Buried Cities and Bible Countries

by George St. Clair

The Locality of the King’s Garden is an important point in Jerusalem topography. M. Clermont Ganneau inclines to place it on the eastern side of Ophel; but his reason seems to be insufficient. The great eastern valley of Jerusalem, so commonly called the Kedron, is divided by the fellahin of Siloam into three parts, and the middle part—extending from the south-east angle of the Haram to the junction of valleys a little north of Joab’s well—they call Wady Fer’aun, or “Pharaoh’s Valley.” M. Ganneau believes that this signifies, in their minds, simply the Valley of the King, and is equivalent to the King’s Garden.[36] M. Ganneau might claim in his favour the statement of Josephus that Adonijah’s feast, “by En Rogel,” took place near the fountain that was in the king’s paradise (or park).[37] But the paradise or park was something different from the garden, and Josephus does not use the word paradise to describe the king’s gardens in which Uzziah was buried, but the word kepois.[38] It is worth notice also that if the Virgin’s Fountain was in the king’s park, it was almost certainly outside the city. Again, the fact that the royal park included within it the spring of water makes it probable that the shaft in connection with it was on the royal property also, for the kings would hardly allow the free use of a spring which they deemed their own. And then, if the shaft was on the royal grounds (although that part was still traditionally called the Fuller’s Field) it would be natural that Isaiah should find king Ahaz walking there.

Amos prophesied in the days of Uzziah, “two years before the earthquake” (Amos i. 1). This earthquake, although not noticed in the history, was of a terrible character, and the people fled before it (Zech. xiv. 5). As Josephus tells the story, it was just as Uzziah was entering the Temple that the building suddenly started asunder; the light flashed through, and at the same moment the leprosy rushed into the king’s face. The hills around felt the shock, and a memorial of the crash was long preserved in a large fragment, or landslip, which, rolling down from the western hill, was brought to rest at the base of the eastern hill, and there obstructed not only the roads but the paradises of the kings. Josephus says that this occurred at the place called Eroge, and Dean Stanley is confident that he means En Rogel;[39] but here again it is necessary to notice that it is the king’s paradises which are spoken of and not the king’s gardens.

It is quite clear that the king’s gardens were near the Gate between two walls, as mentioned in the account of Zedekiah’s flight; and it seems certain that the Gate between two walls was in the Tyropœon.

7. Sieges of Jerusalem understood by the topography.—The capture of Jerusalem by David, the investment of it by Sennacherib, and the overthrow of it by Nebuchadnezzar have already been described. Time would fail me to go into detail concerning all the sieges that followed; and probably a brief treatment of two or three will be sufficient for the reader. We desire to show how much clearer the history becomes in the light of modern survey and investigation; and for this purpose a few examples are enough.

Jerusalem on three sides was protected by deep ravines, and an enemy, looking up, saw the brow of every hill surmounted by high walls. At first he might imagine the Tyropœon Valley was accessible from the south, since the dam or transverse wall was lower in position than the walls which it joined together; but no doubt the dam or wall was strongly built. Even if he could get within it, there was the Causeway in front and walls on either side, and he would only be in what Josephus calls a fortified ditch. The assailants of Jerusalem—who doubtless knew their business—always chose to assault it from the high ground north and north-west. The king’s palace, therefore, on Ophel was about the last place which an enemy could reach, and not until he had broken through two or three walls.

When Pompey advanced against Jerusalem (B.C. 64), the population was divided. The party of Hyrcanus opened the gates to him; but the party of Aristobulus retired to the Temple, breaking down the bridge which communicated with the city. This may have been an arch on the site of the present Wilson’s Arch. Pompey, having sent a garrison into the city itself, laid siege to the Temple, purposing to assault it from the north. He “filled up the ditch on the north side of the Temple.” That would be the artificial cutting at the north-west corner. He filled up the valley also, Josephus tells us (Wars, i. 7, 3), “and indeed it was a hard thing to fill up that valley, by reason of its immense depth, especially as the Jews used all the means possible to repel them from their superior station.” This is the valley which Warren found, crossing the present Haram area, falling away from the north side of the platform to a depth of 200 feet, and passing out into the Kedron north of the Golden Gate. Probably it was only partially filled up at this time. Pompey then erected towers upon the bank which he had made, and brought engines to bear; but it was not until the third month of the siege that he made himself master of the Temple.

In B.C. 37, Herod, like all preceding generals, pitched his camp on the north side (Josephus, Wars, i. 17, 9). The Jews in this warfare made mines—perhaps in the ground banked up by Pompey—and surprised the Romans by sudden sorties from below. But the first wall was captured in forty days—(Antiq. xiv. 16, 2. This was of course the wall which we know as the second)—and the Lower City being thus taken, the Jews retired into the Upper City and into the Temple. The Upper City was taken by storm after fifteen days more. But here the destruction ceased. Herod was going to reign in Jerusalem, and did not wish to do more damage than was inevitable in the capture of the city. He sought to save the Temple, and only some of the cloisters about it got burnt down.

Afterwards, to ingratiate himself with the Jews, Herod rebuilt the Temple, and enlarged the precincts of it. It would seem that Solomon’s palace had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s generals and never rebuilt. Herod’s own palace was in the High Town. The area formerly occupied by Solomon’s palace was now taken into the Temple precincts, the south-west corner was raised up from its low level and added also; and along this southern front was built a royal cloister, 100 feet high. To make an approach to this cloister from the west, Robinson’s Arch was erected, and if there was no viaduct from the western hill there must have been a staircase to ascend from the valley. On the north side also the Temple precincts were enlarged, by taking in the ground which Pompey had raised to a higher level. The Baris or castle in which Nehemiah had lived was reconstructed and strengthened, renamed Antonia, and connected with the Temple.

In another quarter Herod strengthened the city very much. The reader will have noticed that while it was a usual thing with assailants to attack the north wall, and take the Lower City as a preliminary to assaulting the Upper City, yet there was one spot where the Upper City might be approached at once from the outside. This was by the Valley Gate, and was owing to the fact that the second wall started from the Gennath Gate to go northward, whereas the wall of the Upper City was prolonged westward. Herod determined to strengthen this part of the city all the more because his own palace was in this part; so he built three strong towers, which he named Hippicus, Phasaelus, and Mariamne. Hippicus was at the outer angle; the base of it remains, and is the foundation of the north-west tower of the present citadel, which measures 45 feet square. Phasaelus remains, and is the one conspicuous object on the right hand as the traveller enters the Jaffa Gate. It is 70 feet by 56 feet, and is solid to the height of 60 feet; the stones are bevelled, like those round the Haram, and do not appear ever to have been disturbed. The site of Mariamne is less certain, but it probably corresponded with the third tower which we see marked in almost every plan of the so-called Castle of David.

The Jerusalem of Herod’s day was the Jerusalem which Jesus Christ would be familiar with.