4. The Armenian Quarter is west of the Jewish, in the southwestern corner of the city. Its most prominent building is the Citadel of David (el Kabaa), an irregular, castellated edifice, containing a lofty tower. This may occupy the site of the castle built by David, where a Jebusite fortress had stood before, but the identification is not certain. Two other buildings in this quarter are named upon the panoramic view, the Church of St. James, and a seminary.
5. The Christian Quarter is in the northwestern part of the city, between the Jaffa and Damascus Gates, in the picture. Its most important locality is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where tradition has fixed the scenes of the crucifixion and resurrection. The church is a group of buildings, crowned with a dome, and erected at various periods. The Holy Sepulchre itself is a marble shrine within the cathedral, 26 feet long, by 18 broad, and 20 feet high. If the ancient wall can be certainly shown not to have been outside of this place, then the identity of the holy places may be deemed measurably sure, since the cross and the sepulchre were undoubtedly near the wall, but without it. Another place of interest is the Muristan, a ruined castle, which was the headquarters of the Knights Hospitallers during the Crusades.
V. Fountains and Pools. Most of these are without the walls, and only one is shown in the picture. The identification of the ancient pools is not easy, and explorers are not agreed with regard to their position and modern name. 1.The Birket Mamilla, supposed by many to represent the Upper Pool of Gihon (2 Kings 18:17; Isa. 7:3), lies 2,000 feet west of the Jaffa Gate, and is now 240 feet long by 144 wide, but anciently much larger. 2. The Birket es Sultan, supposed to be the Lower Pool of Gihon, where Solomon was crowned (1 Kings 1:38), lies just outside the southwestern corner of the wall, in the Valley of Hinnom. It is narrow, but 500 feet long. 3. The Birket es Silwan, or Pool of Siloam (John 9:7), is in the Tyropœon Valley, near its junction with the Kedron Valley, just outside the limit of the picture, on the left. It is 52 feet long, and 18 wide. 4. The Birket el Hamra ("red pond") lies south of the Pool of Siloam, still further outside of the picture, and is larger, but now nearly filled up, and without water. Some think that this is the pool dug by Hezekiah. (2 Chron. 32:30.) 5. The spring En-rogel, called by Christians the Fountain of the Virgin, and by Moslems 'Ain Umm ed Deraj ("the spring the mother of steps," from the 28 steps leading down to it), is the only natural fountain near the city. It lies in the narrowest part of the Kedron Valley, opposite the stone Zoheleth. (1 Kings 1:9.) Its action is intermittent, rising and falling suddenly, sometimes oftener than once a day. From this fact, some have thought it to be the Pool of Bethesda. (John 5:2-9.) 6. But most of the explorers regard the Pool of Bethesda as identical with the Birket Israel, which may be found on the picture just within the eastern (foreground) wall, between the gate of St. Stephen and the northern wall of the Temple Enclosure, just behind the little domed building by the wall, to the left of St. Stephen's Gate. This is 360 feet long, by 120 feet wide, and 80 feet deep, but half filled with rubbish. 7. The Birket Hamman ("Pool of the Bath"), generally known as the Pool of Hezekiah, is within the wall, adjoining the Muristan on the west, and hidden by it in the picture. It is supplied with water by an underground conduit, from the Birket Mamilla. 8. To this list we might add the vast covered reservoirs under the Temple, on Mount Moriah. These aggregated in their capacity five million gallons, and furnished an abundant supply of water for the Temple services.
VI. Outside the Walls. Some of the important places without the wall have been already noticed. The Tomb of David (traditional) is on Mount Zion, near the Gate of Zion; and just a little to the left of it, where several small domes are seen, is the Cœnaculum, or traditional place where the Last Supper was held. Mount Zion is now, fulfilling prophecy, "a plowed field," and has but few buildings. On nearly all sides of the city, outside the wall, are Moslem graves. Northwest of the city, toward the Russian Colony, is the place where the Assyrian messengers encamped in the time of Hezekiah. (2 Kings 18.)
