Wilson, Charles W. [Hrsg.]; Fenn, Harry [Ill.]: Picturesque Palestine: Sinai and Egypt ; in 2 volumes (Band 1) (New York, 1881)

JERUSALEM.

39

in the systematic and scientific exploration of Palestine. The arch is fifty feet long, and it
had a span of forty-two feet. Portions of the three lower courses, in which are stones from
nineteen to twenty-five feet long, alone remain, and these, from the appearance and position
of the stones, evidently formed part of the original wall. The remaining stones of the arch
were found lying, just as they fell, on a pavement of polished stone, more than forty feet
beneath the surface of the ground, and near them a portion of the pier was also discovered.
Under the pavement were the remains of an older arch, and lower still a remarkable rock-
hewn channel for the conveyance of sweet water, which was in existence long before the
Haram wall was built, and which may, perhaps, have been executed by order of King
Hezekiah, who is known to have undertaken extensive works in connection with the water
supply of Jerusalem. The position of " Robinson's Arch," and its dimensions, seem to
indicate that it formed the first of a series of arches which supported a broad flight of steps
leading from the Tyropceon Valley to the centre aisle of the Royal Cloisters, " Stoa Basilica,"
which ran along the south wall of Herod's Temple. The arch may also mark the position
of the fourth gate on the western side of the Temple, which Josephus says " led to the other
city, where the road descended down into the valley by a great number of steps, and thence
up again by the ascent." The "Stoa Basilica" was six hundred feet long and one hundred
feet wide. It was divided into three aisles by one hundred and sixty-two Corinthian columns ;
and the centre aisle was one hundred feet, the side aisles each fifty feet, high. The roofs
were adorned with deep sculptures in wood ; the high part in the middle was of polished
stone; and the whole was finished off with much magnificence. The dimensions of the
cloisters, in plan and section, are almost identical with those which York Cathedral would
present if the transepts were taken off the sides and added to the ends ; and it would be
difficult to imagine a finer effect than that which would be produced by a flight of steps
fifty feet wide, carried on arches, and at one point raised fifty feet above the ground, leading
up to such a noble pile of buildings.

At a distance of two hundred and seventy feet from the south-west angle there is a
closed gateway in the wall called the Gate of Mohammed, but generally known as " Barclay's
Gate," from its fortunate discoverer, Dr. Barclay, an American missionary to Palestine. The
gateway, which is evidently one of those that Josephus describes as leading from the western
cloisters of the Temple to the suburbs of the city, is partly concealed by rubbish ; but excava-
tions have shown that it was about eighteen feet ten inches wide and twenty-eight feet nine
inches high. The lintel of the gate is one enormous stone, and its sill is no less than forty-
nine feet nine inches above the rock. The approach was probably by a solid ramp of earth.
Immediately behind the closed entrance there is now a mosque, in which is shown the ring
to which Mohammed fastened his mysterious steed, Al Borak, on the occasion of his famous
night journey; but the gateway formerly gave access to a vaulted passage, one of the
approaches to Herod's Temple, which ran for sixty-nine feet in a direction at right angles
to th e wall, to a domed chamber or vestibule, and then, turning at right angles to the south,