We now return to the ambulatory and ascend from it, to the left (S.), to the higher-lying Golgotha Chapels, the 10–13th stations on the Via Dolorosa (see below).
On the S. side of the quadrangle, in front of the Holy Sepulchre Church, lies the Mûristân (Pl. E, F, 5), an open space of 170 by 150 yds., which contained, from the days of Charlemagne onwards, the hostels and hospitals of the European pilgrims and, from 1140, the grand buildings of the Knights of St. John. Saladin (p. [443]) granted it as a charitable endowment (wakf) to the Dome of the Rock (p. [477]), but allowed the old hostels to remain. The larger W. half, with modern shops, now belongs to the Greek patriarchate; the E. half was presented by the sultan to Prussia. At the N.E. corner, next to the street called Hâret ed-Dabbârîn, is the German Prot. Church of the Redeemer (Pl. E, 5).
The Mûristân is bounded on the E. by the now unimportant Old Bazaar, or sûk, the three parallel streets of which form part of the great thoroughfare between the Damascus and Zion gates (p. [473]). The middle street, the Sûk el-Attârin (p. [335]), is continued to the N. by the Khân ez-Zeit (Pl. F, 4), from which an alley on the left leads to the Abyssinian and Coptic Monasteries.
At the Coptic Monastery is the 9th station on the Via Dolorosa, the ‘route of suffering’, mentioned for the first time in the 16th cent., on which Christ is said to have borne the Cross from Pilate’s house to Golgotha. The last five stations are within the Holy Sepulchre Church (see above). The other stations lie between the Greek Monastery of St. Caralombos (Pl. 24, E F, 4; 8th station) and the Barracks (Pl. G, 3; 1st station) in the Tarîk Bâb Sitti Maryam (street of the Virgin Mary’s gate).
This street leads to the E. to St. Stephen’s Gate (Pl. H, I, 3; 2405 ft.), the only E. gate of the city, called by the natives Bâb Sitti Maryam, or Lady Mary’s Gate, from its proximity to the Virgin’s Tomb (see p. [480]).
Within the gate a passage leads to the N. to the fine old Church of St. Anne (Pl. H, 3; Arabic Es-Salâhiyeh), on the supposed site of the house of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin. It is mentioned as already existing in the 7th cent., but in its present form dates chiefly from the 12th. The crypt hewn in the rock is the traditional birthplace of the Virgin, and the tombs of Joachim and Anna also are now pointed out.
We now retrace our steps towards the W., and halfway along the Via Dolorosa follow the El-Wâd street (Pl. F, G, 4, 5) to the left, through the hollow of the ancient Tyropœon (p. [472]), to the Sûk el-Kattânîn (see below), near the entrance to the Haram esh-Sherîf; or starting from the Old Bazaar, we reach the same point by the Tarîk Bâb es-Silseleh (Pl. F, G, 5).
The *Haram esh-Sherîf (Pl. G-I, 4–6; ‘noble sanctuary’), the ancient site of the Temple, is the most interesting place in Jerusalem. Adm., see p. [471]. The usual entrance is by the Bâb el-Kattânîn (Pl. G, 4, 5), the central W. gate, built by En-Nâsir (p. [448]) in 1318, behind the now deserted Sûk el-Kattânîn (cotton-market).
On this site king David erected an altar (2 Sam. xxiv. 25), and Solomon built his palace and Temple. Here stood also the second Temple, erected about 520–516 after the Babylonish captivity, and the third Temple, begun by Herod the Great (p. [472]) in 20 B.C. but never completed on the grand scale projected. On the same spot Hadrian erected a temple of Jupiter as the chief sanctuary of Ælia Capitolina (p. [472]), and near the S. wall of the great quadrangle Justinian built a basilica in honour of the Virgin, which afterwards became the mosque of El-Aksâ. Beyond these facts little or nothing is known of the history of this memorable site during the early centuries of the Christian era.
Mohammed, who claimed to have visited this spot, evinced great reverence for the ancient Temple, and before he had broken off his relations with the Jews he even enjoined believers to turn towards Jerusalem in prayer. About the year 637 caliph Omar converted the church of St. Mary into a mosque, and the Omaiyade Abd el-Melik (685–705) erected the famous Dome of the Rock on a platform in the centre of the sacred precincts, a building which the Crusaders took to be Solomon’s Temple. Adjoining the mosque of El-Aksâ, then called the Porticus or Palatium Salomonis, probably stood the royal palace of the Franks and the castle of the Knights Templar.