south, the latter somewhat curved. The hand in which they merge to the north is the plateau.'

As to the identification of these features of the site with the valleys and hills of ancient Jerusalem, opinion stands thus. The Wady Sitti Mariam is generally recognised as the valley of the Kidron. The Kidron is the only valley in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem which Old Testament writers describe as a naḥal-a term regularly used to denote either a precipitous ravine forming the bed of a winter brook, and dry during the summer months, or the brook itself which flows down such a ravine after the rains of winter. The Wady Sitti Mariam answers to this description. A certain amount of water still flows down it after heavy rain; and more is to be found under the débris which at present fills its bottom. Doubtless it must have carried a larger supply before the issue of the spring called the 'Ain Sitti Mariam, or Virgin's Spring, on the eastern slope of the eastern hill of Jerusalem, was diverted in ancient times to the pool of Silwân. All Biblical references to the valley or stream of the Kidron are suited by this identification.

There is a great measure of agreement that the Wady er-Rabâbi is the valley of Hinnom. This valley is called in Hebrew a gai, and not a naḥal, i.e., a somewhat narrow glen between mountains, which does not form the bed of a winter brook. Such a term is most appropriate to the Wady er-Rabâbi; and the identification is accepted by most students. The view has been maintained that Gê Hinnom corresponds to El-Wâd; but this identification is absolutely precluded by the description in Josh. xv, 8, xviii, 16 of the boundary-line between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, where the valley is said to run south of 'the eliff of the Jebusites'; whereas El-Wâd, as we have seen, runs in the main north and south. On the other hand, the lower course of the Wady er-Rabâbi, running from west to east and lying due south of the western hill of Jerusalem, agrees in this respect, as in all others, with the details of the description.

El-Wâd is commonly held to correspond with the Tyropoeon valley, which Josephus ( War,' v, 4 : 1) describes as separating the hill of the Upper City from that of the Lower, and extending as far as Siloam. It is, however, disputed whether the Tyropoeon corresponded through

out with the main course of El-Wâd, or, in its upper course, with one of the lateral branches which, as we have noticed, run into it from the west. It is maintained by some that the Tyropoeon commenced in the branchvalley which originally ran along the line of the modern David Street, and then turned south and had its continuation in the lower part of El-Wâd. This theory is bound up with a particular view as to the site of the ancient Zion; and, apart from the exigencies of this latter, nothing can be urged in its favour. As Dr Paton remarks:

'It is not too much to say that the northern branch extending from the Damascus gate is the only valley that one would naturally think of as the Tyropoeon, and that other identifications are due, not to anything in Josephus' description, but rather to traditional notions concerning the hills of Jerusalem' (p. 28).

That the eastern hill of Jerusalem was the site of the successive temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod is recognised by an unbroken tradition among Jews, Christians and Mohammedans, and is beyond dispute. The sacred area of the Harâm esh-Sherîf, or 'Noble Sanctuary,' situated on this hill, is formed by an artificially raised and levelled platform; and Josephus informs us ('War,' v, 5: 1) that 'at first the highest level ground on the hill was hardly sufficient for the temple and the altar, for the ground about it was precipitous and steep,' but that Solomon and the people of succeeding ages raised embankments so that the hill was levelled and broadened. The highest point of the hill within the Temple area is marked by the sacred rock over which now stands the Kubbet es-Sakhra, or 'Dome of the Rock.' This rock, which the Mohammedans regard as possessing a sanctity second only to the shrine of Mecca, is usually regarded as the site of the altar of burnt-offering; and, if this is so, the Temple must have stood due west of it, with its entrance facing eastward.

As to the site of Mount Zion, opinion is still divided, this being indeed the vexatissima quæstio of Jerusalem topography. A tradition which can be traced as far back as the fourth century of the Christian era makes Zion the southern part of the western hill, which, as we have noticed, is higher and larger than the eastern hill on

which the Temple stood. Closer study, however, of the evidence afforded by the Old Testament and the Apocrypha has proved that the name Zion was applied to the whole eastern hill, including the portion upon which the Temple stood; and that the Jebusite fortress captured by David and named by him the City of David-or, as Dr Smith renders it, David's Burgh-must have stood upon the southern spur of the eastern hill, which is identified as Ophel, south of the modern Ḥarâm area. The great majority of Biblical students, appreciating the strength of the evidence, have for some time past adopted the newer view; and Dr Smith's admirably full and lucid discussion of the subject may be thought finally to have settled the question. The evidence upon which the modern view is based may also be found excellently summarised in Dr Paton's little book, which appeared shortly after Dr Smith's work. That the supporters of the traditional view have not, however, as yet been gained over is evident from the fact that both Dr Merrill and Col. Conder, in their books named at the head of this article, appear as uncompromising champions of the western hill as the site of Zion.

The question is closely bound up with the location of the ancient sources of water supply, especially with those of Gihon and En-Rogel. That Gihon is to be identified with the modern 'Ain Sitti Mariam or Virgin's spring, on the eastern slope of the Ophel spur, admits of the clearest proof. The name Gihon means 'gusher,' and can only have been applied to a natural fountain. The Virgin's spring is the only spring in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem; and, owing to the existence of a natural syphon within the cavity from which it issues, the flow of waters comes intermittently, with a sudden gush at irregular intervals. We learn from 2 Chron. xxxii, 30 that King Hezekiah, in order to improve the water supply of his capital, stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon, and brought them straight down to the west of the City of David.' There still exists an ancient tunnel hewn out of the rock, which carries the water of the Virgin's spring down to Birket Silwân, i.e., the ancient pool of Shiloah, a distance of 586 yards as the tunnel winds, though only 368 yards in a straight line. At the mouth of the tunnel, where it opens into Shiloah, there was discovered in 1880