Turning now to the left, we find that the building resembles a large rotunda. Near the centre of the rotunda we see a small building, twenty-six by sixteen feet, and fifteen feet high. This small building is a thing of beauty. It is made of many-colored marble, richly polished and elaborately carved. It looks like the model of some magnificent cathedral. It is divided into two rooms, the first being sixteen feet, and the second ten feet long. The larger room is called the Chapel of the Angels, while the second is said to contain the Sepulchre of our Lord. The two rooms are lighted day and night by fifty-three gold and silver lamps. Numerous candles are also kept burning.
HOLY SEPULCHRE.
Christmas morning, thousands of Greek Christians crowd in and around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek Patriarch enters this small structure, and extinguishes all the lamps and candles. Silence and awe fall upon the multitude, each of whom has an unlighted candle in his hand. Suddenly the Patriarch from within announces that he has received fresh fire from Heaven. The Patriarch stands at a small opening in the marble wall with the sacred fire in his hand. The frenzied crowd vie with each other, each trying to light his taper first. One man ignites his candle from the Patriarch’s fire, and a dozen others light from him. Presently, a deafening shout goes up from the excited multitude. Every man waves a burning taper above his head. The whole scene resembles a restless sea of flame. Expert horsemen now leap upon swift-footed coursers which have been held in waiting. The new-fallen fire is conveyed to different parts of the country. Ships are at Jaffa to bear the Heavenly gift to Greece and Russia. This sacred flame burns continually in the Greek churches until next Christmas, at which time this shameful imposition will again be practiced on the superstitious people.
Ascending a flight of stairs, we find ourselves on what is falsely called Calvary. Removing a few planks in the floor, the priest shows the bare top of Calvary, the round holes in the mountain where the three crosses stood, and the rent in the rock, which was caused by the convulsion of nature at the time of the Crucifixion. And many other things they show us, whereof if I should write, this book would not hold all I should say.
Now, if we had time, we might spend two or three days, pleasantly and profitably, down under the city. For, be it understood, that these hills on which Jerusalem is built are honey-combed with ancient stables, caves, caverns, quarries, catacombs, and other subterranean passages. Captain Warren, chief agent of the Palestine Exploration Fund, is my authority for saying that Jerusalem, so far as catacombs and underground passages are concerned, is far richer than Constantinople, Paris, or even Rome itself.
Just outside of the north wall, and a little to the east of the Damascus gate, we enter through an iron-barred door into a great cavern, known as Solomon’s Quarry or the quarry out of which Solomon got the stones to build his Temple. With a strong body-guard, and a dozen or more burning tapers, we wander for hours and hours in this underground world, which in many respects rivals Mammoth Cave. It is co-extensive with the city above. A forest of natural columns support the ceiling, which in many places is exceedingly high. Here and there, we find huge blocks of detached stone, which were long ago dressed, but never removed from the quarry. They were probably dressed by Solomon’s workmen, but were never honored with a place in his splendid Temple. That this was at one time a quarry, is evident from the abundance of stone chips and fragments that everywhere abound. In this cave, it is claimed, the Masonic order was organized. It has no river of eyeless fish, as has the Kentucky Cave, but it boasts a never-failing spring of pure and sparkling water. Think of all this underneath the Holy City! O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, there is none like thee in all the earth!
