DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0069
46
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
height of thirty-five feet above the floor. At the west end are two parallel passages running
westwards along the Haram wall, whence a flight of irregular steps leads down to the pool ;
the east end is closed by a dam forty-five feet thick, which is also part of the city walls.
No trace has yet been found of the system of conduits by which it was supplied with water.
North of the Birket Israil (see page 66) is the street leading to St. Stephen's Gate, and imme-
diately beyond it the Church of St. Anne, which was given by the Sultan Abdul Mejid to the
French Emperor on the termination of the Crimean war. The church is built over the Grotto
of St. Anne, an excavation in the rock remarkably like an old cistern, which is claimed by
tradition as the home of St. Anne and the birthplace of the Virgin Mary. The building has
been thoroughly repaired by the French, who have made no material alterations in the
original edifice left by the Crusaders, and who have retained traces of the Moslem occupation
in an Arabic inscription over the doorway and the mihrab, or prayer niche, which was cut in
the south wall. The St. Stephen's Gate is called by the native Christians Bab Sitti Mariam
(Gate of Our Lady Mary), from the circumstance that the road which passes through it leads
to the tomb of the Virgin in the valley below. It dates from the restoration of the city
walls by Sultan Suleiman. Above the doorway are two lions sculptured in stone in low relief.
The first point of interest in the east wall of the Haram esh Sherif is the Golden Gate,
an entrance to the sacred enclosure which has long been closed, in consequence of a Moslem
tradition that when the Christians capture Jerusalem they will make their triumphal entry by
it. South of the Golden Gate is a postern, now closed with masonry, which is called by the
Arab historian,Mejr ed Din, the Gate of Borak. Beside it there are traces of an old fountain,
once probably fed from the water in the cisterns of the Haram.
From St. Stephen's Gate to the postern, and even beyond it, the ground at the foot
of the east wall is occupied by the Mohammedan cemetery, and closely covered with tombs—
plain rectangular masses of masonry with rounded tops ; they are generally badly built and
soon fall to pieces, leaving nothing but a heap of ruins. Here and there may be seen a head-
stone with a roughly hewn turban, and in some cases the tombs are protected from the
weather by a square building pierced with arches and surmounted by a dome (see pages 67
and 69). Moslem funerals pass into the Haram esh Sherif by the " Gate of the Tribes," and
enter the Dome of the Rock by the " Gate of Paradise." After a few short prayers the
procession jDasses out of the mosque by the gate that opens in the direction of Mecca, and
leaves the Haram by the way it entered ; it then proceeds to the grave. No coffin is used ;
the body is simply wrapped in a sheet and carried to the grave in a wooden box by six men.
A man bearing a palm branch heads the procession, and the mourners follow the body in a
confused crowd without any order or arrangement. At the grave a few verses of the
Koran are recited, and if the deceased is rich alms are distributed to the poor.
The imposing mass of masonry at the south-east angle of the Haram esh Sherif,
which overhangs the Kedron valley, has always excited the admiration of travellers. Its
foundation-stones bear the Phoenician letters which at the time of their discovery attracted
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
height of thirty-five feet above the floor. At the west end are two parallel passages running
westwards along the Haram wall, whence a flight of irregular steps leads down to the pool ;
the east end is closed by a dam forty-five feet thick, which is also part of the city walls.
No trace has yet been found of the system of conduits by which it was supplied with water.
North of the Birket Israil (see page 66) is the street leading to St. Stephen's Gate, and imme-
diately beyond it the Church of St. Anne, which was given by the Sultan Abdul Mejid to the
French Emperor on the termination of the Crimean war. The church is built over the Grotto
of St. Anne, an excavation in the rock remarkably like an old cistern, which is claimed by
tradition as the home of St. Anne and the birthplace of the Virgin Mary. The building has
been thoroughly repaired by the French, who have made no material alterations in the
original edifice left by the Crusaders, and who have retained traces of the Moslem occupation
in an Arabic inscription over the doorway and the mihrab, or prayer niche, which was cut in
the south wall. The St. Stephen's Gate is called by the native Christians Bab Sitti Mariam
(Gate of Our Lady Mary), from the circumstance that the road which passes through it leads
to the tomb of the Virgin in the valley below. It dates from the restoration of the city
walls by Sultan Suleiman. Above the doorway are two lions sculptured in stone in low relief.
The first point of interest in the east wall of the Haram esh Sherif is the Golden Gate,
an entrance to the sacred enclosure which has long been closed, in consequence of a Moslem
tradition that when the Christians capture Jerusalem they will make their triumphal entry by
it. South of the Golden Gate is a postern, now closed with masonry, which is called by the
Arab historian,Mejr ed Din, the Gate of Borak. Beside it there are traces of an old fountain,
once probably fed from the water in the cisterns of the Haram.
From St. Stephen's Gate to the postern, and even beyond it, the ground at the foot
of the east wall is occupied by the Mohammedan cemetery, and closely covered with tombs—
plain rectangular masses of masonry with rounded tops ; they are generally badly built and
soon fall to pieces, leaving nothing but a heap of ruins. Here and there may be seen a head-
stone with a roughly hewn turban, and in some cases the tombs are protected from the
weather by a square building pierced with arches and surmounted by a dome (see pages 67
and 69). Moslem funerals pass into the Haram esh Sherif by the " Gate of the Tribes," and
enter the Dome of the Rock by the " Gate of Paradise." After a few short prayers the
procession jDasses out of the mosque by the gate that opens in the direction of Mecca, and
leaves the Haram by the way it entered ; it then proceeds to the grave. No coffin is used ;
the body is simply wrapped in a sheet and carried to the grave in a wooden box by six men.
A man bearing a palm branch heads the procession, and the mourners follow the body in a
confused crowd without any order or arrangement. At the grave a few verses of the
Koran are recited, and if the deceased is rich alms are distributed to the poor.
The imposing mass of masonry at the south-east angle of the Haram esh Sherif,
which overhangs the Kedron valley, has always excited the admiration of travellers. Its
foundation-stones bear the Phoenician letters which at the time of their discovery attracted