DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0224
208
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
CHAPTER XI.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre.—An unexpected Discovery.—
Mount Calvary.—The Sepulchre.—The Valley of Jehoshaphat.
—The Garden of Gethsemane.—Place of the Temple.—The
,four Great Tombs.—Siloa's Brook.
During my stay in Jerusalem, a day seldom
passed in which I did not visit the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre ; but my occupation was chiefly to
observe the conduct of the pilgrims ; and if the
reader will accompany me into the interior, he will
see what 1 was in the habit of seeing every day.
The key of the church is kept by the governor
of the city; the door is guarded by a Turk, and
opened only at fixed hours, and then only with the
consent of the three convents, and in the presence
of their several dragomen ; an arrangement which
often causes great and vexatious delays to such as
desire admittance. This formality was probably
intended for solemnity and effect, but its conse-
quence is exactly the reverse; for as soon as the
door is opened, the pilgrims, who have almost al-
ways been kept waiting for some time, and have
naturally become impatient, rush in, struggling
with each other, overturning the dragomen, and
thumped by the Turkish doorkeeper, and are
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
CHAPTER XI.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre.—An unexpected Discovery.—
Mount Calvary.—The Sepulchre.—The Valley of Jehoshaphat.
—The Garden of Gethsemane.—Place of the Temple.—The
,four Great Tombs.—Siloa's Brook.
During my stay in Jerusalem, a day seldom
passed in which I did not visit the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre ; but my occupation was chiefly to
observe the conduct of the pilgrims ; and if the
reader will accompany me into the interior, he will
see what 1 was in the habit of seeing every day.
The key of the church is kept by the governor
of the city; the door is guarded by a Turk, and
opened only at fixed hours, and then only with the
consent of the three convents, and in the presence
of their several dragomen ; an arrangement which
often causes great and vexatious delays to such as
desire admittance. This formality was probably
intended for solemnity and effect, but its conse-
quence is exactly the reverse; for as soon as the
door is opened, the pilgrims, who have almost al-
ways been kept waiting for some time, and have
naturally become impatient, rush in, struggling
with each other, overturning the dragomen, and
thumped by the Turkish doorkeeper, and are