No vestiges remain of the "city of David,"* though its boundaries may be perceived by following the aqueduct which conveyed water from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. It owed its boasted strength, naturally, to a deep ravine, by which it was encompassed on the east, south, and west, and artificially, to strong high walls and towers, by which it was enclosed and flanked immediately round. This ravine, commencing at the upper pool of Gihon, a little to the westward of the city castle, and running at the foot of the western walls, is called the "valley of Gihon or Rephaim," though the word trench or ditch would convey a more correct idea of its appearance As it winds round the southern foot of Zion, it widens, and is called the valley of Hinnom. Its bottom is rock, covered with a thin sprinkling of earth washed down from the higher ground. Both its sides are cut down perpendicularly, as if it had served for a quarry to the ancient city. Its breadth is about fifty yards, and its depth perhaps twenty, measuring from the bottom to the highest part of

In the poetical and prophetical books it is often used for Jerusalem itself.

Mount Zion.

Nothing is known of the person who has given his name to the valley. A winter torrent runs through its bed, and falls into the brook Kedron.

On the southern side, directly facing Zion, is a small elevation, on which are some ruins. The latter, according to our guide, denote the site of the country house of Caiaphas, and the place is denominated the Hill of Evil Council, from the circumstance that "the Priests, Scribes, and Pharisees here took counsel against Jesus to put him to death," (Luke xvii. 2.) It is a low rocky flat, being the termination of the high ground which lies to the S.W. of Jerusalem, but not a distinct hill.

Following the course of the ravine in a southerly direction, we shortly came to some ancient tombs, excavated in the rock-perhaps, those of "the city of David," referred to in Nehem. iii. 16. They contain some inscriptions in Hebrew and in Greek, with some paintings of Saints, now nearly effaced.

This valley is celebrated for the inhuman and barbarous, as well as idolatrous worship, here paid to Moloch; to which deity parents often sacrificed their offspring, by making them pass through the

fire, (2 Kings, xxiii. 10; 2 Chron. xxvii. 3). To drown the lamentable shrieks of the children thus immolated, musical instruments (in Hebrew termed Tuph) were played; whence the spot, where the victims were burnt, was called Tophet. After the captivity, the Jews regarded this spot with abhorrence on account of the abominations which had been practised there: and, following the example of Josiah (2 Kings, xxiii. 10), they threw into it every species of filth, as well as the carcases of animals, and the dead bodies of malefactors, etc. To prevent the pestilence which such a mass would occasion if left to putrefy, constant fires were maintained in the valley, in order to consume the whole hence the

:

place received the appellation of Gehenna.*

On a narrow slip of land upon the acclivity of the hill, are the remains of a long square building, partly excavated in the rock, and formerly covered in with masonry, but now roofless, and filled up

* Teevva Tou Lupos.-By an easy metaphor, the Jews, who could imagine no severer torment than that of fire, transferred this name to the infernal fire,—to that part of Adys or the Invisible World in which they supposed that the demons and the souls of wicked men were punished in eternal fire.

with loose stones. It stands in what is called the Aceldema, or "field of blood," (Acts i. 10, Matt. xxvii. 7, 9), the same that was purchased of the potter, by the chief priests, with the money that Judas returned, as conscious that it was the price of innocent blood, and destined by that body, to bury strangers in. This was perhaps the building, mentioned by Maundrell, as being used by the Armenians, in his time, as a charnel-house, the bodies being let down by apertures in the roof. But it appears the practice is now discontinued, as the place is deserted. It was from hence, that ship-loads of earth were transported to the Campo Santo at Pisa, from a supposed virtue * it possessed, of consuming bodies in twenty-four hours, in common with quicklime! It was also called the "fuller's field,” because they dried their cloth there.-At the brow of a hill to the southward, tradition says that the apos

* In the time of the Hebrews, even the very dust of the land of Israel was reputed to possess such a peculiar degree of sanctity, that when they returned from any heathen country, they stopped at its borders and wiped the dust of it from their shoes, least the sacred inheritance should be polluted with it.

tate betrayer of our Lord sought his desperate end. (See Matt. xxvii. 5.)

Just at the point where the valley of Hinnom meets that of the village of Siloam, we came to a well called after Nehemiah, being reported to be the same place where that restorer of Israel, recovered the fire of the altar after the Babylonish captivity. (2 Macc. i. 19.)

name.

From hence we ascended the sloping sides of Zion, and re-entered the town by the gate of this The soil is supported by low walls, and had just been turned up by the plough. It seems to consist of stone and lime mixed with earth, such as is usually met with in the foundations of ruined cities, thus exhibiting the fulfilment of the prophecy concerning it—"Therefore shall Zion for your sakes be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps." (Mic. iii. 12.) A few wild olive trees are scattered here and there up its sides. The valley of Millo extended from this mount to the hill of the temple, and though it was filled up by David and Solomon, its situation is still apparent.