To the writer, however, perhaps the most interesting place in or about the entire city is the Garden Tomb and Mount Calvary. This is almost north of the Damascus gate and on the great highway from Jerusalem from the north. Mount Calvary is only a small hill. The Jews speak of it as the Hill of Execution, or the Skull Place, as the outline of the hill seen from a certain direction resembles the form of a gigantic skull. It is said that no Jew cares to pass this place after night and if he passes it in daylight he will mutter a curse upon the memory of him who presumed to be the King of the Jews.
Near this Skull Place is an old tomb that just fits the Bible narrative, viz: "Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre wherein never man was yet laid." This tomb was discovered many years ago by General Gordon and is often spoken of as Gordon's Tomb, also called the Garden Tomb. When excavating about it a wall was found which proved to be a garden wall the end of which butts up against Mount Calvary. One writer who has examined every nook and corner says in regard to this tomb: "It stands in the mass of rock which forms the northern boundary of a garden which literally runs into the hillside to the west of Mount Calvary itself."
One of the first things noted as the writer went into this tomb was the fact that it is a Jewish tomb. They made their tombs different from those of any other people. That it was a "rich man's tomb" is also very certain, as is the fact that it dates back to the Herodian period in which Jesus lived. There is also some frescoed work upon it showing that it was held sacred by the early Christians. Then the "rolling stone" and the groove in which it was placed is very interesting. This was something like a gigantic grindstone which rolled in the groove and was large enough to cover the opening when the tomb was closed.
While in and about Jerusalem the writer visited the famous "Upper Room," the "Jew's Wailing Place," the "Mosque of Omar," which stands upon the very spot where Solomon's Temple used to stand, the "Way of Sorrows," the "Ecco Homo Arch," the "Castle of Antonio," "Tower of David," the "Pool of Siloam," and a great many other interesting places. The Garden of Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives as well as scores of other places were fascinating but it would take a large volume to describe them all.
CHAPTER XVII
A World-Famous River—The Jordan
The great Mississippi and Amazon rivers are noted for their length; the Hudson and the Rhine for their scenery; the Thames and Tiber for the great cities on their banks; the Volga and the Dneiper for their commerce; the Nile and the Yellow rivers for their annual overflow, the former to give life and the latter to destroy; and the Euphrates and Tigress for the ruins of mighty cities of other days.
But this chapter is a description of a river only a little more than two hundred miles in length, no scenery to speak of near it, never a great city on its banks, no sail or steamboat for commerce ever traveled upon its waters, no one scarcely ever cared whether it was within its banks or not, and not even any ruins worth while along its shores; and yet it is today and has been for centuries the most famous river on the face of the earth.