The intense historical interest is centred on memorials of the time or localities of David and Solomon, and of the life and death of Christ. Of the former, the supreme interest is in the Haram-esh-Sherif, the site of the temple, and palace of Solomon and of the later temples. It is a walled area about 527x330 yards, with an elevated platform in the centre reached by steps ; in the centre is the beautiful Kubbet es-Sakhra, or Dome of the Rock — a wooden octagon with sides of 66 feet 7 inches, decorated on the out side with marble and porcelain tiles, each of the four sides which face the cardinal points hav ing a square gate surmounted by a vaulted arch. Just east of this is the Chain Dome, or David's Place of Judgment. Other domes of interest are near; but the next most notable structure in the Haram is the mosque El Aksa, at the south end. Within it are also a beautiful 15th cen tury fountain, a pulpit of the same date, a mod ern mosque called the Throne of and the fortress of Antonia. Of the Christian monuments, the most noteworthy is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the Christian quar ter, originally built by Constantihe the Great over the traditional site of the Crucifixion. (See HOLY SEPULCHRE). There is a rotunda, with a dome 65 feet in diameter, above a small Chapel of the Sepulchre; a number of church buildings, said to include the site of Golgotha or Calvary; and 22 chapels. The Via Dolo rosa, .along which Jesus is said to have carried the cross to Calvary, follows the present street Tarik Bab Sitti Maryam from Saint Stephen's Gate. Several modern churches and other in stitutions are also worth visiting; but the thronging Scriptural associations — besides those mentioned above, the Mount of Olives, the Pool of Bethesda, the Vale of Hinnom, etc.— overshadow all else.
Topography and History.— About a mile north of Jerusalem, the main north and south watershed ridge of Palestine turns to the west; while a spur called Olivet, having three pin nacles, runs first southeast one and one-half miles, and then south one and one-fourth miles. The space between the two is occupied by a plateau sloping southeastward, and separated on each side from the bounding ridges by a ravine 300 to 400 feet deep, with steep and often precipitous sides. The eastern ravine. separating it from Olivet, is the °brook* Kedron or Kidron i (Cedron), which was always a dry bed; the western the Wady el-Rababi (probably the vale of Hinnom), which after skirting it on the west, turns east along the southern scarp of the plateau and joins the Kedron. Through this plateau from north to south runs a broader and much less deep and precipitous valley, the Tyropceon (acheese-makers' place') 100 to 150 feet deep, thus dividing it into two uneven sec tions: the east ridge is and its northern part was the first occupied; the west ern part, the °new city,* is divided by a lateral branch of the Tyropceon into two summits, a north and a south, connected by a narrow saddle separating also Tyropceon from el-Rababi. The general height may be stated as about 2,500 feet,• the eastern ridge is 2,440 feet at the north, and descends southward; the western north summit is 2,490 feet, south summit 2,520. The accumu lation of the rubbish of 3,000 years, however, has greatly modified the contours of the hills and ravines, obliterating some minor ones alto gether. The average depth over the rock levels is 30 to 40 feet, and in the valleys 70, in one case reaching 120.
This plateau, surrounded on three sides by steeply scarped bluffs and crested with hills, was a natural fortress; but it had two defects—it commanded nothing in particular, and its water supply (one spring intermitting for hours or even a day or two, and that at the foot of a bluff) was very scanty. Probably at the first, as many times since, army after army marched around it, and left it untouched as of too little military significance. We first hear of it on the Tel el-Amarna tablets (about 1400 ac.) when it is seemingly a little hill fort with a small gar rison, possibly with a village also, and the capi tal of the gland of Jerusalem,) apparently a small territory along the watershed. The king, Abd-Khiba, is a vassal of the king of Egypt, and begging assistance against the Khabiri (He brews?). Later it is a minor ((Jebusitep cita del: Hebron, Bethlehem, Bethel, Gibeah, Jeri cho, are all more important. But when David undertook to form a consolidated Hebrew king dom, Jerusalem had the transcendent merit that it lay on the border between Judah and the northern tribes, not historically identified with either; it was also fairly on the central line of communication, and convenient for action against the Philistines and the desert tribes at once. He made terms with the Jebusites and
occupied the hill-fort of Zion on Ophel, near the only available water-supply. Possibly a vil lage grew up on the eastern slope of the hill; but it was small, for the whole levy of Palestine was but 30,000 men (2 Sam. vi, 1), and other places held the trade. Solomon greatly in creased the size of the town, and built a stone temple for Yahweh and a great palace. Under Rehoboam the place was captured by Shishak of Egypt; under Amaziah by Jehoash, and its walls partly leveled. During the palmy times of the northern kingdom it was held of small ac count except by the Judahites : it was only one of many places of pilgrimage down to Heze kiah's time, and the northern prophets ignore it and speak of Bethel, Gilgal and Beersheba. With the fall of its northern neighbor, for the moment its importance and wealth increased; it became the one shrine which had never been defiled with the rites of the native religions, the centre of Jewish religious life, the one place where sacrifice might be offered In the later days of the monarchy the town spread beyond the east ridge into the Tyropceon; a second town and a trading quarter grew up. For a long time after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 the history is scant and dubious. It suf fered heavily under the Persian Empire; under Artaxerxes Ochus the temple may have been destroyed. Alexander's sacrificing in the tem ple is mythical; and in 320, Appian says, Ptol emy Soter destroyed the city. Then there was a time of peace and prosperity, culminating in the high-priesthood of Simon II (219-199 B.c.) ; after a series of struggles between the Ptole mies and the Seleucids, in which the former took and garrisoned the place and the Jews helped drive out the garrison, the Seleucids obtained Palestine by treaty in 197. When Antiochus Epiphanes undertook to Hellenize Palestine in 169, he took the city, destroyed the walls, plun dered the temple, and erected an altar to Zeus in place of that to Yahweh. Judas Macabzus rebuilt the temple and the walls; again razed by the Greeks, they were again rebuilt by Jona than. Under the Hasmonwan dynasty it ex tended to the western ridge; there was a new palace and royal quarter of great splendor; the city became the metropolis of the Jewish world, and the one great pilgrim shrine. Then it became tributary to Rome, but at least still a kingdom governed by its own sovereigns; such it was when Jesus was born; but it shortly after became a province governed by a Roman procurator. The Roman system of repression and Jewish national feeling were brought sharply into conflict, aside from any actual mis government; and a grand national revolt took place, which in 66 A.D. gained possession of Jeru salem. Vespasian was appointed to repress it; and in 70 A.D. his son Titus, after one of the most frightful sieges in history, with unimagi nable horrors, took it, burned the temple, and leveled the city to the ground. Josephus says the city's population was 1,000,000, and Tacitus (probably from Josephus) 600,000. Both are absurd, those of Josephus are Oriental in their exaggeration. From 30,000 to a maximum 45,000 may be estimated. It remained a ruin for many years. In 131 Hadrian visited the site and ordered the rebuilding of the city, appre hending a restoration of pagan worship, the Jews broke out in rebellion under Bar-Cochba; and Hadrian, not caring to set up a new centre of Jewish propaganda, made it a Roman colony called 2Elia Capitolina, and forbade Jews to enter it on pain of death. Thence till the time of Constantine nothing is known of it; except as a Jewish shrine it was nothing. When the empire became Christian, Constantine's mother, Helena, induced him to cherish the seat of Christ's ministry and death; and he built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Pilgrims flecked to Jerusalem from all parts, and it be came the shrine of Christendom. Captured by Khosru of Persia in 614, it was retaken by Heraclius in 628; but in 637 was taken by the Moslems under the caliph Omar. The line of Arabian caliphs of different dynasties was suc ceeded by the Seljuk Turks. The Christians were oppressed, the sacred places defiled; to crown all, the overland caravan trade was cut off. Religious feeling and mercantile interest together roused Europe to the crusades, and Jerusalem was taken by Godfrey of Bouillon in 1099, becoming the capital of a Christian mon archy. This maintained a precarious existence till when Saladin recaptured the city and it remained in Mohammedan possession again for 730 years, up to Dec. 1917 when in the Pal estinian campaign of the World War it sur rendered after a short siege to British troops under General Sir E. H. Allenby.