A little below this pool begins the valley of Hinnom, on the west side of which is the place called anciently the Potter's Field, and afterwards the Field of Blood, from its being purchased with the pieces of silver which were the price of the blood of Christ; but at present, from that veneration which it has obtained among Christians, it is called Campo Sancto. It is a small plot of ground not above thirty yards long, and about half as much broad. One moiety of it is taken up by a square fabric twelve yards high, built for a charnel-house. The corpses are let down into it from the top, there being five holes left open for that purpose. Looking down through these holes we could see many bodies under several degrees of decay, from which it may be conjectured that this grave does not make that quick despatch with the corpses committed to it, which is commonly reported. The Armenians have the command of this burying place, for which they pay the Turks a rent of one seuin a day. The earth is of a chalky substance hereabouts.
A little below the Campo Sancto is shown an intricate cave or sepulchre consisting of several rooms, one within another, in which the apostles are said to have hid themselves, when they forsook their Master, and fled. The entrance of the cave discovers signs of its having been adorned with painting in ancient times.
A little farther, the valley of Hinnom terminates, that of Jehoshaphat running across the mouth of it. Along the bottom of this latter valley runs the brook Cedron; a brook in wintertime, but without the least drop of water in it all the time we were at Jerusalem.
In the valley of Jehoshaphat, the first thing you are carried to is the well of Nehemiah; so called because reputed to be the same place from which the restorer of Israel recovered the fire of the altar, after the Babylonish captivity[599]. A little higher in the valley, on the left hand, you come to a tree supposed to mark out the place where the Evangelical Prophet was sawn asunder. About one hundred paces higher, on the same side, is the pool of Siloam. It was anciently dignified with a church built over it; but, when we were there, a tanner made no scruple to dress his hides in it. Going about a furlong farther on the same side, you come to the fountain of the blessed Virgin, so called, because she was wont (as is reported) to resort hither for water; but at what time and upon what occasions is not yet agreed. Over against this fountain, on the other side of the valley, is a village called Siloe, in which Solomon is said to have kept his strange wives; and above the village is a hill called the Mountain of Offence, because there Solomon built the high places mentioned in 1 Kings xi. 7, his wives having perverted his wise heart to follow their idolatrous abominations in his declining years. On the same side, and not far distant from Siloe, they show another Aceldama, or Field of Blood; so called because there it was that Judas, by the just judgment of God, met with his compounded death[600]. A little farther on the same side of the valley, they showed us several Jewish monuments. Amongst the rest there are two noble antiquities, which they call the sepulchre of Zachary and the pillar of Absolom. Close by the latter is the sepulchre of Jehoshaphat, from which the whole valley takes its name.
Upon the edge of the hill, on the opposite side of the valley, there runs along, in a direct line, the wall of the city, near the corner of which there is a short end of a pillar jutting out of the wall. Upon this pillar, the Turks have a tradition that Mohammed shall sit in judgment at the last day; and that all the world shall be gathered together in the valley below, to receive their doom from his mouth. A little farther northward is the gate of the Temple. It is at present walled up, because the Turks here have a prophecy that their destruction shall enter at that gate, the completion of which prediction they endeavour by this means to prevent. Below this gate, in the bottom of the valley, is a broad hard stone, discovering several impressions on it, which you may fancy to be footsteps. These, the friars tell you, are prints made by our blessed Saviour's feet, when, after his apprehension, he was hurried violently away to the tribunal of his blood-thirsty persecutors.
From hence, keeping still in the bottom of the valley, you come in a few paces to a place which they call the sepulchre of the blessed Virgin. It has a magnificent descent down into it of forty-seven stairs; on the right hand as you go down is the sepulchre of St. Anna, the mother, and on the left that of St. Joseph, the husband of the blessed Virgin.
Having finished our visit to this place, we went up the hill toward the city. In the side of the ascent we were shown a broad stone on which they say St. Stephen suffered martyrdom; and not far from it is a grotto, into which they tell you the outrageous Jewish zealots cast his body, when they had satiated their fury upon him. From hence we went immediately to St. Stephen's Gate, so called from its vicinity to this place of the protomartyr's suffering, and so returned to our lodging.
April 7.—The next morning we set out again, in order to see the sanctuaries and other visitable places upon Mount Olivet. We went out at St. Stephen's Gate, and, crossing the Valley of Jehoshaphat, began immediately to ascend the mountains. Being got about two-thirds of the way up, we came to certain grottos cut with intricate windings and caverns under ground; these are called the sepulchres of the prophets. A little higher up are twelve arched vaults under ground, standing side by side; these were built in memory of the twelve apostles, who are said to have compiled their creed in this place. Sixty paces higher you come to the place where they say Christ uttered his prophecy concerning the final destruction of Jerusalem[601]. And a little on the right hand of this is the place where they say he dictated a second time the Pater Noster to his disciples[602]. Somewhat higher is the cave of St. Pelagia; and as much more above that, a pillar, signifying the place where an angel gave the blessed Virgin three days' warning of her death. At the top of the hill you come to the place of our blessed Lord's ascension. Here was anciently a large church, built in honour of that glorious triumph, but all that now remains of it is only an octagonal cupola, about eight yards in diameter, standing, as they say, over the very place where were set the last footsteps of the Son of God here on earth. Within the cupola there is seen, in a hard stone, as they tell you, the print of one of his feet. Here was also that of the other foot some time since, but it has been removed from hence by the Turks into the great mosque upon Mount Moria. This chapel of the Ascension the Turks have the custody of, and use it for a mosque. There are many other holy places about Jerusalem, which the Turks pretend to have a veneration for, equally with the Christians, and under that pretence they take them into their own hands. But whether they do this out of real devotion, or for lucre's sake, and to the end that they may exact money from the Christians for admission into them, I will not determine.
About two furlongs from this place, northward, is the highest part of Mount Olivet; and upon that was anciently erected a high tower, in memory of that apparition of the two angels to the apostles after our blessed Lord's ascension[603], from which the tower itself had the name given it of Viri Galilæi! This ancient monument remained till about two years since, when it was demolished by a Turk, who had bought the field in which it stood; but nevertheless you have still, from the natural height of the place, a large prospect of Jerusalem and the adjacent country, and of the Dead Sea, &c.
From this place we descended the mount again by another road. At about the midway down they show you the place where Christ beheld the city and wept over it[604]. Near the bottom of the hill is a great stone, upon which you are told the blessed Virgin let fall her girdle after her assumption, in order to convince St. Thomas, who, they say, was troubled with a fit of his old incredulity upon this occasion. There is still to be seen a small winding channel upon the stone, which they will have to be the impression made by the girdle when it fell, and to be left for the conviction of all such as shall suspect the truth of their story of the assumption.