The history of the modern walls has already been given in the sketch of the modern history of the city. The present walls have a solid and formidable appearance, especially when cursorily observed from without ; and they are strength ened or rather ornamented, with towers and bat tlements . after the Saracenic style. They arc built of limestone, the stones being not commonly more than a foot or fifteen inches square. The height varies with the various elevations of the ground. The lower parts are probably about twenty-five feet high, while in more exposed lo calities, where the ravines contribute less to the security of the city, they have an elevation of sixty or seventy feet.
(2) Gates. Much uncertainty exists respect ing the ancient gates of Jerusalem. Many gates are named in Scripture; and it has been objected that they arc more in number than a town of the size of Jerusalem could require--especially as they all occur within the extcnt embraced by the first and second walls, the third not then exist ing. It has, therefore, been suggested as more than probable that some of these gates were within the city, in the walls which separated the town from the temple, and the upper town from the lower, in which gates certainly existed. On the other hand, considering the circumstances un der which the wall was rebuilt in the time of Nehemiah, it is difficult to suppose that more than the outer wall was then constructed, and cer tainly it was in the wall then built that the ten or twelve gates mentioned by Nehemiah occur. But these may be considerably reduced by suppos ing that two or more of the names mentioned were applied to the same gate. If this view of the mat ter be taken, no better distribution of these gates can be given than that suggested by Raumer.
(a) On the north side.
(r) The Old Gatc. probably at the northeast corner (Neh. :6; xii :39).
(2) The Gate of Ephraim or Benjamin (Jer. xxxviii :7 ; xxxvii :13 ; viii :16 ; 2 ChrOn. xxv:23). This gate doubtless derived its names from its leading to the territory of Ephraim and Benjamin; and Dr. Robinson supposes it may pos sibly be represented by some traces of ruins which he found on the site of the present gatc of Da mascus.
(3) The Corner-gate, 3oo cubits from the for mer, and apparently at the northwest corner (2 Chron. xxv:23; 2 KingS XiV :13 ; Zcch. xiv :to). Probably the Gate af the Furnaces is the same (Neh. :it ; xii :38).
(b) On the west side.
(4) The I—alley-gate, over against the drnr.on fountain of Gihon (Neh. ii:13; iii:13; 2 hroll.
xxvi:9). It was probably about the northwest corner of Zion, where there appears to have been always a gate, and Dr. Robinson supposes it to be the same with the Gennath of Josephus.
(e) On the south side.
(5) The Dung-gate, perhaps the same as Jo seplms' Gate of .the Essenes (Neh. ; xii:3t). It was i,000 cubits front the valley-gate iii:13), and the dragon-well was hetween them (Nell. ii :W. This gate is probably also identical with 'the gate between two walls' (2 Kings .xxv: 4: Jcr. xxxix :4).
((i) The Gate of the Fountain nearest to the southeastern corner; the gate of the fountain near the king's pool (Nell. the gate of the fountain near 'the pool of Siloah by the king's garden' (Neh. Hi:15). The same gate is probably denoted in all these instances, and the pools seem to have been also the same. It is also possible that this fountain-gate was the same otherwise distinguished as the brick-gate (or potter's gate), leading to the valley of flinnom (Jer. xix:2, where the Auth. Ver. has 'east-gate').
(d) On the cast side.
(7) The Water-gate iii :26).
(8) The Prison-gate, otherwise the Horse-gate. near the temple (Neli. iii ;28; xii :39, 40).
(9) The Sheep-gate, probably near the sheep pool (Neh. :I, 32; xii :39). .
(to) The Fish-gate was quite at the northeast (Neh. iii :3; xii :39; Zeph. i :to ; 2 Chron. xxxiii :14) ln the middle ages there appear to have been two gates on each side of the city, making eight in all; and this* number, being only two short of those assigned in the above estimate to the ancient Jerusalem, seems to vindicate that estimate from the objections which have been urged against it.
On the west side were two gates, of which the principal was the Porta David, gate of David, often mentioned by the writers on the Crusades. It was called by the Arabs Bab el-Mihrab, and corresponds to the present Jaffa gate, or Bab el The other was the gate of the Fuller's Field, Porta Villa. Fullonis, so called from Is. vii :3. This seems to be the same which others call Porta Judiciaria, and which is described as being in the wall over against the church of the holy sepulcher, leading to Silo (Neby Samwil ) and Gibeon. This seems to be that which the Arabian writers call Serb.