Jerusalem is not like Damascus, where the Moslem religion and oriental customs are almost unmixed with any foreign element, but is a city in which every form of religion and every nationality of east and west are represented at one time. “So motley a crowd” (says Major Conder) “as that which is presented daily in David Street and in the market-place under David’s Tower, is perhaps to be found nowhere else. The chatter of the market people, the shouting of the camel drivers, the tinkling of bells, mingle with the long cry of the naked Santon, as he wanders, holding his tin pan for alms, and praising unceasingly “the Eternal God.” The scene is most remarkable in the morning, before the glare of the sun, beating down on the stone city, has driven its inhabitants into the shadow. The foreground is composed of a tawny group of camels, lying down, donkeys bringing in vegetables or carrying out rubbish, and women in blue and red dresses slashed with yellow, their dark faces and long eyes (tinged with blue) shrouded in white veils, which are fringed perhaps with black or red. Soldiers in black and Softas in spotless robes are haggling about their change, or praying in public undisturbed by the din. Horsemen ride by in red boots with red saddles, and spears 15 feet long. The Greek Patriarch walks past on a visit, preceded by his mace-bearers and attended by his secretary. Up the narrow street comes the hearse of a famous Moslem, followed by a long procession of women, in white “izars,” which envelop the whole figure, swelling out like balloons, and leaving only the black mask of the face-veil visible; their voices are raised in the high-pitched tremulous ululation which is alike their cry for the dead and their note of joy for the living. Next, perhaps, follows a regiment of sturdy infantry marching back to the Castle, with a colonel on a prancing grey—men who have shown their mettle since then, and fat, unwieldy officers, who have perhaps broken down under the strain of campaigning. Their bugles blow a monotonous tune, to which the drums keep time, and the men tread, not in step, but in good cadence to the music. If it be Easter the native crowd is mingled with the hosts of Armenian and Russian pilgrims, the first ruddy and stalwart, their women handsome and dark-eyed, the men fierce and dark; the Russians, yet stronger in build and more barbarian in air, distinguished from every other nationality by their unkempt beards, their long locks, their huge fur caps and boots. Not less distinct are the Spanish, Mughrabee, Russian, and German Jews, each marked by a peculiar and characteristic physiognomy.”

Ten sects or religions are established in Jerusalem, and if their various sub-divisions are counted they amount to a total of twenty-four, more than half of which are Christian. The late Mr C. T. Tyrwhitt Drake gives the different races and creeds as follows:—

All these sects have their churches, synagogues, monasteries, hospices, which take up no inconsiderable portion of the square half mile of space within the city walls. Yet the population of Jerusalem was estimated at 20,000 in 1878, and there has been further influx since. But many of the new comers build dwellings outside the walls, and there is now quite a large suburb on the north-west.

The Haram esh Sherif, or Noble Sanctuary, on Mount Moriah, is a large, open space, of peculiar sanctity in the eyes of all true Moslems. Its surface is studded with cypress and olive, and its sides are surrounded in part by the finest mural masonry in the world. At the southern end is the Mosque El Aksa, and a pile of buildings formerly used by the Knights Templars; nearly in the centre is a raised platform paved with marble, and rising from this is the well-known Mosque, Kubbet es-Sakhrah, with its beautifully proportioned dome. Within this sacred enclosure stood the temple of the Jews; but all traces of it have long since disappeared, and its exact position was a fiercely contested question before the time of the recent explorations.

The Haram is a quadrangle of about 35 acres in area. The angles at the south-west and north-east corners are right angles, and the south-east angle is 92° 30´. The true bearing of the east wall is 352° 30´ (general direction). The length of the south wall is 922 feet on the level of the interior. The west wall is 1601 feet long; the east wall, 1530 feet. The northern boundary for 350 feet is formed by a scarp of rock 30 feet high, projecting at the north-west of the Haram.

The modern gateways giving entrance into the interior are eleven in number: three on the north and eight on the west. Of the ancient gateways there were two on the south, now called the Double and Triple Gates; while east of the latter is the mediæval entrance, known as the Single Gate, beneath which Colonel Warren discovered a passage. On the east wall is the Golden Gate, now closed; and two small posterns in the modern masonry are found south of this portal. On the west wall the Prophet’s Gateway (sometimes called Barclay’s Gate) is recognised as the southern of the two Parbar (or Suburban) Gates, mentioned in the Talmud; while the Northern Suburban Gate appears to have been converted into a tank, and lies immediately west of the Dome of the Rock. (This is Tank No. 30, Ordnance Survey.)

PLAN OF THE NOBLE SANCTUARY

SHEWING THE RESULTS OF THE RESEARCHES OF