The buildings on the east of the barrack, between it and the first passage leading up to the Temple, may belong either to the age of Saladin or of Solyman I.; the Arabs attribute them to the latter. They have been greatly altered within and without, and therefore do not present any distinctive features. Their foundations rest upon the rock, which on the south side is one or two feet below the level of the Haram, but on the north from 14 to 18 feet lower down, being at the bottom of the valley which I have already mentioned.
On the left of the passage going up to the Haram is a bath now disused, inside the buildings. During my examination of it I discovered the eastern conduit, which starts from inside the gallery. Its course from this place to the pool of Bethesda cannot be followed, as it is stopped up by rubbish; it is vaulted but not founded upon the rock.
Facing the little passage mentioned above, on the north, are the remains of an ancient building[294], commonly called a bastion of the tower Antonia. It rests upon the rock, and is doubtless of considerable antiquity, but certainly not Jewish work. The stones composing it are small and bevelled at the edges, so that the part projecting from the wall is like a thin slice cut horizontally from a pyramid: they are laid with mortar, and do not appear to belong to an age remarkable for the splendour of its work. This place is about a stadium from the north-west angle of the Haram, and therefore, besides being in too low a situation, cannot have been included in the tower Antonia, if we accept the dimensions of the fortress given us by Josephus.
The north side is terminated on the east by the Pool of Bethesda[295]. This, I believe, was made by Herod the Great, at the same time as the Antonia, from the valley or ditch defending the north side of the Temple. It has obviously undergone great alterations and greater injuries. Porticoes were built upon its south wall by Solyman I.; on the others are Arab houses in the meanest style, most of which are now in ruins. It is nearly filled with soil and rubbish, which are covered with creepers and shrubs. By this time it would probably have been quite full, if I had not preserved it[296]. At its west end are two arches, almost choked up with earth, and overgrown by vegetation. I forced my way into them, and saw two more arches, built of small stones, and obviously of Arab work; the northern of these was the termination of the eastern conduit from the great gallery. With much difficulty I traversed it for a distance of 72 feet, and found it vaulted in the same way as the one I have described below the bath. Tradition asserts this place to be the Pool of Bethesda, at which our Saviour healed a paralytic[297]. I shall notice it again, in describing the various works connected with the supply of water to the city.
In both faces of the north-east angle of the Haram wall are several courses of ancient stones, rusticated, which prove that in former times this was also the corner of the sacred enclosure.
After passing the Gate of S. Mary and leaving on the left the ruins of a small Saracenic building of the age of Saladin, the Mohammedan cemetery is reached, which occupies almost the whole of the high narrow plateau running parallel to the east wall of the Haram, above the Kidron valley. I consider the foundation of the whole line of wall, from the north-east to the south-east corner, to be the work of Solomon; being led to this conclusion by a series of observations, carried on when graves were dug against the wall, and by excavations which I made with the help of the keepers of the cemetery, wherever I could do it without exciting suspicion and arousing the fanaticism of the Mohammedans.
Near the south-east corner is a stone, which appears to have been the impost of an arch; as there are no tombs in this part, I made an excavation opposite to it, at a distance of 12 feet, and, after digging down for 14 feet, came upon the great foundation stones. By opening another hole along the same line, nearer to the corner, I found them again at a depth of 12 feet; the difference being caused by the slope of the ground. By this means I convinced myself that the foundations of the wall were laid far down in the valley (as stated by Josephus), and that they rose up to the place, where it still appears above the surface of the ground, in a series of steps about 2 feet wide. The foundation (strictly speaking) is made of large blocks, roughly squared, and not rusticated, fastened together by a tenon left projecting from the face of one stone, fitting into a corresponding mortise in the next: there is not a trace of iron or lead or mortar; but where the wall rises above ground its face is vertical, the blocks are more carefully squared, and rustic work is used, with wide and deep grooves; as may be seen at many places in the lower part of the present wall[298]. The force of the flames, the vandalism of man, and the course of time, have produced no effect upon these massive buildings; which have been saved from the fate of those on Sion and Ophel, by the ruins heaped about them, and still more by the reverence paid by the Mohammedans to the ground on which they stand.
These valuable remains enable us to compare their masonry with the Herodian work, seen more especially in the projecting wall at the north-east angle[299], and at the south-east extremity. The stones in these two places are of large size[300] and rusticated; only the grooves here are small, and the whole surface of the block is well smoothed; they also are perfectly fitted together without mortar, but clamps of iron or soldering plugs of lead are used; as I was able to ascertain when a small part was repaired: each course stands a little more than a tenth of an inch farther back than the one below it. The general appearance of the work manifests a progress in art and a delicacy of execution, which could not have been produced in the time of Solomon, even with Phœnician aid. In all the countries formerly occupied by this people there are not any examples of a wall in this style, while those resembling the architecture of Solomon are far from uncommon. We might reasonably suppose that Herod would increase the strength of the northern corner, as an outwork to the Antonia on the east; while the south-east corner might have been destroyed by the Chaldeans, being weaker than the rest owing to the existence of the great vaulted cistern within the Haram; and, as Nehemiah was no doubt unable to repair it in a manner befitting its position, Herod would rebuild it in his restoration of the above-named cistern, whose east and south sides are not formed by the rock, but by the outer wall of the Temple enclosure, and are made of great strength to withstand the pressure of the water.
I have already explained by what marks I distinguish the walls which I attribute to Nehemiah, the Romans, and the Arabs[301]; examples of each can be readily found in the eastern wall of the Haram. From the side of a small sepulchral building (containing the ashes of Yacûb Pasha and his wife) to beyond the Golden Gate the masonry shews many signs of Arab restorations. Here may be seen columns of verd antique, porphyry and valuable marbles, built longwise into the thickness of the wall. Doubtless these formerly decorated some Christian edifices, and were placed in their present position when the city walls were repaired by Sultan Solyman.
The principal object that attracts attention on the east side is the Golden Gate[302], which projects slightly from the line of the wall. The two outer doorways, as I have already said, are built up[303]; but for the sake of description we will for a moment imagine them opened. From the outside we see two round-headed arches each supported by two pilasters, built of stones of no great size, which are laid in mortar, without rustic work, and form a perfectly smooth face, in strong contrast with the genuine ancient blocks in the lower parts of the walls on each side, and at each corner. The two arches and their capitals are richly carved with leaves and other ornaments. The whole building is cased, except at the base, with Saracenic work of the date of Solyman; as I infer from the irregular masonry, the smallness of the stones, the occurrence of a Byzantine capital (out of its proper place) on the top of the façade, and many other minor ornamental details, bad in taste and execution, which are characteristic of that age[304].