DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0121
JERUSALEM.
97
the Just, to which the Jews resort the thirty-third day after the Passover to celebrate the
memory of the son of Onias, who was high priest during the reign of Ptolemy Soter. We
now come to the well-known group of tombs in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the first being
" Absalom's Tomb" (see page 83). The lower part of this monument is a mass of solid rock
about twenty feet square, which has been completely detached from the cliff behind it by
working away a passage ten feet in width at the sides and nine at the back, so as to leave the
tomb standing in a square recess hewn out of the cliff. It contains a chamber eight feet
square, with shelf graves on two sides for the reception of sarcophagi. The original door was
GROTTO OF JEREMIAH.
In the foreground is a goatherd playing on a double-reed pipe.
situated immediately above the cornice, and a few steps led down to the chamber. Another
more modern door consisted of a horizontal passage on a level with the chamber, and opening
to the exterior, at half the height of the monument. In the face of the rock behind the
monolith is the entrance to the Tomb of Jehoshaphat, surmounted by a pediment in the same
style as that of the Tombs of the Judges (see page 82). The door leads to an antechamber,
whence three other chambers open out, one of which gives access to a small cell. The next
tomb is that of St. James, which is excavated in the face of the rock (see page 85). A screen
with two Doric pillars supports a frieze and cornice of the same order. Above the cornice
14
97
the Just, to which the Jews resort the thirty-third day after the Passover to celebrate the
memory of the son of Onias, who was high priest during the reign of Ptolemy Soter. We
now come to the well-known group of tombs in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the first being
" Absalom's Tomb" (see page 83). The lower part of this monument is a mass of solid rock
about twenty feet square, which has been completely detached from the cliff behind it by
working away a passage ten feet in width at the sides and nine at the back, so as to leave the
tomb standing in a square recess hewn out of the cliff. It contains a chamber eight feet
square, with shelf graves on two sides for the reception of sarcophagi. The original door was
GROTTO OF JEREMIAH.
In the foreground is a goatherd playing on a double-reed pipe.
situated immediately above the cornice, and a few steps led down to the chamber. Another
more modern door consisted of a horizontal passage on a level with the chamber, and opening
to the exterior, at half the height of the monument. In the face of the rock behind the
monolith is the entrance to the Tomb of Jehoshaphat, surmounted by a pediment in the same
style as that of the Tombs of the Judges (see page 82). The door leads to an antechamber,
whence three other chambers open out, one of which gives access to a small cell. The next
tomb is that of St. James, which is excavated in the face of the rock (see page 85). A screen
with two Doric pillars supports a frieze and cornice of the same order. Above the cornice
14