, as it was used by the pilgrims who came to Jerusalem in time of truce[811]." Indeed, on the east of the road leading to Jerusalem, opposite to the rocks marking the site of the church of Eudoxia, are some cisterns; and traces of walls are found when the labourers are digging in the fields, the sole remains of the buildings that once stood here. The Church of S. Stephen was, as we have said, destroyed by the Crusaders, A.D. 1187, to prevent its covering the advance of Saladin's troops towards the walls. Willibrand of Oldenburg[812] saw its ruins in 1211, and must have occupied the asnerie, for he speaks of "a certain house situated near the walls. At this place S. Stephen was martyred, in whose honour our faithful, as still appears, founded a church and archiepiscopate, where now the Sultan's asses are kept ... with the materials of the church a dunghill has been formed." The ruins of this church and asnerie have disappeared in the course of time; the tradition itself has been transplanted to another locality, as we have seen, and would now pass for correct, were it not for the historic documents which have preserved for us the probable position of S. Stephen's martyrdom.
Between the Church of S. Stephen and the north-west corner of the city, near the bastions of the walls, was the men's lazaretto, with a church dedicated to S. Lazarus. By the side of it was the small gate of S. Ladro, where the Royal road from the north came to an end by joining that which went from S. Stephen's Gate[813].
Going back from the place of S. Stephen's martyrdom towards the Damascus Gate, we find on the left a road leading eastward; and on the right of this is an aperture, under the city-walls, which stand on a high rock; and close to the aperture a deep excavation. These are the Royal Caverns, and opposite to them, on the north, is the so-called Grotto of Jeremiah[814]. I have already mentioned[815], in speaking of the third line of walls, that I consider these two spots, now separated, to have been formerly united; and now, in giving a more minute account of them, I trust to shew that I am right in my opinion, and that the first-named place has been properly identified with the Royal Caverns of Josephus. It is not unfrequently stated in Jerusalem, that Dr Barclay discovered these great caves, which I call the Royal Caverns: and perhaps he was the first European in this century to describe them, but they were not unknown to the inhabitants of the country. They are called by the Arabs Megharet el-Kotton (the Cotton Grotto), and were known to Mejir-ed-Din, who thus writes of them: "Opposite to and to the south of the Zahara" (a Mohammedan cemetery situated above the Grotto of Jeremiah), "and below the northern gate of the city, is a great oblong excavation, called the Cotton Grotto, and some say that it even extends below the Sakharah." The notion, indeed, was common in the country, that from these caverns it was possible to penetrate into the Haram es-Sherîf: so that the adherents of the government would not allow any one to enter them. The Bedouins, however, and the Arabs of the country, took possession of them during the insurrection, and threatened to blow them up if their demands were not satisfied. I claim the merit of having rendered the passage practicable, and contributed to prove that there is no communication between them and the Haram. I have also made a correct plan of them, and conducted many persons thither, acting as their guide; among others, His Excellency Surraya Pasha, M. de Barrère, Consul of France and M. Gérardy Saintine, who in his book 'Trois ans en Judée' has entirely availed himself of my discoveries, which I shewed him, without acknowledging his obligation to me for them, and for the two Plans of ancient and modern Jerusalem annexed to his book, which were furnished by me.
Nothing can be more surprising than these caverns, which seem to have been excavated by the generations of old, as a challenge to posterity. Immense halls, with their roofs supported by piers of natural rock, exhibit in their sides openings leading into long dark galleries, terminating in other chambers of large dimensions. On the left hand is a disordered heap of accumulated fragments of rock, a pile of enormous limestone blocks, lying in confusion one on the other; the spaces between which have been filled up by the soil falling down from above, so that on one side it rises like a rugged hill, on another presents a gentle slope; but any one who incautiously attempts to traverse it has reason to repent of his undertaking. At the south end of the first excavation is a kind of fountain, surrounded by stalactites of the strangest shape, which have arranged themselves so as to form a sort of lengthened dome. The water, which falls in drops from above into the little basin, is not good to drink. It is brackish, and from my investigations I have come to the conclusion that it is not supplied by a spring, but filters through from the cisterns excavated in the rock above: in fact, in the rainy season there is an abundant supply, but in summer it is dried up. It becomes brackish in passing through the rock, which contains many saline and ferruginous particles. Going eastward from this fountain, we pass along a cliff on the right hand, while on the left high white walls of rock shew the cavities from which the large stones have been extracted. At last we arrive at the deepest part, where is a chamber about 260 feet long, where we can examine in detail the manner in which the ancients quarried the monolithic columns, the great building stones, and large paving slabs. I think that the monolith in the vaults of el-Aksa, in the inner chamber of the Gate of Huldah, was taken from these caves; for here we find a place where a column of stone still hangs down from the roof, like a great stalactite. On comparing with this the measurements of the monolith, they were found to correspond in width and height; and the conjecture is still further confirmed by the colour and character of the stone. The process by which the blocks were extracted can be examined in the side walls. The masses were separated from the rock by vertical grooves nearly four inches wide, the inner boundary of which is a quadrant of a circle. These I believe to have been cut with a circular disk, worked with a handle, which moved it backwards and forwards through a half-revolution. At the present time the Arab masons use an instrument of the same kind in making a groove in a wall. When the groove was made of a sufficient depth to give a stone of the required thickness, they detached it with a pick, or raised the hinder face which adhered to the rock; this explains the great width of the vertical groove: consequently in the process of quarrying the stone was cut smooth on three faces. I have frequently measured the cavities from which blocks have been removed, and also the stones themselves which have been left partially attached to the rock, or which are lying on the ground, and found them correspond perfectly with many large blocks built into the east side of the Haram wall, more especially in its lower parts. Moreover, the mineral character of the stones is the same; so that I am fully persuaded that these caverns were made by Solomon, when he built the Temple, and were afterward enlarged by Herod for the same purpose, and by Agrippa for the new or third lines of walls, which he was obliged to leave unfinished. The stones quarried here well deserve the term applied to them by Josephus[816], that they were 'exceeding white.' Before leaving these caverns I should warn the traveller that he ought not to visit them alone, relying simply on his own powers and his map for finding his way out again, but should take a guide, or at least a companion, and leave another trusty friend at the entrance. Of late years the place has become a haunt of ill-disposed persons, who retire here, not to lie in wait for travellers, but to celebrate their orgies; and therefore the stranger may, if alone, be pelted, without knowing where his assailant is. Besides, the road is not very safe in parts, and not easy to find by the light of a single candle. In winter, during the rainy season, let no one risk a journey in them; the falls of stone which happen at that time are sometimes not only alarming, but even fatal. In 1857 a large rock detached itself, and fell with a loud crash, while I was measuring at the eastern end of the cavern. I felt far from comfortable until I found that the way back was still open, and I speedily availed myself of it, carrying out, with the help of my European servant, an Arab youth, whom the noise had frightened out of his senses. The pure air outside is refreshing, for the small opening which forms the entrance is insufficient for proper ventilation, and the close dense atmosphere within often causes faintness. This opening is only the upper part of the ancient one; formerly the caverns were entered through a large gap, which is now built up, and in a great measure buried in the soil. From this place the blocks of stone were transported into the city through the ancient North Gate, as I have already mentioned[817].
Let us now visit the Grotto of Jeremiah, where, according to tradition, the Prophet composed the Book of Lamentations. At the first glance we recognize it as the continuation of the caverns we have just quitted; and noticing the horizontal strata of limestone, from which the great blocks in the city-wall have been extracted, can readily conceive that those huge masses, mentioned by Josephus[818], may have been quarried here, although we cannot now find any traces of them. To enter this grotto we must obtain permission of a dervish, the keeper of the place; who, however, never refuses, as he not only hopes to receive a present, which he applies to adorn his retreat, but also is a man of a kind and courteous nature.
On passing the entrance we find, on the right hand, a large rectangular chamber, the walls of which at first sight appear to be entirely Arab masonry; but a careful examination detects large blocks of Roman workmanship, especially in the lower parts, and a piece of wall of the date of S. Helena. I am confirmed in my opinion on this point by the words of Nicephorus Callistus[819], who informs us that this Empress built a church near the grotto; therefore it is not improbable that these may be the remains of that edifice. To the east of the above chamber is a little irregular court, on the north of which is a very deep cistern excavated in the rock; and on the south is a cavern of great size, which has been converted into a cistern. This is perhaps the origin of the tradition that here was the dungeon in which the prophet was placed[820]. The tradition is inadmissible, whatever system be adopted for the line of the third wall; for in any case this place would be outside the second wall, and therefore a palace and a prison[821] would not occupy this position. Beneath the vaulting formed by the rock is the tomb of a Mohammedan santon, and a court enclosed by a low wall, in which the followers of the Prophet come to pray; where also the good-natured dervish has sometimes allowed the parties of distinguished travellers to lunch after a long excursion round the city-walls. The interior of the grotto in every part affords unquestionable signs of its having been a stone-quarry; for the cavities left by the blocks are still visible, and the holes on which the workmen have been engaged. I think therefore that this place was separated from the Royal Caverns[822] in quarrying stone, and may, strictly speaking, be called a part of them. Dr Schultz[823] has endeavoured to identify the grotto with the monument of Alexander Jannæus, because of the statement in Josephus[824], "that John and his party defended the tower Antonia, and the northern cloister of the Temple, and fought the Romans before the monuments of King Alexander." As these posts were held by John, after Titus had taken the outer line of walls, this position is of course inadmissible according to my theory; but putting that out of the question, it seems to me very improbable that Alexander, whom we know to have been honoured with a magnificent funeral[825], would have been buried in a place like this; and after the most careful examination of the interior, I have not been able to discover the slightest trace of sepulchral chambers; nothing beyond the chiselled faces of the limestone rock and heaps of rubbish.
Quitting the grotto we mount above it to the Mohammedan cemetery, called by the Arabs Turbet ez-Zahara, whence a view of the city is obtained; which, though limited, will, I think, shew the correctness of the position I assign to Bezetha.
Proceeding hence towards the north-east corner of the city, we find the Pilgrims' Pool, Birket el-Hijah, close to the Gate of Herod on the east, as I have already remarked[826]. This reservoir was unquestionably at first constructed to receive the waters of the narrow valley above, which I call the North Valley; whence they were conducted by a subterranean conduit across the city to the Pool of Bethesda. Its walls are formed of ancient blocks, perhaps of the date of Herod, or even of an earlier period; but have been greatly modified afterwards in the construction of a vault (now in ruins) which covers the greater part of it. The Christian tradition concerning this pool differs so much from the Mohammedan, that I transcribe it, without however in any way asserting its truth. It says that, when the Empress Helena arrived at Jerusalem, she chose to enter it with all humility; and so without pomp, clad in a mean dress and barefoot, she entered the Gate of Herod; and that this circumstance gave the pool its name. From this point to the north-east corner the city-wall rises but slightly above the general level of the ground; consequently this is the weakest part of the defences, although it is strengthened by a ditch. Here it was that Godfrey of Bouillon scaled the wall and captured the city.
North of the pool is a plateau, on which stands an ancient Arab house, overshadowed by an old pine-tree, and surrounded by an olive-grove. This is called Kerm es-Sheikh (the farm or vineyard of the chief). The Mohammedan authorities of the highest rank who come to the Holy City, either as its governors or as pilgrims, are accustomed to pass the night here before their entry, and prepare themselves (as they say) by prayer to visit Jerusalem. There is a curious Mohammedan tradition attached to the place which may interest the reader; it is as follows: "When the potent and valorous Nebuchadnezzar, Sultan of Babylon, came to Jerusalem by the Divine command to punish the Jews who had abandoned the laws given them by God, he despoiled the Temple of all its valuables; reserving for himself the throne of Solomon, with its two golden lions which spoke by the power of magic, and distributing the rest of the booty to the other Kings who had joined him in the expedition. The King of Roum had the coat of Adam and the rod of Moses; the King of Antioch received the throne of Belkis and the miraculous peacock, whose tail, all studded with gems, formed a rich back to the throne; the King of Andalusia had the Prophet's golden table. A smaller coffer of common stone, containing the Law (Torat), lay in the middle of all these rich prizes, and no one heeded it; though it was the most precious of all treasures. It was consequently abandoned, and disappeared in the confusion that reigned during the sack of the city. Forty years afterwards God determined to re-establish the children of Israel in their old fatherland, and raised up the Prophet Euzer (Ezra); who, destined by Heaven for a glorious mission, had spent his youth in prayers and meditation, despising human knowledge in order to devote himself to the contemplation of the Eternal. He had lived in one of the grottoes that surround the Holy City[827]; but now came forth from his retreat, and went among the children of Israel to shew them how they ought to rebuild the Temple, and again worship God befittingly, according to the ancient rites. But the people, having little faith in the Prophet's mission, declared that they would not submit to the laws, but would rather leave off rebuilding the Temple and emigrate to another country, if the book were not produced in which Moses had written the Law given to him by God on Mount Sinai. This book, as we have seen, had disappeared, and all endeavours to discover it were vain. In this difficulty Euzer with earnest prayers entreated God to interfere, and hinder the people from persisting in their blindness. He was seated in a vineyard, on the spot where the pine-tree now stands, regarding with sorrow the ruins of the Temple, around which the tumultuous populace was assembled. Suddenly a voice from heaven commanded him to write; and though he had never before taken a pen in his hand, he obeyed at once: From the hour of mid-day prayer to the same time on the morrow, without eating or washing, he wrote down all that the heavenly voice dictated; and stopped not for the darkness of night, for a supernatural light illumined his spirit, and an Angel guided his hand. All the Jews beheld with amazement this manifestation of the Divine Power; but when the Prophet had finished his miraculous writing, the Priests, jealous of the special favour shewn to him, asserted that the new book was an invention of the devil, and did not in any respect resemble the former one. Euzer again betook himself to prayer, and, yielding to a sudden inspiration, directed his steps to the fountain of Siloam, followed by all the people. When he arrived before it he raised his hands to heaven, and offered up a prayer to the Almighty, while the multitude knelt around. Suddenly a square stone rose above the surface of the water, and glided along as if supported by an invisible hand; in which the Priests recognized with terror the long-missing sacred coffer. Euzer received it reverently, and opened it with his own hands: the Torat of Moses sprang out as though endowed with life; and the new copy, quitting the Prophet's bosom, took its place. All doubt was now at an end; nevertheless the holy man bade the Priests compare the two copies. They, despite of their confusion, did so; and, after a long examination, lifted up their voices and proclaimed that the two books did not differ by so much as a word or an accent. After they had rendered this homage to truth, they were struck with a life-long blindness, as a punishment for their former crimes." Though the whole of this story is but an Oriental fantasy, it is curious for its mention of the Law, and the circumstances and persons it records.